Renting a Car in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Traveling in a car has a special place for us as we travelled through Mexico , Belize and Guatemala, Sri Lanka with our vehicle or a rental – we had more freedom to visit remote places and explore way more than we would without one.

We had a scooter and a rental car in Southern Thailand but opted to have only a rental car in the North of the country since the distances where we wanted to visit were much bigger.

As we arrived to the North – it was peak season and the rentals were actually all sold out/rented out. We had to wait a few days to be able to obtain a car and only Europcar at the Chiang Mai airport was the only one that had availability at that time. The price was not ideal for us but we wanted to explore around so we rented for 6 days at this rental agency.

Here is the break down of the costs for a Toyota Vios sedan-

• price was 1386 Thai Baht per day (total for 6 days was – 8320 Thai Baht- around 240$ US-40$US per day)
• the deposit was 8000 Thai Baht (around 230$ US).

Process:

• booking online was easy and we got to the car right away once we paid at the counter at the airport;
• we walked and filmed around the car – this took the longest since the car had a lot of scratches.
• the return process was just dropping off the car at the parking lot and going around the car to see if we had any new scratches and return of the deposit.

We can recommend EuropCar only IF the other best rental car agency does not have any cars- because we found a gem for Car Rental in Chiang Mai- called – The Budget Catcher Car Rental – the price/ quality ratio it is the best of the best. The process is also very easy and quick.

The location you can find here – The Budget Catcher – Chiang Mai .

While it is not located at the airport, they do have an option to bring/return the car at the airport as they have a Parking Space there and also – they can deliver car to you in Chiang Mai. Win win!

The prices are the BEST in town – hands down. Even at the PEAK season. I looked everywhere and even in Chiang Rai but we actually waited for the car to become available here in Chiang Mai as the prices where nothing to compare to.

The price breakdown for a 5 passenger Toyota Vios Sedan-

• total amount paid for 15 days of rental – 12850 Thai Baht- they charge 100 Thai Baht extra for the peak season per day- otherwise it would have been 11850 THB. So total for 15 days – around 367$ US or around 24$ US per day.
• the deposit- 5000 THB (around 140$ US)that is given to you back at the time of drop off. We dropped it off at the airport and someone was waiting for us there with the deposit money in hand.
• Very easy process, great customer service and very worth the money. We arranged everything via Whatsapp.

If you ever in chiang Mai and need a car to rent – Budget Catcher is the way to go. The more days you rent – the better deal you get. They have also a lot of cars to choose from so book ahead of time since they are very reliable and get sold out/rented out pretty quickly especially during the peak season.