Best Car Rental for BRC

[hatorihanto]

Hey everyone,

this year will be my second burn and I'm really excited. But last year I took the burner express with my tent. This year my best friend will join me and so we will rent a car.
We are coming from Germany and a little bit scared to rent a car without the permission from the rental station to go to brc.
Do you have any recommendations for rental stations that allows you to go to brc? We don't want an RV, because it's too expensive.
Thank you so much for your help.
Cheers
Lara

[Token]

Hey everyone,

this year will be my second burn and I'm really excited. But last year I took the burner express with my tent. This year my best friend will join me and so we will rent a car.
We are coming from Germany and a little bit scared to rent a car without the permission from the rental station to go to brc.
Do you have any recommendations for rental stations that allows you to go to brc? We don't want an RV, because it's too expensive.
Thank you so much for your help.
Cheers
Lara

First thing to bring to the table : where?

Need to know what city you will land into to make recommendations.

Next is a bit about what you are bringing and any special size needs for the vehicle : are you bringing a shade structure with long poles? Maybe a hexayurt that needs a big flat space to transport … you get the idea.

All things being equal, my go-to arrangement would be a work cargo van from a construction company or burner friendly commercial rental place.

Cargo vans are much easier to clean after the burn, provide excellent anchor points for shade and shelter, and are quite roomy with plenty privacy.

The down side is the petrol cost which will be higher compared to a family sedan.

Give us more data and we can send you on a good research path.

[Popeye]

Hey everyone,

this year will be my second burn and I'm really excited. But last year I took the burner express with my tent. This year my best friend will join me and so we will rent a car.
We are coming from Germany and a little bit scared to rent a car without the permission from the rental station to go to brc.
Do you have any recommendations for rental stations that allows you to go to brc? We don't want an RV, because it's too expensive.
Thank you so much for your help.
Cheers
Lara

Renting a car from Reno can be problematic, car rental companies see a huge influx of Burners all coming in and renting cars at the same time. They can and will cancel your rental. While the next obvious start to your journey in the US is San Francisco, I'd look at Sacramento. Sacramento has direct flights from Germany as does SF but it is about 2.5 hours closer to the Burn along the same highway and you will have much less city traffic. It is California's capitol and will have all the stores you might need. Cars should be less expensive than either Reno or San Francisco. They will be less Burn and dust aware but I'd still have a story about where you are going, don't lie but say something like spending time in Sacramento and maybe Placerville and Reno (from Sac on the way to the Burn) then meeting up with friends. They may not ask about destination, keep it light and friendly. Once you have rented the car you do not need anyone's permission to take it anywhere. You could drive to the east coast if you want to.
Some good points where made above about what size car you might need.

[HarryN]

Personally I would not let fuel cost drive your decision about where to rent the vehicle.

This will honestly be the smallest of the challenges.

There are good flight connections in / out of San Francisco, so renting there or in Oakland is relatively easy because you can use the BART train between locations.

( it isn't nice and efficient like Germany but ok - will take about 2 hrs with transfers between air ports even though it isn't that far )

There isn't an obvious method that I can think of to get to Sacramento from the Bay area by train but maybe a bus of some kind if you rent something there. Not impossible - not really convenient.

Literally everyone who rents anything from a shovel to a crane within 1 000 miles of BRC knows about Burning man and will want to know if that is what is going on. Some completely stop renting during that time so that things are not ruined.

Some outfits (like mine) have specific equipment that is rented out specifically for BM and is set up for that kind of use / abusive environment and the timing needs.

I have been known to drive some equipment and 2 people from the SF Bay area up to Reno so they could catch the transportation from there in the past. Not sure what will happen this year.

[HarryN]

I took a quick look at craigslist / san francisco and there were a number of RVs, trailers and vans for rent for BM if you want to go down path. Didn't look carefully at the details.

There were specific rentals for BM so they know what to expect.

[Popeye]

There isn't an obvious method that I can think of to get to Sacramento from the Bay area by train but maybe a bus of some kind if you rent something there. Not impossible - not really convenient.

Google tells me that public transportation takes about 3 hours from Oakland to Sac. I've driven it in about 2 hours.
Google Sacramento, click on maps, add Oakland in the from/to block, click on public transportation.

Or fly directly into Sacramento.

[Dr. Pyro]

My advice is to go to autoslash.com and see what you can find. Often they are the cheapest.

[spolsky]

There is also a carsharing company called Turo where you rent from individuals. Some of the cars on there are adventure vehicles like Jeeps designed for off-road travel and you can tell the person you're going to Burning Man to make sure it's OK with them.