Car Hire

Within a few weeks I will be arriving in Pattaya for about 10 days and then on to Udon Thani.
Normally I would fly up to Udon and on one occasion I took the overnight train.
However this year I would like to drive from Pattaya to Udon Thani, and get a chance to see what I have flown over many times.

Has anyone any ideas where I could hire a (reliable) car from in Pattaya that will allow me to drive to Udon as a single journey and leave it there. I suppose Avis or Budget will allow this hire - Any other ideas?

Perhaps another alternative would be to hire a car and driver. Any ideas on the cost / recommendations?

Also, I have one of the new photo C.Card type of UK Driving Licences. Will this suffice or should i also bring with me the paper issue that came with the licence.

Thanks in advance
:cheers:

I have used a Budget rental (Beach Road office) to go from Pattaya to Buriram and back. Each time Budget has delivered the car to hotel. Regular driver's license and international license was used.

BF shared driving. Actually it was hard to get him to give up the wheel. His driving into the village was a big hit.

Hiring a driver with a car will be more expensive.

I have read that legally you should have your UK Driving license both plastic and paper and also an International Driving License. You can get these from some Post Offices.

Thai officials seem to like the plastic driving license with a photo and I believe that most places and Police ignore the requirement for the International license.

One thing that some places ask for is to hold you Passport. I think this is a no no.

Budget has never asked to hold my passport. I agree with Wowpow, a no no. The police do ingore the International license, but Budget asked for it.

I have read that legally you should have your UK Driving license both plastic and paper and also an International Driving License. You can get these from some Post Offices.

Thai officials seem to like the plastic driving license with a photo and I believe that most places and Police ignore the requirement for the International license.

One thing that some places ask for is to hold you Passport. I think this is a no no.

Recommendation: Arrange car rental in UK with your travel agent. Just in case you might get into difficulties with the Thai car rental company, you are better protected by UK / EC consumers’ law.

For Thailand, they rental company usually don’t care much about your driving licence. This is “up to you” and for the police. Not having the required driving licence is certainly not exactly what an insurance company would like to learn just in case there is an accident etc.

Therefore having an international driving licence with picture is strongly advised.

You can rent a mini bus including driver for about 1000 per day plus fuel. Any car would costs you probably more but would be less convenient. Due to higher seating the view is much better.