Denver Airport car rental

Every rental company at Denver International operates away from the Jeppesen Terminal building, so there is no counter you can walk to from baggage claim. Collect your bags, go up to Level 5, and head outside to the shuttle islands on either the east or the west side of the terminal — the rental buses use Island 4. Each company runs its own bus and they typically come round every few minutes. Allow twenty to thirty minutes from the carousel to sitting in the car, and more than that on a Friday evening in ski season. A handful of smaller operators run lots further from the airport with a longer ride, which is usually the reason their headline rate looks so much lower than the rest.

In the city, no. Denver itself is flat, the roads are cleared quickly and a normal front-wheel-drive car copes with a typical winter week. The moment you plan to drive west into the mountains between roughly September and May, the answer changes. Colorado enforces a Traction Law on the I-70 mountain corridor during winter conditions, which requires all-wheel or four-wheel drive, snow tyres, or chains, and a mud-and-snow tyre with adequate tread depth. If you book an SUV expecting all-wheel drive, get it confirmed at the desk before you sign — many SUVs on airport fleets are two-wheel drive, and the booking category does not guarantee the drivetrain.

Roughly 25 miles, or about 40 kilometres, to the northeast. The drive is straightforward — Peña Boulevard out of the airport, then I-70 west — and takes around 35 to 45 minutes when traffic is behaving. It is worth knowing that the airport sits well out on the plains, so the distance feels longer than a comparable trip from a city-centre airport. If you are staying downtown for the first night and only need a car afterwards, the RTD A Line train to Union Station is a genuine alternative to picking up on arrival.

E-470 is the ring road most people meet on the way to or from the airport, and it is entirely cashless — there are no booths and no way to pay at the roadside. Cameras read the plate, the bill goes to the vehicle's owner, and the owner is your rental company. They will pass the toll on to your card afterwards, usually with an administration fee per toll or per day on top. Some suppliers offer a flat-rate toll pass at the desk. Whether that is worth taking depends entirely on how many times you expect to use E-470; if you are only driving Peña Boulevard and I-70, you can avoid tolls completely.

It depends on the supplier, and this is the single most common reason a rental falls apart at the desk. Most companies at DEN want a physical credit card in the lead driver's name with enough available balance for the security deposit. Some will accept a debit card but attach conditions — a credit check, proof of a return flight, a higher deposit, or a restriction on which car categories you can take. Prepaid cards and cash are very rarely accepted for the deposit. Read the payment terms attached to the specific quote before you book rather than assuming, because the rules differ from one company to the next at the same airport.

Most suppliers at DEN rent to drivers aged 21 and over, and drivers under 25 are usually charged a young-driver surcharge for each day of the rental. That surcharge is paid at the desk rather than at booking with many companies, so it will not always appear in the price you compare online — enter the driver's real age when you search so the quote reflects it. Some categories, particularly premium cars, large SUVs and pickups, carry a higher minimum age regardless of the surcharge.

Sometimes, and it is worth checking rather than assuming either way. Airport pick-ups carry concession and facility fees that city branches do not, which can make the same car noticeably cheaper a few miles away. Against that you have to set the cost and time of getting to the branch, the fact that city offices keep normal business hours while the airport operates around the clock, and the risk of a delayed flight arriving after the branch has closed. For a short trip the airport almost always wins on convenience. For a longer rental the saving can be large enough to justify the detour.

The car will be fine — modern engines compensate automatically — but you may not be. Denver sits at around 5,430 feet and the mountain passes go far higher, which is high enough that visitors regularly feel breathless, headachy or tired on the first day. That matters behind the wheel more than people expect, particularly if you have landed from sea level and are driving straight up I-70 to a resort. Take the first day gently, drink more water than feels necessary, and do not plan a long mountain drive within a few hours of a long-haul arrival.