Hertz now has a car rental office in Fort Bragg.
The location is conveniently situated at the south end of downtown at the corner of Franklin and Chestnut in quarters it shares with Sport Chrysler Dodge. (The location is owned, however, by the Hertz Corporation; it is not a franchisee.)
What this means is that you can drive a rental car one way from Chico to Fort Bragg or vice-versa, which can give you real travel flexibility.
There are no convenient ways to get between Fort Bragg and Chico other than driving. And for the most part, that means that you’ll take your car and drive it to Fort Bragg and back. Simple enough, so what difference does it make to you if there is a Hertz location there?
A lot.
It can mean major convenience and potential money savings for trips that may not fit the mold of the simple round-trip.
Here are a few situations to consider where being able to drive a rental car one way would be useful. You can surely think of others where such a convenience would would be the perfect solution to a transportation tangle.
Example 1:
You have a family of 4 and you’re renting a house in Fort Bragg for two weeks during the summer. Your spouse and kids can leave on Saturday for Fort Bragg, but you have to work until Tuesday before you can get away from sizzling Chico. Your spouse takes one of your own vehicles to Fort Bragg on Saturday, you rent a car and drive it one-way to Fort Bragg, and then you all return to Chico in the family vehicle eventually.
Example 2: (reverse of Example 1)
5 friends are heading over to enjoy the Mendocino Music Festival. Five have an entire week off, but two of them need to get back to Chico a couple of days early for work. The two that need to get back early rent a car from Hertz in Fort Bragg and drive it back to Chico, instead of having to bring another vehicle over unnecessarily.
Example 3:
A couple are headed to Mendocino for a romantic anniversary weekend. Unfortunately the weekend had to be sandwiched in right before one of the two people had to leave on an important business trip to New York. They drive together over to Fort Bragg and enjoy a great weekend, then the business traveling half of the couple rents a car on Monday in Fort Bragg and drops it at San Francisco airport, while the other half drives home to Chico.
Years ago, one-way rentals used to be very expensive but they seldom are now, especially when the convenience is factored in. Yet a perception created years ago continues to cloud the traveling public’s willingness to consider one-way rentals. (This will be the subject of another blog post eventually in my main blog “Planes, Trains, and Running“.)
Here are a few examples of one-way rates that involve Fort Bragg. Please note that car rental rates are dynamic – just like airline rates – so these very same situations or others are very likely to price differently should you or your travel agent research rates. But also note that once booked, car rental rates are guaranteed unless changes are made.
The rates below are rounded to the nearest dollar and inclusive of tax, but do not include anything optional such as additional insurance, prepaid fuel, etc. However they do not include common discounts such as the AAA member discount.
Fort Bragg to Chico, 10 Nov-11 Nov (24 hours)
economy car: $62
compact car: $62
intermediate car: $67
full size car: $73
Chico to Fort Bragg: 20 Jan-21 Jan (24 hours)
economy car: $54
compact car: $57
intermediate car: $60
full size car: $66
Fort Bragg to SFO, SMF, or STS-Santa Rosa airport (24 hours):
economy car: $96
compact car: $97
intermediate car: $99
full size car: $106
hello, i’m travelling with in a family of 5 from san fransisco to fort bragg, which is around 4 hours right?
i’m wondering if we could make just a one way trips, because we’ll be staying at fort bragg for quite some time. will it be possible to rent car from SF office, then just leave it( gv it back) at the fort bragg office? then after our trip is done, we’ll rent another car from fort bragg office then drop it off at SF office?
if possible then can you give me links to where i can go to reserve car? i might also need child booster seat and GPS. thank you
Sophie, you most certainly can do this as two separate rentals, and in fact that would be the least expensive way to do it. To book it, just go to Hertz.com and indicate that you are NOT returning the car to the renting location. You then specify where you wish to drop the car. You can indicate further along the process that you want child seats, GPS, etc. If you belong to AAA don’t forget to include your 3-digit club code (example: 005 for northern California members) so you get a AAA discount. If you can’t figure out how to reserve this on the website just call Hertz’s call center. They do not charge a fee to book over the phone.