Originally Posted By rebel_rifle:
Uber

Originally Posted By killthewabbit69:
Turo

Originally Posted By bodybagger:
What are your plans for your trip to Nashville? Taking a ride share like Uber might be better than renting a car if you're staying close to Nashville. If you’re going on a road trip it would be best to rent a car. And don't be thinking you're going to "pop" over to the Smoky Mountains for the afternoon. They're about 4hours away. Tennessee is a heck of a lot bigger than you think.
Share what you'd like to do and maybe we can help you make the best of your trip.
Edit: I remembered and looked at your other thread. Being as you're coming into the U.S. via Nashville and heading south to New Orleans I'd stick with the big national car rental chains like Avis, Enterprise or such. Google companies that operate in the airport in Nashville and where you're flying back from so it's more convenient for you.
Look at both the company websites and Expedia and get a few quotes but don't confirm anything. Let it sit a couple of days and check your email in both the spam and promotions folders and you'll likely have offers for a percentage off or an upgrade in vehicle class.

Originally Posted By rebel_rifle:



It has been for me.

What I like is you don’t have to worry about parking and fees. You also get dropped off at the door. No long walks in sketchy areas to a parking lot and back.

Remember, Nashville is a big city and comes with all the big city shit. Use common sense and keep your situational awareness about you.

That being said, if you plan on doing traveling outside of the city then renting a vehicle is going to be more economical. If just going out to eat, downtown, etc. go with Uber or Lyft.

To rent a car outright, just checkout all the main players and find the best rate. Enterprise, Hertz, National, Alamo, Budget, etc.

Originally Posted By rebel_rifle:

ETA: You mention going to Memphis, talk about real big city shit. As bad as Nashville can be, Memphis is on a whole nuther level. Seriously, keep your head on a swivel. Do NOT try to “explore” the city especially at night. Nothing good happens there and if you don’t know your way around, it can get shitty real quick.

Originally Posted By JPN:


Yeah.  For the last couple decades, I have normally carried a 9mm (though I carried a .380 for a while), but when I had to go to Memphis 6 or 7 years ago, I switched to a more powerful caliber, carried additional magazines, had someone lay out on a map what areas near my destination I should completely avoid, and what areas were safer, then I made certain I was out of Memphis long before it got dark.  May have been a little paranoid on my part, but a little time checking real estate values confirmed what I had been told about areas to avoid (the warning I got was more along the lines of do not drive through there under any circumstances), and when I got to my destination (which was supposed to be a "safe" area) the people there had spent a lot of money on security systems, and I could look down a street from the entrance to my destination and see one of the areas that I had been told to not enter under any circumstances.

Originally Posted By JPN:


Yeah.  For the last couple decades, I have normally carried a 9mm (though I carried a .380 for a while), but when I had to go to Memphis 6 or 7 years ago, I switched to a more powerful caliber, carried additional magazines, had someone lay out on a map what areas near my destination I should completely avoid, and what areas were safer, then I made certain I was out of Memphis long before it got dark.  May have been a little paranoid on my part, but a little time checking real estate values confirmed what I had been told about areas to avoid (the warning I got was more along the lines of do not drive through there under any circumstances), and when I got to my destination (which was supposed to be a "safe" area) the people there had spent a lot of money on security systems, and I could look down a street from the entrance to my destination and see one of the areas that I had been told to not enter under any circumstances.

Originally Posted By rebel_rifle:



This!

Not to mention OP is going to NOLA, next up on the hood hit parade.

Talk about going from bad to worse.

Originally Posted By Mmamonster:



What does NOLA mean  ?
Atb
Mart

Originally Posted By rebel_rifle:


Are you flying back home out of Nashville?

If not, you will likely pay a drop off fee on the car. If you are flying out of Nashville, no big deal.

ETA: You mention going to Memphis, talk about real big city shit. As bad as Nashville can be, Memphis is on a whole nuther level. Seriously, keep your head on a swivel. Do NOT try to “explore” the city especially at night. Nothing good happens there and if you don’t know your way around, it can get shitty real quick.

Originally Posted By rebel_rifle:


New Orleans, LA

Originally Posted By rebel_rifle:
OP, it wasn’t stated or asked, but what is the makeup of your travel group?

Just you? Wife/gf? Bringing kids? Adults only? What?

The areas you have chosen, no way I would bring a large group or kids, especially young kids. That’s me, but I am for the most part risk averse when it comes to sketchy areas. I do have an advantage mainly due to my ability to carry and having friends and family that live and have lived in these areas you’ve selected. Coming from out of the country with limited information and venturing into these cities is a risk, a pretty big one in my opinion.

FWIW

Originally Posted By Mmamonster:
Found a f150 for 10 days £550
Does that sound about right?

Originally Posted By Mmamonster:
Found a f150 for 10 days £550
Does that sound about right?

Originally Posted By rebel_rifle:
Great point about having your luggage in the open bed if the pickup is a single cab.

Generally for travel that the OP is describing  a pickup of any size would not be my choice at all. Mileage and handling in wet weather would be a no go for me. Unless hauling cargo, better, cheaper choices exist.

Originally Posted By rebel_rifle:


How does that rate compare to other rentals? It takes all of 2 minutes to use their websites and get a quote.

Does that rate include:

Unlimited mileage?
Drop off fee?
2 door or 4 door?
Taxes and insurance?

It is incredibly easy and fast to get  quotes online.

Originally Posted By bodybagger:

That doesn't sound bad at all but make sure that includes unlimited miles and the one way drop-off fee like the above post says.
An f150 or any truck really is usually a higher priced rental because they can gouge people who dont own a truck but really need to use one.

Also if its a 2 door f150 your luggage is just going to be piled in the bed unsecured and open to the weather.

And the fuel mileage on an f150 is going to be poor. Even with the eco-boost it will be quite a bit more than with a small car. The 3.5 eco boost gets about 17 city and 25 highway while the 5.0 version is rated at 16 city and 24 highway but the one my son had for his company truck was more on line with 12 city and 17 highway.
I have no real world experience with the eco boost.

Originally Posted By rebel_rifle:
Great point about having your luggage in the open bed if the pickup is a single cab.

Generally for travel that the OP is describing  a pickup of any size would not be my choice at all. Mileage and handling in wet weather would be a no go for me. Unless hauling cargo, better, cheaper choices exist.

Originally Posted By rebel_rifle:
Great point about having your luggage in the open bed if the pickup is a single cab.

Generally for travel that the OP is describing  a pickup of any size would not be my choice at all. Mileage and handling in wet weather would be a no go for me. Unless hauling cargo, better, cheaper choices exist.

Originally Posted By bodybagger:

They don't really have pickup trucks in England. I'm thinking OP wants to try one out because he's never been able to. They have mostly smaller cars over there because many roadways in the cities are hundreds of years old and simply dont have room for large vehicles.  He'll have fun parking that truck til he gets used to it lol.

Originally Posted By Mmamonster:
Found a f150 for 10 days £550
Does that sound about right?

Originally Posted By Southernman077:
If you want a truck OP, get one. Have fun while you can! At least get an extended cab so that your luggage is not in the open.

Originally Posted By Mmamonster:


I drive a ev in England,  I always wanted a pick up but not viable in the UK. That's why I fancied one in America.
Atb
Mart

Originally Posted By bodybagger:
Something to keep in mind. Do a walk around of your rental car with your cellphone camera and narrate the inspection on video of any damage done to the vehicle before you take it out. Then take closeup pics of the damage. Apparently there's been a lot of problems with companies charging for pre-existing damage.
https://www.wral.com/consumer/5onyourside/fake-damage-claims-rental-car-nc-man-1500-charge/

Originally Posted By bodybagger:
OP i saw this on the news. Seems like the shady airport commission and the rental companies are gouging customers on price.
Do some comparisons on your rental rates.
https://www.wsmv.com/2025/11/24/wsmv4-investigates-nashville-airport-rental-car-fees-shock-travelers-with-hidden-costs/

Originally Posted By bodybagger:
These are pretty accurate
https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/139944/1000006866-3656276.png

https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/139944/1000006867-3656277.jpg

Originally Posted By Mmamonster:
What would you do about hotels / motels?
Do I book my hotels now or find them and see if they have vacancies as I drive from place to place ?

Originally Posted By rebel_rifle:


I am the type who books in advance. You never know what may be going on in the area you are visiting.

Especially in the cities you are visiting, better to have a planned place than end up in a bad area due to no vacancies in the better areas.

Driving around in unfamiliar areas can really put you in a situation you do NOT want to be in if looking for a hotel especially at night. With the cities you are visiting, even more so.

Originally Posted By JPN:


Two or three decades ago, my parents were on a trip that had been loosely planned, and one morning they called to make a reservation in the town they expected to reach at the end of the day (I can't remember for certain what state, but I think it was in New Jersey).  When they got there, they walked in and told the desk clerk their names and that they had a reservation.  The clerk stared at them for a couple seconds, then told them that their reservation was cancelled, because he didn't want to take any responsibility for what might happen to an old white couple spending the night in that part of town.  They had to get back on the road and keep driving until they found a place in a town farther down the road that had a vacancy.

A lot of places aren't areas where you need more than a normal level of caution (locking doors, noticing when someone appears to be following you, etc).  On the other hand, some places are in areas where you really are better off not being in them at night and you should be very cautious if you enter those areas in the daytime.  The problem is knowing where those areas are.

Nashville used to be a lot safer than it currently is.  There were areas to avoid, but they were well known, and it didn't really take a lot of detective skills to recognize at least some of those areas if you didn't know in advance where they were.  Leftist democrat policies in the mayor's office and Nashville council for the last couple decades have completely changed that, partly by giving people that had been living in public housing in the ghetto areas of the city rent vouchers that allowed them to move to the suburbs, partly by the council telling the police to completely ignore homeless bums building camps in city parks, and partly by the courts being run by judges who think nothing of telling the news media that the police arresting people won't solve anything.

As for where to avoid, if you are in the downtown area going to the bars and other tourist attractions near "lower Broad" (Broadway, from the riverfront to around 6th Ave) you probably won't have to exercise more caution than what you might expect in a large city (pickpockets and angry drunks are probably the most common concerns), as long as you aren't hanging around the area late enough that the crowds are leaving.  However, if you venture more than a couple blocks or so south of Broadway or go to the riverfront and walk farther north than about Church Street, you are likely going to be putting yourself at much more risk.  

A few blocks south of Broad starts getting into areas where you are more likely to encounter homeless people, and a little farther south (and a bit east) gets you into the Napier Public Housing Projects, which apparently played a significant role in the decision on where to put the new Nashville police headquarters (due to wanting a short response time to get officers from the station to the area around Napier).  Not too long ago, the Nashville police were looking for a man because he had shot someone (fortunately didn't kill them), and they found him walking along Division Street (south of Broad and west of the Napier Projects).  He ignored an officer's commands to stop and continued walking east (toward the Greyhound bus station and the Napier area) until he found himself on a bridge over the railroad tracks with officers moving toward him from both ends of the bridge.  At that point he did what made the most sense to him - running from the sidewalk to the middle of the street and spraying as many rounds toward the closest officer as he could with his handgun.  He hit one police officer in the leg, before the officers put enough bullets in him to make certain that he would (permanently) stop such foolish behavior.  That spot is roughly on the eastern edge of an area known as "the Gulch", which is popular with people who moved to Nashville in the last decade (lots of relatively new high-rise apartments and condos).  Local reporters had no trouble finding people willing to be interviewed to express shock that something like this could happen next to the building they live in (even though they live a relatively short walk from one of the most dangerous areas of the city - Napier).

If you go to the riverfront and walk north of church street along the riverfront, you may not realize it, but you will be walking next to homeless camps that are mostly hidden by the foliage.  The Nashville council has a history of telling the Nashville police to stay out of that area unless they are answering an emergency call, because the council doesn't want the police intimidating the homeless people.  In the last year or so, there have been two tourists in their twenties who got drunk and wandered into that area at night.  One pulled herself out of the river and climbed up the riverbank the following morning, less than 15 minutes after police had searched that section of riverbank after she had been reported missing.  According to local news reports, she had no memory of how she got into the river.  The other was eventually found by a crew working on a cargo barge tied up a few miles farther down the river.  City authorities ruled it an accidental drowning, but there were unanswered questions about his pants being missing and the fact that volunteer searchers had found his bank debit card on the ground next to one of the homeless camps on the riverbank (the local news reports conveniently neglected to mention that it was next to a homeless camp).  Before either of those incidents, a woman jogging a little farther north along the riverfront was grabbed by a homeless guy (in broad daylight) who apparently tried to rape her, before someone working at one of the industrial facilities in the area saw what was happening and started yelling while running toward them, causing the homeless guy to run away.

I would advise against walking over to the east side of the river while downtown, even though the city is currently trying to make it the next big tourist area.

ETA:  Also, if you are in one of the bars in downtown Nashville, DO NOT leave your drink unattended.  There is some chance of someone putting something in your drink while it is unattended and then following you when you leave, expecting to take advantage of when the substance takes effect on you.