Hiring a car in Essex
SIXT branches in Essex ⚑Two branches serve the county: Stansted Airport and the Private Airport Stansted desk. Both put you on the A120 and M11 within minutes of landing. | Tolls around Essex £The Dartford Crossing, linking Essex to Kent, is tolled via the Dart Charge system rather than at a barrier. All other local roads and major routes in Essex stay toll-free. |
Parking tips in Essex ⓅMeadows Car Park in Chelmsford, the High Street Car Park in Colchester, and Victoria Circus Car Park in Southend cover the main towns. Council pay-and-display bays and multi-storey car parks are common elsewhere. | Day trips from Essex ☀
|
Car categories in Essex ⚙Essex bookings cover compact cars, economy cars, estates, SUVs, luxury cars, minibuses, vans, automatics, and electric cars. Minibuses are the most popular choice among our Essex customers. | Add-ons for your Essex trip ✚A sat-nav is worth adding in Essex - country lanes in the northern and coastal districts can be narrow and winding, especially near farm traffic. Add it at booking or ask at the SIXT branch. |
Our top branches in Essex
Our services at Essex
Essex car hire with SIXT
Choose SIXT for all your Essex car hire needs. It doesn’t matter if you’re staying in the county’s main city of Chelmsford, or exploring the smaller towns like Basildon, Braintree, or the historic Colchester. This is a rural area, so we lay on a full range of vehicles suited to the region, including 4x4s and MPVs. All our cars are an average of three months old and are sourced from the most reliable and trusted premium car brands in Europe. And while offering a first-class driving experience, we make them accessible at economy prices. We provide friendly, 24/7 support for your car hire in Essex, and you also get free cancellation when you pay on arrival.
Sixt's Car Hire Services
As in many rural counties, most of the towns in Essex are quite small, with long histories, and thus have old street layouts – lending themselves to our compact and economy cars. To travel to the countryside, hire a luxury saloon, an MPV or a 4x4. If you’re sightseeing in a tour group, a minibus will suit your purposes perfectly. For the classic country driving experience you can also get a nippy sports car or a convertible. Vehicle booking periods are flexible – you can get anything from a long-term rental to a one-day rental, with bookable extras including child seats and sat nav units.
Best cities to visit in Essex
- Chelmsford: this is the county town of Essex, and the region’s largest and only true city. A settlement dating back to the Bronze Age it’s also a typical Roman-era UK city. It’s the site of the beautiful Chelmsford Cathedral and it’s worth going to see one of its oldest and most iconic buildings, the Shire Hall.
- Basildon: besides being something of a pilgrimage town for Depeche Mode fans, Basildon has an exceptionally large public entertainment complex, Festival Leisure Park. It has restaurants, arcades, cinemas, nightclubs and even a wakeboarding area. You can also visit several monuments like the Pitsea War Memorial in Howards Park.
- Colchester: best known for Colchester Castle, this town also lays claim to having been the first major Roman city in the UK and thus the country’s oldest town. There are plenty of Roman ruins to visit here, including its famous Roman Walls, built before 80 AD. The town hall is a wonderful example of Edwardian Baroque architecture.
Summer in Essex
Summer is a good time to tour all the Roman excavation sites in the county, particularly in the Colchester area. You can also go down to Southend-on-Sea, which boasts the longest pier in the world. It’s also where you can take the kids to the sprawling Adventure Island funfair. You can also take a drive in your hire car to Harwich, from whence the Mayflower sailed to the New World. And don’t miss Mersea island, the oyster capital of the region, connected to the mainland by a causeway.
Customer reviews & feedback
Listen to what our customers say
*Our Customer Excitement Score is based on a survey sent to all customers who booked in Essex. The score is an average of all customer responses.
Good to know when hiring in Essex
If you have children along for the ride, we can provide child seats as well as an extra diver(s) to share the driving, we also have extra protection packages and added miles.
Cancellation is free any time, simply select ‘pay later’ during booking, this way you can pay on arrival as we understand journeys can change.
The minimum rental age is 21 years old, anyone hiring the car must hold a valid licence for at least a year and there’s a small fee when under 25.