Car rental in Durban centres on King Shaka International Airport at La Mercy, about 35 kilometres north of the city, where a deep line-up operates - Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz, Sixt, Alamo, Enterprise and South African operators like Bidvest, Tempest and First among roughly fifteen companies, with hours running early-to-late and some desks around the clock. City and Umhlanga branches cover mid-trip pickups. The car unlocks KwaZulu-Natal properly: the Dolphin Coast's beaches north of the airport, the Midlands Meander's crafts-and-cheese loop inland, the Drakensberg's amphitheatre three hours west, and the safari country of Hluhluwe-iMfolozi three hours north. South African road sense applies: keep doors locked in town traffic, park attended, avoid unlit rural roads after dark, and treat the N2 and N3 toll plazas as card-friendly and routine.
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