Northbound review

On fees, Northbound is clear: No added booking fee. That means the booking does not add a surcharge on top of the rental itself. What you pay for the car still varies with the vehicle, the dates and the pickup point, so compare the rental rate rather than a single headline number.

Yes. Free cancellation up to 48 hours before pickup is the term that governs changes, and the pickup date matters most because the window is measured backwards from it. A booking made well ahead of a trip gives more room to change, while a booking made close to pickup leaves very little.

The site is run by Northbound ehf., registered in Iceland and trading since 2015. One legal entity sits behind the site, and its own terms and help pages are where cancellations and fee claims are set out. Booking questions go through the channels listed there.

There is a mobile app, which suits the parts of a trip that happen away from a desk, such as checking a booking before pickup. Support does not depend on the app, since email, chat and phone are available as well.

The full range is car rental and ota, which is narrower than most booking sites. Car rental sits at the centre and the agency side covers general travel bookings. Rail, ferries and cruises are not part of the range, so a trip built around them needs a different site.

email, chat and phone covers the options, so help is not limited to email. A phone call suits anything urgent on the ground, such as a vehicle that will not start, while the help centre is better for reading terms before you book. Chat sits in between for quick questions.

The product list, car rental and ota, points at a trip where a rental car does most of the work. The operator is based in Iceland, so the site reads like a local market service rather than a global one. Travellers planning a longer haul through several countries will find the range stops short of what they need.

Northbound lists booking terms plainly: No added booking fee. Free cancellation up to 48 hours before pickup sets out when money changes hands. Elsewhere in this comparison Latam Travellers goes further and advertises 0 hidden fees, no contracts, so that is the claim to weigh if fee language matters to you.