joan

Hi there!
We're traveling for three weeks, visiting five different European towns. The day we travel from Riquewihr, France (near Colmar in the Alsace region) to Cochem, Germany has me stumped. So far, this has been a car-free vacation, with trains being our mode of tranport. We can rent a car if it makes sense - we did enjoy our Tuscany car rental last year and successfully braved a pickup from Florence and a return to Venice. Travel is on a Thursday in Sept 2015. Here are our options:

1. Take a bus to Colmar, then 3 trains. Six hour journey, cost on rome2rio says $56-71 per person X 2 = $100-$140. (Oddly, the google maps website shows the train journey as 16 hours! That has us going through Mannheim instead of the shorter Strasbourg to Saarbrucken route.)

2. Rent a car. Take a bus to Colmar, pick up the car, drive under 4 hours. Cost of 24 hour rental would be $45-97 depending on insurance. Plus gas/tolls of $60. So, about $150. Might as well get the full coverage, since it compares well with the train for two.

Is this a no brainer in favor of the car? Or is it a scenic train ride and we'd be missing something wonderful by driving? Can anyone confirm the six hour train journey vs the google maps 16 hour journey? What would you do?

Thanks for any and all information!

mokka4

Did you check schedules at
bahn.com?
On a cursory check, I find Colmar to Cochem at 5-6 hours and 2-4 changes....

mokka4

Most of the train options involve a nearly one-hour 'layover' in Strasbourg, accounting in part for the length of the trip.
But if you leave at 10:11, the trip is 5 hours, with 2 to 4 changes, depending on route chosen.
Sorry, can't comment on the car-never drove overseas!

joan

Yes, it is as I said, about 6 hours. Won't give me price, the tickets are through multiple train agencies...

PalenQ

If you rent a car in Colmar and return it in Germany have you checked on drop-offs charges - often very steep for one country to another - is that included in your price guestimate?

There is a thread exactly like this posted a few weeks back that went into great detail on it - was it your question - if not look it up.

soogies

Sorry can't help, but I'm also interested. Saving

Christina

YOu already asked this question on august 3rd, check that one

joan

Oops! My face is red! I did realize I had discussed this, but didn't realize that the price quote for the car did not include the dropoff fee. I had to go through the whole booking process, find out it was Hertz, then go to Hertz to see the $400 DROPOFF FEE! Haha the joke's on me!

Back to the trains!

Thanks all, sorry to take up your time!

PalenQ

Thanks all, sorry to take up your time!>

Well no - the other thread said nothing about cars perhaps but now you know drop-off fees can be ridiculously steep in a Europe without borders.