RI_traveler

We hope to find a reliable & reputable car rental site near a train station in Solingen or a nearby place for a short time (6 hours or so) to visit places related to our family. We will be traveling by train from Utrecht in the morning and then on to Brussels after our time in Solingen. If there is no place in Solingen within walking distance (10 minutes maximum as we're limited in time) of a train station, we thought a nearby city/town station or one on the outskirts of a city center that we could get to from Dusseldorf or Cologne & that has an office close to a train station would be good. Our Plan B is to rent a car in Cologne. We have talked to the gemut people. They could only find 3-day rentals from a major city central station or a shorter rental from a place we couldn't get to via train. We have also checked car rental company websites. Sixt has a lot of rental sites and will do a one-day rental, but except for major cities (e.g., Cologne) none within reasonable walking distance that we can find. Any thoughts (including which companies are good to deal with for Germany car rentals) are much appreciated!.

Thanks very much!

greg

I think there are several other options.
1. Rent a car in Netherland, drive through Germany, return back to Netherland such as Eindhoven.
2. Eat the drop off charge by renting a car in Netherland, drop off car in carefully chosen place in Germany or in Belgium. While you will get hit with a drop off charge, this will not be outrageous charges like France to Italy drop off. Do the total cost computations and consider logistics advantages.

Cowboy1968

Both Sixt and Europcar (and maybe more) are right at Düsseldorf central station.
The Sixt location has the street address Bertha-von-Suttner Platz, Europcar would be Konrad-Adenauer-Platz. Both would be directly in front of the station on either side and a few steps from the platforms.

As going from Utrecht to Solingen will make you change at Düsseldorf, and going go Brussels will make you change at Köln central station, it should be easiest to get a one way rental from Düsseldorf central station to Cologne central station. It will save you the train transfers. Though you should calculate your way to Cologne with enough time if you have to drive during the rush hours.

RI_traveler

Thanks to you both for replies. We have rail passes and will be traveling by train & would do the whole thing that way if we could get to the particular places in Solingen of interest. Unfortunately not. The ideal itinerary would be: travel from Utrecht via the ICE train to Dusseldorf, local train to a Solingen station within easy walking distance of rental car company. Then drive to places of interest & return car to same rental location, then train to Cologne, from which we'll take train to Brussels. All of this would be on the same day. The German rail (DB) website shows a Europcar rental facility near the Solingen-Ohligs station. I've seen some negative reviews of Europcar, but it's the only company located near a train station. Our next best option would be Cologne. We've driven a lot in Germany & for a bunch of reasons prefer to minimize driving time & distance/center city dring if possible. Thanks for any thoughts.

Cowboy1968

hmm.. all that in one day?
Well, if there is a Europcar location near Solingen-Ohligs station, just use that one.
If you stay long enough on forums, you will find negative comments on anything.
It's as representative as saying "Don't eat at McDonalds! My hamburger at the McD on I-10 near Tucson was only lukewarm."
All nonsense if you just need wheels for a few hours.