I almost had an itineray finalized and then discovered how frustrating it is to rent a car in Czech Republic. We will take the train from Budapest to Czech. The areas that we want to visit are Prague, Cesky Krumlov,& Telc. I orginally thought we'd take the train from Budapest to Prague (spend 3 days) then rent a car and go to Telc and surrounding areas and then to CK.I think only Sixt offers a drop off at Cesk Budejovice. Then of course my next destination is Vienna so I would need to shuttle , train, or bus there. So, then I rethought this and possibly from Budapest we should take the train to Brno but there many of the dealers only have pickup at the (Sixt, Auto Europe), Avis) airport and Alamo at the Holiday Inn and Hertz at Millenium Cenre. Does anyone have any idea how far those areas are from the train station? Any help with this would be GREATLY appreciated.

We rented a car in Prague. Drove to CK, Olomouc, Kraków and dropped in Vienna. There was no problem (outside of backing into a pole in Olomouc). What is frustrating?

I don't want to go to Olomouc. I have been told there is a large dropoff fee to drop in Vienna. who did you use?

I responded on your other car rental thread.

"I don't want to go to Olomouc."

I know that, for what it's worth.

Rented through Gemut. Picked up car at Intercontinental Hotel in Prague (I believe it was Hertz). We dropped it in Vienna. Yes, there was a drop-off fee.

You can actually figure out the distances in Brno yourself using mappy.com.

The train station to the Millenium Center is 1.1KM.

The airport is no where near the train station and I would think twice about picking up at the airport since when I was there all the rental car agencies were gated and locked and there were no planes coming in or going out.

Holiday Inn is 2.8KM from the station.

Adrienne, thanks.I am sorry for this oversite, I will try and locate that thread. I learn so much from all of you.

Found it. HOw did you find driving in Czech Rep?

For the most part, the roads were good. We had a Garmin, and sometimes it got us a little off track because new roads had been recently opened, but we knew we were headed in the right direction, so no problem. The drive from Prague to Český Krumlov was a snap. Quoting myself, "The Czech roads were great and, especially for a Southern Californian, the traffic was non-existent. In exactly two hours and twenty minutes we were driving over the bridge and parking in front of our home for the evening, the Hotel Konvice."

Outside of my bad driving habits, it was no problem navigating the highways in Czech Republic.

I used a paper map and the driving was fine. Except for the Sunday that a major road was closed and I spent a lot of time trying to find a way around. I seldom took highways. The one place I had trouble getting out of was Kutna Hora. The town I was looking for (according to my map) was not sign posted. I did find some English speaking gentleman at a gas station (not working there; stopping for a coffee). It's all part of the adventure.

You should read my trip report about getting tickets! For tourists, each ticket is the equivalent of $5 so they give you the number of tickets to make the correct amount! In case you don't want to slog through my trip report you must have your original passport with you (I was stopped by the highway patrol in a random check) and don't speed through the towns. It is difficult to figure out that you've just gone through a town (a crossroad and a small mini market) but watch for speed limit signs.

BTW - you click on your name to find all your threads. To find all of mine you click on my name, etc.

Yes, I had seen your report about all of the tickets. We received notice that we had 2 tickets to pay in Italy 11 months after we had been there; unfortunately they totaled hundreds of dollars.

I, too, recommend Gemut.com

Driving in the Czech Rep is akin to how driving in the USA was in 1970. PLEASANT!!

We drove throughout the Czech Republic without any problems. Our car was delivered to us in Prague, we drove from Prague to Cesky Krumlov, to Telc, to Kutna Hora & to Karlovy Vary. We had a GPS, & it was very easy. Never got lost.

tomboy, I just put a request to Gemut.com
It looks like a good site.Thanks,

tidy,
We are renting in Prague in August, and returning the car in Zagreb - we got the best rate from Budget.