Driving a Rental Car into the Czech Republic
 

Does anyone know if it is possible to drive a rental car into the Czech Republic and drop it off (Prague) without paying alarming fees? I contacted Autoeurope today and they quoted a $4000 drop off fee! They also couldn't guarantee even being able to provide a car. My original plan had been to rent a car in Italy (we are a family of 4), drive through Austria and into Czechoslavakia.

Has anyone tried doing this before? Any suggestions?

Thanks!

We reted in Vienna, and drove it back into Austria (flying out of Graz - - which thanks to Ryanair, you may be able to do for a pittance)... with no drop fee at all (from Autoeurope, in a Europcar/National vehicle if I recall correctly).

I don't know why you were planning to drop in Prague - - but wherever you plan to go from there, it might be worth your while to look into apln similar to how we did it.

Cesky Krumlov was a convenient (overnight) stop that fit well in our travel from Prague to Graz.

And for what it's worth, we LOVED Graz...

Best wishes,

Rex

We rented a car in Germany and drove into the Czech Republic without any problems, and we rented through AutoEurope. We just notified them of it in advance when we booked the car. There are almost always hefty drop-off fees for dropping a car off in any country other than the one that was picked up in, although that figure was much higher than I've ever seen. I just don't see how there is much way around it. It would probably be worth while to come up with some alternative. Perhaps you could pick up the car in Austria, drive it to Italy and up through Czech and back into Austria?

And I agree with Rex; we greatly enjoyed Cesky Krumlov.

Good luck!
Tracy

Czechoslovakia ceased to exist 12 years ago.

Yes, tomboy, you are quite correct. I was typing quickly and old habits die hard! Thanks everyone for your suggestions. We were thinking of flying out of Prague but now may rethink this. I'm glad to know that we can drive in and out of the Czech Republic without difficulty. I had been thinking of stopping in Cesky Krumlov and will research Graz as well (thanks Rex!) Tcreath, we may well try something like you suggested. Back to the drawing board...

You're welcome.

We found Telc to be very interesting also, and it's not greatly out of your way.

We are doing a very similar trip in 2 weeks. I found the cheapest thing to do was rent a car to Venice (we wanted to go there) then fly Czech airlines to Prague and then on to Milan after a week. We will rent a car for a week in Prague (Autoeurope). Car rentals in Prague seem cheaper (mainly because you don't have to buy the CDW insurance if you have a gold card, but in Italy you must).