Hi,

We are thinking of renting a car to drive around Austria and am a little confused on what the licence requirements are for this. Will my US licence work or do I need to get the International Driver's Licence ?

If I need to get the International Driver's Licence, does anyone know the process to get it ? We live in Boston, Massachussetts.

Finally, any tips on a good rental car company ?

Never mind - no sooner did I post this, did I come across the following post that answers all my questions !

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...chText=license

Sorry for having a post-happy mouse.

I rented a car in Austria last year through AutoEurope. The car was supplied by Europcar.
They insisted I show them the International Driver's License.
This has been my experience. For $10 plus the cost of the pictures, I would take one to be on the safe side.

Thanks Sher.

The cost of renting a car (with automatic transmission) seems way too high in Europe ! I cant seem to find anything less than US$70-80 per day - is this normal for car rentals in Europe ??

Auto transmissions are always quite a bit more than manual just because they aren't used by most Europeans, usually just Americans! Try gemut.com and autoeurope.com to see what kind of rates they can give you. They get consistently good reviews here on Fodors.

Normally I say that a IDL is a waste but...if you do not speak the language and you need to show a licence.......can't hurt!
JOHN

Two points here.
Three years ago now, I confirmed with the Austrian authorities that an International Driver's License is mandatory for travel in Austria.
Not optional, not preferred: Mandatory.

An IDL is not worth anything without your own valid license.

Second point, a tax sticker/permit is required for the expressways. If you rent in Austria, the car will have it.
If you rent in Germany, where cars are a little cheaper, you will probably need to buy one.

Automatics are NOT the norm in Europe.
Manual shifts get 3 to 4 mpg more and with gas at $5.00 or more per gallon at the current exchnge rate, I think you can see why. That is another reason you see more diesel engines, too.

They get better fuel efficiency and diesel fuel is not priced as high in relationship to regular gas as it is here.

go togemut.com they show a auto for 370 per week.

The requirement is for an International Driving PERMIT, not license.

In the US, AAA is one of the few authorized agents, so go to your handiest AAA office, even if you're not a member. The various online and RL companies offering International Driving LICENSES are scams.

The IDP is essentially a translation of your driver's license; it has no legal standing by itself. By default, it also testifies that someone in your home country at an authorized agency (like AAA) has verified that your license is real, unexpired, etc. With so many different licenses (50 different ones for hte US, for instance), foreign policia can't be expected to recognize whether the license is legitimate, even if they can read English!

No need to nickel/dime on the cost here. Since you'll be travelling for 5 weeks and using a $480 rail pass, the total cost of the trip will easily exceed $5,000. The $20 International Driver's Licence/Permit would be only 4/10ths of one per cent of this, or less. If you put "International Driver's Licence" ( or substitute the word License or the word Permit) in quotes as shown in the search box, you'll get lots of comments people have written about the benefits of having one. Rarely, if ever, will you be able to buy any type insurance policy for less.

321Sister - I cant seem to get to togemut.com, maybe you mistyped the name ?

Tomboy - I am not nickle-diming the cost the International Drivers Permit, I will definitely get it since it is required. I was more concerned about the auto rental rates which are probably more than 3x the rates I am used to getting here in the US.

When I rented in Austria the price seemed very high.
I rented at the end of June for ten days through www.gemut.com and for an automatic it was almost $600. I used my MasterCard for the insurance.
We always rent an automatic when we go to Europe.
They gave me a VW Bora diesel which I loved but it wasn't the car I rented. The Bora would have been $1000 but since it was the only automatic available at the Klagenfurt airport, that is what they gave me.

carlposter05. Try this link.

www.carjet.co.uk/car-hire/austria/index.php.

I found them by accident for Portugal and they also offer rentals through links for Austria. I wish I had known them when searching in Austria.

The price from them for Portugal was over $500 less expensive than Auto Europe or Nova or any of the twenty or so other agents I tried. I know Auto Europe will meet or beat a price but I can't see them cutting $500 from their price. And anyway, I would like to give these people a chance. There isn't much posted about them here, but it is all positive.

I can't vouch for them as we aren't going until the end of the month.

Good luck.

Rent your car from Germany. You can easyly get a 15-25 Euro /day deal (manual, including insurance). Use Google! Most (all) major rental companies have low price spin-offs. Only the "not too smart" people directly rent from companies like avis or sixt! ;=)

sorry www.gumt.com

that's gemut

Austria IS more expensive; if you could rent the car in Germany (Munich, or even Passau) I bet you oould save $100/week. The only saving grace is, it's even more costly in Bratislava or Budapest, I think.