driving vs. train
 

We have a family of 5 (2 adults, 2teenagers and 11 year old) We are flying on buddy passes to Munich and want to sightsee our way towards Vienna and end up in Budapest(see an exchage student). There is so much to see and doing the trains will take lots of money (if we do the really fast ones). My husband is willing to drive. With so many of us is it better to rent a car? We have 15 days to make our way to Budapest...would love to see Prague but its a long train ride there and back. Thanks for any suggestions.

Can you clarify how the 15 days will be spent a little better? Fly home from Budapest? or return to Germany?

The problem that you will find is that it can be prohibitively expensive to rent in Germany, and return the car in a different country.

Best wishes,

Rex

Most car rental companies will not let you rent a car in a Western European country and drop it off in an Eastern European country. In fact, because of the high number of car thefts in Eastern Europe, rental car companies do not allow you to take the car into Eastern Europe, or at least it won't be insured if something happens.

You could look into getting a rail pass for the family. You could also check out renting a car in Munich, leaving it in Vienna and taking the train to Budapest.

You can certainly rent a car and Germany and drop off in central europe - people do it all the time. BUT - many companies have no problem doing it with basic cars but don;t like to do it with their largest more expensive models. And in europe most cars are made to hold 4 people - having 5 - and any luggage at all for each means you will need one of the largest cars - which you MAY have trouble taking to Budapest.

When you looked at train fares did you investigate family fares and/or lower/student fares for your kids? I find it hard to believe that the train fare would be more expensive that the rental and drop off charges and gas costs for a large car.

By all means shop for car rentals - but be sure you understand how many people and how much luggage - the latter is usually the sticking point - the vehicle really holds - if you're talking 5 suitcases and 5 carry-ons you may evenneed a van of some sort.

Thanks all for the help. Yes we might just drive in Germany and then take the train to Budapest. This way we won't have a large drop off fee. So far I have been looking at wagons as they hold 5 and our suitecases. I am also looking into the dirve/rail passes too. Thanks again!