Hire Car across Germany
 

Hi there,

Looking at options to hire a car between Berlin and Munich instead of taking the train.

We'd be looking at having the hire car for 9 nights and stopping in places like Wuerzburg along the way and also doing day trips to Salzburg from Munich.

Travel will be in late December 2016.

Can anyone recommend a company to hire the car through?

Any issues with weather etc?

Thanks!

I either use Kemwel or Autoeurope.com for rentals. I consider them the most reliable and the most straight-forward.

Thanks Michael. Any issues with driving winter time through Germany?

We went through Auto Europe, who seems to be a broker of sorts. When you make your reservation, the name of your car rental service will be on the paperwork.

During the winter in Germany, your car must be equipped with winter tires in order to be legal, whether or not it actually is snowy; so, that should be included in the rental, but I would check to be certain.

Thanks Trophywife007!

Auto Europe seems to be very very cheap compared to direct booking through the company (like europcar) website.

Is this a scam or anything?

>>Is this a scam or anything?<<

no -- very VERY reliable and great customer service.

>>Any issues with weather etc?<<

But -- per your other thread you are traveling late Dec/Early Jan. Have you driven in snow - perhaps heavy snow?

I personally would not plan a road trip at that time of year.

As I said, I used Auto Europe with no problem and I believe I've seen it recommended here quite a lot. You might try (if you haven't already) doing a search here for rental cars or Auto Europe and see what you find.

You need to be certain to check the car carefully for any type of damage and make certain it is noted before driving off. Some also recommend taking photos when you drop it off. We have never encountered any problems but if you do a search, you'll find those who did.

I did about 200 rentals in Europe through AutoEurope/Kemwel before I moved here to Europe. It is definitely NOT a scam of any kind. Best customer service you can get, including a 24/7 free help line if you have a problem. Yes, it's a broker - not "of sorts" - it's a broker, period. They'll connect you with the best affiliate they can.

That said, you'd never find me doing a road trip in your destinations at that time of year, no matter whom I rented from. I'd be on the train.

Driving in wintertime is no big issue.
We don't get road closures for days like they do in the US after a major blizzard in the Rockies.
You have as many cars and trucks on the motorways in December as in July.

Motorways and major federal highways always remain open, though traffic can be slow immediately after some heavy snowfall (which is rare in December, compared with Jan or Feb) as snow ploughs (sp?) slow down traffic.

An exception is the very first serious snowfall of the year.
Even in regions which are accustomed to snow, people drive crazy slow and cause traffic jams in the cities. Also many locals then notice that they had forgotten to change from summer to winter tires. Same drama every year.
Same amount of snow again on the following days has no effect.

Traffic in general should be more of an issue the days before Christmas than weather. As many people literally drive home for X-mas (and that's Dec 24), you can expect super heavy traffic on Dec 23. And probably also already on Dec 22.

Christmas weekend also marks the start of the winter holiday season in the Alps. So you can expect more Southbound travel on A9 (from Berlin towards Munich).
Again on the following Fri/Sat, Dec 30/31.

Day trip from Munich to Salzburg is more convenient by train than by car. You find low-cost fares for the regional trains (google Bayern Ticket). In addition, you need a motorway toll sticker for Austria, even for those 10kms you need to get to Salzburg. You'll save money, time and nerves when you drop the car once you reached Munich.

I learnt from our German friends that they have by law to fit their winter tyres by a certain date every year and then change them back to summer ones by a different date at the end of the winter; the garage which carries out the service stores the other tyres for them.

So i don't think you would have to check that the car hire company has fitted winter tyres - they do it as a matter of course.

But I'm not sure I'd be doing this unless I were used to driving in winter conditions - the train is ideal for getting you safely from one place to another without worries about traffic conditions and the weather.

Cowboy - right -- Germans know how to deal w/ snow. But on a New Years holiday - and especially since the rail service is so good I'd never pre-plan a road trip.

The problem with the holiday season in Germany usually is that there is NO snow. 'White Christmas' - I don't know when we had the last one...
Real winter does not start until mid-January or so. You have to worry more about snow on the roads in early March than in late December.
Even Munich is sitting at no more than 500 meters or 1,500 ft above sea level. In flat terrain.
Typical December weather in Germany is cool, potentially ghastly wet & rainy, sometimes icy patches on the roads and bridges in the early hours.
I would not really love a road trip that time of the year, but it's not a challenge for driving champions.
The only real downside is the little amount of daylight. So when you drive, you will drive a lot in the dark (if you 'max out' your days in between overnight stops).

While Cowboy is usually right about mild Decembers, there can be snow.

https://mcchelsea.smugmug.com/Advent-2010/Regensburg/

https://mcchelsea.smugmug.com/Advent...rg/i-bZ6m5SS/A

We had snow for our Christmas Market trips in both 2010 and 2012. Maybe worse is freezing rain or fog.

We lived in Germany a couple times and owned a car. They do take care of their roads; but, you can still face challenges from weather in winter.

BTW, we love traveling to Germany in Advent Season. The train travel has also been fun for us.

>>Typical December weather in Germany is cool, potentially ghastly wet & rainy, sometimes icy patches on the roads and bridges in the early hours.<<

Ghastly wet and icy patches would be worse than snow IMO/IME.

>>I would not really love a road trip that time of the year, but it's not a challenge for driving champions. <<

And for non-champions??

>>The only real downside is the little amount of daylight. So when you drive, you will drive a lot in the dark<<


. . . So . . . even though you say driving is fine you actually agree w/ the rest of us that it wouldn't be fun and trains would be better? ;)

1) Autoeurope has been good to me. But it's the broker, so you should check out the actual rental provider as well. There are MANY complaints about certain German agency practices over on Tripadvisor forums - Hertz, Budget, Sixt and others get routinely trounced by posters who have had bad experiences with charges for "damages" that were not incurred by the customer, for example.

2) No one can say what the weather will be like for you in late Dec and Jan this year.

3) Inquire about winter tires and costs, as you've been cautioned to do.

4) You will need to purchase a special vignette for travel within Austria.

5) Trips into and out of Munich and any other major cities you might visit can be mean some heavy traffic.

6) In Germany, driving even just a tiny bit over the speed limit or under the tiniest bit of influence from alcohol can cost you some small or perhaps very serious problems.

I would definitely reconsider using the train. Even if you bought an over-the-top, 10-day consecutive, German Rail twin pass from DB, allowing unlimited travel 24 hrs per day throughout your trip, the most you'd part with just E464 - and all the previously-stated concerns, as well as gas and parking costs, vanish.

>>6) In Germany, driving even just a tiny bit over the speed limit or under the tiniest bit of influence from alcohol can cost you some small or perhaps very serious problems. <<

That's not exactly true. Promille limits are the same as almost everywhere in Europe (0.5), speed tickets are much "cheaper" than elsewhere, e.g.: exceeding speed limit by 20 kmh: Germany 35 E., France 135 E. min., Italy 170 E. min.

janisj,

Yes, I will happily agree that December is not a fun month for a road trip.
But - I meant that driving in winter time is NOT a challenge that ONLY driving champions could handle :-)

The major rental car companies supply winter tires by default and free of extra costs from Nov 1 - March 31.
BUT - definetely check the fine print.
Eventually it's the responsibility of the renter, not of the rental car company, that the car is equipped with winter tires if it's necessary.

Sla19 is obviously correct in stating that penalities for speeding are moderate - compared with what our neighbors (except those to the East) charge.

>> I learnt from our German friends that they have by law to fit their winter tyres by a certain date every year and then change them back to summer ones by a different date at the end of the winter; the garage which carries out the service stores the other tyres for them. <<

That's not quite correct. You are allowed to drive with summer tires all year. However, if you are involved in an accident ON A SNOWY ROAD you may be made responsible for causing the accident AND you lose insurance coverage because of carelessness.

sla019: A "TINY" bit of alcohol is relative to who you are and where you are from. A .05 reading can be approached by just a single drink if you're a smallish female. So two drinks in Europe is not a tiny bit if you're driving - but in other places, it is... Non-European visitors are likely NOT accustomed to pre-driving drinking regimens in Germany, France, or anywhere else in Europe and may assume their normal drinking patterns will work fine before they hop in and turn the key. In the USA a .08 is the normal limit - and many of us tend to drink accordingly.

If you plan to enjoy alcoholic bev's in Germany, taking the train erases the danger and the legal problems altogether. You can even BYOB on the train (taboo in the USA, typically.)

The speeding fines are the "small" problems I referred to. Guess you missed that.

thank you traveller - I thought that I had understood correctly but it is quite possible that something got lost in translation. Certainly there was mention of insurance problems if you had an accident in winter with summer tyres.

Actually, the 0.5 is the very upper limit. If you are below 0.5 and you have disfunction than you will be punished.

Ant the way to check influence is completely different from the U.S. You can have loads of liquor bottles in your car - no problem. But they use a breathalyzer if there is a positive reaction, a blood sample will be taken. The analysis will say when you have drunken what (down to the specific brand of alcoholic beverage) and and which time you had which level of alcohol in your blood. Very sophisticated.

I do not know what happens to foreigners, we would lose our license (on the spot), pay a fine and lose insurance coverage.

Anyway, it will ruin a vacation.

<i>down to the specific brand of alcoholic beverage</i>

I'm skeptical.

Good lord. Don't drive drunk, okay? Can we stipulate that, please?

<Real winter does not start until mid-January or so. You have to worry more about snow on the roads in early March than in late December.>
Certainly our experience in Germany was exactly this.

Drive with care, yes?

<i>Don't drive drunk, okay? </i>

Some might consider the limits as too restrictive, that they are not drunk at that level. That is why it is better to specify how strict the limits are, which do not take into account the individual's perception of what drunk is or means.

>So two drinks in Europe is not a tiny bit if you're driving - but in other places, it is... Non-European visitors are likely NOT accustomed to pre-driving drinking regimens in Germany, France, or anywhere else in Europe and may assume their normal drinking patterns will work fine before they hop in and turn the key. In the USA a .08 is the normal limit - and many of us tend to drink accordingly.

[...]

The speeding fines are the "small" problems I referred to. Guess you missed that.<

I apologize for having missed your point. But you definitly have missed mine, i.e. that promille limits in Germany are the same as in the majority of European countries, so that there is no reason whatsoever to spread alarming messages about Germany's regulations. And »Non-European visitors« who »may assume their normal drinking patterns will work fine before they hop in and turn the key« show an amazing degree of cultural egocentricity which they should overcome before entering another country.

"...promille limits in Germany are the same as in the majority of European countries, so that there is no reason whatsoever to spread alarming messages about Germany's regulations."

IME travelers don't normally study up on all the laws that apply to them as visitors abroad. (I don't call them "culturally egocentric" - just underinformed.) I was attempting only to caution/educate the OP that drinking/driving rules in Germany may be different from her HOMELAND practices (irrespective of differences or similarities between European countries.)

There's no call for a misplaced defensive posture on behalf of Germany. The OP's post is the context. She is a foreigner traveling to GERMANY. That alone is why I mentioned Germany in my text.

If gretchin were traveling to France, I'd have referred to the promille limits in FRANCE - but I don't think the French should feel victimized my the mention of their country's laws either.

So... no one here is attacking Germany (or France.) But someone - apparently someone with an "amazing degree of cultural egocentricity" who cannot imagine being an under-informed foreigner - seems overly prepared for battle.

What's "rabbit hole" in German?

> But someone [..] seems overly prepared for battle.

I'm not an enthusiast of martial metaphors nor do I share the pathetic world-view behind them. So, your kudos will shine on another battlefield. Adieu.

Thanks everyone, we've reconsidered the need for car hire through Germany and we'll take the train.

Appreciated reading all the comments and also the discussions on driving law. :)

good for you, gretchin, taking the advice here in good part.

hope you have a great trip.