Rental Car - Gaeta, Italy to Schwartzwald, Germany
 

We're flying into Rome, heading to Gaeta for two days, then driving to Tuscany for three nights, then Switzerland for just the night, and then into Schwartzwald for a few days, Stuttgart, and finally departing from Munich. (Total trip 2 weeks.) We'll definitely need the car to get to Gaeta and for the Tuscany part. Am wondering about the feasibility / affordability of having the car for the entire trip?

We'll be renting in Italy and dropping in Germany -- if we rent. Just looking for some seasoned traveler's advice and/or things to consider.

Many thanks from this novice traveler!

Dropping in a different country can add hundreds of $$ to a rental. It is usually best if you can arrange your itinerary to drop a car as you leave one country, take a train to a city in the next country and collect a different car there.

Renting in Italy and dropping off in Germany is likely to add about $500 to your rental cost. Not a good idea.

Hi ll,

Ditto StC.

In addition, it is more expensive to rent in Italy (because you have to buy the CDW) than it is to rent in Germany.

((I))

I have often wondered about this issue of dropping off a car in a different country from where you picked it up - does it vary by country? We once rented in France and dropped off in Germany and it only added about $100 to the cost - well worth it for our purposes!

hausfrau--Yes, it does vary. The only way to be sure of the cost is to contact the rental car company or broker and ask.

Excellent information from everyone! Thanks so much.

and an extra tip put your country of residence somewhere in Europe for more rental options

we once rented in Switzerland and returned in Amsterdam. the extra was about £200 but for 4 of us it was worth it to be able to do the once way trip.

we did hit a snag when we turned up at the rental desk at Geneva as the local agents hadn't picked up what we had booked, and didn't want to give us a swiss golf [what we'd ordered] that would have to be driven all the way back from Holland, so after some umming and erring from them, and a cup of coffee for us, they up graded us to a german registed opel estate, for the same price.

only you know if the extra one-way drop fees will be worth it, or if you can think a bit creatively with your itinerary to make the car hire work for you.

lerrad: Yes, there will be 4 of us traveling, so if the rail pass is $200 per person, we'll actually save money if the drop off fee is $500.

Thanks for the info, I'll be checking into all the options and costs. It's nice to have a forum like this to learn from.

"<i>so if the rail pass is $200 per person . . . </i>" Why would you need a railpass?

I do not exactly understand your maths. A car will cost far more than those $ 500 drop-off fee. Rent for two weeks plus gas plus road tolls plus parking fees etc. will sum up to far more than the 300 $ difference to the price of four rail passes (assuming that price is correct).
Being crammed into a car with three others for long days on crowded highways is not what I'd call "fun" anyway.

"<i>I do not exactly understand your maths. A car will cost far more than those $ 500 drop-off fee. Rent for two weeks plus gas plus road tolls plus parking fees etc. will sum up to far more than the 300 $ difference to the price of four rail passes </i>"

I'm pretty sure the rail pass was mentioned just in comparison to the drop off fee. Not for the entire itinerary. And that just muddles the topic. If they just want to take a train to the next country to pick up a different car and save the drop off, there would be absolutely NO need to get a rail pass. None.

We will need a car for our entire trip in Italy. We'll also need it for most of our trip in Germany as we'll be exploring regions that aren't on public transportation routes.

We have two choices: keep the car for the entire Italy/Germany trip and pay $500 drop-off fee, or rent and drop the car in Italy, all four of us buy a railpass to get into Germany, and then rent a car for our time in Germany.

There will be four of us, so splitting the rental car drop-off fee would be a $125, whereas a railpass would cost $200 each. $500 is less than $800 so keeping the car results in the least expensive mode of transport.

Drop the car in Bolzano, train to Munich, get another there.
Forget a railpass--just buy a ticket.

And, the rates in Germany are less--more savings.

"<i>buy a railpass to get into Germany,</i>"

This is the second time you've mentioned a pass. Is it just a semantics thing and you really mean buying tickets -- or -- do you think you need a pass to buy train tickets?

You have absolutely <u>no</u> need/use/requirement for rail passes. Just inexpensive point-to-point tickets.

And Bobthenav is right - rental cars cost less in Germany so you'd have a cheaper car plus the extra savings of no two-country drop off fee.

bobthenavigator and janisj:

Thanks for your input. It is semantics: I'm assuming a railpass = tickets. I've not traveled by train in Europe before... Will look into your suggestions! Thanks very much for your insight.

New Question:

Last stop in Italy is Tuscany. Next stop is Black Forest (Baden-Baden, or thereabouts) in Germany. Is there a recommended train/train route? Have been planning on using rental car for entire Italy/Germany trip, but other more seasoned travelers have suggested this might be quite costly. Now looking into train options, but am a complete novice. Looking for input, advice, cautions. Thanks much. ;)

Maybe you need the car in Italy but I doubt you need it in Germany, which has about 6,000 train stations.

I spent several enjoyable carless days traveling around the Black Forest by train two summers back. Connections to Stuttgart and from there to Munich are plentiful.

I would drop the car in Pisa, a reasonable drive from Siena, and fly Ryanair into Memmingen, Germany, which lies mid-way between Munich and the BF. I'm seeing many advance-sale tickets for 12 Euros on this route. Not bad.

You don't need railpasses in Germany - just the right tickets. From Memmingen (an attractive old walled town) catch a train to Stuttgart using the "Baden-Württemberg Ticket", a daypass for the regional trains costing 28 Euros per day's train travel for 2-5 people. Takes about 2 hours.

From Stuttgart, head southwest by train into the Black Forest on another B-W ticket. Calw, Schiltach, Hausach, Löffingen, Titisee are all likely targets. You will receive a pass (KONUS is the name) allowing FREE rail travel throughout the BF for the duration of your stay and on your day of departure: http://www.blackforest-tourism.com/konus

To get to Munich most quickly, you might want to purchase regular tickets (which allow travel on high speed routes) at about 60 Euros from, say, Schiltach, or 29 Euros with an advance sale discount from www.bahn.de .

So I can see you getting from Pisa to Memmingen to Stuttgart, around the BF, and on to Munich for around 100 Euros per person. The car can't compate with that, especially if you have a monstrous drop-off fee.