Car Rental from Salzburg -> Frankfurt

This is madness.

Why would you want to take a car from the UK to the continent? You'll spend piles of money needlessly, waste time too, and have all sorts of headaches (driving a UK car with the wheel on the right, on roads through the continent where everyone else has cars with the wheels on the left). And I bet your drop-off fee is going to be a lot more than $300...

Oh...wait - you mean Salz BURG , in Austria - not the place with Stonehenge in the UK? Oh, that's different. Sorry, never mind...

The drop off fee is due to renting in Austria and dropping off in Germany. You can save a lot by renting in Germany. I would look into the closest German car rental location to Salzburg, take the train there, pickup the car and continue your trip. Check out Freilassing, 11 minutes by train from Salzburg. May need a taxi to the car rental place if its not in the train station.

Another option is two separate car rentals. Pick up the car in Salzburg, see Hallstatt, etc. return the car and take the train into Germany. (Not sure a car is very useful for Hallstatt & St. Gilgen, you could get there by train/bus easily and avoid expensive parking.). Pick up another car in Germany.

Just for price comparison, we rented an estate car (station wagon) through Autoeurope for 21 days in summer from Frankfurt to Munich for less than $700 (no insurance).

Since you spelled Salzburg, Salzbury, twice, I'm assuming it's not a typo. You really need to do a little more research, particularly on transportation.

Even renting a car in Freilassing (I don't think there is a car rental at the Freilassing Bhf, but there is one at Salzburger Platz, which is a stop on the bus coming out from downtown Salzburg), I think using a car would be substantially more expensive than using public transportation.

There is a bus going from Salzburg Hbf to Bad Ischl with a stop in St. Gilgen, then take the train and boat from Bad Ischl right into downtown Hallstatt. Or, you can go further by bus from Bad Ischl to Lahn (1 km south of Halstatt, which is where you would have to park a car if you drive).

You can take trains from Hallstatt to Rothenburg. With a few stops in Attnang Puchheim, Linz, Nürnberg, and Ansbach.

The last day take the train via Würzburg to Frankfurt.

Use the Bahn website to find connections. It will also show fares in Germany. The bus fare to Bad Ischl via St. Gilgen will be nominal; you can buy the ticket on the bus.

To avoid the international drop off fee, rent your car in Freilassing (just over the border). Take bus #24 from Salzburg (destination "Freilassing Sonnenfeld"). Europcar is right at the stop "Salzburger Platz", Avis and Sixt are near the "Sonnenfeld" stop.

You will need a €9.20 vignette if you use that car on Austrian motorways (contrary to popular expectation, cars rented in Freilassing usually are not fitted with an Austrian vignette). Buy it from a filling station in Freilassing or at the B155 just over the border (nowadays, you will get either a windshield sticker or just a receipt that your car has been registered into the ASINFAG toll collect system, so have your plate # ready).

I don't know what the price is in Hallstatt to park - I couldn't get in. I wound up driving around the bottom of the lake, getting a very easy space next to a station, taking a train one stop to the Hallstatt stop and taking the boat across the lake. I found the driving looking for a space, and seeing the two or three street long queues waiting for spaces to open up, very very stressful.

Oh, by the way, thanks for correcting the spelling in your post and post title. I found it very confusing.

Thank you so much all for the suggestions. You guys are the best in the world.

David - Sorry about the typo. I meant SalzBURG in Austria.

travel4fun, Travel Man, Nigel - Thank you !!

Lee, sla019 - sla019, you literally saved me atleast $600. Lee, I dont want to take public transport especially with so many connections because i'm travelling with 2 young kids. one will be 10 months and the other will be 2 yrs old. I dont want to be carrying around the luggage with 2 kids and a stroller. So this time considering the number of connection trains/bus I prefer to take car even if its a lil bit more expensive.