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train or rental car

We will be traveling in July through northern Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. We've never rented a car in Europe before and always found the trains to be wonderful, but with our itinerary it seems that a car would be cheaper and more efficient. We will travel from Lake Como to Grimmalwald to Appenzell to Munich to Salzburg to Innsbruck and fly out of Venice. I have read about the extra passes needed in Switzerland and Austria for cars, and I'm concerned about parking. Also, while I can calculate the mileage from each point, I'm wondering what the actual travel time would be. I would imagine that driving through the mountains could be slow. What are your suggestions?

Posted by
10344 posts

You can get actual travel times at:
http://www.viamichelin.com/viamichelin.com
or
http://www.rome2rio.com/
Those times will not include any stops, road time only.

Yes, driving through the mountains could be slower, depending on the type of road--those 2 road trip planning websites should have a reasonably accurate estimate of driving time in the mountains, for the route they show.

Posted by
8889 posts

By "extra passes" I assume you mean the Autobahn Vignettes. These are flat rate tolls for the use of the Autobahns. you do not absolutely need to buy one, but it is very difficult to get around these two countries without going on Autobahns. They come in the form of a sticker which you attach to the inside of the windscreen. They can be bought at the border.
A Swiss Vignette costs 40 Franks
An Austrian Vignette varies in price depending on how long you want it for.

For travel times and costs, I second http://www.viamichelin.com/

In Gimmelwald you will have to leave the car in a paid car park in the valley, and take the train or cable car up.

Having a car means you will be able to go over the top of the mountain passes, instead of underneath in tunnels. Hard work for the driver, but unforgetable.

Posted by
25 posts

Yes, it was the vignettes passes that I were the ones I was talking about, and thanks for the websites. I will check them out. Do you know anything about parking our car. I do know I will have to leave the car in Lauterbrunnen when we go to Grimmalwald and Rick does suggest were to park there, but I wonder about going into some of the other cities, is parking really difficult? How do you find a place? Is it better to park outside the city and take public transportation in? I'm especially thinking of Munich and Salzburg.

Posted by
8094 posts

Traveling through the countryside on your itinerary will be incredibly beautiful. You're not going too terribly far leg to leg, so time on the road shouldn't be a serious issue.
I would suggest you first reserve a place to stay in Munich, and ask them for the address of a parking garage. There are also some smaller hotels in the city with parking in their courtyards. Parking in Salzburg is not usually an issue, as we have stayed in B&B's in the past with parking.
For the most beautiful drive we've ever seen, checkout Grossglockner High Alpine Highway online--south of Zell-am-See. You come out north of Venice, east of Cortina.

Posted by
16893 posts

I can understand why you chose car for these mountain routes. I drove to all those destinations many years ago and did not have a parking problem. Hotels a bit further from the centers of Munich or Salzburg will have easier or cheaper parking options. In Salzburg, Rick lists some hotels in the new town, convenient to the Mirabell-Congress parking garage (15 euros/day), as well as a few further out on Rupertgasse which have free parking.

Posted by
797 posts

We have always traveled by car and I second the recommendations made above. We like the flexibility both in terms of time and the ability to easily get to out of the way places. Your car will never drive off and leave you just because you were a minute late getting back to the parking place. One subject that has not been mentioned is International Driving Permits. They are easy to get and you must have one to drive in Italy and Austria. You probably will never need to show it but if you get caught in a rolling check point, have a moving violation or, heaven forbid, an accident, not having one will get very grim (or worse) very quickly. Never needed to show it for the last 18,000 miles and hope to keep it that way this September. I would also recommend that you take your own GPS with a European map card in it and back it up with some maps. You will know to use your GPS, you can preload it with your destinations and you will hit the ground running ... did not have one on our trip to Italy (where rural highway numbers seem to be a national secret), now I don't go without one. If your rental car has a GPS in it, learning how it works in the rental lot is not a good way to start the adventure and trying to use an owners manual written in Italian or whatever is even worse.

As to parking, last time we were in Munich we stayed on the outskirts and took the S-Bahn, besides you don't want to drive in the big cities anyhow.

In Salzburg the old town is expensive for parking and everything else so we stayed out a bit. We found the Hotel Turnerwirt had nice-basic rooms, parking and a bus stop across the street to go right into the heart of town in a a few minutes. If you check a site like Booking.com, you can find a number of small hotels not too far from the center of town that have parking available.

While you are in the Lauterbrunnen area, since you have a car, the Ballenberg Open Air Museum is easy to get to and is a great place to spend s few of hours. You will be visiting my v=favorite part of the world. Have a great trip.