car rental

If you rent in one country and drop in another, you will be hit with high drop fees. Be sure you check to find out how much that will add to your rental cost.

Car is only marginally useful in Salzburg. Not useful at all in Venice, obviously. Trains between these cities are excellent and seem like the obvious choice to me unless you are planning to stop at points in between these cities. If you ARE planning on seeing sites in between you will have to look into the drop charges that could amount to several hundred $. It's tough to imagine a travel scenario where renting a car for 4-5 days for a total of maybe $700 plus fuel would seem like a good deal.

Thanks. You are right. I think we may just limit it to Vienna to Salzburg. We wanted to stop in Melk on the way. But maybe theres a train that goes through Melk.

Rent the car in Vienna and drive to Salzburg via Melk (we did this in reverse). Since both are in Austria, no big drop fees. A 1-day rental for about $60 plus fuel. Then train to Venice. Easy.

We were doing some rural driving in Bavaria and in Austria, so we kept the car and drove from Salzburg to Vienna, with stops in Mauthausen and Melk on the way. You don't need a car in Salzburg and cannot drive into the old center anyway without an access card/permit to raise those gate arms, but garage parking just outside of the center is plentiful, easy, and cheaper than in Vienna. Navigating around Salzburg is easy. Navigating through Vienna is a bit more challenging but not too bad. Parking is ridiculously high, and you'll never use the car while there. Driving a luxury rental into Italy is prohibited by most or all rental companies, so you'll have to skip the Mercedes. There's a huge parking garage outside of Venice, and you'll never use the car while there. Bottom line: Every place you want to visit will be easier and cheaper by rail (only Mauthausen will be a little harder, but you're not even going there). No need to pay for rental days when you're not using the car, and why pay for parking when you don't have to? And unless you're going to take the scenic route north of the Danube to Melk from Vienna, there's nothing special about driving the Autobahn. It's fast, which is fine, but it's no more exciting than driving I-80 from Davenport to Des Moines. I say skip the car and take the train. If you wanted to drive through rural Austria, that would be different.