Eastern Europe by car

I think you'll probably find places to stay a few days ahead of time, given that you'll have a car and can be flexible about the location. However, a great deal of time can be wasted, commuting into large cities from the suburbs by public transportation.

The list of places you want to go is too long for the time you have available, in my view. Even if you go only to the capital cities of the countries you've named (which would be a shame), you're talking about driving over 2000 miles. By the time you allow for all that driving, how much time do you think you'll have left for actual sightseeing at each stop?

Have you started investigating car-rental arrangements? Be sure you won't have a problem getting authorization to go to all the countries on your list. It's possible some of them could be an issue, at least for some rental companies.

Thanks for that, we already have the rental booked and permission to take it to the countries mentioned. Tend to agree with you on the time frame, hence the flexibility required for accomodation and we can chop off parts/ places if time is an issue. It means we may need to go back another time which won't be all bad.

Thanks for that, agree re the park n ride, they are great. Also we prefer small to medium towns of the beaten track, which gives you more local flavour.

We're renting in Dresden and taking the car to Krakow next month. Hertz is charging us something like $29 extra for crossing the border into Poland.
You might want to call your car rental reservation desk and ask about those countries specifically. I understand that Poland has an extra high incidence of wrecks vs. other countries. I've heard that some car rental companies don't want their cars taken into the Czech Republic.
Some countries' have better drivers than others. Some countries have high incidences of thefts. And some countries have regulations that car rental agencies don't care to deal with.

Thanks for that, we have checked with the rental car company and they are ok with the countries we are visiting. Will check on that charge you mentioned tho,
Cheers,
Terry

As far as Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, driving is completely fine. Croatia has a limited set of autobahns. 1 E-W, 1 N-S. The road is excellent. There are service stations every 20 K. The side roads are also good. Gas is EU priced. Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, the roads are fine, driving is easy. Many service stations are unmanned and use credit cards. It's all completely modern. Serbia is a little lower, Romania as well.

You won't have any problems driving in Poland or the Czech Republic.

Sounds good, many thanks

For our trips, we schedule our first week or so of stays. After that, we work 3-4 days ahead of time. Your trip is very fast, and you may consider scheduling ALL your stays. One word of caution: Print contact information. In 2011, we lost track of one stay in Split. If we had it in paper, it would have been easier.

i know that you are coming from NZ, and probably don't intend to get to Europe often. The term "fear of missing out" applies to your trip. I really think you need MINIMUM 1 week per country. You have 6 countries. I'd cut out Slovakia and Croatia (Croatia is my favorite country). I'd do Poland, CR, Hungary, and Slovenia.

Thanks for that, usually take printed copies of bookings that we have done before we leave. Should have pointed out we are doing Croatia separatley from these 4 weeks.

Hi from Wisconsin,
Last time I rented in Germany for an Eastern Europe drive I was glad I had two documents with me.
1. A letter from my credit card saying that I was covered (I use the credit card car rental insurance) in the exact countries into which I was going to be driving. It was my second letter as the first had listed Flovakia instead of Slovakia.

1. A copy of the rental agreement listing the countries into which I was approved to drive the rental car.

When I got to the car rental desk I was told I couldn't drive out of the country. Once I showed them the rental agreement I had they altered their copy to include the extra countries.

Then they didn't want to let me waive car insurance as I had no proof of coverage through my credit card. Daily car insurance is often more than the car rental fee. You card will normally cover up to and including 30 contiguous days.

Driving is a breeze in eastern Europe. Generally speaking, unlike England, they have more roads than cars, but this ratio is changing every year. They do stop for stop signs, and they do use their turn signals even if the road is empty. And watch the speed limits carefully.

wayne iNWI

Many thks for that, we have organised for copies of both docs to sent to us so we have them with us , as we are away for 100 days in total we have taken comprehensive travel insurance which includes rental car excess up 3000 euro. Great to hear the driving is ok for us from the other side, left hand side, ha ha
Cheers,
Terry

Sorry, I should have been a bit clearer, we are away from NZ 100 days and it includes a variety of things, 2 cruises, time in the UK, time at a beach in Portugal, and this 4 weeks with the car in E/Europe. We are also doing USA/ Canada on the way home, so a big trip.