Itinerary help - Amsterdam, Germany & Austria

It will be hugely expensive to rent a car in Netherlands and drop it in Austria. The car cannot be rented again until it is returned to Netherlands. You will be paying for this, plus loss of rental income for however long it takes to get back to it's home.

Why not travel by train for the most part, then rent a car when you need to get off the beaten path where trains don't go.

I'm going to call into question a couple of your assumptions.

First of all, are you sure you want to do this trip entirely (or even primarily) by car? Much of this region is wonderfully optimized for train travel. Some parts are nice by car (eg southern Germany) but even in those places, rail isn't a bad option. Having a car in many of the places you want to go (pretty much every big city) will be an expensive headache.

You should be aware that renting a car in one country and dropping it off in another will almost always come with a huge fee - probably a lot bigger than you think. This is worth investigating before your plans gell.

If, as you seem to want to do, you plan to move around across a pretty large swath of Europe, it's terribly inefficient (and expensive) to fly in to one city, move around all over the continent, then have to work your way back to your arrival city for your flight home. That not only wastes money, it wastes something that's probably even more precious to you: time.

I would suggest you take a clean-sheet approach to your itinerary and start over. Pick your priorities, and then look for a way to fly in to one city, fly home out of a different city (aka an "open jaws" flight), it's way more efficient. And look for ways to connect your top priorities by rail as much as makes sense. Renting a car for part of your trip is fine (and often the smart way to go) but look to avoid the major fee for renting in one country and returning in another.

I didn't find the prices that bad for dropping it in Austria. I would rather drive a car (like I have in the past) since we will be stopping to see family, etc.. besides I like the freedom of being able to stop when we want to stop & also hit the some of the "off the beaten path" places along the way.

Hey David.. Unfortunately I purchased RT tix a few months ago (prior to watching one of RS videos) and it's too expensive to change them. I might add the train to part of the trip, depending on the final itinerary. I have to say, the last few times I've been I've driven and I really like being able to go through small out of the way towns and stopping etc., some of my best memories and pictures have come from those places.

OK, you are car-centric, but there are still a few good reasons for at least taking a train to Germany and renting the car there. You can get a direct train from Amsterdam to Duesseldorf airport if you want to get it there.

You say you want to go to Stuttgart and Munich, and you will need an Umweltplakatte (German environmental sticker) to drive in those cities. A car rented in the Netherlands will not have one, but a German car will have one.

If you want to go to Dubrovnik, if that is what you were thinking, there are no flights from Salzburg airport. There are direct flights to Split during the summer. For other destinations, you will have to drive to Munich airport to find flights to a wide variety of European cities. Might be a good idea to get a better price to Split.

If you want to go to Prague, make sure the car rental company knows and allows this. It might also effect the type of car they will rent you.

You will need to remember to buy an Austrian vignette to drive on a motorway in Austria, the best way to get to Salzburg. If you go to Prague, you will also need to buy a Czech vignette.

Getting an International Drivers permit is a good idea, especially if driving in Austria and Czech Republic. They are cheap and easy to get and act as an official translation of your drivers license.