I plan on using trains in NL and switching to a rental car in Germany . What would be the best, closest town from the Dutch border to rent a car in. Looking at the map, Munster seems like a good option. I'm planning on dropping o it off near the Swiss border.
Thoughts? Advice? Thank you.
Where in Germany are you going? The closest town to the border might not be the best place to rent a car.
Welcome to the Forums
Badger's question is important.
I immediately thought of Cologne or Düsseldorf, both served by trains from Amsterdam, but if you won't be in Amsterdam or Cologne or on that route that's not a great idea.
So from where in the Netherlands, to where in Germany?
With German local trains being only 49€ a calendar month for the entire country for the whole month, a car may not be cheaper and Germany's train network being both very comprehensive and easy to use you must have another reason for wanting the car.
Not for me to judge, but to give a good answer to help you avoid drop charges, please answer the coming from and going to Qs.
You need a German destination that is (1) easy to reach by train from the NL and (2) has a good selection of car rentals. For Münster the former does not apply, and the towns near the border are too small to offer a good choice of rental cars. So basically you have three routes to travel by train across the German border (from-to):
1) Arnhem-Oberhausen / Duisburg / Essen / Düsseldorf
2) Venlo-Mönchengladbach
3) Heerlen-Aachen
I immediately thought of Cologne or Düsseldorf,
I thought about Cologne and Düsseldorf as well, but I also thought it might be a good idea to avoid driving in the Ruhr. It might be a better idea to continue to Frankfurt and rent the car there.
I was in the Ruhr on Saturday. Fairly busy but still made good time to Oberhausen and on Sunday no probs other than the absurd 100 kph Dutch speed limit continuing to Amsterdam.
but I'd still like to hear back from the OP.
Thanks for the replies.
The last part of my NL visit is a small town (Langezwaag) near Herneveen to visit where my ancestors are from. I plan to take a train from Herneveen to wherever I rent the car. I plan to spend about 8 days in Germany with a small detour into France and dropping it off near the Swiss border and train into the Lauterbrunen Valley.. I will be travelling to a few places on the Mosel/Rhine, then to Rothenburg o Tauber, and then to visit another small town (Hausen) north of Nuremburg where my other ancestors came from. I'm renting a car to more easily get to the smaller towns. I've travelled by rail before and want to have a little more flexibility this time.
I guess this begs another question..... which would be the best place to drop the car off before taking a train to Switzerland?
Is it possible that the town where you plan to catch the train is not "Herneveen" but "Heerenveen"?
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Heerenveen#Q574558
You say you're going to the Rhine/Mosel... One common gateway for train travel to the Rhine area is the Dutch town of Venlo. There are DB train itineraries from Heerenveen to the Rhine via Venlo, near the border, which can get you all the way to the Rhine towns of Düsseldorf, Cologne, and Koblenz (where Rhine and Mosel meet.) fairly quickly.
Venlo > D'dorf by train takes 1 hour.
Venlo > Cologne by train takes about 1.5 hours by train.
To Koblenz it's roughly 2.3 hours.
So depending on your Rhine destination, it might make sense to take the train directly to the Rhine. Then wake up the next day in whatever your destination town is and pick up your car that day - or on the following day or on some subsequent day, whenever you intend to leave. Fewer rental days is normally a €-wise move.
Closer yet to Venlo is Moenchengladbach (40 train minutes away) where you might pick up a car on that same day of train travel, should you be itching to get behind the wheel even earlier.
“ The last part of my NL visit is a small town (Langezwaag) near Herneveen to visit where my ancestors are from. I plan to take a train from Herneveen to wherever I rent the car.”
There is no place in the Netherlands called Herneveen. We do have a Heerenveen, a small city with a nearby village called Langezwaag, so I guess that’s the place you want to take the train from.
Heerenveen is all the way up north in the Netherlands. It takes at least 3 hours to train from Heerenveen to Venlo in the south. This journey involves 2 changes of trains. There is also an option with just 1 change, but this journey takes 3.5 hours.
@Erwin; you’re right. I’ve edited my post.
Heerenveen to Venlo by train is more like 3 to 3.5 hours. If the
destination is somewhere in Germany, it is probably easier to travel
via Arnhem, since it is 1 hour 47 minutes by train with 1 change in
Zwolle.
Easier, maybe, if "somewhere in Germany" means "anywhere." Unfortunately, we don't know Area Man's precise destination that day. Or what locations his rental firm uses in Germany. Or whether pick up in Town X right at the rail station (vs. a cross-town bus ride to the outlet) is possible. Or whether the rental outlet is even open on his chosen day of travel. There's a ton of factors here that might make this day easier or harder, I think, and there's no easy answer for what's easiest. Area Man believes "the closest town from the Dutch border" will work best, which it might, but how far and in what kind of traffic is Area Man willing to drive that same day? And what train fare is he willing to pay from Heerenveen to German Town X vs. traveling to Town Y? Rail fares are notoriously unpredictable without reference to a specific destination, to a particular travel date, and to the travel hour.
. I will be travelling to a few places on the Mosel/Rhine, then to Rothenburg o Tauber, and then to visit another small town (Hausen) north of Nuremburg where my other ancestors came from
I have never rented a car in Germany with a separate drop off location, so I am unfamiliar with charges , if any. But with the locations mentioned by the OP, I will make this proposal. Take the train from Heerenveen to Frankfurt airport. You can do this with just one connection at Utrecht. Takes just over 5 hours, but the rental location is right at the airport. You can shorten the travel time by adding one more connection from Zwolle to Arnhem, and leaving 1/2 hour later, catching the same ICE train to FRA.
Return to Frankfurt airport and get a direct ICE to Basel.
You could also take the same train and get off at Cologne Hbf and rent there, and return it closer to Switzerland, Freiburg perhaps?
