Good day all, I am looking for input from someone who is familiar with the Frankfurt International Airport and particularly where do I drive from (booked with Enterprise). I am trying to get my knowledge up and trying to plot a starting point.
I am driving from the airport northward (A5) and would like to understand my route.
FRA airport has two Car Rental Centers, one in Terminal 1 (T1), the other in T2.
Ensure you go to the right Enterprise counter mentioned in contract / voucher.
Recommendation: Before driving check the car if any scratch or damage inside or outside the car is listed in handover protocol. If not do not drive off, go back to counter or to a person who updates the protocol. Take photos around the car before driving the first time.
Have a good journey and please post a short report / feedback after your journey to help others.
Thank you Mark. I was told that purchasing the insurance from the car rental company, though a little more expensive than purchasing a option prior to travel, is a better option and allows for more ease with damage/dings as well as hassle free return. Any insight on this?
Insurance while traveling isn't too crazy. First, check with your own carrier at home. Probably you're not covered, but start with a call to your agent. Then check with your credit card companies. Many of the travel cards (airline cards, etc) offer coverage WHEN YOU USE THAT CARD TO BOOK AND THEN RENT. In other words, you can't use another credit card, have a problem, and then go to the card company that would otherwise carry you through the problem.
You can buy the insurance from the rental company, too, which is generally more costly than the other two options above. And sometimes, the counterperson will insist that you buy the rental company's coverage even though your know your credit card company covers...
And in some countries, Ireland, for example, your existing coverage is nonexistant... And you'll have to buy coverage from the rental car company. I had to do that, got a ding while parking, and even with their coverage, I still had to pony up 750 Euros whenI turned the car in.
Long-winded advice... Try your own coverage. Then check with the credit card company and use it if it covers you. And if all else fails, buy from the guy at the desk.
I used a different company, but be prepared for them not having the car you ordered, and offering a larger car, maybe with Standard Transmission. This is a big, busy airport, with huge rental car demand probably all year, but certainly in tourist season. I always recommend the smallest car you can manage, to facilitate parking and (usually tedious) driving within a medieval city or something like that. Parking Garages have rather small stalls, and narrower aisles than in the US. I don't know how it compares with Canada.
I personally use a (free) navigation phone app popular in the US, called Waze. But I have free slow data from T-Mobile, my US phone carrier. It is possible to navigate on Google Maps without data, I hear, if you make a temporary download of the map to your phone. And you can't "name" a big tourist site, you have to navigate with more "coarse" coordinates.
Honestly, you always have to be read for construction detours and security diversions at a big airport! Don't overthink your projected departure from the rental car depot. But you might "scope out" the RETURN location (and a gas station) if you are going back to FRA.
My experience is that the less different partners are involved in the process the better the process works.
Important: Ensure you have valid driving permission for Germany (official regulation), not driver's license from your country only. In case of accident you can lose insurance coverage fully or partly without valid driving permission.
many thanks Mark and Tim. I was able to get a car rental for 11 days free... using my airline loyalty points. So no use with credit cards (except to fill the car up with petrol). I am expected to drive over 1,300 km. Taking a full loop of Berlin, Leipzig, Nuremberg and back to Frankfurt. I am specifically booked a class that will give me a VW Golf as I am tourist mostly VW factories and automuseums, and I am a devote owner of VW.
The rental itself may be purchased with miles, but does it include collision insurance coverage? Be sure you have the appropriate insurance coverage.
Yeah, you can be certain that they will take a swipe of your credit card, to cover THEIR exposure to loss or damage. Just like a hotel would for a free hotel night.
The issues of auto insurance are complicated, and affected by the renter's home auto insurance (and state - my state used to put new customers in the Assigned Risk Pool, at high expense, because the insurance companies were protesting low annual increase approvals.) I've noticed that Expedia-type companies try to get you to bundle CDW with your rental, and then you discover that the CDW is in fact provided by Expedia - so you'd have to prove to the rental company that you had sufficient coverage anyway.
I hope you get the VW you want. I wouldn't bet on it at FRA in the summer! Or during a convention week in Frankfurt.
You have your travel plans. I'll mention that when we have a car, we often book charmless Business Hotels at the edge of town, to facilitate easy in and out for daytrips. Actually, once near Frankfurt, we stayed at a (luxury) castle-hotel in Kronberg, so that we could take the S-Bahn right in for our one downtown day in Frankfurt.
There are a lot of nice things to see on the route you describe besides car factories. For a technocrat, there's even the Zeiss museum. And we loved the UNSECO Dessau-Worlitz Gartenreich. Erfurt is really nice, too. But Quedlinburg is even better. I admit we did a drive-by of a BWM assembly plant, but that's only because it was designed by Zaha Hadid.
I press thumbs for a Golf. If they do not have any VW you can also accept a Skoda, another brand from Volkswagen Group. Both brands share a lot of car parts. Similar driving feeling, little more sportive. Cupra is also VW group but a very sportive brand. I guess you know Audi brand - more exclusively positioned than VW.
full loop of Berlin
Tip for Frankfurt - Berlin: If you are an automotive fan I recommend driving A7, A29, A2 to Berlin, not A4, A9. On this route you will pass PS.SPEICHER classic automotive museum in Einbeck and Wolfsburg with Volkswagen Autostadt - both worth a stop.
Be aware of the fixed installed speed controls at the end of long Autobahn downhills in Kasseler Bergen (A7, south of Kassel).
Leipzig
Car factories of Porsche and BMW are a chance.
expected to drive over 1,300 km
Maybe this interactive tourist map of Germany will help you to find more interesting sights and attractions along your route,
Three more tipps:
Thank you again Mark for the insightful information. I certainly do intend to push for a VW at the airport. I will even tip the counter clerk!
I am not sure what a "fixed installed speed controls at the end of long Autobahn downhills".. its been over 20 years since my last driving in Germany, I am not familiar with the speed controls.
