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Munich and Switzerland by Car / Gas / War

Any thoughts on how different travel will be through Switzerland to Munich by car? Travel plans are mid June. Assuming gas will be extra $$$, any other considerations?

Posted by
8565 posts

Crystal Ball.

Suspect bigger crowds as a reaction to lockdowns being lifted.

Other than that….it’s an unknown

Posted by
19630 posts

One thing, since European fuel taxes are so high, the increase in the base fuel cost is a smaller percentage of the customer sell price.
Another thing, both the Swiss Franc and the Euro have been dropping in value versus the US Dollar, so that is a countervailing factor.

Posted by
3150 posts

If you are thinking about renting a car in Switzerland and dropping it off in Germany, get set to pay a drop off fee of $500 - $1,000.

Posted by
19630 posts

As Phillip has pointed out, a car rented in Switzerland will have Swiss number plates. and cannot be rented in Germany, anymore than I can rent a car in the US that has Canadian or Mexican license plates. So when you drop it in Munich, it will have to be transported back to Switzerland and that costs money as well as loss of rental use.

Posted by
6773 posts

Travelling between Switzerland and Munich without a car used to be time-consuming, but the trains now run faster and Zürich - Munich only takes 3.5 hours, and even 2.5 hours if you start from St. Gallen. Since you do not want to rent a car in Switzerland and drop it in Germany due to high fees, it is therefore easy to drop the Swiss car and travel to Germany by train.

Posted by
32506 posts

since European fuel taxes are so high, the increase in the base fuel cost is a smaller percentage of the customer sell price.

not so sure about that...

The cost of my fuel in the UK has risen from about £1.28 per litre to £1.79 (£6.78 per US gallon, about US $8.47) which is an uplift of just under 40 percent. That's not small to me. That's at the cheapest supermarket around - it is significantly higher at name brands like Esso, Shell, Gulf, BP.

I believe that the uplift in France has been significantly higher, and in other countries on the Continent.

Posted by
19630 posts

I fear that I suffer from Americentricism. I mistakenly made the assumption that like USA, Europe and its nearby islands taxed fuel on a per unit volume basis. However, a quick bit of googling shows that Great Britain not only taxes at the rate of 0.53 GBP/liter, but also VAT of 20% on top of the whole amount. So yes, it will track a little closer to the percentage increase in the base fuel cost. Here in the Land of Cheese, which has about average fuel taxes (state plus federal), motor fuel has gone up about 45% since the beginning of the year. But before you weep a tear, that brings it to about US $4.00/gal. And that is US gallons, not those Imperial ones.