Short trip to Germany/Switzerland

Hi Mark,

We have used www.gemut.com (Andy Bestor) for our last 4 trips to Germany and Austria. I think in case of problems, using them is easier than than dealing with a Hertz, etc. Long stories short, we had two minor problems on the last 4 trips. One was an extremely long delay arriving in Munich, which according to our rental days, we wound up not using 1 day of our pre paid car rental. To get a refund, it took 1 email to Andy Bestor, which took me a few minutes to write. Another was being charged twice for "winter tires". Again, I sent Mr. Bestor an email briefly explaining this, he wrote back and said he would check it out, and we got a refund. I can't imagine it would be this simple and painless trying to deal with Hertz, or another co. I like having Gemut on my side to straighten things out rather than me trying to get the "right" person on the phone or by email and spending my time trying to straighten things out.

We always pick up at the airport. Get a quote and see for yourself what the cost is. We have always found it to be very reasonable. Last year we had a price of about $250 U.S. Dollars for a 9 day rental picking up at Munich airport. The convenience on short trips like ours (all between 8 and 11 nights) is worth it, plus I found all the rental prices we have paid to be a good deal and very reasonable.

It's very easy to get out of Feankfurt airport. If you already have 2 nights booked in Frankfurt, would you need the car there? Could you pick it up upon leaving Frankfurt?

Paul

"Do you think we could "wing it" and get hotels as we go in late July and early August? Or is that too risky and expensive? The wife wants to figure out our itinerary once we get there.

If you're dead-set in staying in Rick Steves' recommended lodgings (and thus, hanging out with all of his fans), then you should book ahead. But if you don't care about traveling in religious compliance with the Book, you can easily find rooms. You may not always get your first choice, but you should be able to find a perfectly nice hotel.

Thanks to both of you for the replies. I'll go with gemüt.com for the car, and won't pre-book hotels. With all due respect to Steve's recommendations, I don't care much where we stay provided it's clean, safe, and reasonable.

Evan:
My recommendation would be to pre-book at least a hotel for when you arrive. We live in California, and most trips to Europe involve at least 12 hours on the plane plus a few more hours in the airport/customs/etc. So even if you arrive at noon (3am Pacific time) you will be in a state of limited consciousness not conducive to making rational decisions, like where should we stay tonight. We've always found that pre-booking a hotel in the city where we arrive, or nearby, staying up as long as we can stay awake during the day, having an early dinner, and going to bed, means that the next day we have pretty much overcome jet lag and the exhaustion following such a trip.

Just my €.02, and I don't know your tolerance for pain from travelling, but it always works for us. You can find great hotels at reasonable prices at sites like booking.com and others. And it's reassuring to know that you've got the first day of your trip secured.

Ah, but now I see you've probably already taken your trip, so it would be interesting to hear how it went.