Hi all,
I plan to arrive in Munich via train (from Prague). I plan to fly out of Munich to Italy. My question is..is there a car rental place near the train station to pick up and is there one at the airport to drop off? I only want the car during my time in Munich so we can go outside the city to small towns.
I'm sure the answer will be yes; try www.autoeurope.com for a price quote. Have you already determined that public train and bus schedules don't work for your small-town destinations? Service is pretty extensive and you could avoid big-city driving and parking issues. How to Look Up Train Schedules and Routes Online gives you the DB train schedule link and tips for using it.
In addition to autoeurope.com a Portland, ME based consolidator check also rental rates with the following:
http://www.kemwel.com/
This is now part of the same parent company as autoeurope, however for some reason it tends to have lower rates.
Also try:
http://www.gemut.com/car-rental-germany.html
The above consolidators generally offer better deals than going directly to the rental car companies.
In Munich there are rental car offices everywhere, in town and at the airport.
We dropped a Hertz car across from the train station. My memory is vague but I thought I remember seeing a couple of cars rentals in that same area. Obviously, there are pick up and drop off points are the airport.
What small towns were you thinking of visiting? Public transportation in that area is excellent. You probably don't need a car.
I'm normally fairly neutral on whether or not to drive in Germany, but Munich is the worst city in Germany for driving. Parking is very scarce, and unless you go with a high-end hotel, most lodgings don't offer it. Also, the outer ring and the roads that feed into Munich are undergoing a massive re-alignment right now, so usually bad traffic conditions are now even worse. And you can't even rely on a GPS to help you navigate, because many of the on and off ramps have changed.
Do yourself a favor, just rely on the Sbahn system. It will take you almost anywhere you might want to go.
But to answer your question... there's rental car agencies located in the Munich Hauptbahnhof, and plenty at the airport. The offices are located in the station building proper, and the drop-off/pick up point is in a large garage next door.
I arrived in Munich by train and rented a car at the train station. The rental offices are upstairs. You walk a block or two from the train station to pick up the car. We dropped the car a week later at the airport. It was very easy to do that.
Driving in Munich is a pain, as others have said. We were staying in a small town and having a car was necessary for what we were doing. The 2 times we went into Munich we took the train.
