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Italy/Germany/Austria train or rental car?

Posted by (Buffalo, NY USA) on

We have been reading Rick Steves' books and here online. The advise was invaluable for our trip last year to London and Paris. We have been bitten by the Europe travel bug and we are going to Italy, Austria and Southern Germany near Easter next year for 2 weeks. We fly into and out of Rome. We have a family of 4 (kids 17 and 11 who are fine on both trains and in cars).

My question is--should be rent a car for a week (picking up in Rome City Center (and immediately leaving Rome) and dropping off at FCO) or take the train? It looks like the rail pass for the 4 of us is double the price of the rental car. Our tentative plans are: Rome-Florence-Venice (I know we can't bring a car in and we would have to pay to park) and then some sort of circle including Neuschwanstein, Munich, Vienna and Salzburg.

We thought we would take the train from Rome to Pompeii and Cinque Terre and use Rome as a home base so the rental car would be for the rest of the trip.

As far as driving goes, my husband has driven comfortably in NYC and Boston. Obviously, a train is more relaxing but I am afraid it would give us less freedom to stop along the way, we would be at the mercy of the train schedule and I thought a train/bus may take longer esp. from Munich to Neuschwanstein. Once we are inside a city, I would plan on using public transportation. The car would be just to get from place to place.

We are trying to maximize both time and money (isn't everyone?) and we understand that we cannot do everything. We like to get a taste of the area and then we would come back for more in depth trips at another time. Any thoughts? Thanks so much!

Posted by
500 posts

Rome-Florence-Venice-Munich-Salzburg-Vienna-Venice-Rome in a week is a lot of driving, actually is non-stop driving for a full week. Have a look if you can fly back from Vienna as you are probably underestimating how distant Vienna is from Italy. Using public transportation in cities is out of question as you probably won't have time to tour them.

I seem to remember that in order to drive in Munich the car has to be certified for polluting emissions, but this is probably the last of your problems. The main problem is that you are trying to cover too long a road in a week.

Posted by
16895 posts

While the car would be faster and more convenient from Munich to Fuessen and castles there, it would probably be slower to other destinations, compared to fast trains. I also wonder whether you would have time for stops during your drives or would end up just sticking to the fastest autostrade. If driving, I would want to take advantage of getting to smaller towns that aren't actually served by train, but that could make it a very different trip plan.

I also would not try Rome to Cinque Terre as a same-day roundtrip, if that was your intention. Trains take 4-5 hours each way, with the 4-hour options not at the most convenient times, and driving takes 5 hours on the fastest roads per www.viamichelin.com.

I would work on narrowing and finalizing the destination plan before again comparing rail pass and train ticket options. The 11-year old will be free on any rail pass (new feature this year) but seat reservations will cost extra (average $10 each). To estimate other costs associated with driving, see http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/car-rental-costs.

Posted by
5301 posts

You may want to reconsider your travel plans & concentrate on staying in Italy for the entire 2 weeks, especially if you want to visit
Venice, Florence, CT, Rome & Pompeii.

If you have not booked your fight tickets yet, consider flying into Venice then out of Rome or Naples (depending on your last destination), as this will avoid backtracking.

Train travel in Italy is very easy & inexpensive.

You can purchase train tickets in advance (up to 120 days) & save money.

Check train schedules here: http://www.trenitalia.com

Happy planning!

Posted by
328 posts

I agree with the other posters that you are planning to do far too much in 2 weeks (If it were me, I'd drop Vienna, Salzburg and Cinque Terre - and possibly even Pompeii - because they're all out of the way from everything else you have mentioned). You need to narrow down your options and consider that for the places you have listed you may want to start and end in two different countries, which means the rental car drop-off fees could put the cost of your rental as high as the rail passes for the 4 of you.

We spent two weeks traveling from Italy to Austria to Germany and both rented a car and took the train. We rented a car in Florence, explored the Tuscan countryside, then drove north to Venice and Verona. We left the car in Verona (mostly to escape the drop-off fees) then took the train north to Innsbruck, Oberammergau and on to Munich.

Once you have narrowed down your options, I think the choice of rental car vs train really comes down to the style of trip you want. If you want to see countryside, slow down and be free to take side trips on a whim then rent a car. If you want to primarily see cities with day trips, take the train. Recognize that a car comes with more responsibility (i.e. finding parking, possible maintenance issues, the driver won't get to relax as much, etc.). Then again, you may feel more limited by the train as you will be confined to schedules and can't just stop whenever you want to take a picture. There are positives and negatives to both and I believe it is a very personal decision.

If you do rent a car, I recommend considering accommodation slightly outside city centres (where parking will be more available and less expensive and traffic likely won't be quite as congested) but near major public transport routes to the city centres. But then, we aren't too fussed if we don't stay right in the middle of everything and we like the local feeling when we stay outside the less touristed areas.

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