Rental car from Milan/Slovenia/Vienna

Dropping off in another country results in a fee, rather high from what I have seen.
You will need an international drivers license from AAA. In Slovenia, you purchase "vignettes."
Once you have your itinerary, post it and we can advise on when and where to pick up and drop off the car.

Thank you!

One option might be flying into/out of Austria or Italy instead of doing an "open jaw" so you can rent the car in the same country. The downside is some extra driving to get back to the first country. Or, you can rent cars in each country along the way. Maybe rent one in Italy, return it and take the train to Austria, rent a car there and visit Slovenia and then go back to Austria.

Good suggestions!

Two weeks is a fairly short time to cover parts of northern Italy, Austria and Slovenia. Are you sure you're going to have time to see a lot of small towns? I'm wondering whether you could get by with a car for just part of the trip--maybe in just one or two of the countries. It's a shame to be forced to do a loop trip because of rental-car pricing policies if the places on your itinerary look more like a straight line. I suspect you'll lose a full day or more, doubling back. If flying back from Venice doesn't work for you due to schedule or cost, you may need to drop the car there (or in Udine?) and hop on a train to Milan or drive all the way to Milan.

I have family in North Italy and my husband in Austria.... we are just stopping in those small towns and hoped to maybe do a drive through Slovenia. I appreciate the suggestion regarding Venice. That might be a great option!

dance,

One point of clarification.....

You'll need to have an International Driver's Permit for driving in Italy where it's compulsory. I believe that's also the case for Austria and possibly Slovenia. IDP's are used in conjunction with your home D.L. so you must have both. These are easily obtained for a small fee at any AAA / CAA office for a small fee and are valid for one year.

If you rent the car in Italy, you would also have to obtain the Highway Tax Vignette for Austria. Again, hefty fines if caught without it, and those are collected on the spot!

For driving in Italy, you'll have to be vigilant to avoid the dreaded ZTL (limited traffic) areas that exist in many cities. Each pass through one will result in hefty fines, which you may not know about until several months after you return home, when unexpected charges start to appear on your credit card. There are also speed cameras and fines for driving in bus lanes, etc. A GPS or at least a good map would be prudent.

As others have mentioned, there's usually an exorbitant charge when renting cars in one country and dropping in another. My suggestion would be to have a rental car for short term use to reach places which aren't easily accessible via public transit, and to use trains or buses as much as possible.

If you could provide more details on your Itinerary, it would be easier for the group here to suggest a strategy that will work best.

Ken,
Thank you so much for the specific information. We have, in the past, obtained a AAA IDL, but it is good to know in which countries it is required. I think last year, we did not need it when driving in France. We are not sure about the Austrian portion of the journey, but my family is from Marostica, Italy. We are planning on flying into Milan and doing a two day stop over at Lake Como. I thought that we might drive, but from what you and other say, maybe a 1-2 car rental at each location might be better. My desire to visit Slovenia was because of the location being 'kind of' in between Italy and Austria. I forget that it is not like driving from state to state in the US :)

PS. I love being called dance! My given name is Kelli and thank you!

A good strategy might be to fly into Milan and out of Venice, dipping up into the other countries with the car, but picking up and dropping off in Italy. If you are visiting no other major cities in between, this would work out fine--and I imagine be a gorgeous road trip!

dance,

" I think last year, we did not need it when driving in France."

Actually, it is a really good idea to have an IDP in France. This is from the Embassy of France in the U.S......

"You may drive with a valid U.S. driver’s license if it is accompanied by a notarized translation in French. It is strongly recommended that you carry an International Driving Permit. You must be 18 years of age or older to drive in France."

As most people don't carry a notarized translation of the terms of their license in French, an IDP is the only other option. The rental companies may never ask for it, as they're more interested in renting cars. However, if you're stopped by police and especially if you're involved in an "incident", you'll be glad you had an IDP. DON'T drive in Greece without one!

Just to summarize the requirements:

Italy - IDP - special insurance - tolls - some cars restricted by rental companies

Slovenia - IDP - Vignette - some cars restricted by rental companies

Austria - IDP - Vignette - some additional tolls such as Grossglockner, some tunnels including very expensive St Anton tunnel, very expensive Brenner Pass bridge

France - IDP or notarized translation from small pool of accepted translators - tolls

Switzerland - no IDP - Vignette

Germany - no IDP - no tolls or Vignette

I have driven on the same trip in a rental car all 3 countries.

One AAA provided IDP is fine for all 3 countries

Both Austria and Slovenia require the purchase of a Highway Tax Vignette. Is easy to purchase in a border town in both cases. Signage is good. Fines are very steep if you forget so don't.

As you have been quoted dropping off in one country different from the rental country is extremely expensive. The car cannot be rented that way, so the place you return to must pay to have the car driven back to the country it was rented from.

In addition Slovenia is important to mention to the rental company. I rented a car in Italy, at first I was planning on going to Italy, Austria and Germany ; renting from Florence returning to Venice. When I changed to switch in Slovenia in place of Germany still dropping off in Venice, I was informed that not only did I have to pay more but I had to change the car rental class as the car I was otherwise to be assigned was not authorized for travel to Slovenia.
The car class was not really any different both mid-size but for whatever reason classified differently within the mid-size class.
It all worked out fine but I did have to pay more.
My contract switched from a Nissan Qashqai or similar to a Volvo V40 or similar. I ended up with the Volvo V40 and driven both in Europe I prefer it over the Qashqai.
Unfortunately the rental car companies consider Slovenia as Eastern Europe and treat it the same as Bosnia and other places in that region that likely do have higher crime rates.
Even with the extra fees I paid about one fourth of what you have been quoted for a similar timeframe so starting in Milan ; ending in Venice likely is your best option.

Venice is very close to much of Slovenia and Venice is an easy place to drop off the car and then take a few days to see Venice before flying home. Just be warned the bridge to Venice is a low speed limit and the bridge is lined with speed cameras; people have gotten multiple tickets on one drive over.

Border crossings for these countries is easy, just as easy as crossing states in the US. Northern Italy and Austria it is hard to tell any difference. Slovenia does manage to look and feel different.

Mrynolds:

Where exactly do you purchase the vignettes? You stated that they would be available in the border towns.

Thank you in advance.