Car rental company?

You may want to do some online comparisons yourself, but our go-to rental companies have usually been Europcar, Sixt, or Hertz. Not certain what policies or extra fees a company has for picking up in Switzerland and returning in Austria, but there could be restrictions and/or large one-way surcharges.

Figure this way. They cannot rerent a car in Austria with Swiss number plates, so it would have to be transported back to Switzerland. That is at least a days wages for an employee, fuel and wear on the vehicle, a days worth of lost rental income and a return train ticket back to Vienna for that employee. You'll also need to purchase an Austrian vignette sticker for the car at the border, although that is not a big ticket item.

The PPs have pointed out the single factor against renting in one country and dropping in another - a large surcharge that could amount to hundreds of euros. You should probably consider dropping the car before moving on to the next country and travelling to the next point by train or plane. Then get another rental.

You might want to look at Auto Europe, an American consolidator which can offer rentals from different companies in the area (s) you will visit.

You can call, or check online, these companies: AutoEurope and Kemwell.

You’re starting with two strikes against you: returning the car in a different country and renting an automatic. Both come with hefty up charges. Don’t just rely on rates quoted on line. I rented a car in Madrid and returned it in Lisbon. I called AutoEurope’s toll free number and one of their great customer service reps did some additional checking. The result of his research was a reduction of the drop off charge from $730 to $410. I suggest you call to see if someone can help you. I would also check directly with Hertz. They seem to sometimes have excellent pricing.

We always book through AutoEurope. The only time we considered picking up and dropping off a car in another country the drop fee was around 1000€( Lisbon to Barcelona). We dropped of the car in Porto and had a driver take us to them first small city in Galicia, Spain with rental cars, a much better solution.

Have you considered renting a car in Austria only and using trains in Switzerland? The Swiss train system is fantastic, goes everywhere, always on time, clean, etc.

Agree that out-of-country dropoffs are prohibitively expensive.

Disagree about using trains in Switzerland. They are great and reliable. But you really want a car in Switzerland, to stop at whatever mountain view, lake or village interests you. And Swiss trains are very expensive compared to other countries.

I've done this kind of thing at other borders (Germany/Switzerland, Spain/France, Italy/France) and the solution that works for us is two separate rentals, one in each country, using train to cross the border. For example, we drove to Barcelona, took a train to the first major stop in France (Perpignan) and rented a car from there.

In your case, you could pick up your car in Bern, drive wherever you want to go, and drop your car off at a convenient train station (say Zurich). From Zurich there is a direct train to Innsbruck. At Innsbruck, there is a Dollar office near the station, and many more (including our favourite Europcar) at the airport, which is a short taxi or bus ride from the station. Then you're off to the races in Austria.

I believe the standard recommendation for a longer rental is, time to lease. And don't forget about the appropriate vignettes (sp?)

Thanks again for the good advice. The heads-up about the one-way fee helped put the total bill in perspective. Because we tend to wander around up byways and to villages, flexibility is important. Thus I bit the bullet and will eat around $500 extra. Given the overall cost of two weeks in Switzerland and Austria, that's tolerable.

You’d better add in the parking garage charges you’ll incur, too. Some of the most drop dead gorgeous places in Switzerland are not accessible by cars. You’ll pay to park and you’ll buy train tickets.

It’s absolutely not true that you need a car in Switzerland.