Renting Car in Zurich and driving into Germany and Austria

Yes, you need to make sure the car has Swiss and Austria vignettes and I believe a green environmental sticker for parts of Germany. We also had to have an International Drivers permit that’s easily obtainable from AAA. Its not required in Switzerland but is in Germany and Austria. It’s always best to check with the rental agency and ask these questions. And it’s always helpful to learn the different road signs, some are different than ours and become familiar with roundabouts if you aren’t already.

A car rented in Switzerland will come with a Swiss vignette. You can get a short term Austrian vignette, or if you are only going to Salzburg, stay off any motorways.

Does the rental car company know you're crossing borders? Also, European cars are very small, so a car that holds five people -and luggage- would need to be bigger. Did you factor in gas, which is more expensive, plus the euro to USD unfavorable exchange rate, tolls, and parking?
In any case, have a great trip!

Thanks for the suggestions. Just looked up the Austrian Vignette, and seems reasonable to buy for the trip.

@Pat - Yes the USD conversion is the biggest bummer right now; Keeping fingers crossed that it improves before our travel. For a family of 5, the numbers are very close.

Also are the rental car billings really that bad at the Zurich Airport? Multiple sites report horrible experiences with the Enterprise/Alamo/Sixt counters and their post rental horrendous charges.

Sorry if I missed this- when is this trip?

Where is your home base? If in the US, there is a fabulous resource you can utilize to help sort all this out for you. www.gemut.com. An Oregon-based company that only focuses on travel in German-speaking countries and has a totally pro and infinitely knowledgable team on topic of car rentals.

We have logged well over 50 trips to Switzerland and/or Germany and/or Austria. We totally love the public transport but there do come situations where a car rental makes more sense. We never consider doing that any other way than via Gemut. Can book it all out for you, tell you what you need, provide great coaching on dealing with the "gotchas", and can "have your back" if something goes awry. Super great value for the money.

Sadly, if your home base is not the US I don't think they will work with you. If nothing else at least go to their site and download the free tutorial about renting cars in the German-speaking part of the world.

Trip is towards mid-August

when you are doing your apples to apples comparison, remember to add in a few extras on the car side.

A car rented in Switzerland will already have a Swiss Vignette, but it won't the Austrian one. Once you know your number plate you can get an electronic Austrian Vignette so you don't have to mess with getting the sticker in exactly the right place on the windscreen.

It almost certainly won't have a German Umweltplakette which means you can't drive where one is required. Urban Munich and Stuttgart are out. That's OK because you can park in the outer suburbs, probably stay out there, and take train or tram in.

Most times you park you will have to pay - at hotels, atracrations, car parks. It can add up quickly. Plan on at least 15€ a day to park in Salzburg, for example.

Speeding tickets are expensive and controlled by automatic cameras. You need to know the national speed limits, the ones which don't appear on signs but you know by circumstances, and the three countries you are visiting each have different ones. Understand that passing the sign announcing the name of a town, village or city means that the boundary has been crossed for the lowest speed, usually 50 kph. It starts at the sign, not when the car slows down by you taking your foot off the gas. There are often speed cameras just after the sign. You may not recognise it as a camera, thinking it is a simple pillar.

Insurance can double the price of a rental - be sure that when you compare you have included all the insurances you will buy, especially the ones you will be sold at the counter.

Become familiar with the German word "Stau". It wil be on signs and you will be in them. Part of life, I'm afraid.

It sounds like a lot of learning, and it is. I have to drive (my English right hand drive car) every year because of my wife's disabilities, and it is all second nature to me, You have a bit of a learning curve - but you'll get there.

5 people in a car with all the luggage (packing light I hope) will get old and tight for that many km - at least when I drive it just my wife and me.

Guessing that some of the 5 are children? If young they may need boosters or carseats. Restrictions are based on size and more restrictive.

Are you sure a car will be cheaper? Remember that the price you pay to rent a car is not the total cost, you also need to pay for fuel, parking and other things. And where did you look up the train cost? If you used some third party site you could have gotten a very inflated price.

And price is not everything, if you're travelling from city to city, trains are more convenient. And in many cases faster.

if you went Stuttgart - Munich - Salzburg, you could get good use from a Bayern Ticket, where all of you are on one ticket which allows train and bus travel throughout the entire Land of Bavaria, even to Salzburg for the whole day. All day on the weekend, after 9am on weekdays. For around €50.

I think Nigel's on the right track (ha!), make sure you're actually adding all up the costs involved. As a good Californian I rented a car for my first trip to Italy and it was quite a hassle to deal with.

And as noted, for a party of 5 with luggage you're going to need something the size of a small van, which will be even MORE of a hassle.

Do not rent from Enterprise in Zurich. They often trick renters into paying unnecessary fees and fines.