Switzerland-Austria by car in early October

Note that many rental car companies charge more for cross- border and one- way trips. You will also need vignettes when crossing some borders. And - an IDL.
But armed with the correct info, have a great trip!

Thanks @Pat for your response. Yes, I was also getting charged a similar one way rental drop-off fee with Innsbruck to Munich airport - so I thought, might as well do the whole trip from landing in Zurich to flying off from Munich to add the convenience of a single car through the whole trip.

My bigger concern is, will the car be too much of a hindrance, particularly in the Berner Oberland region or will there be places that I will be able to drive to - like grocery stores or driving around the valley floor to places which do not need a gondola or a train? In Zermatt, I understand that I will not be able to use the car while in the Lake Lucerne region, I will be able to at least get to the hotel parking. Also, in the Lake Lucerne region, we will have a single trip to the Lucerne city to walk on Chapel Bridge, etc. but the other day we will spend taking a trip to Mount Rigi on the the cogwheel / cable car.

in the Berner Oberland region or will there be places that I will be
able to drive to - like grocery stores or driving around the valley
floor to places which do not need a gondola or a train?

Yes, certainly! Most Swiss people do have cars :-) and there is parking at all grocery stores. Smaller stores have perhaps just a few parking spots available, but in Interlaken there is a large Coop with underground parking and a Migros at the other end of town - also with an underground parkade.

The drive to Brienz is very scenic and there are some places along the lake where you can pull over and park to enjoy the view even more.

At Giessbach falls you can pre purchase a parking ticket online. This will ensure you a space when you arrive

https://shop.giessbach.ch/en/parking-ab-2026

If you have time and desire you can drive another 15 minutes past Brienz to Meiringen, some lovely waterfalls there as well. You can even park there and take the post bus to Rosenlaui Valley. It is possible to drive, but the road is very narrow and curvy - bus is much better in this case. Beautiful photo location!

Another nice location to drive to is Beatenberg. There is a very large open parking lot there with wonderful views of the mountains and lake.

when you get as far as Meiringen or Brienz (very highly recommend both for different reasons) if you don't mind very steep corkscrews and switchbacks, the road up to the Brünig Pass and the mountain lakes on the way to Luzern is gorgeous, just gorgeous. Not as spectacular as the nearby train but very nice. If you decide to drive up you need to take a big dose of patience because the road, despite being a vignette requiring highway is only one lane each way with a solid line between - no passing. I've been caught behind a heavy dump truck the whole way before.

Thanks a lot for the helpful responses SwissNomad and Nigel !

FWIW: in all my years of renting cars in the EU (including crossing borders and doing point-to-point rentals) I've never needed the IDL. My bog standard U.S. license worked just fine with every rental.

Yes, the IDL is helpful if you're pulled over, I guess. Most law enforcement officers know English these days (at least in the countries you're visiting, Photo Buff) and the real purpose of the IDL is to act as a translator page.

Just my $0.02. I may be an outlier on this board (I often am), but given the amount of European travel I do there's never been a need for the IDL over the past many years. Your mileage, of course, may vary, and if it brings you peace of mind: go for it.

No real comments on the itinerary. It looks fine. Hallstatt is, if anything, a bit over touristed, but that view is quite stunning if you get there before the literal wall of people. Good luck and have fun!

An IDP (its a permit, not a license) is required by Austrian law.

Thanks for the comments @R.D. Riet and @Sam.

@Pat is right about the vignettes. Switzerland and Austria have separate systems, so it’s worth checking what your rental car already has before buying anything.

My wife and I ran into this on a road trip through Europe and ended up using a website toll.one to sort out the different vignettes in one place. It was just easier than figuring out which official website we needed for each country, especially when crossing a few borders.

For Switzerland, keep in mind that they only have the annual vignette, while Austria has shorter options such as the 10-day vignette and different toll sections.

Personally I think it's a lot of moving around, but it's certainly doable.

If you have a car, Halstatt and Gosausee are doable from a base near Salzburg. Personally I'd pick a lake/mountain region to stay in around the Dachstein/Salzkammergut and then just take a day trip into Salzburg. We love staying in Bad Gastein and from there have done day trips to Salzburg, Konigsee, Gosausee, Halstatt, Hohenwerfen, Grossglockner Road, etc. Halstatt is so overrun with day trip tourists that there is no way I'd want to stay there for 2 nights. Perhaps combine your Salzburg/Halstatt section into one base where you can explore the region from there with more flexibility and a nicer base.

I also think you could see Luzern as a lunch spot on the way from the Berner Oberland to Innsbruck. This frees up more time to enjoy the mountains in the places you're already going, without making an extra base just to see Rigi (and Luzern, which the historic part can be seen in 1-2 hours)

If it were me, I'd do something like this....
Zermatt 2 nights > Wengen 6 nights > stop in Luzern on the way > Innsbruck 2 nights > Salzkammergut/Dachstein region 5 nights

If you rent the car in Switzerland it will already come with the vignette and then you will just need to purchase the Austrian vignette at a gas station before crossing the border. It's a very simple process and the sticker goes on the inside of the windshield. If you miss a gas station before the border and drive one second over, you will receive a fine in the mail, regardless of whether you buy the vignette 30 seconds later, so make sure to have a plan in place for stopping.

For what it's worth, this itinerary could be done 100% by train and if you felt like you wanted/needed a car in the Salzkammergut/Dachstein region you could just rent one for the 2-5 days and drop back off in Salzburg area before taking the train to Munich. This would make the car rental way cheaper without cross border fees and you'd be able to enjoy the scenery from the trains. In regards to luggage, my husband & I spend 3 months living in Murren but always fly into Munich and spend a bit of time in Bad Gastein at the beginning of the summer before taking the train from Munich to Murren with 3 months worth of luggage (3 large checked bags + 2 large backpacks) - it's really not that big of a deal and wouldn't be the reason I would select a car over train transportation. The only benefit you get from a car in your itinerary is some of the flexibility you'd get in the Salzkammergut/Dachstein, which I would agree with. Zermatt, Berner Oberland & Luzern are better done by train, Innsbruck is easily done by train and Salzburg>Munich would be easy as well.

Wanderwag, when you stay in Bad Gastein, do you rent a car? Could the OP easily do Salzburg and Hallstatt using public transportation If staying in Bad Gastein? Thanks.

Bad Gastein in general is quite doable by public transportation. They have a good train station with a 1 hr 20 min direct train to Salzburg and buses that take you to all the mountain/cable cars, etc. in the region that run every 15 minutes. You can also get to Gosausee in under 2 hours via a train + bus connection. Zell am See in a little over an hour. It's a little over 3 hours with 1 train change from Innsbruck. Bad Gastein is also the end of the Tauern Tunnel which gets you to southern Austria very fast. You can go to Weisensee in under 2 hours, direct train to Villach in under 1 hour, etc. I think getting to Halstatt from there via public transit would probably be a bit of a hassle as a day trip, but I haven't researched it, so I can't say for sure.

Great info. Thank you Wanderweg. Is there an app, similar to Switzerland's SBB?

OBB is Austria's transportation system.

A bit more information on the International Driver's Permit.......

You can easily obtain one at any AAA office for a small fee. They can usually take the Passport-style photos required for the permit on site. The IDP is not a license by itself, so must be used in conjunction with your home D.L. so you'll need to take that too.

Don't forget to buy the Vignette for Austria as the fines are steep - "The fine for driving without a valid vignette in Austria is a standard replacement toll (Ersatzmaut) of €120 for passenger cars and €65 for motorcycles." I believe there's an option to buy Vignettes online, but I don't know the details.

"Yes, certainly! Most Swiss people do have cars :-"

Not in the Bernese Oberland though. That areas is one of those exceptions, where a rural area has actually very high public transit usage.

Your car will mostly be standing in the parking lots. In the valley you can drive on the main road, but most of the side roads are off limits to non locals. And there is no free parking anywhere whatsoever.

And because you will be using the cable cars and trrains anyway you may want to get the Half Fare Card anyway, and then public transit becomes an even better option. Add that Zurich - Zermatt and Zermatt - Lauterbrunnen are actually faster by train than by car then why not pick up the car once you are in Luzern? Or Innsbruck?

Not in the Bernese Oberland though. That areas is one of those exceptions, where a rural area has actually very high public transit usage.

Hmm, having lived in the Berner Oberland for over eight years I know that most people do have cars, of course if you just mean Wengen/Mürren then I can imagine that fewer households there own a car - but of course the Berner Oberland stretches from the Brünig Pass to Thun to Gstaad. The percentage of car ownership ranges from about 78% to over 90 % throughout this area (you can take a look for the stats online).

My main point was that you can certainly drive to a grocery store and park there - for Swiss residents who own cars, grocery shopping is certainly one of the times they would opt to use their car.

Being a hobby photographer myself, and one of the minority of Swiss residents that does not have a car, I know full well what it is like to lug all of my camera gear around. At least in my case I can bring only the lenses I plan on using that day, and a tripod if I need it.... but for a holiday I would want to bring all of my selection with me.

All that to say, Photography Buff, if it seems best to you to rent a car for your holiday, then there is no good reason why you should not do that.

Hello neighbor! Have you booked a car yet? If not, please do so ASAP, esp. if you need an automatic. Bear in mind that many places in Switzerland charge for parking and spots can be narrow. Get your IDP at AAA. When checking out your rental car, photograph every ding and blemish. Do not rent from Enterprise at Zurich airport.

You are going to relatively safe countries, but beware of thieves, who would be interested in your gear.

Happy travels.