We will be renting a car in Munich. We will drive to Rothenburg then will take the Romanic road to Fussen. From Fussen we will go thru the southern part of the Black Forest. We will fly out of Basel,Switzerland. My question is should we return our car within Germany...thinking maybe Freiburg or return it in Basil. We only have five night for this short trip so if anyone has any good ideas for us to do in these areas let me know.
Posted by
Mansfield, GA
850 posts
I would return in Germany to avoid the drop off charge. Check with gemut.com. Good folks and rates.
Posted by
Pensacola
9110 posts
The Basel airport is actually in France. What you do probably depends on how much stuff you have and how much you want to pay. Getting rid of the car I either France or Switzerland will cost more than dumping it in Germany. Check all three ways. Coming down from Freiburg, you'll switch from train to bus somewhere in Basel, the best I can remember is that there's a ten-minute hump between the two. I don't know where the car places are in either Basel or Freiburg.
Posted by
OP
Brentwood, USA
17 posts
Thank you.
Posted by
Pensacola
9110 posts
About Gemut. Use them only if you want to engage in a back-and-forth about rates and you need your hand held for something as simple a renting a car. And you want to give up all your scoop and pay up front. I rent at least a dozen cars a year internationally. I take care of it in five minutes while dorking around at the departure gate.
Posted by
Tucson
4154 posts
We did something similar a few years back. We returned our car in Lorrach, Germany, just over the border from Basel. Although we had plenty of time to use public transportation, we took a taxi (pricey but fun with such a great driver that I counted it as entertainment) from the Europcar return office to the train station in Basel. There's a free bus from the train station to the EuroAirport. We got off the bus and spent the night at the Airport Hotel Basel, which had a free shuttle to the airport, but your time may be too tight for that. By all means, it will be much cheaper to return the car in Germany than in Switzerland or France. We don't have the experience with renting cars in Europe that Ed has, so working with Andy at Gemut.com has been great for us.
Posted by
Florida, USA
12172 posts
Typically, you can save quite a bit by returning in Germany. I usually research it different ways and see what works best for me - sometimes there are reasons a drop-off charge makes sense, other times it's money that can be easily saved.
Posted by
OP
Brentwood, USA
17 posts
I would like to thank everyone that has responded to my question. Lo, thank you also for the Hotel info. It just may be the place
we need to stay since our flt. is at 7;00 AM.