Eastern Europe

Most all of Europe speaks English, they take it as a second language in their schools however, renting a car to go into the former Eastern Bloc may pose a problem. A lot of rental companies do not allow this or will charge an enormous surcharge for doing so...maybe you can find one that doesn't but I'd start thinking about train travel.

What specific countries do you plan to visit?

We found that in the cities people spoke English or someone nearby did. However, some people from the countryside did not speak English or did not speak it well enough. We were in Budapest, Prague and Vienna in Oct.

It's true that the driving is really not a problem. If you have driven elsewhere in Europe - you will be fine. But as was previously stated, there are many Eastern European countries that car rental companies won't rent to and I think it has to do with very high levels of auto theft maybe? Also, if you rent in one country and drop the car in another - you can expect a drop off fee. That fee may be approximately $500. So if you do rent a car, you save money by renting and returning in the same country. If you have any notions that you would rent a car in a country like Austria where the car company allows and then just day trip into the "not allowed" countries - just be aware that if you are involved in a car accident - you may be held wholely liable since you weren't suppose to be there to begin with. I just pulled this up from Auto Europe as a sample...I picked Austria as the location of pick up: **Restricted Countries
Cars rented in Austria are not allowed into the following countries: Albania, Bosnia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia. Luxury cars are not allowed into Italy.

Amy's post is one more reason not to consider autoeurope and the other broker/consilidators as the ultimate source. Examples: When is the last time Yugoslavia even existed? Hertz, and others, have rental programs in Poland, for example - - and a bunch of the other coutries on the autoeurope banned list. Use something like kayak.com and see what you can come up with for the countries that interest you. Once you find an agency, you can use that outfit's site to see if they also have rentals in the other countires - - if they do, you're in fat city. And, yes, you can wander anywhere - - even if you don't speak the language and nobody speaks english.

Rent a car in Eastern Europe, no problem. Young people even in the countryside speak some English.

Budapest was our favorite city in Eastern/Central Europe.

Well..so many replies and good info. I will check all of this out. As I said..we really like to drive ourselves. Right now kind of thinking about the Czech Republic, Hungry and Poland...but have to do alot of research first. Seems like everyone likes Budapest.

If you begin your rental in an eastern European country, you won't run into many "country" restrictions. For example, if you rent the car in Prague almost any major rental agency will permit you to take the car into Poland & Hungary. What you should try to avoid is dropping the car off in a different city than where you started. If you do this, you'll be charged a "drop-off fee" which could easily be as much as $400 - $500 or more. So the thing to do is to plan a "circle" route and end up where you started. Of course for some people the drop-off fee is worth it to avoid the inconvenience of having to drive back to the original location.