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Traveling by Car in Eastern Europe

We are considering picking up a car in Berlin, driving down to Dresden, on to Krakow, Poland, south to Budapest, Hungary, then back to Germany through central Austria, dropping the car in Munich. Although we have driven in Germany and Austria with no problems, we weren't so sure how easy (or difficult) it is to drive in Poland and Hungary. Wondering if the GPS works well there, are the roads good and well marked, etc. Also, any suggestions of alternate routes or other things to see. We have been to Prague, so will not be including that. Thanks for any and all input.

Posted by
3696 posts

I have driven in all these areas and had no problem at all with signage, or my GPS. Just loaded in the maps and we were good to go. Truthfully it is just as easy as Germany or Austria, actually in a few areas it was easier, less traffic. We had a great time driving through the countryside and stopping whenever we wanted.

Posted by
18507 posts

The rental company had no problem with you taking the car into Slovakia and Hungary? Who did you use and where did you begin and end and was it expensive?

Posted by
18507 posts

The rental company had no problem with you taking the car into Slovakia and Hungary? Who did you use and where did you begin and end and was it expensive?

Posted by
3057 posts

We drove Vienna-Budapest-Zagreb-Plitvice Lakes-Split-Ljubljana-Salzburg-Vienna last summer. The autobahanen were all pretty similar. The side roads were all pretty similar. Mountain roads do have some crazy drivers, but that is the universal human situation. Get a good map, keep your eyes open. The signs are all picture - remember that Europe is filled with people who do not speak the language of the people 20 miles to the west, so they don't depend on written signs, more on standard pictorial reference signs. Of course, inside cities is different - things can be very confusing. It took us an hour to figure out how to get out of Budapest going east to Eger - very confusing. But we had little trouble other than that.