I had asked about the benefits of driving rather than train or bus from Frankfurt to Munich along the old trade route to save on train/bus wait times. My daughter and I are hoping to see this area then possibly get rid of the car in Munich and use the train for Vienna, Prague and Italy. My thinking is that transportation will be easier to arrange in the larger cities making the car less necessary We have 21 days in early april and hope to see as much as possible. I drive a standard so driving in Germany does not intimidate me but Italy does! so I would definately lose the car by then.I understand there is a dropoff fee to get rid of the car in Munich so my question is.. In the opinion of most travellers would it really save time along the trade route to rent a car? or is the transportation along this route fast direct and with little wait time. We are trying to keep the cost of our holiday down but I also want to be realistic about being a first time trai/bus traveller and the possibility of things not going smoothly and getting lost. Any thoughts and advice would be appreciated
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19109 posts
There are direct ICEs hourly from Ffm to Munich that make the trip in just over 3 hours. According to Google Maps, driving alone (not counting time to rent a car) will take longer than that. You can find schedules and fares on the German Rail (Bahn) website.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
32894 posts
carol, clearly you have done quite a lot of preparation for this trip. Which "old trade route" do you mean? Do you intend to stop many times along the way, with luggage, and at different rooms each night? or do you have a couple of stops along the way that you want to see? what are they? then i think that we could help a lot with specific answers. generally, most towns are linked with each other at least every hour, often twice that, by train.
Posted by
NYC area
2912 posts
Hi Carol, Not sure what would work best for you, but there is no drop off fee picking up in Frankfurt and dropping off in Munich. If you were told this by a rental co., try another. We've done this before with no drop off fees. We rented through Andy Bestor at www.gemut.com Paul
Posted by
Sacramento, California U.S.A.
10252 posts
Drop off fees generally apply only when renting in one country and dropping in another.
Posted by
Northern California
202 posts
I rented a car for 2 weeks (2 weeks ago). I picked it up in Munich and dropped it off in Trier. It was a manual compact (5 of us fit but 2 kids had their backpacks under their feet) VW. I paid 286€ total. I rented from Europcar.
Posted by
Tel Aviv
15598 posts
Often a drop-off fee doesn't appear as such. It can be included in the daily rate too. To find out, compare renting and returning in A to Renting in A and returning in B.
Posted by
OP
dundas, ontario, canada
103 posts
Thanks for all the great tips! I will definately keep this thread for rental advice Thanks Carol