Innsbruck to Dijon

I've driven something similar, Garmsich-Partenkirchen to Dijon. It's too far to drive in one day. The heart of the Swiss Alps sits at a nice half-way point between the two. Or, if you've had enough of mountains at that point, you could stop off in Zurich, Luzern or Bern.

OK. good to know cos we were def considering the drive. Thanks

If memory holds, that's maybe 400 miles on good roads. It's been a few years along there, but six or seven hours sticks in my mind. Deviation to the south to spend the night would add about an hour to the trip. More importantly, my budget won't stand too many Swiss hotels.

Now the real question. Where in the heck did this car come from all of the sudden? A one-day rental is about as steep as you can get and the second-country drop-off fee might really get in your pocketbook.

Making a wild guess, Lee will wake up soon and tell you how to do it by train for next to nothing.

The German Rail site, www.bahn.de, has the best timetables for virtually all of Europe. They show your best train route to be Innsbruck-Zurich-Mulhouse Ville-Belfort-Dijon Ville, departing Innsbruck at 07:54 and arriving at Dijon at 17:54. To see for yourself, go to the site and click on the drop-down flag menu for English. After you get summary timetables for Innsbruck-Dijon Ville, click on the arrow to the left of each departure time to see the connecting points.

If you book the Innsbruck-Zurich leg well in advance by phoning the Austrian Rail Call Center, you can get a SparSchiene fare of €19.

You can book Zurich-Dijon on the Swiss Rail site. The fare will not be shown. You can ask for a quote by e-mail and then complete the booking.

Hi Tim, thanks for your response. What is the Sparscheine ticket? I was trying to understand how it works on the website and just got very confused!!

Hi Ed - the car thing - ha ha. Just the "romance" of it I suppose. But we're starting to get a few friends saying it's crazy. And you're right the surcharge for one-way is EXTORTION!!!
Thanks for your response.

There's also a sticker you need to buy to drive on Swiss motorways. You can get it from the rental agency when you pick up your car, or purchase it at the border.

Hi, Jacquie.

SparSchiene tickets are advance purchase discount tickets good for travel from Austria into a neighboring country (or vice versa). They are for a specific departure date and time and are non-exchangeable and non-refundable. For longer distances the lowest fare is 29 euro. For shorter distances like Innsbruck-Zurich the lowest fare is 19 euro.

To book tickets, phone the Austrian Rail Call Center. Dial your country's international access code + 43 (country code for Austria) + (0)5-1717. Omit the zero in parentheses. It is only for calls originating in Austria.

Hi Tim - that's great info. Thanks heaps.

I think that train is going to be the way to go.

Thanks everyone for your wise words of experience.