Hello, All. Any ideas on avoiding (or lowering) the one-way car rental drop off fees?
We need to go from Salzburg to Venice via Postojna, Slovenia, and the train times are just not working out for us: Salzburg departure time is awfully close to the end of a tour we are taking, Slovenia-Venice by train is never a convenient route (6-7 hrs train, 2.5 by car).
Appreciate all your knowledge. We're open for other alternatives - bus, private car hire, etc, etc if anyone has suggestions.
Chris: I can't help with the Slovenia part, but I do have a story about Austrain car rentals. I wanted to rent in Salzburg and drop off in Bolzano, Italy. The drop off fee was large. It was much cheaper to enjoy driving around Austria, turning the car in there, and taking the train. Also, strangely, the seven-day car rental was exactly the same price as for ten days! Go figure. After ten, it went up by a fixed amount each day. Also not that theft insurance on a rental car is probably compulsory in Italy and Slovenia.
Realize going into Eastern europe always is a much higher car rental rate due to high crime/accidents on vehicles there. I also assume you have compared rates from many car rental agencies and consolidators like AutoEurope.com . Aside from that have you considered flying on a budget european airlines check www.whichbudget.com for ref.
Thanks JS! I'll check out the whichbudget site. I'd tried a couple airlines individually with no luck.
Yes, I've tried the consolidators. Lowest rental I've found for 3 days is $701USD (not including insurance, tolls, road tax, etc). Most of it is a $400ish drop off fee.
Thanks, Bob. Yeah, that's what we've found as well. Hertz had no drop off fees as long as you stay in Austria which was real nice!
Lowest we've been able to get the drop off fee is $252, that's not bad. (Just found it.)
They've really eliminated a lot of the bus and train routes in Slovenia in the past 10 years, as so many people are now driving.
We finally found an 'OK' rate, of $500ish USD for 3 days from Vienna, with the one way drop off fee for a Renault Scenic. Total cost for the travel (according to viamichelin), is about 200.00. So, total 700USD.
But compared to three train trips for 4 people, with really obnoxious times (3AM), I think it will work out. And it saves us about 8 hrs travel time, and lots of taxi fares. Thanks for the suggestions! :)
Is it possible to take the train from Salzburg into Italy and then rent before driving to Slovenia?
Hi, Jack. Thanks for the suggestion. Yeah, we looked at that - renting in Italy, but the extra travel time would kill any chance to visit our Slovenian friends, so we're just biting the bullet. :)
