Car Rental from Paris to Rome: Are toll fees insignificant or pricey???

Peter - According to ViaMichelin.com your tolls will range from 60 to 145 euro depending on your route. Hopefully Ed will see this post and respond. He is very knowledgeable on driving on Europe.

150 euro seems about right and it would include the fifty bucks or so for the Mt Blanc tunnel. Most of the road tolls will be in France. You'll also need a vignette for Switzerland which is around fifty bucks, so I wouldn't cut the corner too close or take a detour. You might want to snoop around and see what the cost of dropping the car outside of France is. It's going to make the tolls seem insignificant.

Seems to me that the trip could be done a wee bit chipper. A toll avoidance strategy I might employ would be Paris - Reims, Alsace, Basel, Gotthard Tunnel, Milano, A1 to Rome. It certainly doesn't cut them all out, but the Gotthard Tunnel is free as is much of the Autoroute in Alsace. The Swiss Vignette is CHF40 which is about $42US at the moment (YMMV). Yeah its longer. I still will give my right fore leg to avoid the Mt Blanc tunnel. I know they made repairs. I know tunnel accidents can happen anywhere. Call me foolish, I'd much rather a Swiss tunnel than a joint French Italian one. I know what special procedures have been put in place in the Swiss tunnels. I've driven my share of Italian tunnels and really would be happy to miss one of such a length and record. Just me.

Do I has a car renter have to purchase the Vignettes or does the car rental company do it? Do I have to purchase one for all counties? (France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy?) I've never heard of such a thing.

That's why we're here - - to tell you what you've never heard of. You can pay us in cookies. On your list, only Switzerland needs one, you might not go through Switzerland. If you do, you buy it. It's in lieu of toll roads.

They are going to unveil a 2-month Swiss vignette with proportional prices soon (though the annual price will increase sharply). I think all major 6 Transalpine tunnels are now more or less equally safe. To bash the "Italian-French" tunnel as inherently unsafe because of the nationality of the owners is just be fearmongering as in "Spanish airlines are unsafe" or "Belgian-owned ferries are dangerous". Frejus, Mont-Blanc and St. Gotthard tunnels all suffered horrendous fires between 1999 and 2002, and they have been upgraded. An option to avoid the hefty tolls of the French-Italian tunnels, if you are travelling between May and October and have some spare time, is to go via the Alpine road passes, as high as 14.000ft. Stunning views, surely it takes longer, much longer (4h) but it is simply one of the best experiences to cross the Alps by road.

It stays on the car, stuck to the windscreen, for a year - valid December of the prior year to January of the year after - so if you are lucky the car you get may have one. You can ask. My car has a whole row of them.

Switch from Google maps to Via Michelin for your planning for the following reasons: 1) They have the option of chosing the fastest, shortest or the Michelin recommended routes. 2) They include estimated driving time, fuel cost and tolls for each route. Google maps are nice for flexibility and being able to switch to satelite modes to see what the places look like but for planning a drive stop wasting your time and go with Via Michelin.

Yes yes! viamichelin.com ROCKS! I don't like that you can't save maps (have to enter each time) but talk about detail!!! Thanks!
Pete

To save your searches in via Michelin, you need to register. Then above the directions for the route click Add to Saved Items. To retrieve, click the My Favorites icon under Driving Directions.

A couple of other considerations. Some rental companies do not want their cars taken into Italy. Second, if you are dropping the car in Italy the drop charge will be huge.

About where to get the Swiss vignette. You can ask the rental company. They may or may not be able to provide one for a fee. Otherwise, you buy it at or near the border.

Drop off fees: Everyone keeps mentioning that but I've found it completely reasonable: $255 on the Hertz site (Paris -> Rome) or Gemut.com's quote of $300 Euros. The pain of returning back to Paris just to return a car for four travelers would be severe. (I'll create an account on ViaMichelin... thx!)

Normal cars can always be taken to Italy. Rental companies from low-theft countries usually restrict high-end models and sports cars from being driven in Italy, but that is it.