Europe road trip

Posted by akhanyan on 10/19/25 08:20 AM

Hello everyone,

I’m planning a trip to Europe from November 1 to 22. I plan on taking a direct flight from Los Angeles to Munich. After a few days enjoying Munich, I plan on renting a car and road tripping across Europe, visiting Dresden, Karlovy Vary, Prague, Vienna, Bratislava, Zagreb, Split, and finally Dubrovnik.

Here are the number of days I plan on staying in each region, but I am open to changes and suggestions

Munich 3 days
Karlovy Vary 2 days
Prague 3 days
Vienna 2 days
Bratislava 1 day
Croatia 10 days

I’m also open to visiting any other locations on this route if you’ll be so kind as to make suggestions, I’ll definitely consider them. Last year I did a road trip from Munich to a couple of Bavarian middle age towns, then to Tyrol and through many places in Austria, with the final destination of Vienna. This year I want to do something different. My main concern is the rental car

I want to drop off the rental car in Dubrovnik which will be my final destination. From there I will fly back to Los Angeles. In the past, I have used the car rental company “SixT” I rented a car from their Munich location and returned it to their Vienna location. There was one way fee of about $200. I tried to book through them but the one way fee for pickup in Munich and drop off in Dubrovnik was more than $800.

I really want to rent a car which would allow us to stop and go as we please along our route. It gives us more freedom and flexibility when compared to taking trains or public transportation.

Can anyone please recommend another company or another option to avoid such a high cost for one way fee?

im also open to general advice for this trip. Please see route map screenshot in attachments

thank you all in advance

Posted by Sam

Green Bay

10/19/25 09:45 AM

22823 posts

You rent in Germany, and drop off in remote Dubrovnik. The car then has to be transported back to Germany before it can be rented again. I think $800 is a reasonable charge for this service. Maybe you could find a company that will do it for a hair less, but think about it. How much would you want to be paid to drive from Dubrovnik to Germany, then fly back to Dubrovnik? Consider also the day of lost rental availability, cost of fuel, insurance, wear and tear on the vehicle, and the one-way airline ticket. Since an optimistic drive time is 11 hours, another day to get back, so include a hotel for a night, food, as well as reasonable living 2 days of wages with taxes and benefits. $800 is looking like a deal.

Posted by Nigel🚊🧸🔔

Arctophilia, Northamptonshire, England

10/19/25 10:52 AM

35832 posts

an 11 hour drive can't legally be done in one day by a professional driver. Plus mandatory rest stops.

So it is 2 days returning the car for you plus hotels plus costs plus flight. 800€ is positively cheap.

The 200€ Vienna to Munich is a much shorter trip with a correspondingly cheaper price,

Posted by Mr Ê 🇺🇸 🇺🇦

Republic of Texas / U.S.A. / Magyarország / Budapest

10/19/25 11:44 AM

24150 posts

This is probably not what you intended, so please correct it.
1 Arrive Munich
2 Munich
3 Munich
4 Drive 4 hours to Karlovy Vary / half day there. (300 I will explain below)
5 Karlovy Vary
6 Drive 2 hours to Prague / half day there. (200)
7 Prague
8 Prague
9 Drive 4 hours to Vienna / half day there (300)
10 Vienna
11 Drive 1 hour to Bratislava
12 Drive 5 hours to Zagreb / half day there (400)
13 Zagreb
14 Drive 5 hours to Split / half day there (500)
15 Split
16 Drive 4 hours to Dubrovnik / half day there (400)
17 Dubrovnik
18, 19, 20, 21 Use them in or between the destinations in Croatia to get to the 10 days you mentioned.

So I come up with about 25 hours of driving point to point. Then you say you want to drive so you can have the freedom to stop and see things and makes side trips along the way. So add an hour or two more hours on each point-to-point trip and you will be driving 14 more hours. Realistically maybe 35 hours total. Now you might enjoy that. No judgement there. Just not my cup of tea.

The $800 drop off charge sounds cheap to me (I would have guessed closer to $1000). Then if it were me with that much time in a car, I would upgrade a little so 18 days of rental maybe $1500 for rental. Tolls and vignettes are not terribly expensive, but I would budget $100, gas maybe a budget of $300, parking for 18 days a budget of $600 = $3300 if nothing unexpected happens. Not bad I guess.

Up above I put some numbers in parentheses after the drives. They add up to $2100. That’s roughly the cost of hiring DayTrip.com to drive you the same legs. Then throw in another $500 for stops along the way (they have built in pricing for all of those stops and flexibility you want) and now we are up to $2600 and you get to look out the window, you wont spend 45 minutes a day looking or parking or spend the hours it will take to rent and return the car and argue over the scratch on the fender. And you don’t have to worry about traffic tickets showing up in your mail 6 month later or the rental people using your card number to pay a fine.

I am not saying I would replace a rental with a driving service. For instance, I would ride the shuttle from Prague to Cesky Krumlov spend a night or two, then the shuttle to Vienna. That will save a few hundred dollars over DayTrip.com or any private transfer. In Croatia I probably wouldn’t use DayTrip as I know a great driver who wont cost as much. Daytrip.com like everything else in Croatia is overpriced. Dollars per mile Zagreb to Split I think is the most expensive transfer. But if the thrill of the open road under your control is part of the attraction, then go for it. Absolutely no judgment. I envy your sence of adventure.

And since I am on the subject of “what I would do” I wouldn’t go to Croatia. I keep getting dragged back, 4 times now, and each time I don’t think it was the best use of my time. If I want the beach I will go to Montenegro. If I want Roman this or that, I will go to Italy or Bulgaria or …. well lots of places to see Roman stuff as good as Split; for nature and unique cultural experiences (including waterfalls), Bosnia & Herzegovina. But if you have never been, okay, I get it. It’s the in-place right now and when it comes to this sort of thing, its all about what interests you and you really cant do wrong.