What is recommended? Renting A car in Frankfurt & driving to Vienna or taking a train? If driving, I'd rather not be on the highway the whole time. Any ideas?
If you just want to get to Vienna, there are ICE connections every couple of hours. Most of them are direct and take less than 7 hours (faster than driving, not counting time to rent car). With sufficient advance purchase, fares are as low as 39€/person (compared to over 90€, just for fuel and tolls, with a hatchback).
Hi, Where do you plan on dropping off the rental car? Instead of having to bother with that, I suggest taking the train. You have two route choices if you want to break the long haul Frankfurt Hbf.-Wien West: Frankfurt-Vienna direct on the ICE, more direct, or Frankfurt-Munich on the ICE, then Munich-Vienna direct on the Railjet, if you want to break up the ride and arrive later. I've done both routes, depends on your priorities.
That's a long ride. 446 miles according to Via Michelin, estimated at 7 1/2 hours. I did Munich - Vienna and broke it up with a night in Linz. Also remember you'll need an Austrian toll sticker to travel the not free autobahn there. Unless you have more than 2 or 3 people, the rain would probably be the way to go. (The more people in the same rental car reduces the cost per person.)
Thank you for the info. The train it is!