Germany/Austria with 4 people- train versus car rental

All vans come with Diesel engines and in Germany the liter of Diesel varies between €1.10 and €1.20. In the latter case that would convert to $6.35 per gallon. Also note that most rental car companies like Sixt would give you a Mercedes or VW van which you couldn't take into the Czech Republic. Make sure you're given an Opel, Renault or Ford van.

........and to add to Andreus post, the diesel cars/vans get fantastic mileage. Our Lancia van, that we rented from Autoeurope in Rome, and drove from there and thruout Puglia, constantly got over 35 mpg. In a week of solid driving, we only filled the tank up three times........and that included the last tank before we dropped it off at the airport. Out total gas bill was less than $100E for 8 days.

Train travel in the Czech Republic is very inexpensive. We have Czech friends that drove us around and the Czech roads are very narrow.

You can travel wtih a Bayern/Barvarian Ticket to the CR border and back. If you travel with the Bayern Ticket be sure to buy them before you get to the CR border...for instance you can buy them in Munich.

Scroll half way down the page on this link:

http://www.bahn.de/p/view/international/englisch/travelservice/laender_tickets.shtml

Two things to consider.

As Andreas touched on, make sure the rental company allows you to take the car into the Czech Republic.

Second, make sure the car has room for all for people WITH their luggage. Many European cars have very tiny trunks. Maybe see what is being rented and check them out at a dealer over here. Station wagons and hatchbacks have additional space, but the luggage is exposed so any thief knows what you have.

Dale - we traveled via car to Rhine region, Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, S. Bavaria last year with 4 people. I told Hertz where we were going to go (i.e. Prague) and they gave me a car that was okay to take to the Czech Republic. It was a small station wagon and had plenty of room for the 4 of us without being too big. Be sure to get a diesel and manual drive, both of which cut the cost quite a bit. I had not done a comparison on this trip of cost of car versus 4 train tickets but on trips in the past I too found that it was not necessarily more expensive to drive. I highly recommend driving in Germany & Austria - great roads, great drivers, lots of small towns for stops. If you do decide to drive I would suggest that you rethink some of your itinerary. The hardest part of driving was getting into the big towns themselves, especially Prague. My teens wish we had stayed a bit more in the countryside - the mountains were beautiful and it would have been a nice break from the city tours.

Thank you for the responses. We will be spending some time outside of the cities so the car will be helpful for that. We are just starting the planning process so we can adjust anything.

To add to JBs suggestion about the Bayern-Ticket, the Bayern-Ticket from a ticket automat will cost €27. Probably the best way to pay for the rest of the trip is to buy "Anschluß" tickets from the border to Prague from DB in Munich. For Furth im Wald, the most common border crossing from Munich, the Anschluß ticket costs €18,70 pP. Tickets from Furth to Prague purchased from Czech Rail cost about half that, but I don't know if you can buy them on the train. You might have to get off at the first station in the CR.

So the trip from Munich to Prague would cost just over €100 for all four people.

If you purchase early enough online, you can get Europa-Spezial tickets from Prague to Berlin on a EuroCity train for €19 per person.

So, Munich to Prague to Berlin would cost less than €180 for all 4 of you. Fuel, alone, for the diesel car, according to Michelin, would cost over half that.

For the portion of the trip in Bavaria, use Bayern-Tickets.

It's also important to note that you can REQUEST a diesel and manual transmission, but it cannot be guaranteed. You shouldn't have any trouble requesting and getting a manual transmission, but the diesel is definitely a non-guaranteed option. We also have 2 teenagers, we've rented vehicles on 2 different occasions and we have NEVER been able to fit all of our luggage into a car or station wagon. We had to upgrade to a van on one occasion, and the next time we went with friends who got a van so they hauled some of our luggage. Since your sons are teenagers they would qualify for a Youth Pass which most countries offer at a significant savings over adult fares. Lastly, we've travelled both with cars and with trains. Yes, sometimes it is nice to have a car if you plan on doing drives through the countryside, but we just much prefer trains these days. They go everywhere that we wanted to go, no headaches for parking, no fender benders or extra insurance, no petrol...trains are great!

by staying out side of town rooms and eats much cheaper and perhaps more back door. possible with train also if on un limited pass . otherwise wastes days on day pass

We purchased our tickets including the Bayern ticket in Munich along with the ticket for Furth Im Wald to Prague. All at the same time.

Enjoy your trip!