Rental Car - Where To Drop off In Germany & Pick Up New In France?

If you drop the car in Offenburg, then direct trains to Strasbourg take 30 minutes.

FYI, Kehl is a common border station for trains but doesn't have the major car rental agents. Freiburg is a less convenient drop point because it's on a north-south train line, requiring a separate connection to an east-west train line. Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg EuroAirport has a Swiss sector and a French sector for car rental, but not a German sector.

You might consult with Gemut.com about this. They have a free download on renting a car and driving in Europe and they are in the US so you can call them for advice and suggestions.

We did something similar in 2011 for traveling the Alps. We picked up the car near Stuttgart, drove it through southern Germany, Austria, northern Italy, Switzerland, eastern France (Annecy), back through Switzerland and dropped it just over the border from Basel in Lörrach, Germany. The Gemut folks were a big help with planning this.

BTW, you will need special stickers (vignettes) on the car to drive the major roads in Austria and Switzerland. You get them close to the borders where you enter those countries.

Be sure to ask about the issues around who will drive the car. In France, I paid for the car rental, and had my IDP (International Driving Permit), but my husband was the primary driver. We had to pay extra when we turned the car in because he, as primary driver, had not paid for the rental. That seemed pretty weird to me, but obviously we had done something wrong. With 4 of you, it could be more complicated. The Gemut people should be able to sort this out.

Thank you both. I've always rented through AutoEurope. I'll definitely check Gemut. I'm the planner and driver on our trips. Even though we will be traveling with another couple, I'm sure I will be the driver for this trip as well. I've driven in Austria and purchased the vignette in the past. I'm also aware of the requirement for Switzerland. I'm trying to figure out our route, which will include Oktoberfest. Not my thing, but I want to make my hubby happy. I've even looked at starting in Geneva, renting on the French side. Then we could keep the same car for the entire trip. I love the planning, but sometimes it is a bigger challenge. Thanks again!

Car rental locations can be found on the AutoEurooe website. Look at a map, type name in, etc.

Check if your car hire company has an office in Lörrach. That is a suburb of Basel, but in Germany. You can then get a local train + bus to Basel airport to pick up your French car. You can spend a few hours in Basel in between.

Where are you ending up (flying home from)? You can drive a German hire car in France, you just can't return it there unless you want to spend a lot of €€€€,

With 4 people you could even have 2 cars for one day.
Drive German car to (French town), pick up French car.
Drive both cars to (German town), return German car. Continue in French car.

Thanks Suki. That is what I've been doing. It has been a challenge, hence my question.

Chris F., thanks for the advice. AutoEurope doesn't show any drop off in Lörrach. I haven't checked with Gemut yet. I want to avoid retuning a car in a different country for sure. We are still working out an itinerary for this future trip, so we don't have anything definite planned yet. I looked at routes that would be a bit circular, one beginning and ending in France, and one beginning and ending in Germany. The German rental, for the same period of time, was about $200 less.

I appreciate all the help.

Hi Andrea,

We did exactly what Laura suggested. It worked out fine.

If you are going to have the car for a good bit of time 3+ weeks, I would urge you to look into a lease. RS talks about this in his books. We did this for 4 week road trip thru Portugal, N. Spain and SW France. We got a BRAND new auto. We could pick it up in Lisbon and drop it off in Toulouse without any additional fees. It was fantastic!

In this case, AutoEurope wants you to type LOERRACH instead of Lörrach. The "oe" is a common replacement for Americans and others who don't type accents regularly.

In addition to AutoEurope, I'll often search on GoogleMaps for a term like "car rental near Lörrach, Germany" and that makes it easy to see locations. You still have to pay attention to the actual Germany border line. But it looks like Lörrach has Europcar at the train station and Budget, Avis, and Sixt nearby.

Thanks S&M and Laura.

tgreen, I have considered a lease. We did a lease through Auto Europe in 2006 and it worked out well. We picked up the car in Frankfurt and had to pay extra for that privilege. We returned it in Paris, so there was no extra charge. If we lease we will pick up and drop off in France so as to not incur additional charges. There aren't as many locations for lease pick ups and drop offs. Still, it's worth comparing prices.

Hi Andrea

If you choose to do the three country point gambit at Lörrach, I'd like to say how very easy it is to get from there into Basel, and I'm sure it would be easy to do the two car trick mentioned above. Just don't be so close to Basel without having a look around - it is one of our favourite Swiss cities.

There even is a town a little bit up-river with one half on the south side in Switzerland and the north side in Germany - both called Rheinfelden. Famous for its brewery and the Roman town nearby, there is also a salt spa there and a pedestrian bridge over the river between the two towns (used to be the road bridge). There is a freeway bypass of Basel between Lörrach and Rheinfelden that I have used since the new bridge opened.