RENTING A CAR to use from one country to another

Of course it's possible. It's also expensive. Play with rate differentials with dropping the car in a second country vs the cost of leaving it in the pick-up nation.

You'll pay a hefty drop-off fee for doing something like that. The routes are well serviced by rail. Why would you want to drive to Zurich and to Geneva? Talk about a headache.

Anything is almost always doable as long as you are willing to pay the price. When you rent a vehicle inside a country it is equip for that country - toll stickers, taxes, etc. When you go to another country you may have to buy the stickers necessary to use the express ways, etc. Second, the big expense will be the drop fees especially from one country to another. Third, question will be insurance and whether the insurance purchased with the vehicle is good in the other countries. It is not like driving from one state to another in the US. You are dealing with independent countries with their own set of rules and regulations. So, as long as you cross all the "ts" and dot as the "i" you will be in good shape.

Auto Europe is a good place to start for a car rental quote. See more about train travel at http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/transportation/trains. Full-fare, 2nd class tickets from Salzburg to Zurich to Geneve cost about $215 per person, or advance discounts are available, or cost may be higher if you detour to other (more mountainous) parts of Switzerland.

You will also have to buy a Swiss vignette to drive the car in Switzerland. The quickest route between Salzburg and Zurich runs through Germany, but you don't need anything special to drive the car there, provided you don't take it into downtown Munich.

The fee to drop off the car in another country isn't something to ignore, but it's not always as crippling as legend on this website would have it. I think it added maybe €150 to a two week rental between Germany and France I once had. Not insubstantial, but it didn't break the bank either.

Definitely get some quotes and then weigh your options. If you drop a car simply to avoid the drop off fee, then spend $ on train tickets, cabs, etc. to get to another country, plus the time you will defeat the purpose. I have dropped a few times and it ended up costing less than the alternative, but there were times when it was the best option. Driving in Europe can be fun and it gives you a ton of flexibility to see and do what you want and not be tied to a schedule.

Yessiree that rental car is going to give you a ton of flexibility in downtown Zurich and downtown Geneva. You'll be thankful for all of the extra time that rental has saved you while you search and search for a parking spot ;-)

Rental cars may give you some flexibility in rural countrysides, but when you're dealing with big city downtown driving and parking it's best to leave it to the train conductors.

I just rented a car with Avis and drove from Munich to Salzburg, back to Germany and then to Switzerland. The drive from Salzburg to Zurich is fine but I would recommend a GPS because the roads are very confusing and there are some detours right now due to construction. Save yourself a big headache and get the GPS. As others mentioned, the cost of dropping off a car in another country can be huge. It would've cost twice as much for me to rent a car in Salzburg like I planned and then dropped it off in Frankfurt where I was flying out. So I altered my schedule slightly to make sure it was picked up and dropped off in the same country. The cost went from over $900 for two weeks to somewhere around $500.00.