train vs rental- germany, switzerland, italy

Thanks Richard! Yes the one way and foreing drop off rate is included. Your gas calculation sounds pretty close to what google maps came up with (it automatically calculated the gas cost, through God knows what algorithm, but for 1953 km total distance. Thanks for advice on the Italian insurance. I am not sure if the rental company (hertz in this case) will let me only get insurance for part of the rental or what, so will look into it a bit more. I really would like to take the trains for part of the trip, but the biggest route is fussen to interlaken which is $880 by train for 5. And we really wanted to go to gimmewald and that takes about 4 connections... so having a car will let us explore the mountain villages a bit more easily. I also thought about saving the drop off rate by getting separate rentals, but I can't seem to find any automatic trans cars in italy. I have been trying to learn how to drive manual trans, but am a little intimidated by traveling foreign roads without much experience with manual. I can handle once out of first gear, but starting at a traffic signal when on a possible steep hill, let alone parallel parking, would be more stress then it would be worth. So am limiting myself with automatic need and incurring additional expense.

Here's an explanation of how Google estimates fuel and driving costs: https://support.google.com/maps/answer/81106?hl=en

"I really would like to take the trains for part of the trip, but the biggest route is fussen to interlaken which is $880 by train for 5." Hi, Jude. The important thing about planning a train vacation at a good price is knowing the ropes. I suspect that you aren't acquainted with the best resources for ticketing. $880 is MORE than the walk-up ticket price for 5 ADULTS. Perhaps you are looking at Raileurope for pricing? They'll gouge you good. I picked a random date in September and found tickets for 5 ADULTS for this route for under 200€ (advance-purchase savings fare at the DB website.) What I would suggest is that you lay out your current itinerary by date to see whether the knowledgeable folks here can help you figure prices or give you the resources to do so on your own. Then you can make more informed car/train decisions.

Russ, You are correct, that was RailEurope. DB does give me 295 Euro for all 5 of us for Fussen to Interlaken. Our itinerary looks to be something like staying noights in these towns: 22/7- Heidelberg (arriving in Frankfurt early morning) 23 & 24/7- Munich 25/7- Fussen 26 & 27/7- Gimmelwald or Interlaken 28, 29, 30/7- Lake Como region 31/7 & 1/8- Cinque Terre 2/8- Florence (or may change to day stopover and stay Cinque Terre or Venice extra night)
3 & 4/8- Venice.

So you're 2 weeks out. Wow. What sort of flexibility do you have with this itinerary? It's incredibly, incredibly rushed and covers way too much ground for the time you have. You'll spend too much time in transit and packing/unpacking no matter whether you drive or train it. I will make a few suggestions for Germany only. If you have unchangeable accommodations reservations, ignore my post, and I wish you the best. For Germany with Munich: I would either head straight to Munich for 4 nights and make Füssen a daytrip from Munich, or make a stop that is actually on the route to Munich - like in Würzburg - instead of Heidelberg (see the palace and/or fortress in W'burg) and then spend 3 nights in Munich (maybe with Füssen daytrip.) Your Füssen - Interlaken trip takes up your whole day, otherwise. Then you'll have one day on the ground in Switzerland before heading to Italy.

cont. For Germany without Munich: Make it easy on yourself to get to Switzerland, and don't head that far east in the first place! Besides Heidelberg, there are some wonderful places to go on the west side of Germany that are actually on the way to Interlaken. See the Neckar River valley and visit Burg Guttenberg castle (with falconry show) and the other towns and castles on the Castle Road. See the Black Forest and the Vogtsbauernhof open-air museum near Hausach. If you spend 4 days seeing these places - 2 days near H'berg and 2 in the Black Forest area - and end up say, in Freiburg, you're less than 3 hours from Interlaken by train and will have more time to enjoy the tiny part of Switzerland you're seeing. I'd skip Gimmelwald and visit the Schilthorn - live large in your short time there. I see tickets for five for 195€ Freiburg to Interlaken. You could easily do the Frankfurt - Heidelberrg - Freiburg route for 250€ or less by train by taking advantage of daypasses. I'll explain if you're interested.

Russ and Richard, Great advice! The Daypasses do change the equation quite a bit. Do Italian rails have similar passes? Here's my thinking on car rental in Italy.. The 3 destinations are more about staying local at those destination versus venturing out on car excursions like we would likely do in Germany. Obviously, you can't even have a car at Cinque Terre or Venice, so it's just about getting from location to location (plus traffic at Como sounds pretty severe). Even RailEurope was only $50/pp for both Como-CT and CT-Venice, and that was without trying any other approaches. So... I am thinking no car needed in Italy. I think a train for Switzerland leg makes sense, now that you've shown me much cheaper alternatives. With Germany, I think we kind of want the flexibility to roam without public transit. We were going to stay at Munich longer but realized that 2 hour back and forth to Fussen might be a waste and Fussen is along the way if we were to drive to Interlaken. Also, the only touristy things we wanted to see at Munich are Dachau, maybe BMW factory and possibly xGame/Olympic stadium. So now I am thinking of car rental for all of Germany. Ditching car at Kemten and then 'train'ing it all the way from there (rental fee is ~$350 for automatic trans station wagon through Sixt). We do realize the beginning of agenda is agressive, but the drives are relatively short and we are pretty good travelers and will have 'veg' time in Italian locales.

Russ,
I do like your suggestion of skipping Munich. It really it just a worldly city. The 3 items I wanted to hit are just minor care-abouts. The only other consideration is we were planning to use some Marriott and Hilton points and can only really use those in major metropolitan ares like Munich. Thus the other slight reason for including Munich...

Honestly,I do not think a V40 is big enough for 5 adult sized people plus luggage. Let me change that to I know a V40 is not big enough. Itis a small car. I have owned and driven Volvos most of my life, but none smaller than a 240/V70. You need a larger car which will cost way more. There are discounts on train travel in Germany for 5 traveling together. In Italy, you can get great discounts by buying in advance, or checking the group discount area. Switzerland is Switzerland, discounts are scarce, but around Interlaken/Gimmelwald you can't use a car anyway; you will just have to pay to park it. Train travel is cheaper than you think if you believe RailEurope prices. The tricks to planin advance to get the lowest prices. But even if itis tool ate for that, you willlikely be better off with the trains for your destinations. Our last trip to Italy was with a family of four, buying tickets as we went, but it aw still way better than driving.

Thanks Lola! I did find a BMW3er Station Wagon automatic for the about same price as the Volvo and through Sixt. So I have that as the option for Germany.

"I do like your suggestion of skipping Munich." I don't think scrunching into the back seat of a car is that much fun unless your 16-18-year-olds are little people. And what if you could do all your travel in Germany by train for under 100€?? That saves you a lot of car $ for rooms, and you can stay at the Hilton another time. Train option - one possible itinerary: Day 1: Quer durchs Land ticket for 5 to Heidelberg: 60€. Day 2: Baden-W. Ticket for 5: 38€. See Neckar River Valley, end up in Gengenbach (lovely old walled town in Black Forest) for 2 nights. Day 3 + 4: Unlimited travel on local and regional trains is FREE to other Black Forest towns - Hausach, Schiltach, Triberg, Villingen, Freiburg, Titisee, and more (Konus Card comes with your room in Gengenbach or in any of 130+ other villages.) Gengenbach Scenic Black Forest Railway KONUS info Day 5: Use the Konus card on the day you leave the BF too. It's good all the way to Basel, Switzerland. That puts you darned close to Interlaken - only 2 hours by train.

Accommodations: Not sure what you're looking for. Did notice this apartment for 6 in the pleasant town of Freudenstadt (Black Forest town) is available for 7/23-26; you'd have rail access and the Konus card for free train travel. Nice price too: Haus Nagel in Freudenstadt (hit "translate" at the top.) Haus Nagel on another site

is a BMW 3 class that much bigger than a V40? I would have thought that a 5 class might be, but a 3 class?

Thanks Richard! And yes Nigel, this BMW 3 class is a station wagon, so probably same passenger space as a Volvo V40, but BMW would have more trunk space.

BMW is notorious for tight leg room in the back seat and that includes the 5 series (a smaller Mercedes has more room in the back seat). 3 teens won't be able to sit there comfortably for longer stretches unless they are all under 5'5". If you do decide to rent a car make sure to get a station wagon for extra luggage room.