I'm going solo (pregnant wife staying home) to Germany in August. I'm looking for advice on rental cars and hotels. Primary concern is *cheap*. I'll be flying into Hannover, spending the first few days in Wolfsburg and Osnabrueck and returning from Stuttgart. Should I check with the US-based rental car companies or are there cheaper alternatives?

You will have to shop rental cars but often the price is cheaper if arranged from here. We have used National. The happy news is that Germany has one of the lowest tax rates on cars. It helps a great deal on the price if you can drive stick.

Can't help you with hotels in those towns. If you are truly on the cheap, stay at a pension - they are immaculate in Germany and include a generous breakfast. We never went wrong there.

How did you make arrangements with the pensions? From what I understand, they're a bit like a bed and breakfast. Supposedly, there is an office of some sort in each town that can make reservations. Is this correct?

For car rentals I've had only good experiences with Auto Europe ( http://www.autoeurope.com ). You can call to get a free quote -- if booked through them you prepay (all or part, this has changed in the past) and get a voucher faxed to you. Ended up picking up cars from companies like Avis and Europcar in Europe with them.


http://www.hrs.de has given me some pretty good hotel prices in the past, so you could check there for your desired cities. The web site has a bad habit of only recognizing the German spelling of cities sometimes however.

And if/when you do end up in STR, do stop by and say hello! :-)

When renting a car then be VERY careful about damaged/dented cars. The rental compnay will try to pin it on you unless you report it at the point of rental. I've had it happen to me several times and despite having all damage report numbers I've had numerous correspondence from the rental agencies trying to collect money from me for the damage that wasn't mine.

Shop on the Internet!
I just rented a car from National in Germany - I got the best rate from them using National's Emerald Card. Free sign-up on their website.
Alamo has similar rates (Same counter like National in HAM & MUC).

Check Sixt, however, in my case they where not the cheapest. Sometimes they offer specials with fancy cars like Mercedes SLK.

Looks like a business trip to VW and Karmann!?! Osnabrueck is not the "nicest" town in Germany. You may visit nearby Muenster.

[quote]Looks like a business trip to VW and Karmann!?! Osnabrueck is not the "nicest" town in Germany. You may visit nearby Muenster. [/bold]

Not a business trip (I wish), its strictly for fun. Karmann is celebrating their 100th anniversary next month. The city of Osnabrueck is throwing them a big bash. I own several Karmann-built cars (Karmann Ghia, 914, Corrado, Cabrio) and its my money-sucking hobby. I'm really looking forward to it.

Karmann:

I looked on the Internet and found the 100th ann.: http://www.karmann.de/internet/website.nsf

It seems to be a big show - as a Karmann fan you will have lots of fun. Still, you should visit Muenster.

Try this:

http://edit.travel.yahoo.com/config/ytravel?resform=YahooCars&carco=AL&.redir_from=OLDCONFIG

It gives you an idea regarding the prices. However, I like to book at the car rental site (Hertz, National, Alamo) and look for SPECIALS. And you get the total price, not a price for a week etc. without tax, fees.

BTW, you may look at Europcar http://www.europcar.de/
it is (at least was) partly owned by Volkswagen.