vendsit

My wife and I are flying into Amsterdam on 3/21 and gonna spend a few days there before making our way to Frankfort for our return flight on the 28th. I was able to convince her to get a car as we usually just get a rail pass. She's not too keen on driving because she usually has to have the trip planned out to the minute and wants to know where we're going to stay every night before we leave. I'd like to stay in Amsterdam for a couple of days and work our way through the countryside and stop where and when we want as long as we end up in Frankfort on the 26th. She did want to go to Berlin but I don't see this as possible unless we fly there the morning of the 24th and then rent a car and drive to Frankfort. The train is 6 hours and I don't want to waste a good portion of a day on it. Any suggestions on route, sites to see, places to avoid would be appreciated.

I've been checking on a one way rental car on my US based accounts with no luck. Does National or Hertz not do one way rentals if you cross borders? Do you have to use a European based rental company? I checked on one site and it offered a Hertz rental but I'd like to use the 5 free days I have if I can.

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.

KLouis

One way, cross-border rentals in Europe are possible, though very, very expensive. And for all practical purposes, Hertz, Avis and company all are companies doing business in Europe, nobody cares who owns the shares of the mother company. You'd have to contact the rental company in Amsterdam to ask for prices and other details.

As for the leisurly drive from Amsterdam to FrankfUrt through the countryside, yes, this is possible, but unless you carefully plan your itinerary, you're in for an unpleasant surprise. You're talking about one of the most industrialized and heavilly populated areas in the whole world. Perhaps a better (and possibly much, much cheaper) idea would be to fly to Amsterdam, visit for a couple of days, fly with a LCC to FRA, get a rental car at the airport and do 4-5 days in Germany before flying back to AMS to connect to the flight home.

farci

@KLouis is correct about the cost. The major car rental companies will charge you a one-way fee of perhaps €150 to drop the car at your destination. The FRA car rental area is full of Dutch registered cars and Hertz etc will then charge the next renter another one-way fee to drive it back to a NL dropoff! This is akin to driving a US car one-way to Canada and suffer the noise of pips being squeezed. @KLouis is also correct about the unrelenting, traffic filled journey. Having said that the FRA area has some beautiful spots for a few days relaxed motoring and really good car rental deals

mfkne

Another thing to keep in mind is that cars need to have environmental stickers in order to be allowed to drive into a large number of cities in Germany. To get such a sticker you need the license plate of the car, which you won't know until you pick it up, and rental cars outside of Germany typically do not have such stickers.

dj_jay_smith

I agree with what others have said about driving.

It is a good 5 hour drive from AMS to FRA without traffic and given that you will be driving through some of the most heavily populated areas in Europe, then you can expect traffic in most cases (Sunday morning is probably the best time to drive!), And if you are unlucky and drive through rush hour or get stuck following an accident or two then you can add a good 1 -2 hours onto that figure.

I would suggest to either take the train (there are several direct trains per day which I think take about 4 hours) or Fly. Although there are no direct flights by LCCs between these two places. But you can often get good deals with both KLM and Lufthansa if you book in advance and are flexible with times/dates.
If you want a car at either end for whatever reason, then it is best to just do a couple of separate hires.

If you do decide to drive however, then one diversion that is worthwhile could be to drive along the Rhine between Koblenz and Wiesbaden/Mainz. You can drive either side of the Rhein (B9 or B42) but just be aware that there are no bridges between the sides, but there are some ferries. The drive/trip through this area know as the Middle Rhein is very beautiful and you won't be disappointed. A stop-off in the Loreley is also worthwhile (google it!).

If you take the train, then you can also follow this route along the Rhein but this would require changing in Cologne, and then taking a different train which would go via Koblenz and Mainz (where you might have to change again). So it would take much longer.

JBord

I don't know that you'll find the drive that much more interesting than the train ride.

I'll offer an alternate train suggestion though. Take the train to Cologne, the station is right next to Cologne's beautiful cathedral, with a number of decent hotels right there as well. Spend an afternoon and evening there, tour the cathedral, and then go on to FRA the next day. If you want to get in some driving, rent a car in FRA and explore the area.

vendsit

I appreciate the suggestions and now it's giving me ideas of different things to do. We weren't going to drive AMS-FRA in one day. We were going to take 4 or 5 days and see the sights and stop at some small towns along the way. Now you all have me thinking that the best thing to do would be to spend a few days in Amsterdam and then either fly or take the train to Frankfurt. The price difference is only about $50 for the two of us to fly on Lufthansa. I could then rent a car in Frankfort and take a driving tour through the Black Forest as well as take 4 or 5 days to see the sights in Central/Southern Germany. My wife's family is from a small town near Lake Constance so we would like to find that. Was thinking about seeing Neuschwanstein Castle as well as visiting a concentration camp.

Would it be better to rent a car or get a rail pass if we were going to stay in that area?

Thanks for the help.

Any suggestions for this area of the country?

1flyer

The high-speed train is 3:50 hours (from Amsterdam Centraal to Frankfurt Central Station) or 3:35 hours (from Amsterdam Central to FRA airport). It runs every two hours.

From door to door, the train is going to be almost as fast as a flight AMS-FRA. (Assuming that you're staying close to the central railway station both in Amsterdam as well as in Frankfurt which makes sense as a tourist.)

farci

IMO a car will give you more flexibility. This means you can choose hotels outside a main city. Germany is full of great small family-run hotels with an excellent restaurant. I travel frequently (for business) throughout Germany and I always try to find such a place. It's easy to check on eg. Hotels.Com.

Even for train travel long-distance rail passes as sold in USA are a rip off. Research cheap fares either on the national rail carrier DB website or an independent provider like Trainline EU. It's worth looking for bargain First Class upgrades. By the way you can usually pick up a rental car at your arrival train station in Germany

flyingfkb

A trip from AMS to FRA by car could look like this

1. First day drive to Maastricht or Aachen and stay there the first night there (Both nice towns with a lot of European history)
2. Second day drive to Cologne and spend a night there (Explore the city)
3. Third day drive down the rhine valley to Koblenz (from there you can visit the Mosel valley or rhine valley)
4. Fourth day drive to Frankfurt (Around Frankfurt you can explore Wiesbaden, Mainz and even Heidelberg)

On this route you would skip the Ruhrgebiet which is the most densely populated area in Germany. It might be an alternative to take this route in case you are interested in industrial history and modern art. In this case your itinerary would look like this:

1. First day drive to Essen (a lot of museums and steel and coal industrial museums)
2. Second day drive to Cologne and spend a night there
3. Third day drive down the rhine valley to Koblenz
4. Fourth day drive to Frankfurt.

KayVeeBee

What makes you think the train is 6 hours? It is actually 4 hours, which makes it competitive (time wise) with flying.

But for your trip I would suggest that after Amsterdam you take the train as far as Cologne (as suggested) and then rent a car from there to explore the Rhineland, which has quite a few interesting and scenic places on offer.

JBord

Rent a car. It may be cheaper than a rail pass anyway, but more importantly, some of the locations you mention may mean taking a train and then still hiring a taxi to get you the rest of the way. There are bus trips to some of the tourist sites too, but again you'll probably save money renting a car and get the benefit of doing things on your own schedule.