Holidays to Switzerland Travel Podcast Episode 120 Transcript

Should You Rent A Car In Switzerland? Pros, Cons & Essential Tips

You can see the full show notes and listen to this episode > here.

Intro  

Are you dreaming of visiting Switzerland? Planning a trip to Switzerland is very exciting, but it can also be overwhelming. How do you choose which of the many scenic cities, towns and villages to visit, which mountain top excursions should you take? And what’s the best way to get around Switzerland and of course, how much of the country can you realistically see within your time frame? If you’ve asked yourself any of these questions, this is the podcast for you. This is the holidays to Switzerland travel podcast. And in each episode, your host Carolyn Schönafinger chats with Swiss travel experts to answer your most commonly asked questions, provide practical tips and take you on a virtual visit to the most popular destinations, and, of course, some hidden gems to help you plan your dream trip to Switzerland. And you’ll hear plenty of conversations about Swiss cheese and chocolate too. Are you ready to plan your trip to Switzerland? Well, let’s get started.

Carolyn Schönafinger  

Hello and welcome to this week’s episode. If you’re a regular listener of the podcast, or you’ve listened to any previous episodes, you’ve probably heard one or two, or perhaps quite a few, about traveling by train in Switzerland. And whilst I’m a huge advocate for using the Swiss public transport network, I know there are occasions when perhaps renting a car is the best option for you. 

I’ve done it myself on previous trips when we’ve been visiting multiple countries in Europe, and we’ve found it easier just to rent a car in one country and drive through multiple countries as we travel around. So that could possibly be one of the reasons why you’re thinking of renting a car. But there are other reasons why you might be thinking that too. Having a car allows you to stop wherever you like and for as long as you like. So there are no more timetables to adhere to, and your itinerary can really be as flexible as you want it to be. And if you’re traveling with a few adults, you might find that renting a car can be more cost effective, perhaps, than buying multiple rail passes. 

Of course, there are other considerations that you need to keep in mind too. Obviously, renting a car, you’ll need to pay for fuel, you’ll need to allow for parking expenses. You’ll need to allow for insurance expenses for the car, and we’ll get into that more in just a few moments. But just because you’re renting a car, that doesn’t mean you’ll miss out on the chance to ride on some of those scenic Swiss trains, because if you want to reach the mountain peaks and the car free villages like Zermatt, Murren and Wengen, you’re going to need to take a train or a cable car to get there anyway. So renting a car can mean that you can combine the best of both worlds. You’ll have the freedom to travel where and when you want, and you’ll have the chance to experience Switzerland’s incredible mountain excursions as well. 

As I mentioned, one of the reasons that you might rent a car is because you’re traveling to other countries in addition to Switzerland. Now, in my experience, some other European countries do not have an equivalent public transport network to Switzerland. Sure, there are trains and busses, but they’re not always as efficient as the Swiss trains. They’re not always as clean. There’s often cancelations, so perhaps in those countries, it can be better to rent a car and give you more confidence that you can get where you need to be when you want to. 

You might also be planning to visit some quite rural locations. And while the Swiss public transport network gets you to most places in Switzerland, there are some places that it can’t possibly reach. A couple of years ago, for instance, I stayed in the Appenzell region, and we stayed on a farm in a little cottage that had been renovated and was on the property of the farm. Now there was a bus that ran to the main road below us. A farm was on a hillside, quite a steep hillside, but it was a good one kilometer walk from the main road to the farm up this very steep hill. So there was no way we would have been able to get up there with our luggage, and when we wanted to go out and about exploring every day, having to rely on the bus, in that instance, would not have been very much fun. So having a car there was a great option. 

You might be traveling with lots of luggage. Now this is something that I really don’t recommend especially if you’re traveling by train, but I do know that on occasions, you know you might need to take excess luggage. If you’re traveling with children, you might need to take strollers or travel cots, all sorts of things. So if you’re traveling with a lot of luggage, renting a car can be a great opportunity. Situation, and you’ve also got that freedom to travel on a whim. You know, if you’re going from point A to point B, and along the way, you see this amazing viewpoint that you want to stop at, or you decide, I feel like a coffee, you’ve got the freedom to just pull off and do that, change your itinerary and travel a bit with the wind, if you like. 

There are a few tips that I thought I’d share with you about renting a car, because whilst it sounds straightforward, there are quite a few things I’ve learned over the years that I think are worth knowing. So first up, you’ll want to determine your pickup and drop off locations for the rental car, and you’re going to need to check that relocation fees don’t apply. Now, typically, in my experience, at least, if you’re renting a car and returning it within the same country, there’s no relocation fees applicable. However, if you, for instance, happen to pick your vehicle up in Munich and then drop it off in Zurich or Geneva before you fly home, you will probably find that a relocation fee applies, so that’s something to consider before you confirm exactly where you’re going to collect and drop off the vehicle. 

You’ll also want to check the opening hours of the rental office or rental depot, because they may not be open on weekends, and even on weekends, if they are open, they may shut early. I know at some places, they close at perhaps two o’clock on a Saturday and Sunday afternoon. So if you’re arriving after that. You’ll need to check that. Typically, airports, you can collect a car at any time of the day or night, but if you’re collecting a vehicle in the downtown area or from the main train station, the opening hours may be shorter. 

Of course, size of the vehicle is very important. You really need to make sure that there’s going to be enough boot or trunk space for your luggage. There’s nothing worse than arriving, picking up your vehicle, and getting out to it and about to load up and oh no, how are we going to fit all these suitcases in the trunk? I know from experience that we have had to travel around with one suitcase on the back seat when there’s only you know, my husband and I sometimes two suitcases do not fit in the trunk of a medium sized car, so that’s something that you need to be aware of. Obviously, if you’re leaving your car parked at any time, it’s a good idea not to have luggage on display, so make sure there’s enough boot or trunk space for your luggage. 

Then you’ll need to consider if you want to rent a car that takes petrol, or would you like an EV. Now, hertz alone has over 30 depots in Switzerland where EVs are available. And there are literally hundreds and hundreds of EV charging points across the country. So if you’d prefer to rent an EV, there’s every chance that you can do that. As I said, there’s so many depots where they’re available to rent from. You’ll also want to check the transmission type, because manual transmission, or stick shift is really popular in Switzerland, and it’s usually cheaper to rent a manual vehicle than it is an automatic now, a lot of people are not familiar with manual or stick shift vehicles, so if you’re concerned about this, definitely request an automatic vehicle, but just know that you may need to pay a little extra. 

You’ll also want to keep in mind or consider whether you need a GPS in the vehicle. Usually, there’s an additional fee for renting a vehicle with a GPS, but you can use your phone if you are going to have a Wi Fi signal. And the last couple of occasions that we have rented a vehicle, this is all we’ve done. We’ve had an e sim in our phone and used Google Maps or some other mapping system, rather than using a GPS within the car. Just keep in mind, and I’ll talk about this a little later, that Google Maps is not always accurate, or it can look like a road is a little wider than it actually is. So just keep that in mind. And as I said, I’ll talk about that a little more in a moment. 

If you’re traveling with children, you’ll need to book a child seat for any children who are under 12 or who are under 150 centimeters, that’s the law in Switzerland. So even at home, if your kids do not have a child seat in the vehicle, they may need one in Switzerland, again, there’s usually an additional charge for this, and they need to be booked in advance, so make sure you request that when you’re booking your rental car. 

If you’re planning to take the car into another country apart from Switzerland, you should advise the rental company at the time of booking so that they can make note of that on the rental contract. Another thing to think about when you’re renting a car, and this applies only, of course, if you’re renting a car at the airport, there are what’s called on or off airport collections. On airport means that the rental car office and the collection point are within the airport building. So after collecting your luggage, you go out, you find the office within the airport terminal, and then, usually the car is collected from the car park area of the airport, but there are also off airport collection depots, and in this case, what you need to do is, after you collect your luggage, you normally need to phone the rental company. They’ll come and pick you up in a shuttle vehicle, and then they will take you a few kilometers away to where their depot is, where you do the paperwork and collect the vehicle from there. So just keep that in mind, make sure you check whether you’re renting from an on or off airport collection depot. 

And you need to allow plenty of time for collection. I’ve been at Zurich airport where we’re collecting a car, and the queue can be quite long, so don’t expect that you’ll arrive. You can, you know, rush in quickly, do the paperwork and be gone. I would allow at least an hour to do all that paperwork, make your way out for the vehicle and be off on your way. 

The final thing I wanted to mention regarding renting a car is whether you’re going to reduce the insurance excess or not. All the rental companies will have an excess amount, which means that if you have an accident in the vehicle, you are liable for that amount of money. And it can be up to, you know, I’ve seen instances where this is up to 5000 Swiss franc, you will be offered the option to pay some additional excess to reduce that insurance excess, and some travel insurance policies also have this included in them. So do check and know what you’re paying for and what you might already be covered for. 

Once you’ve got your vehicle and you’re ready to set off on your road trip around Switzerland, there’s a few things that you might want to keep in mind, firstly, regarding licenses, a lot of European countries require you to have an international driving permit. In Switzerland, this is not necessary if you have a valid Roman alphabet license from your home country. So if you’re traveling into other countries, you’ll probably need an international driver’s permit, and they can be obtained from the motoring organization in your country. I think they cost around $40 for a year. And I’ll put a link in the show notes with more information about the IDP, but as I said, it’s not a requirement in Switzerland. 

Now, there are a few things that you’ll want to check before you drive away from the rental car depot. You’ll need to check the car to make sure it’s got no scratches. The tires are in good condition. All the doors lock the boot or the trunk locks. And if there’s anything that’s not marked on the contract that you’ve been given. You should bring this to the attention of the rental car company before you drive away. I also like to take photos of each of the panels of the vehicle, just to prove later on, if there’s any issues, that that was how the car looked when I collected it. Now, we did rent a car once, and it wasn’t in Switzerland, but we set off on our way, and we decided to stop somewhere for lunch. We got out, checked all the doors, and we realized that one of the rear doors would not lock. There was nothing we could do to lock this door. So what could we do? We had all our luggage in the car. So my husband or one of us went and bought lunch, and then we had to sit in the car and eat our lunch, or sit near the car because we didn’t want to leave all our luggage in it with the door that didn’t lock. So this was a problem throughout the whole trip, obviously. So make sure it’s Yes, probably something that would not happen very often, but it’s definitely something to be aware of. 

Before you drive off. You’ll also want to check that if you have paid for a GPS that it’s set to English. This might seem pretty obvious, but English isn’t the first language of Switzerland, so you’ll. To just check that before you drive off. And you should also familiarize yourself with gear shift, where to open the fuel tank, where the indicators are, that sort of thing, because once you set off and you start driving, that’s something that you don’t want to have to worry about. And we’ve been caught before where a manual or stick shift vehicle. We could not, for the life of us, work out where reverse was. It seemed pretty obvious. It indicated it on the gear stick, but we couldn’t work out how to move it. And then, after about 10 minutes, we realized there was a tiny little button underneath that you had to press in while you held down the gear stick and moved it into position. So just spend a few minutes to have a look at all that sort of thing and know how to operate all the bits and pieces of the vehicle. 

You’ll also need to check that the vehicle has a Swiss vignette attached to it. A Swiss vignette is like a road tax sticker. In Switzerland, there are no road tolls, so you won’t be going through any toll booths. But the vignette is in exchange for that, I guess. But it’s much cheaper, because it’s around 40 Swiss franc for a year. You can buy it online, or you can buy it at any fuel station in Switzerland or very close to the border. So if you’re coming from Germany or Austria or Italy, as you get very close to the border, there are signs at the fuel station saying that you can purchase your Swiss vignette there. 

If you’re renting a vehicle from Switzerland, it’s likely that it’s going to have a vignette attached to it already. But if you’re renting from another country, it’s likely that it won’t now, until very recently, the vignette was a sticker that had to be attached to the windscreen of the car. But now that you can purchase them online, it can be accessed as like a QR code or a digital pass that is linked to the registration of the vehicle, and I’ll also include a link in the show notes for the website where you can buy the Swiss vignette online if you need to. 

Some of the other things that you’ll want to think about before you set off driving is just to familiarize yourself with some of the road signs. Now, they’re typically fairly similar. They’re international road signs that you’ll see in other places around the world, but you might want to familiarize with some of the wording. For instance, one that you see regularly on the Swiss motorways is als fart, which means exit. So just familiarize yourself. You can look online. There’s plenty of places where you can find European road signs. Parking is another thing that you’re going to have to allow for if you’re renting a vehicle and driving around Switzerland, all of the major cities and most reasonable sized towns have big parking lots where you can park your vehicle. They’re usually on a pay as pay as you stay basis. And there are parking apps like easy Park, which you can use to pay the parking fees, or in many cases, you can tap your credit card as well. 

If you’re going to be driving your vehicle in winter, there are a few extra things that you need to keep in mind. And usually, when you’re renting a vehicle to travel in December through to February or March, the rental company will include what they call a winterization package. This includes special winter tires and anti freeze in the radiator so that the water doesn’t freeze and blow the engine up. Unless you’re going to be driving into very mountainous areas, you shouldn’t need chains, but this is something to check when you collect the vehicle, and you can tell their rental company where you’re driving, and they will tell you whether or not you need chains. 

I mentioned earlier that GPS and Google Maps can be wrong, and I’ve seen and heard plenty of instances where people have followed the Google map or the map that they’re getting on their phone to the letter, and it has resulted in some not very nice situations. I can remember back in the day, 20-30, years ago, driving around Europe with a big paper map on my lap, which I absolutely love. I love looking at maps and following them. But I do also love the introduction of GPS, and in some of those past trips, I’m really not sure how we ever found our way around Europe, because sometimes it was hit and miss, and yeah, stopping and asking a lot of people as we went, but getting back to my point about Google Maps and their compatriots or their similar mapping systems. Because they can be wrong. And just recently, I’ve heard of two instances which are quite frightening. One person tried to drive up a hiking trail because according to their map, that was the road, and that resulted in their car being stuck, and it had to be airlifted by helicopter back to the main road. So what an expensive bill that would have been. And I’ve also heard of someone who followed their map and ended up driving up a ski slope, can you believe? And this obviously resulted in, yes, a very expensive bill and a lot of inconvenience for a lot of people as well. So just know that you know, obviously you’re going to use your common sense. And if the road seems to be too narrow, if it doesn’t actually look like a road, do not go up it.

One very important tip that we learned very early on when we started to visit Europe, coming from Australia, we drive on the left hand side of the road. So getting used to driving on the right hand side of the road took a little bit of time. Unfortunately, on our very first day of driving in Europe with two kids in the back, we almost had an accident, and it actually shook us up. So from that time on, we always say both front seat passengers look both ways at every intersection or crossroad just to make sure it’s clear. Make sure we’re both on the same page and know that it’s good to go. Now, I don’t want to frighten you and say that this is likely to happen, but it’s just something to be aware of, particularly if you’re not from a country where you drive on the right hand side of the road, like they do in Europe and in Switzerland. 

So what are some of the best driving roads in Switzerland? Well, the roads are just maintained to a very, very high standard, so you rarely go to find a pothole or a very bumpy road. There are lots of roadworks, generally taking place over the summer months, when the weather’s more favorable. But in general, in my experience, driving in Switzerland really is a delight. Some of the mountain passes are particularly Scenic. They’re not for the faint hearted. There’s lots of hairpin turns and lots of other traffic who are all out enjoying these beautiful drives as well. But the ferka pass system, pass and gotard Pass are just some of the mountain passes that are really worth driving over if you can fit them into your itinerary. 

Switzerland tourism actually have their own driving itinerary, which they call the grand tour of Switzerland. And it’s an eight day tour, but ideally you would take a bit longer, from 10 to 14 days in total, it covers 16 143 kilometers visits, 46 top attractions, 22 lakes. Crosses five of those alpine passes and goes past 13 UNESCO world heritage sites. So it’s a really amazing journey that covers absolutely the best of Switzerland. As I said, you would ideally take 10 to 14 days to cover it, so that you really get the best experience. And back in episode 45 That episode was dedicated to the grand tour of Switzerland, so that’s one that you might like to go back and have a listen to, if that appeals to you. 

Switzerland Travel Center, have some self drive packages where you can do your own grand tour of Switzerland, and they’ve got a few options as well. So if you don’t want to do the whole 16 143 kilometers, there’s a few other packages that you could consider doing as well. One is specifically visiting the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, there’s a six day Alpine passes self drive package, and there’s a six day beautiful mountains package. So their options as well. Those packages include your accommodation with breakfast, Mountain Railway tickets, where applicable, and a Swiss coupon Pass, which gives you two for one deals on dining and experiences. So if you would rather follow an itinerary that’s been pre made or pre designed, these are a great option. You then just rent a car of your choice, and Switzerland Travel Center will book the accommodation and provide the other things there that I just mentioned as well, and they’ve given our audience a 5% discount if you mention the code HTSwiss when you’re booking. So the link to information about those packages will be in the show notes as well. 

Now there are lots of other itineraries. That are on holidaystoswitzerland.com. So if you want some more options and you want suggestions on where to stay and what to see as you drive around Switzerland, I’ll link to our itinerary section as well. But honestly, you can’t go wrong if you’re planning a driving holiday in Switzerland. One other thing I wanted to mention, before I wrap up, is about the speed limits in Switzerland. Switzerland uses the metric system, so all speeds are displayed in kilometers per hour, and the speed limit on motorways is usually 120 kilometers per hour. On main roads, it’s 100 kilometers per hour and on normal roads outside towns, 80 kilometers per hour and 50 kilometers per hour within towns. Now there’s very good signage, so keep an eye on that. 

When you’re driving in tunnels, you need to obviously pay a lot of attention. Speed limits are less within tunnels, and they’ll be very well sign posted, just make sure that you keep a good distance from the car in front of you, and you pay attention to any other signage that might be displayed within the tunnel. Now, speed limits are strictly adhered to in Switzerland, and speed cameras are used, and fines can be expensive, and infringement notices will be sent to your home address. So just because you’re in Switzerland and you’ve rented a vehicle, don’t think that a month or two after you get home, you won’t get a nice little surprise in the mail. It’s happened to us, and it’s happened to lots of people, even if you’re trying not to speed sometimes, unfortunately, it does happen. 

I hope that’s given you plenty of information that will help you start to plan your road trip around Switzerland. It’s a beautiful country, as I said earlier. The roads are maintained to an extremely high standard, and having a car can give you that freedom that you might crave and that renting a car may be the best option for you when you’re traveling around Switzerland. All those links that I mentioned, as well as a link to our very detailed article about driving in Switzerland, can be found in the show notes for this episode, and you’ll also find a link there to get a copy of my free guide, 21 Useful Things to Know Before you visit Switzerland. You’ll find all those links at holidaystoswitzerland.com/episode120. 

Before I go, there’s one more thing I wanted to mention about driver’s licenses. On my recent trip to Europe, we traveled by train throughout Switzerland, but we rented a car whilst we were in Germany. When we went to collect the car in Munich, the rental company would only accept a physical driver’s license, not a digital copy, and they told us this was a legal requirement. Now, fortunately, we were able to provide a physical license, but this was more by good fortune than by good planning. I haven’t rented a car in Switzerland for a number of years now, but from the research I have done, I believe that having a physical license is also a legal requirement in Switzerland, if you are stopped by the police and you can’t produce a physical driver’s license, that’s the little plastic card that you’re issued with, you may be fined or stopped from driving altogether, or even both. So my advice is to carry your physical, your hard copy driver’s license, which has photo ID with you, so that you won’t be denied collection of your rental car, and you’ll have no concerns if you happen to be stopped by the police. It’s always better to be safe than sorry. Thank you very much for joining me today. I hope you found this episode helpful, and until next week, I’ll say, Tschüss.

You can see the full show notes and listen to this episode > here.

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