Car hire vienna. When i bring my family back to my vienna hometown, we sometimes rent a car. In the last years our experience with rental cars in austria has grown. Here you will find tips to get the best deal, a checklist for rental cars and tips for driving and parking. activate also the alternative option: rent a car with driver.
The car rental company I use
Car hire vienna. a car can of course always be rented at one of the many car rental agencies at vienna international airport and at various locations in the city. if you want to do everything before you travel, book your car online. I like to compare offers from several car rental companies in certain categories. Actually since then I have been using this car rental site for austria and beyond have discovered, which makes the choice pretty painless. this option allows you to compare prices from dozens of great companies, and save time searching the internet.
The four main pick-up and drop-off points in vienna are:
vienna international airport: ideal for setting off virtually anywhere, especially in hungary, slovakia, the czech republic and the rest of austria; (get ideas and practical information from my austria travel guide); NOTE: you can check with each car offered on the car rental page to see if an airport surcharge is included in the price.
Vienna city center: good location for a trip from your central hotel to harder to reach places in vienna and surrounding areas, for example to empress sissi’s hidden hermes villa, and the lake grotto in hinterbruhl, europe’s largest underground lake and former nazi aircraft factory;
vienna main station (vienna main station): actually as good as vienna city center; best place for vienna forest, graz, burgenland and lake neusiedl and other parts of southern austria.
vienna west train station: from there, it’s best to head west, for example to salzburg, the salzkammergut, the wachau, innsbruck and the alps.
car rental vienna and all over austria
Use the search box below to compare different offers. if you want a different pick up location, click on the city, pick up location fields and choose your settings. Then choose your preferred rental dates.
car rental vienna: things to know
- You have to at least 19 years be old and have a driver’s license for at least one year.
- If you are under 25 years old, check the surcharge policy of your car rental company, as some charge a little more for young drivers.
- If you are not a resident of the EU, you will need a international driver’s license.
- If you air miles and want to use it, inquire about them before renting a car. Each car rental company has its own guidelines.
- The restrictions on alcohol consumption for drivers, as in most other european countries, the rate is 0.5 per mille, and for young drivers 0.1 per mille. as a general guideline: most people reach 0 after a bottle of beer.4 promille, although these values can vary greatly between individuals.
- Speed limits:
- Vienna and other cities: 50 km / h
- Interurban roads: 100 km / h
- Freeways: 130 km / h
car rental vienna: checklist
It pays to include add-ons in your offer, for which separate fees are normally charged. vienna as a rental location is not different. here are some tips i have compiled from our previous car rentals there. the screenshot below shows you an example of a good car rental where most add-ons are included in the price.
Navigation systems: most rental companies now offer navigation systems that are useful both inside and outside vienna.
Insurance: austria, like all european countries, requires legal liability insurance. The minimum insurance amount required by austrian law for personal and bodily injury is six million euros per accident. This is three times the amount of insurance recommended by the Austrian Motorists’ Association (oAMTC) for rental cars.
however, liability insurance only covers the cost of damage to third parties, not to your own rental vehicle, regardless of whether the damage is your fault or the fault of the other party. If you would also like to be insured for damage to your rental car, inquire about a fully comprehensive cover and find out which areas of the car it covers.
Many car rental companies in vienna include fully comprehensive insurance in their prices (as ‘my’ car rental company does). in addition, you can also contact your credit card insurer contact them as some of them may cover your car rental insurance free of charge as part of their service package to you.
highway tax : if you want to drive outside vienna, make sure that a toll sticker (vignette ) included in your car rental. vienna itself does not require one, but all freeways do.
Additional driver: usually car rental companies charge a surcharge for an additional driver. select in the left navigation bar of the car rental site "additional driver free of charge" select to view the available offers.
winter tires: in austria, vehicle owners have to drive their vehicles between the XNUMX. November and the XNUMX. equip april with winter tires. This law also applies to rental cars. vienna, however, usually maintains its roads well at all times of the year. make sure that your car rental company has equipped your selected car with suitable tires this season. This is an extra charge in most cases. If you cause an accident while driving a car without winter tires during the relevant period, your fully comprehensive insurance may not cover the cost of the damage.
Child seats and booster seats: if you travel with children under XNUMX years travel, these baby seats (XNUMX to XNUMX kg), child seats (XNUMX to XNUMX kg) and booster seats (from approx. XNUMX kg, depending on the size of the child).
premium location: some car rental companies charge additional fees for rentals at airports, train stations or other locations in the city center.
Crossing country borders: for insurance reasons, most companies do not allow their customers to drive into certain eastern european countries to drive, such as albania, bosnia, bulgaria or serbia, especially if they drive luxury brand cars. In some cases, the car rental company may grant permission for an additional charge. There may also be restrictions on driving luxury brand cars after italy enter.
Contract Fee: all (car rental) companies in austria are legally obligated to charge a contract fee of 1 percent if the contract exceeds a value of 150 EUR.
What does a good car rental look like?
car rental vienna. in the following screenshot i show you the ideal offer you should look for. It meets most of the above criteria. No matter which vehicle category you choose, try to check off as many of these boxes as possible.
As a rule, you will receive offers in your national currency.
rent a car and driver
some of my users prefer to rent a car with driver for day trips and transfers to other cities. you can drive as close as from the airport to your local hotel, or even as far as venice. here are some ready made transfer offers with car and driver.
Car sharing in vienna
An alternative car rental option is car sharing. you can rent a car for as long as you want, starting from one minute and going up to three days. for example you can find drivenow cars in the streets of vienna and rent them. You don’t have to go to a car rental agency as everything is done through an app.
Drivenow also offers free carsharing, so you can start and end the rental at different locations in vienna. car sharing can be a perfect alternative to car rental in vienna. learn more about how you can use drivenow carsharing in vienna.
driving in vienna
as soon as you have managed the car rental vienna moves. driving in vienna is less stressful than in many big cities. The city is characterized by the quite well structured ringstrasse vienna and the outer ringstrasse, called belt. click for a map of vienna for further reference. However, some of the street signs and one-way maze of vienna’s old town are best managed with a navigation system.
Although they are reasonably careful, the viennese do not have a reputation for being polite drivers. It’s best to manage your expectations and not take certain reactions from local drivers to heart!
parking in vienna
Since renting a car is only the first step in enjoying my hometown smoothly on four wheels, this post on car rental in vienna also includes tips for local parking. some of these i had to learn the hard way when i owned a car there.
Vienna’s city center (erster bezirk) and most of the surrounding districts (2 to 9 and 20) are short term parking zones from monday to friday between 9 and 10 a.m. There you can get a ticket with a valid parking ticket park for a maximum of two hours, which requires prepaid parking tickets. These short term parking zones are only displayed at the entrances, so you will not see any other signs within the zones.
However, there may be signs indicating different rules along shopping streets give. As for short term parking tickets, you can buy them on weekdays and Saturdays (until XNUMX o’clock) at local newsagents (shops ). What to do outside business hours?
I’ll let you in on a secret (it’s still a secret as I’ve tested it with local waiters and even my vienna family): you can buy parking tickets at most local metro stations. Use the touchscreens there. The main menu shows the option for parking tickets (parking tickets ) below right.
alternatively, after registration, you can buy parking tickets via sms with your cell phone. (this is also possible with foreign cell phones.)
SMS number: +43 664 660 09 90 or 0828/20 200 (for national phones)
info hotline: +43 664 (0) 820 660 09 90
The two available ticket types are valid for one hour and for XNUMX minutes. You can place tickets behind the windshield of your car for a maximum of two hours, but then replace them with new valid tickets.
Alternatively you can use the many parking garages in the city. They are usually pretty safe, and many of them offer special parking for ladies. The prices range from EUR XNUMX to ca. EUR XNUMX per hour.
by the way: if you do not show a valid parking ticket, your total rental car costs may increase: vienna traffic cops can impose fines of up to XNUMX EUR collect.
find out in vienna travel planning service if a travel planner and travel consultant can make a difference to your trip.