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Renting Car in Switzerland

uop1497

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We are debating whether we should rent a car for our 1 week vacation in Switzerland. This is our first trip to visit this country. If you have any good tip /advice or experience of car renting in Geneva Airport, can you please share

At this moment DH is leaning toward to rent a car after we land at Geneva airport . The main reason we opt for a car because DH he has mobility issue and if we have a car, it will be easy since we do not have to rely on the train schedule and we can have flexibility with our own sight seeing plan.

I look at the train schedule and realise that if we book train ticket to go from place A to place B with a transfer at some point in between, DH may not able to walk fast enough to go off one train and to board another train within 5 minutes time frame.

We will stay at Résidence Mont-Calme, Nendaz, Switzerland. And having the car will be better for us to move around.

If anyone has rented a car from Geneva Airport, please let me know which company is best to rent an automatic car. Will the road to go from airport to this hotel easy ans straight forward. Our trip will be this coming September. I hope the weather still nice and pleasant.

Thank you and please advise.
 

b2bailey

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I was in Switzerland last year. I usually prefer to use public transportation, but from what I read, I knew the mountain location
would be somewhat isolated. Add mobility issues and for sure I'd get a car. I used Hertz at the Geneva train station, but I would
not recommend that location because it was very difficult to re-enter when it was time to return the car. I'd stick with an airport pickup.
The area is beautiful.
 

uop1497

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Thank you for your replyI tried to sent you a PM but I can not find the PM function any more.

Do you mind if I ask what type of car you rented in Switzerland. I take a look at the car list posted in Hertz and I see most car in the list are manual transmission.
Do you rent a GPS with your car rental. Will GPS provided by car rental company easy to use and speak and list direction driving in English.
 

b2bailey

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Had a manual transmission because I know how to drive one.

Didn't buy GPS, and there were a few moments when I wished I had it.
 

Passepartout

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In Europe, rental cars with automatic transmissions are scarce and expensive and MUST be reserved in advance. Frankly, it's easier to just become proficient with driving a standard. It isn't difficult. Also be SURE you'll be able to park a rental car wherever you are staying. Parking spaces are not plentiful. You should be able to select the language of any GPS you get (it would be in 'Settings').

What used to be called 'Private Messages in the old TUG, are now called 'Conversations'. Click on the blue username and select 'start a conversation' from the menu.

Jim
 
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Renting a GPS will be expensive however more and more cars are being produced with them built in as standard. Certainly all Mercedes and BMW models I've rented have them but also the Opel Astra and Mokka that I rented last summer came with them as standard and I also understand the new VW Golf has one. Of course there's no guarantee which is why we always bring along our old Tom Tom (you'll have to load a European map) but we've also successfully used Google maps on our phones.

We find the cars usually have the language set to English or German, someone from the rental office should be able to change the settings for you if you can't work it out.
 

uop1497

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Thanks for more valuable inputs.

DH know how to drive stick shift car. However, I prefer an automatic transmission rental car in case his foot acting up, at least I can drive the car .

Is there any thing I need to be aware when renting car in Switzerland. DH thinks we should get a digital Switzerland map and bring our own GPS from home . I am not sure whether we will come back to visit Switzerland again in the future. If you have used European map with your GPS, can you please share the different between European map and individual road map for each European countries. Will European map is much better choice compare individual road map for each country.
 

LisaH

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If you have a smartphone, you can download the google map of your trip before your journey. That way, you are not dependent on the wifi signal when driving.
I actually use an app called Map.me for oversea travels. It's an offline map and it works with or without signal. You just download the entire area of your destination prior to your visit.
 
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