After visiting over 10 different countries, I finally took a stab at driving overseas during my recent trip to Germany. Renting a car is IMHO a must for Germany if you plan on visiting the best FKKs as the closest major FKK to downtown Frankfurt is at least a 30 euro ride (currently $38 US) by taxi each way according to a couple of guys I spoke with who arrived by taxi.

Since I do not have a lot of experience with renting cars and driving outside of the US (except my own car in Mexico) I cannot guarantee the accuracy of everything I post here. However, given my experience on my recent trip (d'Achtung, Baby! Dart's Trip to Frankfurt, Germany), I thought this topic would be very useful for a newbie visitor to Germany in knowing what to expect. Perhaps others will correct any information I get wrong or add their own supplementary comments.

Renting the Car

Many popular auto rental companies such as Avis, Enterprise, and Hertz offer car rentals in Germany. My choice based on my research for quality at a budget price, was Sixt (http://www.sixtusa.com/), a company that provides car rental services throughout Europe. If you take part in any reward programs, you may want to check with partner companies first as the point benefits may outweigh additional cost. Sixt was not one of the partners for my AA program, but expense was my primary concern for my Germany trip.

All that is required for the rental, at least from Sixt, is a valid drivers license and a valid credit card with a high enough limit to cover a hold they'll place on the card. The hold they placed on my card was $1100 US.

My Citibank Card provided CDW coverage (Collision Damage Waiver). I think most major credit card companies provide this and I believe it was necessary for my rental according to a Sixt representative I spoke with, but I did not recall reading this on the Sixt site. I verified the CDW with a Citibank representative so I didn't think much of it beyond that.

Optional coverage can be purchased for variable rates depending on the car you select. I purchased all three options for additional coverage for collision, liability, and theft. This added about $23 US per day to my rental.

The car I selected was the second least expensive option at $250 US for one week. (I only needed six days, but the weekly rate is less expensive)

One option I very strongly suggest while driving in Germany is a navigation system, read on to see why. At Sixt there was no additional charge for Mercedes A-class cars and above. I selected the navigation system as an option when I made the online reservation, but I still had to point this out at the counter when I picked up the car.

Two fine print details that add a significant chunk to your bill are taxes and a service fee if you pick up the car at the airport. The airport fee is a percentage of your total bill from my understanding, so the longer you rent and the nicer the car that you get, the higher the airport service fee is going to be. You may be able to save a significant chunk by using public transport to get to and from a car rental agency outside of the airport, that'll be up to you whether or not saving that money is important.

If you are concerned about the expenses, you may want to go over all the details with a representative beforehand. That'll also help to avoid any surprises.

Also, don't forget that gas will be a significant expense. My car was at least $80 US to fill the tank.

Streets and Freeways

I've seen road layouts from across the US as well as various countries in Central America, South America, and Asia, but never had I seen as complex a layout as I saw in Germany. Freeway exits were relatively few and far between and often twisted around in such a manner that you could not see where they led to. Finding a way back onto the freeway after getting off also seemed unusually complex. In town, the grid patterns I've become accustomed to seemed to be much less prevalent in Germany. All too often I found myself in confusing mazes of winding streets, oddly formed roundabouts, and visually busy intersections. I probably spent 7 hours lost in my first two and a half days until I figured out the navigation system. For this reason I highly recommend figuring it out before driving away from the rental company. Details on the navigation system I used are detailed below.

There ARE speed limits on the autobahn (freeway) at many points. If you see the small, circular speed limit signs (both the signs and your spedometer should be in kilometers) then stay at least close to the maximum if you go over. According to Peter29, you have a 10% cushion in going over, beyond that and you risk a ticket. You'll unlikely see police cars on the freeway, I only saw one the whole six days, instead you'll be caught by hidden camera. I felt very lucky in not getting a ticket after my experience documented in my report as I had read that you could expect a fat bill from the rental company when you returned the car. Peter29 said the fine wasn't for the example I laid out at 100 euros ($128 US), but why waste money or risk an accident...drive conservatively.

Some parts of the city have street cars that run on tracks on the same roads with no divider to separate them from your car. This seemed dangerous to me and might be a little discomforting for some when you've driving parallel to the tracks or when reaching an intersection where the tracks branced in different directions. You may wish to be a little more cautious when driving near these.

Lights were often (always? I don't remember for sure) at the near end of the street rather than across on the other side, so I often found myself leaning forward to look up at the light when pulling too close to the intersection. I did not see any cars making right turns at red lights so I didn't do so either. Perhaps someone else can clarify that.

Most driving signs were easy to follow as they closely resembled our own, but one thing I did notice were dotted lines at some intersections which appeared to serve as yield signs based on how other cars were stopping at them. They only stopped when other cars were at the intersection.

Navigation System

If you have any trouble with the navigation system, check the door panels or the glove compartment for the instruction manual. Part of it should be in English.

Accodring to Peter29, most navigation systems should be the same, or at least look and operate in a similar manner. The following description is based on the navigation system in my Renault Megane.

You'll unlikely find a large color screen like on the high end GPS systems, instead it will likely share the same display panel used to show the time and radio station. There will be a CD player, but you'll be unable to use it as the navigation system utilizes software on CD. The controls will likely blend in with the rest of the dashboard, consisting of only about 4 buttons and a small dial that can be turned or pushed.

The first button should say "Nav" and needs to be pushed to initiate the navigation system. On your first start-up, it will likely say something in German along with two selection boxes at the bottom for "OK" and "Sprech". You'll want to turn the dial to highlight "Sprech" and push it in to select. You'll then be presented with a list of languages. Select "English" and press the dial in again. Most of the rest is self-explanatory, but for more details, read on.

Now that your display is in English, everytime you enter navigation mode the first thing that will pop up is something like "Please follow RTR" along with the choices of "OK" or "Lang". Select "OK" to proceed.

The following screen is the main menu, and can be returned to from other screens by pressing "Menu" located next to the "Nav" button. The other two buttons are a picture of a flag and the letter "C". I never used the flag button so I don't know what that's for, but I think the "C" was a cancel button that worked like a delete button or to back out of an option. I'm not certain on this, though.

The main menu options are as follows:
Navigation
Destination Memory
Save Position
Language
Settings
Delete Last

You can select either "Navigation" or "Destination Memory" to get started. I recommend the latter so that you don't have to re-input addresses. Once you have addreses stored, all you have to do is go into the Destination Memory option and select "Show List", then select from one of the addresses you've stored.

Storing a destination is easy. From the Destination Memory menu, select "Add Destination". You'll then be presented with an alphabetical character list from which you'll want to start spelling the name of the TOWN. Make sure you know the town names for all your planned destinations. You may select "OK" before completing the spelling, if you do and there are multiple town names that start with what you've spelled thus far, they'll be presented in a list from which you can select your town. If you spell enough of the name to limit it to one town, the system will automatically exit the character list and give you the single town name to select.

You'll be unable to spell anything incorrectly, as the system will only show letters that will let you continue to spell an existing name. For example, if the first letter you select is "F", a whole bunch of letters will disappear from the list such as the letter "Q", since there is no town or street that beings with "FQ". Note that there will also be accented characters beneath the regular character list. i.e., you will not be able to spell Dusseldorf as I do in this report to save copy and paste time, you'll have to spell it correctly as Düsseldorf (ü instead of u).

Once the town is selected, you'll be prompted to spell and select the street name. This works exactly the same way. Once the town and street are selected, you can start the navigation. I found all of my destinations in this manner. I breezed through the instruction manual on my last day, supposedly you can continue to enter the exact street address, but I never tried.

In place of inputting an address, you can also generate a route to a "point-of-interest" such as an airport, a gas station, or other places. You can do this by selecting "P.O.I" from the "Navigation" menu. You'll still need to specify the town name.

You may also change "Route Settings" under the "Mavigation" menu such as to bypass toll-routes or account for traffic conditions, but I have no experience with this as I left it alone. One of the defaults seems to be to account for traffic conditions. On that day the system alerted me that it was calculating an alternative route to bad traffic conditions which I did in fact see.

Once you've started your journey, you'll be prompted by both the display and a voice with instructions. Your first instruction will likely to drive straight ahead or make a U-turn if you're in the middle of a street, or to turn if you are stopped at a corner. If you are in a parking lot, you may be instructed to drive in the direction indicated by the arrow on the display panel underneath the word "Offroad".

When you are instructed to drive straight, you'll see an arrow pointing straight ahead with the number of kilometers or meters left to drive. As you approach the next junction of your route, the display will change and the voice will also instruct you on what to do, such as "Turn right in 500 meters". As you get very close, the numerical display for distance will change to what looks like a declining thermometer gauge where you take action when it reaches the bottom. You'll also get the voice again, such as "Turn right now".

For the most part, this is all easy to use and follow, however there are several situations that caused me problems for which you may wish to be aware of.

1. Exits or turns that are very close together. You'll want to pay very careful attention to the distance gauge when you see these and make sure you take the corresponding action when the gauge will be closest to the button from your turn. Due to the fucked up road layouts in Germany, I saw a decent number of these and wasted time having to take alternative routes.

2. Multiple lanes, especially at roundabouts. Change lanes early, as close to when get the upcoming instruction as possible. Even though the voice and display might indicate a greater distance before the actual turn, traffic, road conditions, or even a divider may force you into the wrong position when you need to make the turn. I also saw some really fucked up roundabouts. In one instance, I was advised to take the second exit at the upcoming roundabout. However, what I saw was two lanes, one veering to the left and the other going straight ahead. Thinking the roundabout was farther up ahead, I continued straight, but that turned out to be the first exit and what didn't look anything like a roundabout.

3. Squares. I have no idea what these are or what happened when I was instructed to take the second exit at the square. All I know is that I made a wrong turn and had my route recalulated.

4. Inaccuracy. Fortunately, I there were only two instances during my trip when the navigation system was inaccurate (although it's possible there were more when I made wrong turns and had my route recalculated while thinking it was my own mistake.) In one instance, I was told to continue driving forward for 700 more meters after passing what appeared to be the correct turn, to suddenly being instruction to make a U-turn. In a more disturbing incident, the navigation system once took me on an alternative route for a place I had already been, then suddenly "got lost" and said I was off road with the arrow pointing in a direction that would have taken me off the street and into a large field with no nearby roads in sight.

With the navigation system on your side and this primer to prepare you, you should have little difficulty in getting around Germany, certainly much smoother than my two day struggle using what I thought were very well prepared maps. Good luck!

Excellent guide.

Regarding city names with ü,ö,or ä you can put just a u in and then the next letter is e. that means Düsseldorf can be spellt either Düsseldorf or Duesseldorf.

Generally it is worth it to put the street address in as well as many of the streets can be very long and it might tell you you have reached your destination when you are at the wrong end of the street and possibly 3 or 4 km away from the club.

If you are filling out the rental form on Sixt you can put multiple preferences. Most important is Navigation, but considering the price of Gas Diesel is an important feature as well. Here it is also possible to put in a request for automatic, although that is the toughest to get, about 90% of cars are manual. Which car they give you is also largely at the discretion of the people behind the counter. I always pull of great cars, but I choose my line based on sympathy factor. I use the same innate criteria for selcting counter personell that I use in picking girls to session with. It serves me well. Be friendly, but make sure you stick with your guns for the most important things to you (Navigation)

Feel free to have the people explain it to you, and make sure it works before you leave the lot. If you don't like something about your car after a day or two, just pull into a train station or any other rental agency and you can change it for another car. I have done this once or twice, it works.

Also regarding the use of ATM's. Virtually all accept Plus cards. Take as large an amount as you can for each transaction as there is a basic transaction fee of about 4-5$ per withdrawal. Use ATM's, you can find them starting at the airport. you will get the best rate

If you have a multi-band cell phone that takes SIM cards you might want to buy a german cell card. They start at 20€ and have 15€ of phoning at that. Do not use it for long distance calls, it will not last at all. But it can be very convenient to have when calling a club or a hotel for directions in case you get lost. Or possibly in calling clubs to find out how many girls are working. They are usually quite onest about this, and it can save you from a lame day.

Oh yeah,

Check with your Credit Card Company exactly what your coverage is. You opted for some unnecessary ones like passenger liability, you were driving alone. Most gold cards cover everything necessary, so it is just a waste of money. One way to avoid the additional charge for Airport tax is to prepay and get a coupon out of the states. Often this is possible through a travel agent at a discounted rate.

Regarding speeding on the autobahn.

Speed limit signs are round white signs with a black number and a red circle around it. These apply for the rest of the stretch until there is a similar sign with the same number in grey and a circle in grey and a line through it which means that it is dropped.

If the sign has another sign below it saying "bei Nässe" then this limit only applies when it is wet or raining. Generally german speed limits are only at places where it makes sense, where it is dangerous to drive quicker. It is not like the states that it is a source of income.

Most speeding violations are controlled through cameras. Generally the cameras are set to go off at 20km above the limit. They take 10% off your speed as tolerance, whatever you are above after that is what the fine is based on. If no ticket comes within 3 months then it is out of date and no longer valid.

Example - speed limit 100km. You drove 150. They calculate your 150 -10% =135

That means you are 35km above the limit. This will result in a fine of about 100€. If you are more than 40km over the limit after taking off the tolerance then you can get in some serious trouble, but that is actually dangerous.

If you do commute between Frankfurt and Düsseldorf there is a famous section on the return part where they limit the speed to 100 and they have 2 sets of cameras. It is called Elster Berg and there are huge speed limit signs above the highway, about 4 of them in a 3 km stretch. Do not speed here, you will get caught, and it is a real idiot test.

The 120 and 130km speed limits they don't take all that seriously, and they rarely take photos there. but they really mean 60 and 80km seriously, and your chances of getting caught there are bigger.

Anyone with any other questions PM me.

Thanks for this guide.

I have been getting around Germany without problems. The nav system works great as long as you have the address, which I do.

I can´t imagine I would have ever found places like Happy Garden and Wildenrath without the nav system.

Schieferhof was in a residential neighborhood! Right as I was pulling up there was a family walking their kids in front of the place and they had a baby in a stroller. LOL!

glad to here your driving is going well. I suppose I may of just had too many bitburgers when I was there


I'm looking forward to your report on the DUS FKKs!

I took video of how to use the navigation system when I was in Germany last year and have been thinking off and on about making a "HOW TO" use the navigation system video and posting it here. This was in a Mercedes Benz E 280 CDI. The video would go through changing the language from German to English, entering a city, street and then address. One common theme in reports on Germany have been not being able to get the navigation system to work. Would anyone find value in such a video if I put one together?

You should stick to Bimmers. I was in Stuttgart two weeks ago and the nav in my Hertz-Provided 520 worked flawlessly!

But yeah, I think a video would be very helpful.

I did euro delivery of a BMW and it was really easy to switch from Deutsch to English...however, if you go this route you must purchase the Europe map DVD. European delivery for BMW is highly recommended, you actually save quite a bit of $$ that pays for the trip.