Parking Garages outside town

Hello,

I have read that there are guarded parking garages outside the city that you can leave your car for a couple days. Does anyone have experience with these? We don%26#39;t want to drive in the city, so we are either going to leave our car in one of these and take public transportation to our hotel in Old Town, or simply wait to rent a car upon leaving the city (the downside here is that we need to drop it off in another country to the fees are large). Any advice would be appreciated!

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What is your itinerary? You should ask yourselves whether you really need to bring a car as public transport is cheap, comfortable, efficient and goes almost everywhere.

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I just stumbled on this map -- shows all the metro stations with Park and Ride (marked P+R):

http://www.ropid.cz/cz/mapy/p-r.gif

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Thanks Brewsta! I will look into it further. We do need a car as we want to go off the beaten path and explore smaller towns that don%26#39;t offer efficient public transportation.

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I don%26#39;t know what the price of the out of town garages is. But when I picked up my BMW from Munich last year, I kept it garaged in the Marriott parking lot without problems in the center of the city. And then used it for day trips from time-to-time.

I remember it being expensive, but no more so than NYC.

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Just make sure you stick to the rules of the road, especially:

- speed limits. They are very strict about this.

- give way from right (or is it left?) if you are not on the main highway (not always obvious!) or you will get some irate fist-waving :)

- remember - trams stop for nobody, especially lost tourists!

- if you go on a motorway, you will need a motorway sticker (%26#39;kolek%26#39;) or you will get heavily fined

- keep your dipped headlights on at all times or you will get fined as well

- be careful when parking in Prague outside authorised car parks - they don%26#39;t tend to issue tickets, but tow the thing away to a pound that is far out of the city.

If you can, get yourself a sat nav, or you will inevitably get very lost if you have never been there before. Just don%26#39;t leave it (or any other valuables) in your car.

As a matter of interest, what are the places off the beaten track that can%26#39;t be reached by public transport? I would be interested to know that :)

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Thanks for the info on rules of the road! We are planning on heading to Cesky Krumlov and seeing a couple castles that people on tripadvisor had recommended along the way. I realize busses go here, but then we are heading to Austria -Salzburg/Hallstat and other small towns TBD (my family lived in Austria/Germany so I have traveled there a lot). So, it would give us more freedom to travel around by car.

Where do you get the motorway pass?

My parents went to Prague last summer and have contact there whom I forgot about. They are going to contact her, too, so I will post any advice she has in case others are curious.

Thanks again.

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You can get them at pretty much any gas station - ask for or, better still, write down: TÝDENNÍ DÁLNIČNÍ KOLEK, PROSÍM (Weekly motorway sticker, please) - they cost 220 Crowns. You will only need this if you are likely to venture onto a motorway.

You will also need one in Austria, but you will know that if you lived there - a 10 day sticker costs 7.60 Euros (%26#39;10-tage vignette%26#39;). Again, you can get one of these in gas stations either in Austria or on the Czech side of the border.

Fines in Austria and the Czech Republic are hefty and on-the-spot so make sure you have a fund ready with you :)

Also make sure you have NO alcohol in you - there is zero tolerance - a few beers the evening before can easily catch you out.

I presume you will be returning the car to the same place that you hired it from?

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GCEK,

Thanks for your input, but it doesn%26#39;t seem like we%26#39;re on the same page on this one (as far as traveling via public trans). Unless the laws have changed, we have never needed a pass in Austria but I do see that we need one in CR. I%26#39;ll keep up the research and hopefully find some additional information that will help us plan our trip. All the best in your future travels.

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Yes - you do need one in Austria - you have needed one for many years! Maybe you have been lucky in the past :)

www.oeamtc.at/index.php… The fine for driving on a motorway without one is 3000 Euro, so better safe than sorry - again, like the Czech Republic, you only need this is you are planning to use the motorway network. Before you get on such a road it will be well signposted %26#39;nur mit vignette%26#39;.

Driving can be great in the Czech Republic, especially off the main roads, but you do need to be aware of the drawbacks!

Happy driving!

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GCEK is right about the highway pass in Austria. You will see signs about buying them as you cross the border.