Renting a Car in Nuremberg: The Honest Guide

If you need a rental car in Nuremberg there are three realistic places to collect it: the desks at the Hauptbahnhof (main station) and around the Altstadtring, the rental stations at Nuremberg airport, and the depots in the commercial districts on the edge of town. Arriving by train, collect at the Hauptbahnhof; flying in, collect at the airport; living in Nuremberg and needing a car for one weekend, you are usually better served by a station outside the ring, because that is where the vans and larger vehicles are and you do not have to drive out through the old town.

The second half of the answer is less comfortable. In Nuremberg, as everywhere in Germany, the trouble rarely starts on the road. It starts at the counter: the deposit, the excess, the fuel policy and the extras that only appear at handover. This guide covers both, the local practice in Nuremberg and the points that make a rental contract expensive at the desk.

Collecting in Nuremberg: main station, airport or the edge of town

Nuremberg is compact, which makes the choice easier than in bigger cities. The airport sits to the north and is a short underground ride from the centre, and the Hauptbahnhof is right on the southern edge of the old town. In practice, neither option costs you half a day. What matters more is opening hours, Sunday returns, and whether you have to move the car through the old town at all.

A one-way rental, collecting in Nuremberg and returning elsewhere, is usually possible but carries a surcharge. All that matters is that the surcharge is visible before you pay. If you need a van for a move, a motorhome for a holiday or a campervan for a long weekend, a marketplace like DRIVO lists those wherever local supply actually exists, not only cars.

What the displayed price has to include

A rental price is only information if it is complete. This is exactly where transparent offers part company with bait prices: the figure on the search page should be the figure you pay at the end. With DRIVO the price is broken down before you pay.

• Every cost is shown before you pay, including the DRIVO service fee on the rental, which appears as its own line and is refunded with a free cancellation or an agency cancellation.
• Confirmation is instant, so you are not waiting for the station to reply.
• Free cancellation up to 48 hours before pick-up.
• The amount of the security deposit and what is included are visible before you book, not only in the contract.
• An optional full-protection add-on can be added at checkout and lowers the excess.
• Listings and support come in five languages: English, French, Spanish, Italian and Arabic.
• WhatsApp and in-app concierge support for when something at the station is unclear.

With any offer, wherever you book, ask three things: what the cover excludes, how high the excess is, and what the fuel policy says. Tyres, underbody, glass and the roof are the classic exclusions, and those are exactly where damage happens in a Franconian winter.

Deposit and excess: two different things

The deposit is security. It is reserved on your card at handover and released after a proper return. It is not a price but a blocked amount, and it can also cover missing fuel or a parking penalty. Depending on your bank, release takes a few days; that is normal and not a dispute.

The excess is something else entirely: the share of a damage bill you carry yourself. It only falls due if something actually happens. A full-protection add-on lowers it, but it does not automatically remove the exclusions above. Plan, too, for the fact that most stations want a credit card in the main driver's name; a debit card is not accepted everywhere. The rental conditions say so in advance, and this is the most common reason a handover fails.

Parking, the old town and the low-emission zone

Nuremberg is straightforward to drive and demanding to park in, and both facts concentrate inside the old-town ring. Do not count on finding a kerbside space there; budget for a car park from the start.

• Bewohnerparken (residents' parking): large parts of the Altstadt and the neighbouring districts are residents' parking areas. During the hours shown on the small supplementary sign, only vehicles with a residents' permit may park there; outside those hours anyone may. Read the supplementary sign, not just the main one.
• Pedestrian zones and closed lanes: several old-town streets are closed to through traffic or open to deliveries only. Satellite navigation will still sometimes send you in.
• Car parks: the city routes traffic to the garages on the ring with a parking guidance system. For vans and motorhomes the decisive figure is the entrance height, not the price.
• Umweltzone (low-emission zone): Nuremberg itself does not currently run one. The rules and the list of affected cities change, so always check your route with the City of Nuremberg's own website and with each destination city, and ask the station which windscreen sticker the vehicle carries.

Driving in Franconia: Autobahn, country roads and winter

Nuremberg sits at an Autobahn junction, and that is the real reason a rental car pays off here: the A3, the A6 and the A9 put you quickly on the way towards Würzburg, Regensburg, Munich or Berlin. On the Autobahn itself precision matters, because a lot of nonsense is told about it abroad. On a large part of the network there is no general speed limit. Where none is posted, the Richtgeschwindigkeit of 130 km/h applies, and that is explicitly a recommendation, not a limit. On the remaining stretches the posted limit applies, often 100 km/h, 120 km/h or 130 km/h, for instance on city approaches, through roadworks and in noise-sensitive areas. Drive faster than the Richtgeschwindigkeit and you can be held partly liable, Mithaftung, after a crash, even if you did nothing else wrong.

• Inside built-up areas the limit is 50 km/h; outside them it is 100 km/h for cars, unless signs say otherwise.
• The blood alcohol limit is 0.5 per mille. For novice drivers in their probationary period and for everyone under 21 it is 0.0 per mille, an absolute ban on alcohol.
• A warning triangle, a high-visibility vest and a first-aid kit must be carried in the vehicle. Check at handover that they are there.
• On the Autobahn you keep right and you do not overtake on the right. In slow-moving traffic you form a Rettungsgasse, an emergency corridor between the left-hand lane and the one beside it.
• For cars the German Autobahn is toll-free. In Austria and Switzerland, by contrast, you need a Vignette, and you buy it before the border.

Germany's winter tyre rule is situational: it depends on road conditions, not on a calendar date. In snow, ice or slippery frost a vehicle must not be running on summer tyres. For the Fränkische Schweiz and the Oberpfalz between autumn and spring that means asking about the tyres before you book and getting the answer in writing, rather than hoping for it at the desk.

Trips that genuinely justify a rental car in Nuremberg

The city itself is for walking and the underground. A car only starts to earn its keep once you head out, because the good Franconian destinations sit exactly where the train runs once an hour or does not run at all.

• Fränkische Schweiz: castles, rock formations and dripstone caves around Pottenstein, Ebermannstadt and Egloffstein, comfortable to drive in a day.
• Bamberg: a World Heritage old town and Klein-Venedig, barely an hour north, with Schloss Seehof and the former Ebrach monastery in the surrounding countryside.
• Romantische Straße: Rothenburg ob der Tauber to the west, best early in the morning before the coaches arrive.
• Regensburg and the Oberpfalz: the Danube, an old town and lakes to the east, a good run for a day with several stops.
• Nuremberg as a base: the city sits conveniently between Munich and Berlin, which makes it a sound stopover on a longer trip.

The points that get expensive at the counter

Almost everything that goes wrong with a rental can be prevented in the first twenty minutes. This order works:

1. 1Before booking, check that the displayed price includes everything, and save the breakdown.
2. 2Bring the card named in the conditions, in the main driver's name, and settle the deposit question beforehand.
3. 3Photograph the vehicle all the way round at handover, including wheels, glass, roof and interior, and have every mark entered on the handover report.
4. 4Note the fuel level and the agreed fuel policy, and refuel near the station before you return.
5. 5Ask about the tyres, the mandatory equipment and the vehicle height if you intend to use a car park.
6. 6At return, get written confirmation that the vehicle came back without new damage, and keep that document.

None of these steps costs money, and together they spare you the unpleasant phone call two weeks after the trip. If something at the station is unclear, sort it out there before you sign, not afterwards.