Car rental in Switzerland is nastily expensive, double the cost of neighbouring European countries and up to three times as expensive as in the US. For unlimited kilometrage on the smallest car, you’re looking at a minimum of Fr.130 a day. Prices are much lower if you include a Saturday night; Budget, for example, has a three-day weekend deal at Fr.190. However, it’s significantly cheaper to rent in advance from offices of the international agencies in your home country (see box opposite). If you’re already in Switzerland, you can save money by renting via the Internet or by shelling out a franc or two to call the US offices of the big agencies and rent from them direct with a credit card.

The big agencies comprehensively cover Switzerland, with offices in all major towns, most minor ones, and at all airports. One-way rentals are simple to arrange, although they usually attract a handling fee. Hertz has a deal with SBB whereby you can reserve, pick up or drop off cars at any of 700 train stations across the country, also for a surcharge. There are dozens of smaller local rental companies in most towns, usually operating out of ordinary petrol stations or garages, with mostly trustworthy cars at prices that undercut the big agencies’ walk-in rates: find them in the phonebook under Autovermietungen or Mietwagen, location des voitures, or noleggio di automobili.

Another way to cut costs and still get mobile is to rent a Smart car: these tiny, fuel-efficient, extremely reliable (Mercedes-built) two-person runarounds are comfortable, speedy and cheap to rent – as little as Fr.49/day gets you on the road. At the time of writing, only a handful of big agency outlets have them and even fewer local outfits. Try Smart Rent, Riva Paradiso 26, in Lugano (091/993 13 13, www.smartrent.ch), or Bantiger, Bernstrasse 37, Ostermundigen near Bern (031/932 28 88).

To rent a car, you need a valid, clean British, European or international driving licence that you’ve held for more than a year. Minimum driver’s age is 20 or 21, occasionally 25, depending on the rental company. All rental cars – identifiable by a V after the licence-plate number – have the annual motorway vignette prepaid and, in winter, are fitted with snow tyres, and supplied with snow-chains (and even a ski rack) for free.

Although it’s no problem to drive across borders in Swiss rental cars, leaving them in EU countries (on one-way rentals, for instance) invokes tides of byzantine export regulations; larger Swiss rental agencies keep a supply of vehicles with German, French or Italian plates for this purpose, which you should ask for specifically if this is what you’re planning.