Renting a Car in Czechia: Everything Went Fine Until Brno
Updated: Jul 25
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We named our sweet little rental car after a candy. That should tell you everything about how relaxed this trip was, mostly.
If you've read the 10-day Czechia road trip itinerary, you already know this trip was years in the making. A promise we made to ourselves on a train the first time we visited Czechia and left without seeing half the country. To make this trip a reality, it wasn't going to happen without a car.
So before the next post drags you off to wine country, here's the actual logistics, the documents, the rental, the roads, and the one part of this entire trip that truly tested us.
Do You Need an International Driving Permit to Drive in Czechia?
We picked up our International Driving Permit at our local BCAA office, a straightforward in-person process. It's essentially a translated duplicate of your driver's license, in multiple languages, your passport photo, and an official stamp, that's the whole document. Ours covered multiple countries and was valid for a full year.
Czechia requires non-EU visitors to carry an International Driving Permit alongside their home license. Nobody asked us for it once, not the rental company, not a single checkpoint the entire trip. It's still a real legal requirement, and at $25 CAD it’s the closest thing to a spy credential a Canadian can get at a strip mall in BC. Bond had Q. We had a very pleasant BCAA representative and a laminator.
What's It Like Renting a Car in Prague?
We picked up our rental car right at Prague's main train station, easy pickup, no drama. Whatever specific make and model we'd booked wasn't actually what we drove away in, which is just how European rentals seem to work, you book a category, not a car. We didn't mind. Our rule is always the most compact car available, European roads and parking are tight enough that smaller really is better, not just cheaper.
What we got was small, blue and white, and looked enough like a Tic Tac box that the name stuck before we'd even left the parking garage. Tictac was peppy on the highway, easy on gas, and about as far from a Bond car as it is physically possible for a vehicle to be, no ejector seat, no gadgets, not even a decent cupholder, which suited us fine since nobody in Czechia was watching to see what we drove anyway.
One thing worth flagging if you're not used to European rentals: it'll almost certainly be a manual. Automatics exist, but they're the rarer option, the kind of thing you have to specifically request and sometimes pay more for, the rental equivalent of finding a parking spot directly in front of Prague Castle on a Saturday in July.
Is Driving in Czechia Easy for Visitors?
This part was honestly easy. Czechs drive on the right, same as home. Road signs are posted in both Czech and English. The roads themselves, even the smaller secondary routes through South Moravia, were in better condition than plenty of roads back home in BC. I did most of the driving, and the only moment of real tension was untangling ourselves out of central Prague. Once we cleared the city, it was smooth the entire way, Google Maps the whole route, never once left us lost.
Parking was a non-issue almost everywhere, since most of our stops were deliberately the quieter towns rather than the famous ones. Český Krumlov was the one exception, and we'd already planned for it, a parking lot just outside the old town, found through Google Maps ahead of time, a short walk in from there. No stress, because we knew to expect it.
If you want to know what we actually did once we parked, the kayaks, the lanterns, and the iPod are all here.
One small habit worth adopting: take a photo of your license plate the moment you pick up the rental car. More than one hotel asked for make, model, and plate number at check-in, same as registering a car at home, and having the photo on hand made that a non-issue every time.
Where Do You Actually Drop Off a Rental Car in Brno?
I'm giving this part its own heading, partly because it deserves one, and partly because writing it down here is still cheaper than therapy.
The plan was clean on paper, pick up in Prague, drop off in Brno, no doubling back. Finding the actual drop-off location turned into one of the most frustrating two hours of the entire trip. We went back and forth between Brno's airport and an industrial area on the edge of the city multiple times. Even the SixT representative at the airport had no idea where the Brno drop-off actually was, and confirmed the airport itself couldn't take the car. At one point we were seriously considering just leaving Tictac on a random street near the train station and walking away.
We went back to the industrial area a second time, found the address we'd been given, and it turned out to be a small back-alley mechanic shop. The two guys working there could see exactly how frustrated we were. They pulled out their own phones, helped us track down the actual location, and then, while they were at it, sat us down, opened their beer fridge, and gave us each a beer while they called SixT directly to sort out where we actually needed to be. We finished the beers, drove around the half-block to the real address, and parked in a business parking lot in front of a building that turned out to be nothing but a wall of mailboxes for different companies. No staff, no counter, nobody.
I walked in. Walked back out. Walked back in again. Finally, out of pure desperation, I read every single mailbox label until I found it, "Sixt," in tiny print, barely legible, with a small slot underneath for the key. I dropped the key in, ran back to the car, and told my husband I'd found it with the energy of someone who'd just taken first place on The Amazing Race.
One practical note if this happens to you too: nobody was there to inspect the car or confirm the drop-off in person, so we photographed Tictac from every angle, along with the date and time, before we walked away. Worth doing regardless of how the drop-off goes, but especially if you find yourself dropping a key into an unmarked mailbox slot with zero human contact to back you up.
Practical Tips for Self-Driving Czechia
Get the International Drivers Permit even if you're fairly sure nobody will check it, $25 CAD is nothing against the alternative.
Book the smallest car category available, European roads and parking reward it. Expect a manual unless you've specifically requested and paid for an automatic.
Photograph your license plate at pickup, hotels ask for it at check-in. And if your rental is one-way into a smaller city, build in extra time for the drop-off, ours took the better part of an afternoon longer than it should have.
Planning to visit Europe this summer? The EU Entry Exit System is now fully operational at all Schengen borders since April 2026. Czechia is part of the Schengen zone, so this applies on arrival regardless of which border you cross first. No pre-registration needed but budget extra time at border control on your first entry.
ETIAS, the EU's new pre-travel authorisation system, is coming in late 2026 and isn't required yet, but check travel-europe.europa.eu/etias before you book if you're travelling after Q4 2026.
If your trip includes a UK stopover, the UK ETA is also required, apply at gov.uk/eta before you fly.
Self-Drive Czechia: The Honest Answer
Yes, absolutely, rent the car. Nothing about this trip, Hluboká nad Vltavou, the wine country detours, the quiet roads through South Moravia, or spending two nights in Karlovy Vary would have worked nearly as well without one. The driving itself was some of the easiest we've done in Europe, well-marked, well-maintained, and never once stressful beyond the first twenty minutes out of Prague.
Just build in a little extra patience for the drop-off if you're doing a one-way rental into a smaller city. Brno worked out fine in the end, with two strangers and a couple of free beers to thank for it. But it's the one part of this whole self-drive plan I'd tell you to expect to take longer than the map says it should.
If you want help mapping a self-drive route that actually works for how you travel, I'd love to put one together for you. And if you'd rather get stories like this one before they hit the blog, that's exactly what Travel Notes From Seat 12A is for, the next issue from this trip lands there first.
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