I am renting a car to drive from Paris to Basel -- I need to drop some things off near the Basel SBB station, then I will return the car to the airport in Basel (French side).

I am assuming that a car picked up in Paris will not have a vignette. Can someone give me directions on crossing the border and staying off the motorways in Basel? I guess I will not need to use the motorways for such a short, inner-city journey.

If you have a GPS, it gives you the chance to select "Avoid Motorways/toll roads" when you plan your route (some cases you need to search for this in the Settings of the GPS system), use this function and you'll be fine

Drive through Saint-Louis and then cross the border so you are near the tram stop "St Louis Grenze"

Map

Hi Village Idiot.

If you come down the main motorway (A35/E35) can't remember which is the correct number. You can go through the border with France and Switzerland with no problem. I did this the first time I arrived, the border guard asked me where I was going, at the time I was going to inspect where I was going to work at the airport. As my journey didn't involve any travel on the swiss motorway system (I took the first exit which is also the exit for Basel SBB) I didn't have to buy a vignette.
Hope this helps.....Mike

Hi Village Idiot,

If you come by the A35, you can come off at junction 37 and turn left at the T junction. Then turn left again at the roundabout and basically just head straight on to the boarder!

Here's a Google Map of the route, in case it's any help;

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&so...8&ie=UTF8&z=13

Hope this helps

I'll echo what Mike Frewer says- come into Basel on the Autoroute, and at the border, tell the customs bloke you are only going to Basel and will not use the Autobahns. After the border, take the first exit off to the right (signed towards Allschwil). They will not make you buy a vignette. My parents do this every time they visit me. It will be quicker than taking a detour.