How are you going to get around once you are in Europe? There are options. Your choices depend largely on the level of flexibility you require. Driving in Europe is more economical if you have more people in your travel party. But, if you are nervous about driving in a strange country (and in the U.K., concerned about driving on the wrong side of the road sitting on the wrong side of the car) and you can make public transportation work, it can be a highlight of your trip.
Driving in Europe was our exclusive mode of transportation on our first few forays overseas. I should also note that, being frugal, we rented manual transmission vehicles (much more common in Europe) and we did not have GPS. We got lost. We got testy. We got separated from our travel companions. We struggled with parking. We incurred tickets. We spent some quality white-knuckle time on the road. We also had some interesting adventures that we wouldn’t have had otherwise. Even so, our approach now is to travel by train as much as possible and rent vehicles only for regions that are best explored with the utmost flexibility. We have also decided that the extra expense for automatic transmission and GPS are worthwhile expenses for eliminating stress.
Driving in Europe
As mentioned above, manual cars are the rule in Europe. If you want an automatic transmission, you must book from the States and book early. It does cost more to have an automatic transmission but it’s worth the expense if you are not accustomed to driving stick. Many of the U.S. car rental companies have offices in Europe. My approach to researching rental cars is similar to my approach to researching flights. Start with the consolidators – i.e., Expedia, Travelocity, etc. to see who has what available. Then go directly to the rental car company’s site for the actual booking. If you are really going to be off the beaten path, you may not find anything from a U.S. company available. There are European car companies and consolidators as well with Europcar and Sixt probably the most prevalent.
Cars usually come with unlimited mileage and you can cross borders. However, you will save money if you pick up and return your car in the same country. On our honeymoon to the Alps, we picked up our rental car in Lugano, Switzerland and returned it in Zurich (from where we were flying home) even though the car was primarily driven in Austria.
If you are going to rent a car for only a part of your trip, I recommend researching how you will get to the car rental agency from your hotel. For example, when we went to Italy, we did most of the trip by train. We did not want to drive in Rome and couldn’t drive in Venice or the Cinque Terre. We took the train to Florence and picked up a car for our stay in Tuscany and returned it at the airport in Rome. We needed directions from the train station in Florence to the car rental office (we walked about four blocks). The easiest way to do this is with Googlemaps where they will provide walking and public transit options for you. When you have booked your car and gotten your directions to the rental office (if necessary), copy and past your confirmation and your directions into your powerpoint deck.
The next part of your research is to get driving directions to the places you want to go. I always start with the door to door directions from hotel to hotel including any stops along the way you want to make. This map becomes the overview of your entire trip. Then I break it down to the detail for each leg of the journey and zoom into the detail for my starting and ending points. I copy the step by step directions and the maps into the powerpoint deck. Next I will map the directions for any day trips from each of the hotels, again zooming into the detail for the beginning and end of each drive. Even though we have GPS, it is helpful to have these maps as reference because the GPS doesn’t show you your entire route.
Driving in Europe is an adventure. European drivers tend to be aggressive. Streets in small towns are narrow. Parking can be a challenge. Gas is expensive and the prices listed are by the liter (about a quart). Roundabouts are common and can be confusing if you are not used to them. Miles are posted in kilometers. Signage takes some getting used to. It is always smart to know the towns along your route because you will generally find that signs (particularly at roundabouts) list the next decent-sized town, not necessarily the one you are headed for. Idiosyncrasies abound. In Seville, Spain, people park on the street but fold their side mirrors in because the streets are so narrow. In France and Italy there are expensive tolls on the main highways. In the U.K. and Ireland, the driver sits on the right side of the car and you drive on the left side of the road.
If you are looking for the ultimate flexibility and have an open mind, driving in Europe could be your best option.
We have done trips entirely by car and enjoyed them immensely. However, we usually plan our trips to combine driving with other modes of transportation depending on our needs. The following are several of our itineraries that combined multiple modes of transportation.
The Alps: This was the first trip using the combined transportation strategy. We spent six days in Switzerland – two in the French part (Montreaux), two in the German part (Lauterbrunnen), and two in the Italian part (Lugano). This part of the trip was done entirely by rail. The Swiss have this down to a science. Trains are always on time and schedules are such that we never waited more than 15-20 minutes for connecting trains. In Lugano we picked up a rental car that we used for our week in Austria and that we returned in Zurich on our way home.
Italy: Our trip started in Rome for four nights, moved onto Venice for three, then to the Cinque Terre for four before heading to Tuscany. We traveled by train throughout until we went to Tuscany where we picked up a car in Florence to allow us flexibility to tour the hill towns and wine routes of that area before returning to Rome to fly home. This worked for us as Rome is really challenging to drive in and you can’t drive in Venice or the Cinque Terre.
Germany: Our most recent trip started in Berlin for four nights so we chose to use public transportation while there but secured a rental car for the remainder of our trip. We also made use of the ferry system on the Rhine.
My next post will help you research and plan travel on public transportation in Europe.
