Have you ever rented a car in Europe?

[Apple]

What were the pros and cons?

Was it easy to get around, park, buy fuel?

Would you do it again?

Did you attempt driving in cities, or just park outside the city and ride a bus/train in?

Were you charged any extra fees?

Is there someplace to advise NOT renting a car?

Did you take the car into the western area of eastern Europe (specifically Krakow, and Auschwitz)?  Did you have to pay more?  How common is "safe" parking in this area?

How stressful was the driving?

I hope to visit distant relatives in France.  They could be fairly spread out, so I'm thinking about renting a car for this portion of the trip, that way I can move around where I want, when I want.  I would not attempt driving in Paris, but would park somewhere along the perimeter and ride a bus in.

After France, I may take a high speed train into Germany and rent a car there (I need to do two different rentals in order for the CDW of my credit card to cover everything.  Their max is 31 days, I'll be in Europe slightly longer than that).  I would use this second car to travel around the rest of the countries.  Maybe.

A coworker told me it's a good option for Germany, that you can stay in a room in one area, and a lot of things are within a two hour drive.

I'm up in the air with it all right now.  Driving would probably give us more options and freedom, but trains and buses could allow me to relax more/take a breather. 

If I did rent, the pick-up and drop-off would be done at the same location, so I wouldn't have to worry about fees for dropping off a car somewhere else.

I'm used to driving.  Until we got a vanpool, I drove 40 miles, each way, every day for work.  I do hate city traffic though.  I have a GPS that I *think* I can load with other countries, so I need to check that.  It would be cheaper than renting a GPS from the car rental place.

So, any advise?

[Bonny]

We never rented a car while we lived in Germany but did a fair amount of driving. Besides driving a lot in Germany, we drove in France, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

I took the train several times between Bonn and Paris. And my girlfriend and I trained from Paris down to Avignon in Provence and out to Pornic (near the Brittany coast).

Overall your plan looks good although I think I would just turn in my car in Paris (or any other major city) rather than park and bus in. Parking is VERY expensive.

Make sure you are very careful with your paperwork and understand what your insurance covers vs the company's dent and damage plan.

Once I got used to driving on the Autobahn it wasn't that stressful but you need to know that passing on the right is NOT allowed. Stay in the right lane and only move to the left to pass. Speeds change a lot and you're bound to miss when they lift the speed limit until you find some *sshole in a Mercedes two inches from your bumper.

DH found driving in Italy stressful. They do drive VERY fast but I didn't find it particularly bad. We wound up compromising and I would drive in the morning from our hotel and then he would drive back after we split a bottle of wine at lunch and wandered around for a couple of hours. He was much more relaxed.

DH also drove in Scotland...until we all begged him to stop. He kept finding the curb.

[zibazinski]

Do you drive a stick? Can you shift left handed?

[Apple]

Sept 2, 2014 9:36:15 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

Do you drive a stick? Can you shift left handed?

yes and yes

[zibazinski]

 You'll be fine. It was the shift on the left side of the car that was freaky!

[Apple]

Sept 2, 2014 11:04:57 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

 You'll be fine. It was the shift on the left side of the car that was freaky!

Yea for having to drive really old, crappy "buggies" at work!

Were all the cars like that, or just some?

[zibazinski]

I didn't see any that weren't. Shifting was no problem. Other side of the road was no problem but that shift on the left instead of on the right, I managed but wasn't comfortable ever.

[Apple]

Sept 1, 2014 19:02:35 GMT -5 Bonny said:

We never rented a car while we lived in Germany but did a fair amount of driving. Besides driving a lot in Germany, we drove in France, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

I took the train several times between Bonn and Paris. And my girlfriend and I trained from Paris down to Avignon in Provence and out to Pornic (near the Brittany coast).

Overall your plan looks good although I think I would just turn in my car in Paris (or any other major city) rather than park and bus in. Parking is VERY expensive.

Make sure you are very careful with your paperwork and understand what your insurance covers vs the company's dent and damage plan.

Once I got used to driving on the Autobahn it wasn't that stressful but you need to know that passing on the right is NOT allowed. Stay in the right lane and only move to the left to pass. Speeds change a lot and you're bound to miss when they lift the speed limit until you find some *sshole in a Mercedes two inches from your bumper.

DH found driving in Italy stressful. They do drive VERY fast but I didn't find it particularly bad. We wound up compromising and I would drive in the morning from our hotel and then he would drive back after we split a bottle of wine at lunch and wandered around for a couple of hours. He was much more relaxed.

DH also drove in Scotland...until we all begged him to stop. He kept finding the curb.

I'll have to look into this more. Some of the rooms I've looked at have had free parking, and right now I don't plan to visit any one city for more than a day or two.  But... I know some rental places have an extra charge if you don't return them where you got them, so the fees may end up being about the same either way.

We don't plan to go into Italy at all.  We've "been there" so it's not on the list for this trip.  Plus, there are extra fees to drive a rental through there as well.

I'll be talking to my insurance company soon, see what I would need on there end.  My credit card won't cover CDW unless you decline the rental coverage.  So, I'll definitely have to figure out how I can look for that on an agreement as well.

I can see a lot of pros and cons to traveling both ways, but I just don't know which is right "for me" yet...

[Apple]

It looks like all the countries we'll be in will have "right hand traffic", so that should make it easier!

[Bonny]

Sept 3, 2014 15:09:22 GMT -5 Ratchets said:

I agree with Bonny on turning the car in when you get to Paris, or start the trip there and pick the car up when you are leaving.  We parked (and left) our van in a garage in Paris and it was somewhere around $90 for three days - but that was half off because of a discount from our hotel. So it gets pricey quickly.

I wouldn't care to drive in Paris or Rome, but Germany is easy-peasy even in Berlin and Munich.  Lots of parking garages too. Luxemburg/Belgium/Holland are all fine to drive in as well. France is ok outside of Paris, but almost every 4-lane highway seemed to be a toll road, and they get pricey.

I forgot about the tolls! Yes there are a lot of toll roads especially getting to and from Normandy. You will want to take them because taking the Country roads take a loooooong time.

Make sure you take a couple of credit cards. Oddly enough our USAA cc didn't work in the toll machines but the cc from my rinky dink CU did.

[Apple]

Bonny and Ratchets

Tolls are another thing I meant to ask about...

How do you do them? Is it a drive up machine, you put in your card when you pull on, and then put your card in the machine when you take an offramp, then it calculates? Or, is it just a charge for getting on? I've never driven any kind of toll road (we don't have them here), so I have no clue how it works. I've read that some areas are as much as 12 cents a mile...

When I find out where my distant relatives live, so where all I will need to visit, I'll ask for more advice regarding tolls and driving, or taking a bus/train. I'll definitely ask debthaven to chime in too!

[Bonny]

It's been a couple of years so I'm a little fuzzy. I seem to recall that you take a ticket and then feed the machine when you exit. They do charge by how long you stay on the toll road. And you do have a choice of what language you need on most of them.

[bobosensei]

You will want to make sure that you can take a rental from Germany into Eastern Europe.  I've heard that sometimes it isn't allowed or that if it is it costs extra because of the higher theft rates.  DH and I have driven our car from Germany to Prague twice and to Budapest once.  The car has always been fine, but we are careful with where we leave it.

If you decide to take the train in Germany let me know if you have questions.  The bahn.com website has an english option and you can look up information on the special fares that are offered.

[Bonny]

Sept 5, 2014 5:23:41 GMT -5 bobosensei said:

You will want to make sure that you can take a rental from Germany into Eastern Europe.  I've heard that sometimes it isn't allowed or that if it is it costs extra because of the higher theft rates.  DH and I have driven our car from Germany to Prague twice and to Budapest once.  The car has always been fine, but we are careful with where we leave it.

If you decide to take the train in Germany let me know if you have questions.  The bahn.com website has an english option and you can look up information on the special fares that are offered.

I probably wouldn't rent a car in either Prague or Budapest. Both have excellent public transportation systems.

We did rent a car in Prague to drive to Cesky Krumlov. DH used to "commute" to Prague from Bonn about 1x per month. We did a tag on to one of his work weeks. We wanted to see the Czech countryside and therefore decided to drive.

Most of "Eastern" (they prefer "Central") Europe has excellent transportation systems because under the Soviet influence most city dwellers did not own cars.

If you are going to a major city like Krakow (unfortunately we never made it) I would check the local transit and costs to fly. Ryan Air and German Wings have some pretty competitive rates. The only downside is packing. You'll want a very small carry-on to avoid paying a baggage fee.

[Bonny]

Good point Ratchets about carrying some Euro coins.

The nice thing is I think Apple is staying completely in Euro land unless she winds up making a stop in Switzerland.

I am reminded now and then how much easier it is to travel in Europe without having to change currency all the time!

[Apple]

Ok, that helps...

I know some rental agencies will charge extra to go into Poland, and some won't allow it at all, so I'll have to research that. I hope to visit Krakow and Auschwitz, but that would pretty much be it in Poland. We may look into taking a tour bus through that part, one where we get a ride to Krakow, spend a day, then a ride and tour at Auschwitz then head back.

So much planning to do!!

I think I can get a chip-and-pin cc now with Barclays, and already have a chip-and-pin with another card, but will definitely be carrying cash/change as well. Good to hear the machine at least gave change, some parking machines in Portland don't give any change at all, so if all you have is a $20, you just lost $17 or whatever.

[lynnerself]

We rented a car in Germany and in France.
DH drove, not me.

Both went OK.

I agree, DO NOT drive in Paris (or any other big city IMO).

We arranged rentals from the US before we went.

The Autobahn in Germany is a little scary. Just really easy to fly by your exit.
In France, we learned to find the cash lane for gas and tolls because they wouldn't take our American "non chip" credit cards.

We got an extremely detailed map of France. It helps a lot to have one person drive and the other just navigate.

And learn how to navigate "round abouts".