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I'll post some general information about getting around by car interspersed with personal experiences... If you are traveling in western mainland Europe in a group of 2 or more for more than 17 days lease a car. It will assuredly be cheaper than global railpasses and on par with a 5 country pass for 2+ people. If you are really roughing it doubles as a free hostel every night and can make traveling Europe super cheap. https://www.kemwel.com https://www.europebycar.com What you get - A brand new diesel Peugeot 207 (Think French Mazda3 hatchback) will run you about $1K USD for 20 days, plus another $30 per day for up to 6 months. Insurance and taxes are inclusive. Add another $150-300 if you aren't picking up or dropping off in France. A good idea is to fly into and out of a city with good public transit (Paris and Rome come to mind) and pick up your car on the day you want to leave the first city and drop off the day you get to your final destination, and public transport it around town without the car at those locations. Cost of driving around - Tiny euro diesels get 50-70MPG which balances out the higher cost of gas (2-3 times as much) so don't expect anything too different than what you would pay per mile in travel costs. Tolls can get pricey in France and Italy especially. Use a GPS and tell it to avoid tolls to save money and get the added benefit of seeing awesome local scenery. Austria and Switzerland have tags you pay for when you cross border to drive on their highways, no getting around them, but they aren't expensive. Parking will run you a few euro a day, but isn't expensive outside of major city centers. Why leasing a car so much less expensive than renting - Supposedly, taxes in France on new cars are prohibitively expensive. By leasing cars to American and Australian tourists the car companies make a small amount of money leasing the car, but then get to sell it as used at a much lower final cost to the French consumer. How to get around - Get a GPS. I took my laptop, a cigarette lighter power adapter, a USB GPS receiver, and your favorite GPS software. I chose Microsoft Autoroute (Euro version of Streets and Trips). It does great direction routes, can "avoid tolls" (very important outside of Germany), and has lots of information on nearby petrol stations and rest stops. I could see doing it with a regular GPS if they are cheap enough over there, or maybe even a smartphone with Google Maps and a cheap euro data plan (If such things exist for travelers). Do not go without some sort of GPS. Where to sleep - Anecdotal evidence from my 2 month car trip but I found European rest stops to be much cleaner and have many more services than their US cousins. Rest stops have gas stations usually with some sort of sit down restaurant or fast food attached, dark lots for sleeping, clean toilets (open till at least 11, mostly 24/7). We never felt unsafe sleeping in the car. Campsites are cheap, have showers/laundromats, and can be found everywhere, even in the middle of Rome. We spent 5 days sleeping in our car at rest stops with one or two campsite stops in there to clean up before splurging and finding a cheap bed and breakfast depending on where we were. We would get up at dawn, drive to wherever we were visiting and park, get back in when we were done, and drive until we were sleepy. It was not the middle of summer and we are not fat smelly neckbeards so YMMV on how long you can go without a proper bed and shower. Other advice - Driving in urban Europe isn't much different than driving around Atlanta or Chicago. Expect a lot of traffic near cities. If you are a giant baby you might think Italians drive aggressively but its nothing unmanageable. For big cities park at outlying metro stations and take the subway in. In rural areas sometimes the roads get pretty dicey, especially in the mountains. Expect one way width roads still servicing both directions. Roads are usually start with a letter A-D. A will usually be toll highways, B and C are mostly good, stay away from anything D. One D road we tried to take led us on a goat trail along a cliff face. No car had traveled that path ever and we just reversed back down and found another way. Keep your poo poo in the trunk out of sight and you shouldn't have any issue with break-ins. Automatic transmission will carry a $1-200 premium. Learn to drive stick. Go by your local AAA office and get a International Driving Permit. Its just a picture of you with your US drivers license information translated to other languages. It is actually required in Austria and a few other countries. If you see something on the GPS that looks cool, it probably is cool. Epecially stuff sticking out off the coast. Having a car gives you the freedom to just turn and check stuff out if it looks interesting. I prefer scenic beaches and castles over major metro areas anyways and driving is the only way for me. When in France and Italy look up wineries on your GPS and fill whatever space is left in the trunk with bottles of wine for 2 euro each. Its cheaper than water. Don't get below 1/3rd a tank. Coasting down a mountain towards Carcassonne on fumes is pretty exhilarating but when you run out of diesel in the middle of an area with no cell reception and nothing but French speaking sheep herders you aren't going to enjoy the walk. If you want specific things in each country that might be out of the way for a train traveler or not typical guidebook stuff shoot me a PM or post in here and I'll try and keep track. I've done France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Germany by car so far.
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Jun 21, 2010 17:14
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FakeHipster posted:QUESTION: What is the best way to get from Normandy to New Ross, Ireland (southern Ireland) if you have to lose a night somewhere. Ferry from France-Ireland? Train to Paris, Chunnel to London, something to Ireland? Train to Paris, flight to Dublin? Depending on how close you are in Normandy to Cherbourg there is a ferry that goes from Cherbourg, France to Wexford, Ireland (south of Dublin). Its a 16 hour overnight ride and its deathly cold pretty much everywhere. Bring a pillow, a sleeping bag or a heavy blanket and don't expect a good sleep unless you pay for a bed. I don't expect the 25km to New Ross once you got to Wexford would be too expensive.
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Jun 23, 2010 13:29
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thepitgoddess posted:If you go to Italy, do whatever you can to avoid driving. Unless you have a death wish, in which case, rent a Vespa and zip in and out of cars/trucks/busses like a true Italian. Counterpoint, if you can handle driving in any major US city than you can handle driving in Italy I barely noticed the difference between there and other EU states. It really isn't that bad.
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Jul 2, 2010 19:38
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Oktoberfest is totally worth it if you are in the area. I don't know that I would necessarily choose to go there if I had a free weekend just because it was going on at the time. If you like being social and drinking a shitton of beer then by all means go and have a blast. When you are lucky enough to find a place to put your asses you will be at a table with 6-8 other people getting shitfaced and having a good time. It was fun just meeting people from other places and shooting the poo poo. If you are lucky you will get a table with some drunk irishmen who will buy beer for the whole table all night just because you have a nice looking girl with you. The pretzels are pretty loving awesome as well. If that doesn't sound like your thing then fly straight into Barcelona and hang out there or meet at a more scenic destination along the French/Italian Riveria (personal preference, fly to Rome or Genoa and take a train to Cinque Terra for a few days).
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Aug 19, 2010 23:19
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