EXPLORING
EUROPE FLY, DRIVE OR RIDE THE RAILS?
Hotels, Rail Passes, Luggage and other uncertainties
Take the train? Rent a car? Fly ‘n walk? The options for seeing
Europe are many. If you’re thinking of a one week 5
day-4 night visit to a major city trip, an airline-hotel
package
deal might be
the best bet, and arrange for a organized coach tour, or
wander around on your
own. If you want to see more than one city, or more than
one country, you have some choices to make. Fly, drive or
take
the train.
Flying Europe
To fly between cities in Europe can be an expensive venture, but there are several discount airlines that city hop. The prices can be cheap, but there are luggage restrictions, landing and departure fees, and getting to and from the airport can be an adventure all its own. That £12 promotional ticket on RyanAir from Stansted can turn into a £60 ticket after all the fees are added. Also it takes some searching because one discount airline may not go to all the cities you want, so you might have to go in on one and leave on another, from different airports. But if a particular discount airline goes where you want to go expect a ticket cost between $55 and $120 (see Discount Flight Search) If flying you have to be aware of where your hotel might be. By rail, hotels can often be found walking distance from the station, by air, plan on a taxi ride or hope for a shuttle service, but don't count on a shuttle for budget hotels. And you might think about how you plan to get there before you choose a hotel.
Driving Europe
Driving through Europe and discovering the small towns and countryside on your own is a treat (see Driving European Backroads). Driving in Europe is not that foreign (forgive the pun), at least in the countryside and small towns. You don’t need a special license, but you do have to learn some odd signage. Reading parking restrictions in another language can be a little maddening. And driving into a large city with strange street layouts of concentric rings like Munich, dead ends and one-way streets in all directions like Hamburg, or the madcap lane-less madness that is Paris can make even the most confident driver sweat and swear. Make the wrong turn and it can take half an hour to get back to where you were! Driving in England is a unique right-brain/left-brain experience, and get a smaller car for the narrow one lane country roads. They always try to upgrade you to a larger car in England, but don't do it. stay small, especially if you'll be driving in the countryside. If the cities you want to see are a significant distance apart, fuel prices are very high and tolls on the autoroutes in Italy and France can cause an unexpected drain on your budget. And in Italy everyone will caution you about leaving articles in a rental car, especially if it has another country's license plate. A tempting target.
Many car companies are now offering a buy a tank of gas in advance option so you can return the car empty. Turn it down unless you're sure you can return the car with an empty tank, because they keep the difference, whether the tank is empty or 3 quarters full. On a recent trip I managed to bequeth Avis about 100 dollars worth of gas over two rentals. Trying to figure out how try to arrive with an empty tank can be as much a pain as finding a fuel station on the way to the rental car return. (Though, in Paris at the Hertz Louvre Carrousel check-in the clerk will tell everyone that the tank is only 7-eighths full because he knows how hard is it to find a gas station in Paris). And be sure you know the difference between diesel and gas. Renting a diesel fuel car will save you money in Europe, but if you mistakenly put gasoline into a diesel car, that will end up costing you about a thousand dollars in repair and towing
To calculate travel times use kilometers. The speed limits on major European autoroutes is around 120-130 kph (84 MPH), slower around cities. Major nearby cities seem to be commonly about 2 hours apart or a little less. Munich-Stuttgart. Rome-Florence. Paris to Strasbourg on the German border about 4 hours. Munich to Hamburg 8 hours.
Europe By Train
Consider the train for a multi-city wandering journey. Riding the rail system throughout Europe is convenient and comfortable. The main train station in most European cities is right in the heart of the city with easy access to many of the sights you will most want to see. Rail Europe has rail passes and direct city to city booking for high speed trains and the Eurostar between London and Paris through the "chunnel".One
of the tricks to train travel about Europe is handling
baggage and finding a hotel. Are you the reserve everything ahead
type,
who wants
to know when you’re supposed to be there, where you’re
going and who’s meeting you with the limo, or the more
adventurous - get there and see what happens - kind of soul.
You can be both
with train
travel. With a Eurail Pass you can choose when you want to go
and where you want to get off. The full Eurail pass which allows
you
unlimited
travel within a specified time costs about $700. With a SelectPass
you choose a specified number of days of travel (with time in-between)
in
specific countries for around $400-$500. With single fares between
major cities costing around $100 the select pass can be a good
value, allowing
side trips to smaller towns when you feel like it. And having
a Eurail pass allows discounts on some bus lines, ferries and
other
services. (See How Eurail
Passes Work)
When traveling by train, you’re pretty much carrying your luggage
through city streets, so a good wheeled travel bag is essential. Many
European train stations have luggage lockers, but they have been doing
away with them due to security concerns and instead have baggage check
rooms. Once at a hotel you can ask the hotel to keep your luggage if you
need to check out, but want to explore until a late departure. And for
serial city hopping, locating hotels within walking distance (or short
taxi ride) from the station becomes a major issue in hotel searching.
I’ve found on most hotel search engines and booking sites,
it can be quite daunting to try to discern how far the hotel is
from the
station
and what the neighborhood is like, with a lot of guesswork involved.
The hotel site itself may suggest it's rail convenient, but still
several very long European city blocks away. How far exactly does
.8 kilometers
convert to in shoe leather?
Addresses
don’t tell you
much without a handy and detailed city map and some hotels
that are too near the station, while
convenient, can
be less that the best neighborhood. Google Maps or MapQuest can
be very useful, especially with the Earth feature on Google
Maps so you can actually visualize the city. While the train
station
is the
center
of transportation in a European city, often with nearby tourist
services like internet cafes and low cost restaurants, it can
also be where
a good
amount of adult entertainments, whether girly bars, gambling,
or out and out “red light” districts can be found,
so the neighborhoods can vary a little.
If budget is not a consideration, catch a cab and head off to
the nearest InterContinental
Hotel, Accor
or Marriott
.
If you’re a more budget conscious
traveler a little more detective work may be required. The
Ibis, Mercure, Best
Western,
and Choice
Hotel chains usually offer good tourist class or better
3 star properties near most European city centers. Unlike the
Hiltons
and
Hyatts, these
hotel properties are usually individually owned under a franchising-like
marketing system, so the quality of the individual property
may be quite
different, but are expected to meet a certain standard level.
They can be searched and booked ahead through corporate websites
or
travel
bookers
like Travelocity or
Expedia. TripAdvisor lets
you compare prices from a number of booking engines and also
check user ratings. But beware that some travelers can have a
good experience
at a hotel while others maybe not so good. A 3 star hotel in Italy may
have an entirely different feeling than a 3 star hotel in Germany.
London
hotel rooms in older buildings are notoriously small, many tourist
class hotels in France seem to favor rather stiff foam mattresses,
and
in Italy,
attention to upkeep can be a bit lax, or at least you'll find
the last update in furniture was a few years ago, like 1978.
If you don’t want to reserve ahead, or just are traveling
by the seat of your pants, stepping off the high speed ICE (see Europe
High Speed Trains) in a strange city
and looking around for a place to stay, seems like it might be a scary
proposition. But I have to say personally that often the hotel
I’ve
found this way was more satisfying than some I have reserved
sight unseen.
Perhaps its just the ability to actually see the hotel for
yourself that gives you a better chance to judge. This may not
be the best
practice
if you’re going to say, Munich for Oktoberfest, or Frankfurt during
the BookFair, as vacancies may be a little short during a
big city event.
But in most cities at most times, a vacancy is not that hard
to find. And if you want to sleep on the train you can take a hotel train
or a
night train (see Save
on Hotels - Take the Night Train).
If you want to explore the countryside around a city you can
rent a car and make “a circuit”. Come back to the same city
to drop off the car and continue your rail journey to another city.
However,
now that many rental agencies in Europe allow you to drop off in
a different city (in the same country) without extra charge you
can combine your
train city jumps with auto segments. Take the train between distant
cities or countries, then take a car for intercity travel in a
country, especially
if you want to go look at castles or explore wine tasting Bed & Breakfasts.
The Eurail pass offers a ride and drive car rental
option, but I prefer to rent the car separately.
The Eurail pass
coupon only
covers the daily
rental rate but no insurances and better deals can
be found going direct to the car rental company of
your
choice. © Bargain
Travel Europe
Compare best travel and hotel deals on TripAdvisor
See Also:
Kids Travel Free with a Rail Pass
Budgeting a Vacation Trip to Europe
Condor's
German Discount Airline Schedule
Find
the Best Car Rental Rates in Top Destinations
