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Hit the Road, Jacques
Renting a car in Europe—Hints, tips, resources, and pointers for getting your own set of wheels in Europe
Just make sure you read the fine print on that "sub-compact" or you may end up with a Trabant, the endearingly cute dead-end of the old East German auto industry.
The wind in your hair, the autobahn stretching before you, the freedom to explore at will, the fact that speed limits are fairly optional... Renting a car is the only way to see all of Europe's nooks and crannies.
There is a lot to recommend renting or leasing a car in Europe, especially if you want to go beyond just the big cities (and you should).
I love European trains, and no-frills airlines make crossing great distances in Europe fast and cheap (albeit thoroughly unromantic). But sometimes, only your own set of wheels will do.
The Upsides
The main argument for plunking down a big chunk of your vacation budget on an auto rental is that glorious freedom to spread out a map, cross-reference the little towns on it to your guidebook—or just to your whims—and then turn left down any road that catches your fancy. Driving is by far the best, and often the only reasonable, way to visit vineyards, drop by medieval hamlets, and explore crumbling countryside castles.
With a car, you can be your own travel boss and get away from the tyranny of train schedules, which defines the structure of the traditional tourist trail. Renting (or leasing) is really the only reasonable option if you want to explore any small region in depth. The beaten path in Europe is lined with railroad tracks and plied by intercity coaches and air-conditioned tour buses. If you want top get off it, you’ll need your own wheels (or a heck of a lot of time and either a bike or sturdy walking shoes.)
The Downsides
Of course, with a car comes hassles. You'll have to deal with aggressive drivers, navigate nerve-racking and confusing city traffic where the system of one-ways and seem to follow some arcane and indecipherable set of rules while the other drivers seem to follow none, and of course find and then pay (often through the nose) for parking whenever you stop.
If you're constantly behind the wheel of an automobile, you aren't free to relax and do research on the trip between towns (as you would on a train, bus, or plane), and the gasoline prices in Europe will downright curl your toenails, often running three times as much as in the States.
Still, unless you do walk or bike through Europe, there's no way to get closer to the land, its people, and its small towns devoid of other tourists and have the true freedom to go where your travel dreams take you than to rent a car.
Decisions, Decisions
Is a car right for you? Would a railpass and the train system be better? That varies trip to trip and depends on what you want to accomplish on yours.
In brief: If you want to cover lots of ground, concentrate on the cities, or are going it solo, nine times out of ten I’d say take the train or a train/no-frill airline combo. If you're exploring a single country or region, plan to hit lots of small towns, and are in a party of three or more, then rent a car (in general, three people splitting one car rental is cheaper than buying three train tickets).
The best trips mix and match transportation a bit. For example, you can take the train to Florence, and then drive through the vineyards and hill towns of Tuscany to Rome. This is why rail-and-drive passes can make a lot of sense.
If you see just the major cities of Europe, you're missing out on a big part of the continent, and I heartily recommend breaking up the metropolis itinerary with some jaunts through the countryside to smaller towns. It'll add spice and variety to your trip.
Use Your Rental to Hit the Road, Not to Hit the Town
Do not rent a car just to get around a city. In fact, avoid having a car in town at all costs. I can think of no aspect of European travel less exciting, more stressful, or more wasteful of your precious cash.
Rather than seeing, say, the Louvre or Eiffel Tower in Paris, you’ll wind up spending an hour or more crawling through traffic on the Champs-Elysées then fighting Europe’s biggest daily demolition derby, an anything-goes traffic turnstile which they call L’Etoile encircling the Arc de Triomphe with eight lanes of near death experiences between Peugeots and Renaults. Who wants that?
Not only are cars useless in town—where public transportation is widespread, easy to use, and laughably cheap (max around $1.50 per ride for subways, buses, and trams)—but the parking fees will gobble at your travel budget.
Free curbside parking in cities is rare these days, open spaces even rarer, and often it’s just an invitation to have your window smashed. So your best bet is a lot. However, whether it’s a public lot, private garage, or hotel garage, expect to pay anywhere from $15 to $70 a day—just to park a car you don’t need in town in the first place.
The Strategy
OK, so your trip starts in Paris and you’re wondering why I’m giving you advice you can’t use since your heart is set on renting that car in order to explore down the Loire Valley then shoot on down to do the villages of Provence before returning the thing in Marseilles after two weeks. Actually, it’s simple to avoid Parisian and Marseilles traffic on this trip—and save a couple of hundred bucks in the process. Just save the vehicle for exploring the countryside.
Arrive in Paris and spend a few days enjoying the City of Lights, using the excellent Metro to get around. Arrange to pick up your rental car the morning you leave Paris then to drop it off as soon as you pull into Marseilles (then you can take a train to your Côte d’Azur resort for three days in the sun on the French Riviera).
This is advice so basic it boggles my mind that more people don’t realize it. (I’m sure you do, but I’ve gotten letters from folks thanking me for this tidbit and gushing about how it saved them $400 before they even left on their vacation. They never seem to include, say, a check for a 10% cut of those savings by way of showing their gratitude, but I’m not complaining.)
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This material was last updated May 2006. All information was accurate at the time.
Copyright © 1998-2008 by Reid Bramblett. All rights reserved.
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