August travels in Spain/Italy and Greece

Old Jan 29th, 2014, 11:25 AM
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August travels in Spain/Italy and Greece

Hello! I am excited to begin planning a family trip to Europe. It is probably very late to just be starting these plans and I'd appreciate any help. We'd like to spend a month traveling Spain, Italy and Greece with our four children. I've read some travel blogs that made it sound doable to rent a car and take ferries between these countries. I realize that August is the worst time to visit but I'm hoping to get advice on how to make it more bearable. I am thinking it would be best to start in Spain and then make it to Greece by the last week in August. Thanks!
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Old Jan 29th, 2014, 11:39 AM
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Hire a car in one country and dropping it off in another will add a hefty repatriation fee for the car. Some hire companies do not allow their cars on ferries either. A month is sufficient for one country. There are several countries between Spain and Greece which you have missed of the list if you drive.
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Old Jan 29th, 2014, 11:43 AM
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I would strongly recommend you rethink this itinerary in August. You are likely to encounter heavy traffic jams, since this is the month that most of Europe goes on vacation.

My suggestion would be to train or fly between two or three destinations max. I think you'll have a much better time not dealing with the insane charges for returning a car in a different country and terrible traffic/parking issues!
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Old Jan 29th, 2014, 12:23 PM
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What would you recommend for a family of six (2 adults, 4 kids) in the month of August? Flying sounds too expensive for this size of a group. Maybe we should make a loop and end up back in Spain. We could see some of the countries we missed by taking the ferries (if the rental car company would let us take the car on the ferry). Maybe a month isn't enough time.
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Old Jan 29th, 2014, 12:33 PM
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As far as a rental car goes, the best option would be to purchase a new car and return it at the end of your trip. Peugeot has a buy-back program (www.autoeurope.com/buyback_home.cfm) that's been around for a while.

But have you considered the distance, say from the middle of Spain (Madrid) to Athens? It's more than 3200 km (2000 miles), not including side trips, which could easily double the distance. You would have to average 500 miles a week, which is doable if you don't want to have any quality time and enjoy the experience. If you add in the possible side trips you would be making along the way, you could easily end up being behind the wheel of the car for 40 hours a week in order to cover around 1000 miles of driving each week. Sounds more like a job than a holiday, something Chevy Chase could have made a bad road-trip movie about.

Overall, August will be very busy in Spain, Italy and Greece (with our without its turmoil). Roads will be crowded with tourist and trucks. Accommodations have to be planned out well in advance, and normally you'll have to pre-pay any rentals.

There is a lot involved in planning such an endeavor during one of the busiest times of the year. I hope you're prepared.
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Old Jan 29th, 2014, 01:21 PM
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Instead of proceeding with an assumption that the rental companies allow traveling on ferry boats, why don't you first look at rental car sites to see if you can find any that lets you do it and on which specific routes. In my experience, except for very specific region where a use of ferry is an integral part of a rental, such as Nova Scotia, rental companies don't allow their cars on ferries.

Read the "blogs" carefully. How much of the content is relevant to you? What was the size of the car? Was it a rental or a short term lease?

Also, I am not sure where you are coming from. A vehicle that can accommodate all of you and luggage is probably a mini van. Unlike some countries like U.S., there is a quantum difference in rental cost between a small car likely to be used by those writing blogs and a mini van. It can cost almost ten times more to rent a mini van. This is not a mistake. Go to rental sites. Many people come here with U.S. type of rental market thinking and experience a sticker shock trying to rent a large car in Europe and a double sticker shock in trying to do a cross boarder rental with these cars.

Looping back to Spain might make sense if you still rented a car in Spain. If not, open-jaw makes more sense.

If you fly, look at discount carriers like Easyjet, Vueling, etc. You have to study their routes and frequencies. If you insist on connecting Spain to Italy, you will find that Vueling uses Barcelona as a hub and it makes it easier if you end your Spain part in Barcelona.

August is a busy time for accommodations at holiday destinations. Since European families also want accommodations suitable for a family at attractive prices, these properties usually go first. Because your are a large group, accommodation availability can also dictate where you can go. The only way to find out if you have already missed a boat finding an acceptable accommodation at a price you want at a specific destination is to actually look for accommodations.
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Old Jan 29th, 2014, 01:48 PM
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I don't know Spain well enough to recommend specific areas, but what about renting a house as base, and doing day trips from there? Then going by train to France, renting a house in Bordeaux area, Languedoc, or Provence? Notice I haven't mentioned the Riveria, which will be a real zoo in August!

But before you do anything, as suggested above you need to figure out what your budget is and look for availability. You're right in thinking that you are already late for August.
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Old Jan 29th, 2014, 02:51 PM
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It did not register with me that there are four in the family. That is a large car when you have to take in luggage for one month. Honestly drop the idea and stick to one country. use the train as cities are not horrible to drive in.
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Old Jan 29th, 2014, 05:23 PM
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All 3 countries (except for the Greek isles) will be hellishly hot and humid that time of year - count on temps in upper 90s and 100s - and many places (shops, restaurants, modest lodgings) do not have AC.

I agree at that time of year I would pick totally different destinations - with decent weather.
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Old Jan 29th, 2014, 05:31 PM
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You can have a great family trip in August -- but IMO not by driving all across Spain, France (it does sit there in between Spain and Italy after all) and Greece.

Are there specific places you want to see in those countries? Are they the only countries that interest you?
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Old Jan 29th, 2014, 07:57 PM
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My original idea was to take the Barcelona-Rome ferry and drive around Italy and then take the Venice to Athens ferry to get to Greece. I was hopeful that the time of year wouldn't be a deal breaker but I guess it is. We do need to plan our vacation for the month of August. My husband and I are both fluent in Spanish (this is why we thought we'd start in Spain) and then Italy and Greece sounded wonderful but we'd be interested in other ideas.
Thanks
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Old Jan 29th, 2014, 08:12 PM
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There are factors other than the time of the year. Even outside the busy summer season, your plan will not work. For example, the T&C of Autoeurope says about cars rented in Spain:

Cars are not permitted to travel to ... Greece....

Ferries also not certain: Vehicles may not travel on ferries and/or to Island locations without pre-approval.

Read the T&C clauses of the services you plan to use to make sure you would not be hitting a deadend after spending a lot of time planning.
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Old Jan 29th, 2014, 08:31 PM
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Why not stick to Spain and a bit of France? A LOT easier logistically.
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Old Jan 30th, 2014, 03:12 AM
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There are parts of Spain and Italy, and maybe also Greece, that are not unduly hot in August, especially places at higher altitudes. In Spain, northern and northwestern Spain are usually pleasant even in August.

Any place at high atitude, or in the foothills of the Alps, is fine in Italy even in August. A nice family destination in Italy is Lake Garda, with one of Europe's major amusement parks (Gardaland), and with possibilities of boat trips on the lake, and day trips to Venice and Verona. The weather on the lake is usually pleasant in August, especially on the northern parts of the lake. However, the farther north you go, the further away you are from Gardaland, Verona, and Venice.

Because of the size of your family, any moving around is going to be expensive. However, there are good train fare discounts and special fares for children or families in Italy, and I imagine in the other countries.

There are sometimes also very inexpensive fares for flights within Europe. Here is a good site for finding cheap airfares in Europe:

www.skyscanner.net

One of its useful features is that you can set the destination, or starting point, or both, as a country rather than a city. You could look for cheap flights from Spain to Italy, without specifying a city. It will be sorted by price, so you can go down the list until you find a pair that would be convenient.

Within a particular country, you might want to consider renting a car, but since you'd need at least a minivan, and especially if you need automatic transmission, you may find traveling by train and bus to be cheaper. You should at least check the prices before deciding.

For train fares in Italy, you can check this site:

http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...005817f90aRCRD

The site accepts a maximum of five people. Because of family fares, you should enter the search as a group of one adult and two children. (You have two groups of this size.) The best discounts are obtained by reserving well in advance, and at odd times of day. Some trains, called regional trains, have no reserved seats and cost the same no matter when you buy the tickets. For these trains, which are very inexpensive, you can only see the fares seven days in advance. Kids under 12 always ride at half price and kids under 3 ride free. On the reserved trains, kids under 15 are half price, and under 3 are free, although there are often special fares, called "Bimbi gratis" that give free tickets to all kids traveling with an adult. The web site will always show the best fare available for your group and time of travel. Make sure the specify the time of day; if you put in a very early time, you'll see all the trains for that day, while if you leave it at the default time, some (or all) of the tickets may be for the following day.

The rail site in Spain is www.renfe.es , but I don't know much about their prices. A good general web site for advice on train travel is www.seat61.com .
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Old Jan 30th, 2014, 04:23 AM
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I'd stick to Spain and southern France. But you need to be booking rooms now if you want somethere in August to take that many people.
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Old Jan 30th, 2014, 04:36 AM
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IMHO, you would be better off combining low cost flights/ferry + local car renting (in august ferries are expensive for cars). Consider that the beauty of Greece are the islands, so you may want to select one site easy to get to by plane (Mikonos? Santorini? Rhodes?)and limit your car rental to Spain and Italy.
Train could also be a solution to consider in Italy (http://www.trenitalia.com/, http://www.italotreno.it/IT/Pagine/default.aspx), but you should reserve now to get good tarifs. Assuming you have a couple of weeks in Italy you could visit Venice, Rome, Florence, the Tuscany countryside (consider sleeping in an agriturismo (http://www.agriturismo.it/?gclid=CLC...FYdb3godYBUAjw). Cinqueterre could be easily reached from Florence, but you should leav your car in Sestri Levante (http://wp.me/P3sImA-dq), since very few parkings are available in CT .
Hope this helps.
Enjoy!
Jeipi
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Old Jan 30th, 2014, 12:40 PM
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I really appreciate all of the advice received on this boards! Invaluable!
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Old Jan 30th, 2014, 05:28 PM
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Was in France with self, 2 daughters and 2 grand daughters. We had an upgrade to a generous full sized Mercedes and it never could have handled another body. Also no luggage except carry on duffles and that was written in stone (good thing too)!!!
Northern Spain and Basque country both Spain and France would be, IMO, good choices as would Portugal. These areas have very nice beaches, good food and places of interest. No A/C will present a problem and confinement in a car will also. Just keep smiling, breathing deeply and drink lots of water or whatever does the trick unless driving of course. A great experience awaits you and yours!
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Old Jan 31st, 2014, 01:06 AM
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you can still take those ferries but as passengers. leaving your spain rental in spain. your italian rental in italy .
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Old Jan 31st, 2014, 07:57 PM
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lincasanova - oh yeah, we could do that. But because the weather and the tourists I should just make a new plan altogether. We are now considering Israel for a couple of weeks.
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