daria

Hello,

We (me, my husband and our 11 year old twins) are planning our first trip to Spain next summer and I am starting to try to pin down our itinerary. I have some questions about trains vs. renting a car. At the end of the trip, we will want to travel from San Sebastián to Tossa de Mar. We will probably stay in Tossa for around 5 nights and then we will fly out of Barcelona.

We would prefer to take the train from SS to Tossa, but I have looked at Rome2Rio and I see that it will take longer to take the train than to rent a car. Also, I am guessing 4 train tickets will be more expensive than renting a car. We are on a budget and want to be economical.

Questions:

1) Does anyone know if it is possible to take a more direct train route to Tossa from SS than going through Barcelona (that is what comes up on Rome2Rio)?

2) If we rent a car in San Sebastián, is there anyplace near Tossa were we can drop it off? That would be my ideal, but I checked AutoEurope and don't see that we could drop in Tossa, Girona, Lloret de Mar or Blanes. Any other thoughts?

3) I thought of keeping the car in Tossa and returning at the airport in Barcelona, but it is expensive. The basic rental rate includes liability and fire. But it gets a lot more expensive if I were to add Collison Damage Waiver and Theft Protection. Do I need those if I have my own car insurance in the US?

Any other thoughts?

Thanks so much!

Daria

kja

#2: Have you checked Figueres? I don’t know if it has options…. The Rough Guide and Lonely Planet guidebooks both generally list which car rental agencies are available in each city, so you might check them…

# 3: Check with your credit card company. All of my US cards provide CDW protection IF and ONLY if I book with their CC and explicitly decline the car rental agency’s CDW. Please be sure that you know what you need before you made a choice. There are some guidance documents on gemut.com that I’ve found very informative.

Hope that helps!

Robert2016

No, there is no other train then what is shown on the Renfe.com website. That's all there is.

You should be able to drop the car off in Girona, but I would keep the car and drop it off at the airport when you leave.

If you're an American or Canadian, the your credit card should provide your basic coverage, if you decline the coverage offered by the rental agency. If you have Amex, you can purchase additional coverage, zero deductible, for about $25. You can also buy a travel insurance policy that will cover everything.

Call Auto Europe if you have any questions.

quiltingmamma

Have you done a dummy booking on renfe website for a mesa fare? Mesa fare is a table for four. It is not sold on Loco2 train sales website, and not sure it is sold on RailEurope or non-renfe sites. if you do a dummy booking for 50 or 60 days from now, you should be able to see some promo fares.
Would you consider a compromise and drive to Barcelona (or as far as you can go with a car drop), then train or cab to Tossa de Mar?

Christina

If you have Amex, you can purchase additional coverage, zero deductible, for about $25. You can also buy a travel insurance policy that will cover everything.>>

I buy a travel insurance policy that includes car rental coverage when I rent a car abroad. It doesn't really cost that much as an addon, definitely a lot less than buying from the car rental company. I do have CCs that cover it, sure, I just figure why not add it on for minimal cost, maybe it would be easier to deal with that way if I needed it, but I never have, actually.

You cannot buy that for $25 with all Amex cards, it's only a certain kind (the expensive kind, I believe, not the free ones) where you can do that. I have a "free" Amex card and you can't buy it with that one.

daria

Thank you all for the help! I will check with my credit card company. Should have thought of that. I will also look into drop off in Figures. I entered Girona, but couldn't get that to work.

I will also go on the renef website as suggested.

I'll keep looking. Does anyone rent from anyone other than AutoEurope? I am comfortable with them and like their reputation, but am just wondering if there are other companies with good reps like them.

Thank you again!

Robert2016

There are a few other discount brokers out there, but I can only recommend their sister company, Kemwel (www.kemwel.com).

daria

So, it turns out I see a city called "Gerona" on AutoEurope and Kemwel. I googled this location and "Girona" comes up. Is this the same place? Thank you!

kja

As I understand it, Girona is the Catalan name and Gerona is the Spanish name.

daria

Ok, thank you. I had a feeling it was something like that. It looks like I may be able to return a car in Girona.

kja

I just saw your question on alison's trip report, and I don't want to divert attention from her thread, but thought I might have information to contribute....

I found driving the Costa Brava with a map & GPS quite doable, but VERY stressful, as the winds can be SOOooooo strong that driving can be difficult, and local drivers were not particularly patient IME. I'm happy to pull over whenever I can to let others pass, but when there isn't anywhere to pull over, I don't like being tailgated, and that seemed particularly common in that part of Spain. Of course, it depends on the size and weight of the car, and your driving patterns, but you might want to keep these observations in mind!

You might find some useful information in my trip report, which covers many of the areas you plan to visit:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-catalunya.cfm

Hope that helps!

daria

Thank you kja! This is a very hard decision.

kja

Obviously, its a personal choice. Unless you plan to stop in the Pyrenees (as I did), it might make sense to wait until you reach Barcelona to pick up a rental car -- and plan on a rental car office near a subway station with easy access to a main road north from the city so you don't have much time to drive in the city itself. OR plan a route for the Costa Brava that allows you to use public transportation -- and I don't know exactly what that would be.

I'm glad I saw the things I saw, and I don't think my time in the area would have been possible without a car -- or rather, it would have taken too much time and/or money for my circumstances. So I have no regrets at all about having driven these roads.

If you do decide to rent a car in this area, consider renting a heavier car than you might normally choose, bring LOTS of patience, plan on more time than mapping software suggests, and make sure the driver is prepared to devote his/her FULL attention to the road. JMO.

No bad choices here, IMO, just different options that involve different wonderful scenarios.

KarenWoo

Daria,
I want to add that we did not have any problems with winds with out rental car. But we might have rented a larger/heavier car than Kja. There were 4 adults, so we needed a good size car to accommodate us and our luggage.
(I posted earlier on Alison's trip report thread.)
Karen

KarenWoo

Meant to say "our rental car."

daria

Thanks so much to you both. I think we will probably rent a car. There are 4 of us, and although we don't need or want a huge car, we do need enough room for all of us and our luggage (we will each have one carry-on size suitcase, and a back pack or purse).

Our trip involves flying into and out of Barcelona. We will spend time there first (no car), then go to Madrid (no car), then San Sebastián/Bilbao (no car), and then Tossa de Mar/Costa Brava, flying out of Barcelona after that. I am thinking we will pick up a car on our way out of SS because 1) it seems like it may be cheaper than all of the train/bus tickets for the 4 of us (although I'm not totally sure once you include gas, parking, and tolls on top of the car rental price), 2) it seems like the best way to get from SS to Tossa, 3) it might make it easier to get around the Costa Brava and 4) we could just drop it off at the airport the day we fly out of Barcelona.

Does this make sense?

kja

You provide a good summary of reasons why renting a car may be the best solution for you! BTW, you can get reasonably reliable estimates of the cost of driving on viamichelin.com, which provides information about tolls and costs of fuel.

daria

Thank you! And thank you for the website. That sounds great.