rialtogrl

Glad you made it! The Neum corridor is no biggie unless you are going to Italy within 14 days after. Usually they just wave you through with no stamp. It does not help you, but as of next year the Pelješac bridge will be operating and then people can drive their rental cars on that 😀

Michael

I disagree. For one thing, the car is more convenient in that you do not need to live by the train and/or bus schedule. But the main point is that if you want to see small towns in France, public transportation is not the way to go. Because of two conflicting schedules (bus and museum hours), it took us all day to visit the Fondation Maeght, whereas by car one can visit that museum and then go on to see the sights of Vence a mere 7 km farther.

https://flic.kr/p/8jEtQu
https://flic.kr/p/cNhPxo
If the OP is interested in the Dordogne, he would discover a bus routing designed as a radiating system from Périgueux, but could not possibly visit Lascaux IV, Saint-Amand de Coly and Saint-Geniès in one day, which is very easy with a car, especially if based in Sarlat--the Sarlat-Montignac bus has a schedule that begins at noon.

https://flic.kr/p/8vqREo
https://flic.kr/p/7yxyhD
I can think of similar example in Germany. The Benelux and Switzerland might be exceptions, especially for the most popular tourist locations locations.

daffodildeb

I agree fully! We have done the usual tourist sites in Europe (except Croatia), but we had specific things to see and do on this trip. My husband and I are big car enthusiasts, for example, for a trip to Nurburgring was a must on this trip. He is 78 and I am 70, so this will likely be the last trip to Europe, at least for him, and I don’t intend to spend it in train stations or in close contact with strangers in this somewhat uncertain time. A private car is inconvenient at times, and hotel parking must be part of the strategy, but it is much safer. As for Croatia, where parking is extremely limited, I found an apartment with a garage just 1000 feet from the most visited sites, 2 blocks away from the wall. We expect to park it and leave it.

swandav2000

Well, Michael, I agree that Switzwrland has world-class public transport, but I disagree that a car is needed in Germany. I lived in Bavaria for 9 1/2 years without a car and got around town, around Germany, and around Europe (Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy) fine. Yes, your travel may be slower, and yes it is **extremely** frustrating to do in France (I'll probably rent a car the next time I do rural France), but it's easy to do in Germany.

In fact, I generally don't offer any help to able-bodied people who opt to drive in Germany or Switzerland.

I did finally get a car, right after I had to take my cat to the vet 7 times in 3 weeks due to an abscess on her tail. But I rarely use it--- it is 3 years old with about 7,000 km on it.

s

Mark604

Public transport in Europe can be a bit of a revelation to some, but, for example, the latest strikes in Germany, cancelled and delayed trains and so on means I did a lot of that type of travel when younger with time and no real set destinations in mind, but nowadays it's a car every time and I'll easily work around the logistics and problems associated with parking and accessing the very middle of some cities. Easy enough to park on the outskirts and catch a bus/tram/train in locally but I've all too often before the 'transition' been stuck somewhere I don't want to be for longer than I wanted to be due scheduling.

I recently had to go from a place outside of Bonn to a place outside of Frankfurt and back the same day without a car. Due to delays and missed connections it took me from 8am to 7.30pm with an hour at my destination before coming away. For a one hour forty five minute each way journey by car and one hour there, total four and a half hours, took me eleven and a half hours. So no, I'm not a fan any more of public transport for holiday travelling when I have destinations in mind.

swandav2000

Mark604, did your journey from outside Bonn to outside Frankfurt include going through either city? You neglected to mention the likelihood of Stau, which could easily double that 1h45 journey. Of course, even then it wouldn't likely have stretched to 11h, as the train journey did. I guess I have to thank my lucky stars that in all these years of rail travel (from about 1998 to the present), I never had a situation like that.

And I am always happy to reduce my emissions output.

s

rialtogrl

You mean Dubrovnik, right? Parking is not all that hard elsewhere in Croatia. Maybe downtown Zagreb.

daffodildeb

Oops, yes, of course. Thanks for catching that!

Mark604

swandav2000, it was from outside Bonn, the bus/train goes through Bonn but the road doesn't. The destination was out of Frankfurt and the same applies.
Yes, there could have been a traffic jam if I'd have driven, however between 1998 and now when I have driven, there never has been one of note.

yayastravel

Thanks for the info...now just waiting the situation out...in line for a booster
we often combine trains and cars...love the freedom of exploring
Enjoy your adventure!

daffodildeb

This is not the time to travel to Europe, I guess. The US surge started AFTER the cancellation date for our lease car, and the EU action started AFTER the last day for cancellation for some of our hotels. Oh well. At this point we have not lost anything and we are on schedule. The governments want to know where you have been in the past 10 days, but we have not been asked for our vaxx cards with the exception of the museum in Dunkirk, France. (We haven’t even been carded in restaurants.) That may change, but our 10 days from leaving the US will soon be up. It’s not a ban on Americans, but rather a change in the rules of travel FROM the United States, and it primarily affects unvaccinated travelers. It may affect those who are traveling for tourism only, but that remains to be seen. If you can wait until next year, do so. Otherwise select countries carefully, as each country can decide its policy and some are more liberal than others. Also, some countries allow only 270 days (9 months) after vaccination, so get the booster ASAP. We got ours before we left. Masks are universal indoors, and many use them outside, too.

daffodildeb

Just an update—we are now in Zadar, Croatia, heading south in a couple of days. The only border checkpoints we saw (which was my original question here) were leaving Slovenia and entering Croatia. They were a few hundred feet apart, and we had to stop at both. Travel within the EU has been very easy, with only a sign and language telling us we had passed a border. For example, I saw “ausfahrt” on an exit and that’s how I knew we were in Germany. Masks are worn all over indoors, and many wear them on the street as well. The simple blue surgical mask is most common, although some wear the KN95 type. I brought plenty of both, so no problem there. Also pretty universal is a vaccine card check to sign in at hotels or visit museums, and some also require a traveler locator form to be completed. The resort in Zadar is the only one that didn’t require either. I was not able to get the French Pass Sanitaire before I left, but in the two days before we left France we just showed our CDC card. We will spend a little over a week in Normandy after we head back up from Dubrovnik, and I will try again then. No other surprises that I can think of, at least regarding COVID. I am so glad we managed to get here before the door slammed shut, or at least became more difficult. Incidentally, at the B & B we stayed at south of Salzburg, the owner said we were the first Americans he had hosted in over 1 1/2 years! Europeans are acutely aware that the US doesn’t allow them in right now, and you can sense some resentment. I have explained that they are better off at the moment.

One other thing—Europeans are on the move, even though we have not met any other Americans. Terrible traffic jams between Stuttgart and Munich, for example. If driving, check your nav system settings to see if it is faster by toll roads or by 2-lane highways. It can vary widely. And kudos to Peugeot for such an excellent system! “Charlotte” gives very good directions…

Europesmyplace

Traffic jams? I didn’t see any last week while I was roaming all over Bavaria, seeing 6 cities in 7 days. Why not? Because I was using germany’s wonderful train system that cross-crosses the country and has fast, quiet and modern trains leaving almost any hour of the day.
Be an informed traveler, not a clueless tourist. Travel smart and sustainably. Take advantage of Europe’s great public transit, and skip the rental car headaches.
We Americans who are privileged enough to be able to travel throughout Europe bear a responsibility to travel ethically and sustainably. Help our warming planet by choosing your travel modes wisely.

scrb11

I'm all for using the great train systems.

But you are trading off flexibility and time when you take public transport instead of cars.

For instance, I've been in Switzerland the last 9 days and now currently in Chamonix. I took my share of trains but they're not as frequent as you would hope in some places. Clearly you can save some time by driving to many places. You pay for the car and parking of course but if you want to squeeze every minute of a given day, cars can be more efficient.

For instance, I'm looking at taking the Tramway du Mont Blanc, which starts in St. Gervais des Bains, which is less than 10 miles away from Chamonix center. The train takes 45 minutes and runs once an hour. A car can do that trip in about 20 minutes.

And I have to match up my time with the Tramway schedule and the way it works out is I have to try to leave from Chamonix about 90 minutes before the next Tramway, so 45 minutes to St Gervais des Bains and then wait about 30-40 minutes.

I purchased a Summer Multipass which lets you use as many of these mountain trains and cable cars for a set period of time. So losing an hour here or hour there limits the chances to use the Multipass as much as I otherwise could have. So I may drive or just go at a more leisurely pace.

Only problem is, if your'e staying in the mountains for a few days, you may get 1 good clear day, or maybe not at all. As soon as the sun comes out after a couple of overcast days, everyone has been packing these cable cars and mountain trains.

daffodildeb

Knock it off with the “train is the only way to travel” BS. What’s the difference between your trip and mine? I am NOT going to cities! You do you, and I will travel where I want to. I have done plenty of train trips in Europe, starting at age 12. I have an entirely different itinerary from yours. Besides, the last thing I want to do is be in a tube with other people right now, IF it even went where I want to go. The airplane coming over was enough.

Mark604

As Europesmyplace said in another thread - "....pick destinations that are close together, so you don’t waste too much time on trains between them. 2.5 - 3 weeks is not long; you don’t want to use up your time sitting on trains."

Counting only the time you spend on a direct train to your destination it makes sense to use them. Add on waiting time for connections, getting to and from the train stations, adjusting what you want to do and when due to schedules, lack of trains in many more rural or remote places - that is never mind delays, missed connections, re-routing, trying for the cheap times, lack of flexibility and last minute changes of plans and so on - yes, trains are sensible in some circumstances but they are not a be all and end all answer to travel.

daffodildeb

Amen!

Trophywife007

Hi Daffodildeb: I appreciate your keeping us updated on your trip and I certainly see advantages at the moment of not using public transportation and spending more time in those hard to reach villages.

What will you be doing with your car at the end of your trip? I assume you turn it in as one would with a lease? Where did you find out about his program? We've done European deliveries in the past -- with someone else a few times and then once for ourselves. Leasing sounds like the next best thing.

daffodildeb

I started talking to AutoEurope because they are brokers for numerous car rental companies. Lots of car companies rent lots of different cars, but many prohibit you from taking them into Croatia (and Slovenia, which you have to cross to get to Croatia). Also, the choice of car is limited. For example, Sixt Car Rental won’t let you take even a small VW into Croatia. Certainly Audi, BMW, and several others are off the list. As I was getting quotes from AutoEurope for a month it was getting a bit rich, until the agent suggested that I talk to their leasing department. It was so much cheaper—several hundred dollars cheaper! You do have to plan a few months ahead in order to get a build allocation, and the trip has to be at least 21 days long, but there is 100% insurance, a guaranteed buy-back, almost no country restrictions, and unlimited mileage. For us it was ideal. Peugeot and Citroen are the 2 lease companies they offer, and we have a brand new Peugeot 3008. It had only 2 kilometers on the odometer when we picked it up! The lease ends the day we fly back. They picked us up at the airport and will take us back. The nav system is absolutely the best, too. I can’t imagine navigating Bruges without it! The backup camera offers an overhead view as well, so street parking in tiny European spots is easy. I think there are some restrictions if you pick up in Switzerland, but we flew into Paris. All paperwork was handled by internet and snail mail, and it was very simple, and we could cancel or change until 21 days before pickup. This big SUV gets about 35 mpg, and holds plenty of luggage. We chose to drive a manual, as that is what we drive at home, but automatics are available, too.

I took this picture in front of our hotel in the village of Nurburg, Germany, home of the famous Nurburgring race track. No, we didn’t take this car on the track, but Hubby got a fast ride in a McLaren—a bucket list event (we are both in our 70s).

Trophywife007

That is so cool, dd, thanks for the info. Perhaps we'll look into that one day.