Can We drive a car from Paris to Brussel and Amsterdam in March?
 

My husband and I will bring our two children to Europe from Canada in middle March. We will fly to Paris and rent a car drive to Brussel - Amsterdam - Frankfort- Paris. This is our first trip to Europe. Could you please give me some advise for driving in Europe and hotels. Is there snow in March to bring difficulty on driving? We plan to stay in Hostels. Do you have suggestion on B&B? Any suggestion will be appreciated.

Of course, you can drive. The chance of snow is about 2% and IF it snows, it won't be heavy and they clear the highways pretty fast.

For route planning, use www.viamichelin.com and add 10-20% to the calculated driving time (for congestions).

If you are renting in France, and dropping the car off in Amsterdam, you are going to pay a hefty fee . You certainly don't need a car in any of those cities. Taking the trains or buses to visit other towns in France, Belgium and the Netherlands might prove less expensive. They all have excellent transport.

I recently posted this in another thread:

We drove, with two kids then ages 2 and 4, from Paris to Amsterdam and back with no problem at all. Don't be scared off, the drive is easy as can be on great highways, just get yourself a good map. We spent a night in Bruges on the way to Amsterdam (spent 2 nights there) and spent a night in Brussels on the way back, with stops in Gouda, Breuklen, and Senlis along the way. Whatever you decide, have a great trip!

The only difficulty would be to drive to Frankfort. You may want to opt for an amphibious car for this leg of the journey as it likely involves crossing the Atlantic (twice). Alternatively it could require driving all the way around the Mediteranean sea and then onto the African continent. I would advise to avoid Sudan (among others). Very thorough research would be required in case of the second alternative, but you could do without the amphibuous car.

Provided you are returning the car to France then yes of course you can drive it. Make sure your hire company knows you are taking the car outside France, and that you have all the appropriate insurances to do so.
Parking in city centres is expensive and can be a hassle - that is my only caveat on this. You may be better off choosing a hotel is say Haarlem that offers parking and getting the train into Amsterdam rather than finding a city centre hotel offering parking (for which you will almost certainly have to pay) or paying the parking rates in a public car park in Amsterdam.

Oh and hv's cryptic post refers to you misspelling Frankfurt ;)

and talking about misspellings:
It's "amphib<i>i</i>ous" (at the end) and the "Mediter<i>r</i>anean". Making me look bad in this context.

Some inspiration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTVPPTV-bQM

Re hostels... in Amsterdam you can easily find a 4 star hotel through Priceline for $65 USD a night. Even if you need 2 rooms it will cost you less than using a hostel!

Check for prices on Hotwire.com as well.
Use betterbidding.com and biddingfortravel.com to learn how to use Priceline and Hotwire to your advantage...

For Amsterdam especially go to the Netherlands forum at http://www.tripadvisor.com and look for a thread called "Bidding for a 4 star in the Center"... it's usually on the first couple of pages. You'll fin the latest info on Priceline hotel prices in Amsterdam.

Check autoeurope.com and kemwel.com for car rentals.

Rob

Thank you all of you for your quick response. This forum has so many warm heart people to help.

I was thinking about taking a train, but it sounds like expensive for four of us. Plus we have to carry all of luggage to every where. If we have a car, we can put something in the car. By the way, why it's called "hire a car", not "rent a car"?

Someone told me there's snow on the mountain between Paris and Brussel in March. Is that right? Do we have to bring unbrellas for four of us? Thanks a lot.

"[...]why it's called "hire a car", not "rent a car"?"

In Germany it's "Heil to the car"!

The mountain with snow on top between Paris and Brussels could be in Euro Disney - but I don't think they have a Matterhorn replica as they do in Anaheim.

"why it's called "hire a car", not "rent a car"?"

Because, in English, we hire cars. In some colonial dialects, you rent cars.

Incidentally, though driving through snow is highly unlikely, if you want to drive through it, there's a slight chance of finding some, even as late as March, if you drive through the Ardennes.

Driving straight from Frankfurt to Rheims, rather than the slightly circuitous route the motorways take you, will more or less get you through the Ardennes. The area's pretty as well - whereas, to be honest, the standard Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam-Frankfurt-Paris route takes you through what's close to being Europe's heaviest concentration of dull countryside.

Past lots of nice towns, which are well worth detouring for. But not Europe's finest rural landscapes.

Yes, of course you can do this, but this route wouldn't appeal to me at all in March (as flanner says, truly dull landscapes for the most part), and you won't want to have a car in any of those cities. The hassle of getting on and off trains with luggage is roughly equal to or less than the hassle of trying to park your car in Paris or Brussels and getting to your accommodations from wherever you manage to find a space. In all likelihood you'll end up in a lot and pay a small fortune.

I would reconsider taking trains. It doesn't have to be expensive. There are family discounts and just generally discounted fares.

There aren't any mountains between Paris and Brussels. Paris is 113 metres elevation. The highest point you are likely to meet, depending on the route you take to Brussels, is about 130m. Hardly even a hill.

There is always a small chance of snow in March but it is small, and unlikely to cause you any problems. When in March are you coming?

If you go for a Priceline hotel in Amsterdam or Brussels do check on parking, as I said it is very expensive.

Depending on how old your children are they may qualify for discounts or special prices on the trains. In the Netherlands children from 4 to 11 pay only €2.00, and I believe Belgium has a similar fare. In Germany children up to age 14 travel free if with a (grand)parent. Those don't apply to Thalys or ICE, but it do to inter-city trains, (including Brussels to Amsterdam) as well as all other trains within the country.

In cities you will have to pay to park the car. I don't know where you'd park a car in Amsterdam, probably somewhere on the outskirts. So, for each big city you visit, you will have to pay to park and then transfer yourselves and your baggage (bus? taxi? tram?) into the inner city. Of course, you can stay on the outskirts if you can find a hostel there and use public transportation to get into the city each day but that's distinctly less convenient, especially when traveling with younger children. It's really nice to be able to drop back to your room for a quick rest. (Assuming your hostel is open during the day. Not all are.)

You don't say the ages of your kids but most hostels are for students - and somw do not allow younger children. You're better off looking for hotels at disounts of B&Bs. Also - you ned to be specific as to what bed configuration you want for the 4 of you - since many rooms have just one double bed.

As far as hostels go many have family rooms and cater for families, not just students.
Certianly the StayOkay hostels in teh Netherlands do. ahve a look at www.Stayokay.com and see what packages they offer. Their hostels are not slap bang in teh centre but are nor far away. They are aprt of Hostelling International and trustworthy.
Some of the hostels do fill up fast so you would need to check dates with them. None of the ones in Amsterdam offer free parking, but the one in Haarlem does, as does the one in Soest, which is a bit further out but in a nice wooded area with sand dunes in walking distance which would be good for the kids to let of steam maybe. Also nearby is a free Military aircraft museum. It does take an hour by train from there though to get into Amsterdam.

Sorry for the typos in that last post, it's been a long day.