Hi there......Have 6 days post river cruise ending August 20 and would like some recommendations on scenic drive ( will rent a car for two couples) and places to stop along the way. Leaving Budapest, travel to Cinque Terra, flying home to US from Milan.
THANK YOU.

Have you looked at the cost of a 1 way rental from Hungary to Italy?

You may want to consider taking the train from Budapest and stop along the way at places like Vienna, or elsewhere in Austria. You could then take the train south from Austria to Italy, and pick up a rental car there.

Since your aim is to be in Cinque Terre which is not car friendly, you might want to use the train all the way, but six days is not much as it will take two days to get to CT and one day from CT to Milan.

Ryanair goes from Budapest to Pisa, which would be one way of getting to CT. http://www.flylc.com/directall-en.asp

From there you could easily visit Florence before going to CT.

To drive that route would be counter productive and very expensive.

your 6 days will be mostly on the road..Too much to drive it all. Also J62 is right the drop fees are outrageous if even possible. Having said that C.T. is not to be missed if you can fit it all in..You can't use a car in C.T. very well as you can't get to the villages..Train is the best way..a sort of hop on hop off venture. reasonable, timely and often..

Ryanair's normal baggage allowance (which you pay for) is quite small. Excess charge will really mount up. But it's still a cheaper and more convenient way than driving all the way to Italy and dropping off your car there.

Ryanair's baggage allowance is 20 kg in the hold and 10kg carry-on, but there is no free allowance. One pays for the baggage ahead of time, or more at check-in time, and yes, the fees are steep. Whatever is posted as a low rate for the flight will undoubtedly be doubled by the time the ticket is purchased.

Train schedules at http://www.bahn.de/i/view/GBR/en/index.shtml - it takes all day to get to Milan, unless you go overnight, but then you have two changes, one at 1:30 am. I'd still do that rather than drive though, but possibly stop off on the way.

What great suggestions. Thank you all so very much. One more question, can you recommend a really nice hotel in the Cinque Terra area? Two couples, around $150 a day US funds?