Driving through Europe
 

My husband and I are celebrating our anniversary by taking a two week drive through part of Europe and experiencing some of the major cities as well as the by-ways. We were thinking of a route through Munich, Vienna, into Italy. Is there anything anyone who has done this can share?

This sounds like a beautiful itinerary, however,you should check the drop off charge for returning a rental car to a different country as it can be quite high.

Have you looked at the map? Munich to Vienna is not on the way to Italy.

what time of year? Flying into where and out of where?

As a general rule, you don't want a car in a major town or city - Munich or Vienna, etc. Try to arrange your itinerary around with the cities at each end (with no car) and the driving of the by-ways in the middle.

We are going in the first part of October. Thank you for your comment about cars in major cities. We would plan to stay outside of major cities and use the train to get into the center of town. We are working with an agent to rough out a plan. As we are pretty flexible about what city we enter, she is going to try to find the best way to do this.

Have done many of these road trips. You fly into first mahor city and spend a few days there seeing sights. Then you rent the car and drive through the countryside (and can stay in another big city if you want - you just put the car in a garage) then drive on to the final city, where you drop the car when you arrive.

There will probaly be a signficiant drop off fee. Check the various rental companies to see who has the better deal.

Obviously Vienna is completely out of the way from Munich to Italy - and 2 weeks isn;t much time - so you will need to either eliminate Vienna - or limit Italy to just one city. (To do more than 3 cities in 2 weeks would give you no time for the counryside).

It sounds like a fun trip - you just need to get some really good maps and decide on a specific route that will hit the spots you'll enjoy most.

To eliminate any city (or area) is silly. Fly into (or go to) Vienna first, drive to Munich & then to northern Italy. We've done this a few times & is very doable in 2 weeks.

Have a great trip!

Hi CH,

For the reasons mentioned above, I suggest that you plan on some train travel and some car travel.

For example, fly into Munich, rent car. Drive to Vienna (find a hotel with parking), drive through Austria back to Germany - Fuessen for example and return car to Munich.

Take train to Venice, to Florence to Rome. Fly home from Rome.

>We would plan to stay outside of major cities and use the train to get into the center of town. <

That's a lot of commuting for a vacation.

On our last visit, we rented a car for 3 weeks, but we avoided major cities. On our next visit, we will be in big cities for 2 weeks without a car, and one week on a road trip.

Enjoy your celebration.

((I))