Hi everyone

My partner and I are travelling through france and italy for in July and looking forward to hiring a car and having the freedom to see the countryside in france as well as italy's wonderful tuscany area.

apparently car hire companies charge a 300 euro one way fee to drive across the 2 countries so we are considering catching a bus or train across the border from lyon (or Saint Etienne) to Torino (or Milan) to avoid this cost.

If anyone out there has good train or bus tips for this, I'd really appreciate it!!!

thanks everyone!

Hi MThom!!

First of all, what a lovely trip. There are a couple of things. The rental cars in France tend to be less expensive than the rental cars in Italy. Have you checked with AutoEurope or with Sixti.com ...(sixti is a division of sixt with some good prices on smaller cars. Where will you be flying out of? I have never had an extra charge for a rental out of france just to take the car accross the border.

Another thing you might consider. If you are coming accross from Lyon to Torino, you might want to think about Piemonte as a destination since it is much less travel for you and is every bit as beautiful as Tuscany, and much less touristed. It is the largest wine region in Italy and actually borders France (Torino is its capital). The Langhe and the Monferrato regions of Piemonte are well known by gourmet travellers who opt out of the tourist mainstream. And since you ard headed to Lyon, I assume you love great food and wine!!

If you are thinking about picking up your car in France and dropping it in Italy, you will incurr drop off charges, but if you are picking up in France and dropping off back again at in france, it should not be a problem at all to take the car into Italy.

Diana

Hi M,

What's your itinerary?

Pickup/dropoff in France might be an option.

How long will your driving trip be? If 17 days or more, you can look into leasing. AutoEurope does this. My BIL picked up his car in France and dropped it off near Rome.

If you choose a one way you might consider dropping the car off closer to the border (Nice) and picking up another one across the border. It all depends on your itinerary (I don't understand the possibility of a St. Etienne drop-off).

hi everyone

thanks heaps for your responses. we arrive in paris and leave from rome so unfortunately dropping the car off back in france is not really an option. I have looked into trains from nice to san remo but they are quite expensive and work out to be more than the 300 euro one way fee we would pay on the car.

i guess we are just trying to find a cheap way to get across the border, whether its from nice to san remo, or lyon to torino etc. we dont mind catching a bus or a train but they seem expensive. then again i am probably looking in the wrong websites.

thanks again for any advise you can give on this.

p.s. Diana thanks for the car advise. we are looking at using AutoEurope.

MThom - Nice-San Remo is only a short ride - about 1hr 15'

The fare is approx. € 5.

Hope this helps ...

Steve

hi Steve. do you know what train or bus we catch?

Any train going east to the border will do

Some are cross-border Inter-city trains (e.g Nice-Genova/Milan), others will require a change of train at Ventimiglia.

If you change trains at Ventimiglia ...
N.B - MAKE SURE you re-validate your ticket in Ventimiglia station.

Hope this helps ...

Steve

thanks heaps Steve!!