How Much Budget For Gas?
 

(I'm reposting this because my title did not go through the first time)<BR><BR>My friend and I will be travelling to France for two weeks this May (Yay!) We will spend one week in Paris and then we will rent a car and drive down to the Provence/Cote d'Azur area before returning to Paris and leaving (It's a package deal so I can't fly into or out of another city).My question is how much should we budget for gas for one week of driving? Has anyone been recently that can give an idea of the total cost? I know gas very expensive over there. I hear the tolls on autoroutes can be vicious as well, but we are planning to avoid them except when necessary. Thanks for any info you can give me!<BR>

I believe gas is around $5 a gallon. Don't be fooled by the signs at the stations. The price you see is usually the price for one liter. Keep in mind four liters is approximately one gallon!

I'll give you my best estimate. Figure 900 miles round-trip Paris-Provence-Paris. Another 300 miles seeing Provence. 1,200 miles divided by 30 miles per gallon equals 40 gallons. 40 gallons times $4.00 per gallon makes $160 fuel cost. Keep in mind your toll costs for the major autoroutes. These average about $0.10 per mile. Figure $80.00 for tolls. So approximately $240-250 total driving costs (excluding the car rental).<BR><BR>Regards,<BR><BR>Jinx Hoover

$80 for tolls?<BR>are they really that expensive?<BR>i drove all around france and don't remember being hit hard by the tolls at all..<BR><BR>hmm.

Our tolls driving from Chamonix to Paris were a total of 39 euro, just about 600 kilometers, but not quite all of it toll roads. It is considerably more to drive from Paris to the Cote d'Azur.

Try this: http://www.autoroutes.fr/voyage/itineraires.php?lng=1<BR>It is in french but you could change it in english. Have fun!

I can assure you that the motorways/autostradas in France and Italy will average around $0.10 per mile in tolls. I drove over 7,000 miles this past summer--many in Italy and France--so I speak from first-hand experience.<BR>That said, it is worth the extra cost if time is of the essence. The smaller roads, while often more scenic, take much more time (and are more dangerous).<BR><BR>Regards,<BR><BR>Jinx Hoover

I just got back from a trip from Amsterdam to Copenhagen. Guess was about $4.25 per gallon (3.8 litres per gallon). Despite getting over 30 mpg my usual fill-up after 5-6 hours driving on the Autobahn was over $40.00 per stop. The nastiest surprise was the cost of those stinkin' Danish bridges: $35.00 from Fyn Island to Saelland and about the same from Copenhagen to Malmo. We were better off with the ferries!!!

If you are able to rent a diesel car, do so. The price for diesel in june was .73 to .80 per litre. At the conversion rate in effect then that translated into $2.85 US dollar per US gallon. ( the gallon is a different size outside the US). My diesel Volvo wagon got approx. 45 miles per US gallon ( or 72 km per US gallon). For approx 1800 km or 1125 miles we paid nearly 80 euro. ( about 85 US dollars ). The price for gasoline can be more than 1.00 per litre nd a gasoline car usually gets poorer fuel mileage. The savings can be substantial.

Thanks everyone for the info! It's been very helpful.

I would second the diesel suggestion (I think the french term is gazoil?). The tax is substantially less, so it can make a big saving. It seems like diesel cars are somewhat common with the rental agencies these days. The autoroutes are fast but expensive for long journeys. Remember that most small rental cars will be stick shift (and will get pretty good mileage).<BR><BR>I find that a good spiral bound road atlas is very helpfull when driving away from the autoroutes; when you come to a roundabout or junction, the detailed map will make it easier to pick out which turning you want.

Hi<BR><BR>In France you should expect to pay about Euro 0.80/litre for diesel and Euro 1.0/litre for gas. <BR><BR>That can go up or down depending on area and place of purchase. <BR><BR>In order of low cost buy in Hypermarkets, Supermarkets, Esso Auto serve, Main gas stations, village gas stations, Autoroutes. The spread cheapest to dearest is around 30%. <BR><BR>Multiply by 3.8 to get US gallon prices. <BR><BR>Consumption is a minimum of 5litres / 100kms (small diesel car) to upwards of 12 litres / 100 kms (large petrol car).<BR><BR>Tolls are slightly more than diesel costs on the Autoroute.<BR><BR>Peter<BR>http://tlp.netfirms.com<BR>