We are beginning our planning for a trip to Europe in May of 2009. We have 3 weeks, one of which is at a timeshare in England. We will rent a car.

The rest of the time we will go to Paris, then through Germany and Austria, followed by a week in Italy.

We plan to drive to Paris and spend 3 days. Is it crazy to go to Paris on the weekend? Are some days of the week better than others?

You're going to drive to Paris from England? I'm all ears!

So, you have a week in England at the beginning, and a week in Italy at the end, and 3 days in Paris, and you're doing German and Austria in between, on the way to Italy? With 3 weeks total?

Hmmmm...will be quite the blur through Germany and Austria.

As for Paris, people go there all the time on weekends. Some things are closed on Sundays, and some on Mondays. If you're going to be trying to cram a lot into those three days, I'd advise you to check on what's open on Sundays and Mondays (if Monday is part of your three days - Friday isn't an issue).

For driving into Paris the weekend is the best, esp Sunday

and on weekends Paris' terrible smog is often abated as there is much less traffic - air is relatively clean and you can see something from the top of the Eiffel Tower

i see few detriments to weekends in Paris, only pluses save perhaps lines at a few popular museums being longer.

I've done a couple of "long weekends" in Paris and don't see why it would be called crazy. Things are a little busier but nothing that I would want to change my plans for. Restaurants fill up faster, streets are a bit more crowded, sites a bit more packed. If I were going to Versailles I might want to avoid a weekend, but otherwise....

Explain the driving to Paris idea...why not Eurostar, then get car when you leave?

Stcirg-
Dh is thrilled about driving through the Chunnel. Not me. Give me a train.
And I agree that Germany and Austria will be a blur. I'd rather see the blur from the relative comfort of a train.

Panlenq-
Thanks for the tip about smog. I live in West Virginia, USA, where smog does not exist. Hadn't even thought about it.

Michel_Paris-

I'm all for Eurostar. Dh is an independent traveler and likes to drive. Acckkkk! There are 3 of us traveling and the Eurostar would be quite costly for us: like $1800.

Personally, I think the cost is worth it.

Help me convince him to take the train. The idea of navigating and reading signs that are not in English places my stress level way up there!

It's probably worth noting that you can't drive through the tunnel, you drive the car onto a train, train goes through the tunnel, you drive the car off.

I would be surprised if it was cheaper to take the car than pay for three seats on the Eurostar.

If you are dead set on the car maybe look into Dover-Calais ferries.

Also, depending on where you are staying in England, it may well be quicker and easier to just fly to Paris.

Paris is easy driving in at almost any time. And both you and most of the other respondents are concentrating on the wrong thing here.

One-way cross-border car hires incur considerable surcharges in Europe. In practice, those surcharges are a great deal higher if the car is hired or dropped in te British Isles.

You seem to be planning either a jaunt to Paris from England and back again, or to drive to Paris from England and then drive on to Germany and Italy. Both ideas are - frankly - ridiculous.

What you need to do is hire a car for your week in England, turn it in and get a train to Paris (it goes through the Channel Tunnel exactly the same as the train that carries cars. You cannot drive under the Channel),or whatever other public transport to France appeals (you might like the idea of the boat to Calais, for example)

Collect a new car in France, drive it through Italy and Germany and return it somewhere in France.

Pete_R-
Thanks for that clarification! I'll pass that on to dh.
We'll look into the ferry as well.

Any more ammo in favor of the train?

flanneruk-

<One-way cross-border car hires incur considerable surcharges in Europe. In practice, those surcharges are a great deal higher if the car is hired or dropped in te British Isles.>

Where do I get info on these surcharges?

I agree that it's ridiculous to drive!

I'd like to fly into London, stay 3 days, hire a car for our week in the country, return the car, take the train the rest of the time, and fly out of Rome.

Is this cost-effective?

Drop-off charges aside, I don't think your husband would want to be driving the English car with steering wheel on the right. Not very practical.

<any more ammo in favor of the train>

Time. Takes a little over 2 hrs. And that's center city to center city.

Fun. Rather fascinating watching the countryside fly by at 185 mph (300 kmh)while sipping a glass of wine.

Not sure where you got info that 3 tickets would cost you $1800. We get tickets in advance for a lot less than that.

Forgot to answer your original question. Weekend not crazy at all. When my SIL lived in London, we would spend long weekends in Paris and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Three tickets on Eurostar will NOT cost that much, who lied to you??
You can advance buy three tickets for less then 100 euros each, and they can be even cheaper then that( I got mine for 45 euros, but that was 3 years ago, I am sure they have not more then doubled in price) .

Driving also involves much wasted time, and extra expence, for instance you will have gas and tolls to pay, plus hotels since driving takes longer.

And a car IN Paris is wasteful, you are paying for three days for it to sit in a garage. Why not consider a compromise, take Eurostar to Paris, then rent a car in Paris for rest of driving.

PS. Driving through the Chunnel has got to be boring, it is just one long tunnel, period, I mean, frankly even going through it on the Eurostar was boring, but at least it was only 20 minutes, I am sure the drive is longer.

Of course can't drive thru the Chunnel but have to load you car and its occupants on shuttle trains that traverse the tunnel on the same tracks as Eurostar trains.

Take the train. The cost of dropping your car in another country will be enormous. I won't even get into the time you'll be wasting (& $$ as well). In addition, sit down w/a map & really figure out what you are going to do between England & Italy. If you want to keep it simple, just stay in Paris. Also, if you live in WV you do have smog, tons of it. Call it what you like, but anywhere along the Kanawha River or Ohio River in & around Charleston, is an absolute mess of pollution w/all the power plants along there...

We were looking at Eurostar plus Eurail passes for the remainder of the time.

Help me with terms here.
Eurostar goes from London to Paris only?
Eurail covers the rest of Europe?

apples/oranges. Eurostar are the high speed trains that go from London > Paris and London > Brussels and a couple of stops in between.

Eurail are passes that cover train travel in major parts of Continental Europe. They are not trains - but passes - that may or may not make sense depending on your routes.

Also - Where is your timeshare? Could make a HUGE difference re the best way to get to Paris.

Eurostar is the name of a high-speed train on one route, London-Paris (actually, they use that name for some trains in Italy, also).

Eurail isn't a train, it's the name of a company that markets various kinds of rail passes to be used on European train systems. They have many different types and they cover different countries and have different terms, so just go to a rail website and read about them, such as www.eurail.com

there is an advantageous Pass holder fare on Eurostars if you have a railpass valid in either U.K. or France or Belgium such as a Eurailpass valid in any of those countries or a BritRailpass valid in Britain of course.

eurostar trains are the only mainline trains in europe outside of the U.K. the pass is not valid on it seems

Hi,

Car hire for taking from UK to France.

I would be very very surprised if you could actually do this - I had an issue with my own car just before I was due to go from Portsmouth (UK) to the Loire Valley (France) - I could not find one hire car company that hire me a car to take from the UK to France & back!! So I had to get my car fixed very quickly!!

Mark