Patrick, what is half board?

If you are flying from the states fly to london or paris, probably you will find cheaper rates, then take a local tour, sort of ten days around europe inlcuding Paris, Amsterdam, Lyon barcelona or wherever you want to go.
They normaly travel by bus and offer unbeatble rates for hotels and food.
You can check in agencies like nouvelles frontier or that sort. You will meet people and have fun.

I strongly recommend B&Bs. Gite de France is what I used. The cost was 35 to 50 euros for a double-occupancy room with its own bathroom with shower (I am reporting this because it is contrary to easytraveler's cost report). This included breakfast, and while the Gite de France rating system seems to be an equivalent of two star hotels for these rooms, they were much more pleasant than hotel rooms. Two years ago, we found a two star hotel for 65 euros a night. Check the Lyon web site. Two star hotel rooms, no matter how small, will include a bathroom with shower.

Hi wsox,

Half board is what was once "Modified American Plan", bkfst and dinner.

Patrick suggests:

>We're planning (well, maybe -- we'll see) to cut out wine for lunch...<

OH, Sure. :S-

Patrick: you could save a bundle on auto insurance if you lease a car. Need to keep the car 17 days or more. The lease agreement covers EVERYTHING - damage to car, theft of car, everything that might happen to the car.

Summer of 2003, some of my family RENTED a car for 15 days and I was leasing another car for 21 days. My lease amount came to less than their rental amount and their insurance coverage was not as comprehensive as mine was.

We both dealt through Europebycar and we're both very happy campers with Europebycar, although I've noticed that AutoEurope is the favorite here on Fodors. Shop around. Oh yes, one more thing, rates for the same car same period differ in different countries.

With the money you save, you can now afford a full bottle at lunch! Cheers!((D))

The apartment idea is a good one - if you stay by the beach during the week instead of the weekend, you can get a good rate, and a lot of places in Spain will negotiate with you on the price. Visiting cities on weekends can also be a bargain - stay bit outside the popular areas, and use public transportation.

Ordering a coffee or drink while standing at a bar is cheaper than the same beverage at a seated table.

You can make your way through southern Spain by visiting bars with "tapas", literally a lid of free snacks that comes with your drink. The farther south you get, the more traditional the practice. Ask around to see what bars give the best ones. Since these are usually fried fish or starchy tidbits, you'll also want to order a side dish or two of something more substantial. Just keep going - after three or four different bars, you'll come to an understanding of Spanish nightlife!

In Paris, don't picnic on park lawns - it's often against the law.

We always had wine in a restaurant while in Paris. Can you really wander around with a wine bottle and drink on a public street there?

Yea, Ira, we'll see about that forgetting wine at lunch. Something tells me that may go by the wayside (especially in Italy).

Yes, easy traveler, I'm very familiar with the savings on the lease plans. We've done it several times. But this year we're only doing car rentals for 7 days, 8 days, and 3 days, separated with having no car. Incidentally, at one point we were thinking about doing an AutoFrance lease for the minumum 17 days changing our itinerary slightly. But guess what? We were actually finding it cheaper to do the same car through AutoEurope as a 17 day rental without the full insurance package than it was to do the 17 day lease. Of course, the longer the lease the better the savings become -- a three month lease we did a couple years ago came out under $20 a day all inclusive!!

The half-board question has now been answered, but the Parsifal, like some other places lets you choose either lunch or dinner in addition to the breakfast on their half-board plan.

As I love cities, the suggestion for skipping them for the countryside is not an option for me. Having said that...

Stay in cheaper hotels (since I don't know your usual choice/standard it's hard to say), take it down a star from what you'd normally pick. Hotels and long distance transporation are percentage-wise where most of your daily budget is spent. Finding a $60/night place instead of a $175/night would sure buy you lots of nice meals!

Stay in each place longer, don't do the 2-days here, train trip, 2-days there thing. I'd choose 1 country and 2-3 towns max. from your original post.

Don't spend money on museum entries, taxis, etc. Do things on foot, sit in the park, watch the people go by (obviously this method isn't for everyone, but since you asked, this works for me, and I don't like museums anyway LOL).

If you drink alot, buy a bottle (wine or alcohol) for your hotel room, and have your own happy hour before you go out to a restaurant.

Don't go shopping. Skip souveniers.

Patrick,
If you put the car rental on a gold card isn't it the same as the insurance?

I have the same question as McGeezer, Patrick. What are you doing differently this year with regard to your car coverage? If you're totally covered on your credit card, as some are, why were you paying the extra to AutoEurope to being with?

I'm totally covered on a credit card, and I rent or lease from AutoEurope several times a year, and even when I have had problems - a broken headlight, a broken side mirror - it's been covered by my credit card and I never had to pay a dime. I never paid extra for NOT being covered on my credit card. I don't understand what you are paying for and why.

Am I missing something here?

Why? Well, call me stupid if you want to. But there was the time in Finland when we backed into a concrete barrier and mashed the rear right corner of the car. When we turned the car in at Ivalo, Finland, the man said we'd have to wait there until they could get someone to come estimate the damage to have us pay or put it on our credit card. We were not free to leave until the damage was estimated and paid for, regardless of what our insurance says or what card we put it on. When I pointed out we took out the full coverage, he changed his story and we were free to go. We never heard another word about it. If we had to stay there and settle, we'd have missed the only bus to the spot we were headed to in Northern Norway, and would have missed our boat the next morning. If we are in Europe for five months and have a problem, I never trusted the idea that my credit card was going to take care of the problem -- if we had one. And I'd have a lot of difficulty providing the required information for payment for damage when I was not at home for weeks and weeks.

Trust me, I'm not the only one who normally took (takes) the full coverage just to be safe and avoid problems. If anyone thinks that you do major damage to the car and your worries are over because you charged it on your gold card -- think again. There's a ton of paperwork and problems involved.

We use the Peugeot lease plan at http://www.peugeot.com/sodexa/en/html/index_ns.html and have had excellent results. They have a small automatic which is good for us since I don't do stick!

We've only had one problem and they were there and had it fixed within 30 minutes and there was no charge.

Gas mileage is quite good and they give you all the info on their web site.

SalB mentioned the automatic transmission.

If you're going to rent a car in Europe, learn to drive a manual transmission at home.

Maybe you can learn from a friend. Maybe you can rent one at home for cheap weekend rate. The cost of the car rental at home to learn would be way less than always renting automatics in Europe. (Though I don't know if you could even rent a stick shift in the US or not.)

Please be careful of using your credit card for car insurance. I understand that it does not cover property damage but only car damage. I've heard of people getting an bill for the propery damage. Please check with Tony at francevoila.com.. His page has given specific info on CC insurance. Check with your CC company as I'd hate to see anyone get nailed with an extra bill when they are trying to save money. I have leased through an Australian leaser(Renault) at cheaper prices than US and Canada by at least 20% with earlybird specials and repeat customer insentives. The price is also in Aussie $ which still has a good exchange rate for Americans. Email if you wish the site. [email protected] I am not associated, just a happy customer.
Gerry

ON the subject of renting cars and presuming the insurance is covered by the credit card, I suggest you be very careful. I found that some countries, one being Italy will not allow this feature. Your credit card company can give you details. It is not the credit card company making these rules, it is the particular country. I did find that the traveler's insurance company Access America has a package that does offer insurance for rental cars. If you are requesting the insurance from the right state, you will get insurance coverage for your rental at a much better rate than the car rental company. Again make sure you ask the right questions when looking for outside rental car coverage.

When traveling thru France check out the Logis de France hotel chain. They range from 1 to 4 stars. We have stayed at many during our travels. Many/most have great restaurants. They are located throughout France with a few in Italy in small towns and large cities. There are thousands in France.
Regarding rental cars using credit cards, read the fine print because Mastercard allows rentals for up to 15 consecutive days while Visa allows up to 30 days.
Patrick,
The LaTorrenella in Sorento was 155 euros for half board last year.

I'm not sure anyone should tell someone to "learn to drive a stick shift" to rent a car in Europe. My husband drives a stick shift but prefers the automatic in Europe. Unless you're pretty fluent in the local language, you are driving on strange roads in a strange car and reading signs in a strange language. He thinks adding the stick shift to this is asking for trouble, especially considering the high accident rate in France (which has vastly improved this past year!).

We get over 40 miles per gallon on our little automatic and that's just fine with us. The European cars get much better mileage than American ones.

We have only leased from Peugeot (and once from Kemwel) and it was very reasonable. Just don't get a big car and you won't pay big bucks. You don't need to feel you have to learn stick shift if you don't use it at home. There are lots of European automatics on the road.

[RENTAL INCLUDES]
* Sales tax as of Booking Date: 11/17/2003
* Unlimited mileage and fire insurance. Liability Insurance for injuries or damages to persons or things outside the vehicle.

********

rootbear

the above is a line taken from a contract brokered by AutoEurope for car rental without CDW (collision insurance). It concerns the 'property damage' of which you speak. Most CC insurance doesn't include it because it is, as you can see, already automatically covered in most instances by the rental company.