Pedestrian Tourists
 

I only wish that I meant strapping on a backpack and wandering, little late in life for that.

In the debate - train vs. rental car - I sometimes feel a bit lost. Mainly I like to sight-see on foot. Wandering towns, walking down alleyways and through neighborhoods, and poking my nose here and there is may favorite form of travel. You see fewer places but more intensely, at least in my case.

We used to live in Germany and had our own car. It was a seductress, always leading us out on the road, where we spend most of our time on our backsides looking out the windshield.

We now prefer trains when we visit. We try to limit ourselves to short rides every other day or so, point A to B. We like to get to a place and then stay there long enough to get a feel for it.

There are many points of view about travel, perhaps some folks share ours.

Regards, Gary

There are advantages and disadvantages to every mode of travel. You couldn't control your urge to just keep moving while in a car, others don't have that problem.

I don't know how to drive, so when I travel I never rent a car. For my travels in Europe I can usually find public transit options that work for my needs.

I prefer to rent a car to save time getting to the small towns and leaving more time to explore them on foot. I find trains don't get you off the beaten track as much as a car can and bus schedules to small and perhaps remote towns means seeing fewer places and taking all day to get to those places and back to home base.

I'm with Adrienne on this one :)

There are indeed many points of view.

For some, a trip equals car. Car is always in play irrespective of the cost or time involved. One extreme is a couple who get up early in the morning, drive all day, do one nighters without seeing anything in town - eat and sleep and repeat this every day. They like this mode of travel.

I let the trip objective to dictate the mode of transportation.

Car gives you more control. With train, you are at the mercy of their schedule. With car, start and stop when I want. Also, with car can do detours "wonder where that road goes...that sign says fall fair on over here...".

Once in a city (versus town), car becomes a hindrance.

For point to point, I'd take the train, where the endpoint is the goal not the trip ( there's a saying in here somewhere :)) train is good.

For example, I did a long weekend in the south of France. Driving would have been too much, TGV got me there fast. My destination was the city I wanted to visit, not the road to it.

My response would be pretty much verbatim what Michael says. Trains are fun, from A to B, but there is nothing like the flexibility of car rentals. It is fun driving on those tiny intriguing unmarked roads that seem to beckon you. Sometimes you encounter a gorgeous little village or shop that entices you to completely change your schedule. With a car you can see/do so much more. You can get out of the car and go for walks, you can escape crowds. I could go on and on and on...

It depends on where you want to go. There are not many placies in Switzerland that I couldn't get to by train, streetcar, or bus (I might have to make several connections, but I'd get there). Plus all the superb walking/hiking trails.

In parts of France, you need a car to poke around the back roads.

We are planning our next two-week trip and hope to do it without a car. It's nice to be able to hop on a train and watch the world go by. No traffic jams, no driving stress.

Eventually though, we may get a car. For the moment, we're happy without one.

I actually start this thread thinking walking vs any mode of transportation. I not only don't rent a car, I try to minimize the time that I spend on the train.

Regards, Gary

Gary, i used to walk a lot more, including walking holidays, but now I have chronic tendinitis I am unable to walk long distances some days so have to go with how I feel.
We tend to take the car, within Europe, as we don't "do" cities. we'll drive to an area, then we'll spend time exploring an area, by foot and car. We usually rent a house just so we can get to enjoy an area more.

If we go to the US we hire a car. Depending on the type of trip we may be driving a good part of a day, stopping in motels, such as when we drove Route 66. But we always stopped early and spent time in the places where we stayed, or stayed a couple of days if the town/city was worth it. We avoid the freeways and interstates as much as possible, just so we can stop and walk and explore a place if we want to, rather than rushing by never seeing anything.
That said I hope one day to cross America by train!

We do exactly the same type of trip lots otimes, exploring small towns (either to see a spcific sight or just because theylok cute) - but we do it all by road.

There are roads other than the major highways. And all towns have parking lots. Perfetly easy to do exloring by foot and travel between places by car.