Road trip from Paris to Venice
 

Hi there, we are wanting to travel from Paris through the Loire Valley to Avignon/Provence, stay a few days and then onto the coast to stay in / around Nice for about three days, before then making our way over to Italy to stay in Cinque Terre for a couple of days. We leave Paris on 17th September and need to be in Venice Sunday 25th.
We have both done the touristy trails before and this time want to be on our own time, seeing as much of the countryside and experiencing the real France as possible. We're not so keen on castle viewing but obviously seeing some of the grandeur and history will be a highlight. We are generally wanting to have a fairly relaxed holiday type road-trip.

Some questions:
1. Is it worthwhile (i.e. is the extra time going to be worth the countryside/trip) to travel through to Bordeaux and then loop back around to hit Avignon/Provence region and if so, should we stay in Bordeaux or somewhere outside of it that is more quaint/country-sidish?

2. We understand that to rent a car in one country and drop off at another we would pay a drop charge. I can see that we can get a car for approx $400 - 500 USD a week, with another $150 USD for the drop charge. Is it much better to drop off in Nice and then pick up again in San Remo perhaps?

3. With the car hire, as we are from NZ we are unsure if we should book now or wait until we get to the UK or even in Paris. Ideally we don't want to have to pay more than required so your help here would be great!

4. I understand having a car in Cinque Terre is not a good idea, so should we drop off in Genoa or is there another port we could drop off at? Or should we stay just out of the Cinque Terre region, still allowing us to visit by train etc but still retain the flexibility of having the car as we would quite like to make our way to Sienna and through Tuscany if we can.

5. Finally, is it fine to drive into Venice or recommended to drop off at an earlier port?

Your help would be much appreciated!
Thanks

You probably are better off renting from New Zealand.

Given your desire to go to CT and Venice, I would drop off the car in Menton and use trains in Italy. You may discover that short time rentals are far more expensive in total than the prices you are seeing for a single long rental period.

My understanding is that there are exorbitant fees to be paid if you collect a car in one country and drop it off in another. You could drive from Paris to Nice and then catch trains from there across country to Venice, stopping off where you want. We caught trains from Venice - Milan - Cinque Terre and you could do that in reverse. Or catch a train out of Cinque Terre to Pisa and then pick up a car there so that you could explore Siena etc.

There are lots of threads here about people driving into Florence and getting caught driving into prohibited areas, so you might want to avoid doing that! The fines arrive months later in the post.

It sounds like a lovely holiday, I hope you have a great time.

Hi Angela
Any chance you get this. My wife and I are in SOuth Africa and are doing the exact same trip. I would love to know how it went and get any advice. Please mail me on [email protected]
Dave

For the Italian portion, the most efficient way to do this would be to fly from Nice to Rome, pick up a car rental there, and then drive straight to southern Tuscany. Follow scenic routes and, after seeing Siena, veer toward the coast, head up to le Cinque Terre, dropping off the car in La Spezia. It will take you an entire day to get from the mediterranean to Venice by either car or train, so you might as well take the train from le Cinque Terre.