Crippled by indecision! Car or public transport for long trip?

I think that there are pluses and minuses to both options. If you rent a car you will want to look into requirements in each country that you’re planning to visit. For example, in Slovenia, Switzerland and Austria require a vignette. It’s a sticker that you buy at the gas station as soon as you enter the country. I believe Austria and Slovenia are around $30 each, Switzerland was $75 last time I checked in 2008. Public transportation does take more planning and it’s not as well organized/reliable in some of the countries that you listed as others. For most of the countries that you have listed I would definitely rent a car.

Last point, which I am sure you have already researched, you can only stay in Schengen zone for 90 out of every 180 days.

Thanks April!

I have indeed read into all the vignettes I will be needing as well as green zones. It is all a bit daunting, but with planning Im sure it could go okay. My main concerns continue to be driving in the city, as well as availability of parking. Also since posting, I have looked into all countries COVID protocols. For example, was planning on driving through Austria but it seems they aren't yet open to US travelers, so I should keep that in mind. Thanks for your response.

Some questions for clarification if I may

1- Does the '$3000, including insurance', include both liability and collision/comp. ( "LDW") coverage?
How much of a deductible on the LDW? Some rentals include LDW, but have as much as a $3k deductible and exclude glass, tire and under carriage damage. Be sure to read the fine print.

2- Is the agency aware of where you are planning to take the car?

3- Are you doing this as a one way rental, or are you bringing the car back to Prague? If one way, does the $3k include a 'drop fee'

4- Have you explored what toll roads you may encounter? Since you seem to have budget limits ( "hostels and cheap motels"), this could be significant ( I do not know, but you should explore that)

Good luck

I drive without problems in Los Angeles and San Francisco but I will never drive in places like London, Rome, Istanbul or Athens. And beyond. I drove in Rome in the 80s and it was not fun. Today it is worse. A private driver took us around Istanbul. I’d never drive in that city, ever! The countryside driving is easy though.
I’ve done countryside roads in Italy and Greece without too much difficulty as well. Just make sure you understand the rules around ZTLs in Italy and can read the road signs.
Parking is always a problem and you might have a problem taking a rental from one country to another. So, if you drive, know all the rules. Trains and buses sounds wonderful to me.

I have not done your types of trips, but I'm wondering if a hybrid plan would be cheaper-pick one or two countries where you most want to do the nature things that require a car, pick up and drop off in same country, take public transportation in other places, especially cities.

I am COMPLETELY torn by the decision of doing it like I used to
(public transport) or by renting a car.

You are in my opinion making the common mistake of seeing it as black and white choice between either car or public transport. What you should do is to figure out which part of the trip are better done by trains or buses and which are better done by car.

As of yesterday I was dead-set on renting a car, and I secured a
reservation to pick up a VW Golf in Prague on the 10th of July for a
97 day rental. The total cost, including insurance was about $3000 USD
(for some reason, rentals out of Prague seem much cheaper than in
other areas especially Southern cities).

Have you checked the fine print which countries you are allowed to bring it to?

Everything I’m reading online is telling me that driving is an
absolute nightmare. I’d like to think I’m a competent driver, so I
think I’d be okay driving outsider of the main cities, but I worry
about things like: Driving in downtown Athens/Istanbul/Budapest/etc.
It just sounds like absolute chaos and potentially dangerous.

Yes, stay away from any major city with your car. You'd be crazy to attempt to drive in Athens.

PARKING. This is a big one. It quickly becomes not worth the cost if I
am paying 40$ a night to park in the cities. My solution was to find a
public parking spot outside of the big cities and then take transport
in, but is this even possible?

In many cases it is possible to park outside the city and take train in.

And instead of nervously sweating over the steering wheel trying to
translate Turkish road signs, I would just enjoy the scenery.

Turkish use the roman alphabet so that is pretty easy compared to Bulgaria (Cyrillic) or Greece (Greek obviously).

As mentioned, use a car for parts of the trip and train for others. Especially in the Balkan region a car can be useful as trains are limited and often slow.

Couple thoughts:

The decision is not necessarily "Either-Or". You can easily mix use of a rental car and Public transport, renting for a few days, or a couple weeks, then using Public Transport to move from one area to another.

Have you shared your itinerary with the rental car company? or just plugged in the number of days into an online form? What are you doing for insurance?

My point is, I would find it unusual for a rental car company to allow you leave the EU, Turkey would be a problem I imagine, Macedonia as well. There likely are limits to what countries are allowed, and entry to some countries may require additional insurance (Italy often incurs a restriction or added insurance). Leasing adds some flexibility, but renting "in-country" for some countries is a good option.

It does not sound like my next point applies, but I hear many talk about renting a car to "Meander through the countryside, visiting little known areas, and get to know the country" then allow less than a day to cover 500 miles. Still, while 97 days sounds like a long time, you are covering 11 countries, so about 1 week per country, and assuming you are returning the car to Prague, are talking driving 4000, maybe 5000 or 6000 miles? Even what sounds like a long time may end up being rushed.

Joe, thanks for the response. I paid the $20 dollars for the ability to cancel my booking, which I've just done, so I'm now unable to see the fine print.

1- The rental itself, as I recall, included collision coverage. It was another $800 for additional coverage, and I did not read the fine print. Truth be told, I made the booking expecting to cancel it. Long story, but for medication reasons I needed proof that I would, in fact, be overseas for 3 months. In the end, I believe the cost actually came out to be $3,350 or somewhere around there.

2- No they are not.

3- That's the kicker. It would involve me driving back to Prague to drop the car off. If I were to drop it off in, say, Athens, it would be well over 8k total. The idea was that my girlfriend would fly home early and I would just spend a solid 3 days non-stop driving from Istanbul to Prague. The more that I write about it, the more idiotic this all seems haha.

4- I have researched it to a degree. Between the stickers I must buy for various countries and the tolls, I figure it to be in the realm of $200. We aren't on an EXTREME budget and we understand that annoying expenses like this are just a fact of life.

To everyone above^ who has commented - I don't know how to respond to each comment, but I can say that so far this has been extremely helpful.

Okay so I think the last few commenters have nailed it precisely: I have had this stupid idea that it all must be one big "grand" trip using one car for the entire duration. Maybe because I'm so fond of road tripping in America doing exactly this. I guess I just liked the simplicity of that idea, combined with the fact that the longer the rental, the cheaper it is (I think).

Again, the insights here are proving to be very helpful and I'm extremely grateful.

Why should this trip be all-car or all-public-transport? Why not plan it as a hub-and-spoke series, taking trains or buses (or even flights) between hub cities and renting cars there for exploring rural areas? I haven't been to most of the places you identified, and I know public transportation is weaker in the Balkans and Greece than in western Europe, but it should be possible to put together a plan that relies on multiple cars but doesn't saddle you with one in a big cities like those you mentioned. Keep in mind, though, that dropping off a rental car in a different country will add a cost.

It seems like you're planning to take this trip next month. If so, you don't have much time to put things together, including accommodations. Your transportation costs will be higher because this is coming up so soon. Waiting a few months, if that's possible, would give you more planning time, lower fares and room rates, and maybe cooler weather too.

EDIT: Well, while I was slowly typing the above many others have offered similar thoughts. Hope this works out for you.

Please don't even think about driving in Istanbul-where traffic rules are optional. Being a pedestrian is bad enough as cars will seldom slow down for you. You also have to factor in that parking is expensive and thieves will break into rental cars. Can you plan it so you do half and half?

Also, have girlfriend watch Rick Steves how to pack light. It will change her life and you won't have to struggle pulling luggage around Europe.

I am 5 years older than you (or up to half a year less or more). I went to Lithuania for one summer college class. In the last 6 years I have taken solo trips to Quebec, England, Italy, greece, the Netherlands, and Belgium. I did not rent a car for any portion of those trips. I never rented a car in Europe or Canada. I do have a valid Michigan driver's license. I drive locally in the Metro Detroit Area. I drove to Sleeping Bear Dunes national Lakeshore in Northern Michigan, to some places in Ohio, and to Chicago.

I don't drive in Europe if I can avoid it, if public transportation is available and easy enough to buy tickets for and plan a trip around. It takes much less work to drive long distances and there is the effort finding parking spots. I may be open to renting a car for part of a trip if I ever want to visit an out of the way place not easily accessible by buses or trains. Most of the most commonly visited places in most of Europe are accessible by buses or trains.

I suggest you write yourself a day-by-day itinerary. If you have a choice of taking buses or trains, pick the one that is most time efficient, fastest and/or least time waiting. Only rent a car for brief times if where you want to go is not easily accessible by bus or train. I would be interested to hear where you want to go that is not easily accessible without renting a car.

All my leisure trips as a tourist were not more than 13 or 14 nights and I had to take the time off work.

We spent a week in Slovenia in 2019 and driving is very easy there, even in Ljubljana. Having a car really facilitated sightseeing and hiking except in Ljubljana city center where it wasn't really needed. If you're mountain driving you might consider a car that has adequate torque because there are some steep switchbacks in the Julian Alps. Just before that trip we had driven in Crete in a car that wasn't quite up to the task on the mountain road switchbacks and even on a few steep city streets. It took a lot more of our attention than we were used to and distracted from the enjoyment of the drive.

We have driven in Athens, the Peloponnese and Crete. Had one of our worst driving experiences in Europe in Athens during rush hour trying to return a rental car to a suburban Avis location. I'm generally a decent navigator but the street naming/numbering in Athens adds to the challenge. Athens earns it's reputation IMO : )

The UK and Ireland are not Schengen Zone Countries...so go there first or last. The total for Schengen is 90 days, not 3 months. One way to visit big cities; is to stay just outside or on the edge of town at a B&B or small Hotel with parking and take a bus or commuter train into the city. Drive an average car with a trunk.

We've done the both option, takin trains and public transport in more urban centers or for long stretches that dont have a lot off the beaten path that we want to explore, and then renting a car for a day or several days, depending. You could do day trips with a rental car and simply take a bus or metro to the rental agency (often located at the train station) on the perimeter of the city, so that its easier to get on the road to your off the beaten path site, and then you can often park the rental back at the agency that night even if you plan to use it the next day for somewhere else (takes care of parking and city driving. Yes it adds a little time). Or organize your trip so you are doing urban chunks and rural chunks, so you have a car for a week and then not for 5 days and then pick up another one, etc. This would prevent having to return to Prague and prevent whatever limitations a company its on taking a car over the border...

For those worried about the 90 day limit for Schengen - review what Schengen actually is - the majority of the countries the OP is planning on visiting are NOT Schengen. https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/schengen-visa-countries-list/

We are planning a somewhat similar trip next year - and Schengen was my first thought - but its a non-issue. Just make sure you get stamps in and out on the relevant borders e.g. Hungary, Slovenia, Greece.

We are considering hiring a car in Slovenia to see Istiria and the Julian Alps, and possibly in rural Croatia - but won't do so in advance we'll do when we are in country.

Also going as far as Turkey - make sure your return flights are out of there - rather than backtracking to Europe.

Having lived in Europe for four years and driven all over central Europe, there are advantages to renting a car, but if you plan to visit large cities where parking is a problem, don't do it. Take trains.

Personally, I would never drive a rental car in Turkey.

I don't know how extensive the rail systems are in eastern Europe. Rail is great in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, etc.

Consider a mix or rail and auto rental. Fly in to Prague and rent to see the country side from there, then head down to Budapest and do the same.

Theft may be more of an issue in poorer countries, not sure about that.

I don't know how extensive the rail systems are in eastern Europe.

It varies. There are some parts where is good and other where it is non-existant. But where there are no trains, there is usually a decent coach network.

Since this is so soon, about a month, you may have difficulties crossing borders because of continuing and frequently changing covid restrictions.

Where you just used to slow a bit on the highway for a border crossing you will now have to stop and produce whatever test is required, for both of you.

The UK only reviews its Green/Amber/Red country list every 3 weeks, so a maximum of twice more before you start. Virtually all of Europe (except Gibraltar and Malta, and a few islands), and the US and Canada are all on the Amber List which comes with 3 or optionally 4 tests and 10 days quarantine. Will they move up to Green before your trip? Nobody knows.

There may be similar in other countries you are planning on... I'd keep an eye on it.

2- Is the agency aware of where you are planning to take the car?

This is absolutely key. You have to reveal to the agency which country/ies you are planning to enter - and they may NOT allow you to take their car into certain country/ies. You could easily be in breach of your contract. Don't do anything else until you have checked with them if you can take the car into the countries you are planning.

Do you think your objective is to keep driving through the countryside just for the sake of driving through the countryside? If so, and if you are still willing to spend the three thousand US dollars you estimate 90 or more days of rental cars will cost, you have your answer and just plan it and inhibit yourself from feeling guilty about driving. Otherwise:

Will you have an itinerary listing specific museums, monuments, or other sites you want to see and then you just want to figure out how to transport yourself and your girlfriend to those sites? If this is the case, see whether, for each site, whether trains, buses, and/or rental cars are the most time efficient and/or cost effective. If you want to do fly fishing in out of the way parks, rivers, or lakes, perhaps you will need a car.

With a car you can leave sites randomly instead of planning around the bus or train schedules. But you have to make sure you have an international drivers license if needed, enough insurance, find parking spots, and hope your rental car isn't vandalized or stolen. Don't leave anything visible in the passenger compartment except that I read somewhere that leaving a local newspaper on a seat can help. Then there is the risk of getting stuck in traffic and/or driving excessively if you loose your way. Don't risk getting tickets for parking in the wrong place, not paying for parking, traffic violations, and so on.

With trains and buses, you have to plan around the train or bus schedule. There is waiting for the bus or train. Be vigilant about not getting robbed on buses or trains, or in bus or train stations.

My choice is, use public transportation whenever possible. Rent a car only when you are going someplace out of the way and/or not easily accessed by a bus or train.

Edit: In the future feel free to tell us hour your trip worked out.