Suggested itinerary to incorporate a wedding

We prefer to self drive and will hire a car.

Few tips:

• Cross-border car rentals can become very expensive. Change of country by train or plane recommended.
• Not all European countries are allowed to drive in with some European car rental tariffs - prior check recommended.
• Different countries have different driving allowances - sometimes a NZ driver's license is not enough. In case of accident this can become a very expensive issue. Prior information for every country of the journey is meaningful.
• Some countries have special regulations, e. g. Austria with Autobahn vignette (Pickerl); non domestic rental cars do not have it.
• Every country has its own emission zone regulation. Also meaningful to check that.

Sorry for adding some complication but better to know it before. Have a good journey.

Ok thanks for the info. A lot more to it than when we had our VW Kombi in 1988!!

What a wonderful car and memory!

Melk and the Wachau Valley will be lovely in September. Perhaps look at other villages in the Wachau for your stay - I am partial to Weissenkirchen but Spitz and Duernstein are also lovely. In Duernstein, I can recommend the Gasthaus Stoger - http://www.gasthaus-stoeger.at/

As noted, a vignette is required for cars using highways in Austria. The vignette is now mostly digital, so ask you rental car company if one is included already before purchasing one.

You might consider working with an open jaw ticket flying into your most northern location, UK, and out of your most southern. I’m thinking of summer to fall temperatures and moving from N-S.

Late August— Fly into London and rent car and head north
Early September — Fly from UK to Germany for the wedding, which part of Germany?
Mid September — Melk Austria to visit friends
Late September — visit friends in Tuscany, IT
Early October — visit daughter in Provence, FR
Fly home — Paris

However your daughter and two sets of friends’ availability and preferences might affect your order of travel too.

The Germany, Austria, Provence, Tuscany part could be done by car with large drop off fees and country vignettes as described by MarkK above. It could also be done in a very large driving circle starting and returning car to Germany(?). Such a huge route would need to be broken up with overnight stops for the 8-10h distances that always seem longer than on a mapping app. Check via Michelin for estimates of tolls, vignettes, fuel prices and more accurate driving times.

I’d probably fly or take a train for the longest distances and drive within a country myself. This summer we are in Europe for just four weeks but are using 2 budget flights to connect the places where need to be: UK fly to Vienna then Vienna to Amsterdam before flying home. We purchased an open jaw flight since our beginning location needed to be London and we needed to return from Amsterdam. Vienna is where we are spending the longest time but it is a very long car or train ride, hence the flights.

Emily's suggested rough itinerary takes advantage of better weather as the fall progresses. Seems smart to spend the first part of the trip in the place most likely to have colder and wetter weather in the late part of the trip, and also smart to spend the late part of the trip in the place, most likely to have roasting hot weather in the early part of the trip.

Excellent advice... thank you. Starting in the UK is a great idea and I think we'll do it that way round. Tend to forget it's getting colder in September there when it's getting warmer here.

Thank you for the suggestions. Would be great to have 13 weeks but not practical for us, so a 6 week trip is max. May have to flag the UK portion I think.