Wife and I are planning a 3-4 tour in April. We've a question regarding car rental vs. train. In the UK and Germany we drove, in Italy we trained. Not sure what's best for Spain. BTW: mannual transmission is not an issue.
Posted by
NJ
9 posts
It all depends where you are headed. We' ve rented a car several times but enjoy exploring the small towns enroute and stay in the paradors. We would have missed some of our favorite spots if we had
taken the train. But if you want to spend most of your time in the cities then I would take the train
Posted by
Minneapolis
1216 posts
Hi Richard. I would second Liz's advice. Roads in Spain are excellent, but like anywhere a car in a big city is a hassle. Trains between big cities in Spain are fast and comfortable, so maybe you should do some train and some car depending on your itinerary. Enjoy your trip!
Posted by
Coquitlam
222 posts
It depends what you wish to see. If it is big cities, the train is best. If you wish to see small towns and the country side, then a car works best. Your trip will determine what will be best.
Posted by
S.F. Bay Area, CA, United States
1878 posts
There are train countries (Italy, Spain) and there are rental car countries (England, Ireland, France), and some that could go either way (Germany). It's a function of where the interesting stuff is, and how hard it would be to drive there, also the relative expense of car vs. train/bus—at least that's the way I look at it. For me in Spain, the countryside is not that interesting as it's dry and barren in the typical places one would visit, the real action is in the cities. (I would not say it's a hard of a country to drive in though—my wife and I did drive there for a few days on our 2005 trip because we wanted to visit Gibraltar.) But on balance, definitely train in Spain—assuming you would be visiting the usual places of Barcelona, Madrid, Toledo, Salamanca, Andalucia, Seville, Granada, Cordoba, Ronda and so on. Maybe a rental car for the white hill towns though.