We are going to France for a couple of weeks that will start with a week in Paris, then branch out. For the second week we plan to visit Normany, the Loire Valley, ending in the Rheims area. Our thought was to get a rail/drive pass, train to Normandy, drive to and through the Loire, rail to Rheims, drive through champagne region, rail back to CDG airport.
I haven't tried this before and am unsure about how it works. How does one know where to pick up and drop off cars? How about meshing that with train stations? Does one need to reserve the cars in advance? Any advice or guidance is welcome.
Posted by
Boston
4132 posts
Are these still available in 2nd Class? Those were a great value.
Once you have your pass, reserve your car(s) and arrange for drop-off at the locations you choose. Many train stations have rental locations next door.
I suppose you could just walk in off the street for a car, but you'd be running the risk that the agency wouldn't have what you wanted. So I'd reserve.
The one time I needed to change a reservation there was no charge or difficulty.
Posted by
Reseda, CA, USA
196 posts
Sounds like a great itinerary. The rail drive is super easy and is probably a good value for you. Basically you can book it through Rail Europe and as I recall I was able to use the certificate at Hertz which was real convenient. May I suggest in The Loire Valley that you take the Train to Tours and then pick up the Car and take it a base town like Chinon. Here's my favorite hotel. Parking is available. http://hoteldiderot.com/
Have a great trip.
Posted by
Sacramento, California, United States
253 posts
It is certainly the right way to do your itinerary, and you certainly should book the rail/drive pass before going. I let my travel agent arrange this and it saves you money and lots of time - always a premium item whenever travelling through Europe.
The trick to arranging a rental car is to pick a rail station away from Paris that has a rental office right there, or nearby. We always download some maps of the area where we are picking up cars so we have a general idea how far it is from the station, if it is not right in the station. We do that because the cost of some car rentals go down quite a bit for some of these other car companies. We usually use Eurocar, for instance.
On our last Brittainy trip, we took a Garmin with us and downloaded Europe into it, with pre-programmed addresses for our hotels and sites. Again, a great time-saver.
Now, dropping cars off is a whole other issue. If you plan to drop the car off at CDG, make sure you know where to PARK the car legally beforehand. Sometimes, at least at some train stations, the car goes into a lot while the car rental counter is inside the train station itself - does not do you any good when returning a car, does it? And parking in front of stations is a problem now, so that is out, so you need to know where you can leave it legally before trying to figure it out once there.