Hi to many experienced and enlightened posters. My question is four people traveling to four countries over a four week period. Car rental seemed like justifiable over trains, but perspectives around leasing opens that up even more. The big challenge is the seemingly large distances a few of the trips entail. We can rejig the itinerary to make it more sensible, but here goes. A week in Paris, with a side trip to Juno Beach and Mt St Michel. then down to the Dordogne, across to Auvergnes then south to Provence. From there to Barcelona then down to Andulucia, for about ten days in Spain, similar to France. From there we intended to fly from Malaga to Glasgow or Edinburgh and rent a car again for five days in Scotland before taking the train south from the alternate Scottish city to London for a brief stop before returning by train to Paris and departure. So if we lease instead of two or three different rentals, and reduce the mass transportation of a few train trips between countries and the plane, then there is a cost saving. Longer driving is not impossible for the two drivers on board. Used to it on the prairies where it is an hour's drive to get milk (just kidding) We enjoy the spontanous ability of driving to enjoy hidden gems..... but the scampering from the south of Spain to Scotland then back to Paris leaves me a little jittery. What suggestions would others make, other than to just focus a bit, We really would like to take in France, Spain and Scotland on this four week trip. London is less of a major deal, and simply because we figured on passing through.
Thanks for all contributions......
Posted by
Pensacola
9110 posts
Breaking the mess down into segments makes it easier to start applying logic. Overview. For four people, a car will beat trains. Leasing only comes ahead with a longer, continuous term; you're segmented by the UK, the continent, and the week in Paris. You've got a horrible kicker with the second-country drop-off fee for France/Spain. Adding an extra driver might cost twenty-five bucks a day or it might be free - - we've seen both with no discernible pattern. Continent. You don't need a car in Paris and parking fees will be on the order of twenty-five bucks a day. Do whatever driving of the environs you want to do in conjunction with the Normandy trip as you leave. Keep the car all the way into Spain, but get it back to France to drop. (A run on kayak shows that for a full-size sedan for two weeks in summer with a Paris pick-up and return will cost $865. Do the exact same thing but drop in Malaga and the price jumps to $2364. You can grit your teeth and drive from Granada to Toulouse in daylight in summer. Flying machines move twixt Toulouse and Scotland.) Scotland and England. Price out the trains and their times; last month I was paying about $7.50 a gallon in Scotland, Wales, and England. You should be able to get about thirty miles per with a larger car. I can drive from either Edinburgh or Glasgow to London in eight hours including a sandwich stop and two coffee stops. Flying. You lost me. If you're going from Scotland to Paris just to catch a plane, that's nuts. Play with multi-city flights from everwhereinhell Saskattoon is to Paris with a return from Scotland. There's no reasonable limit to the number of cities you can plug in, so you might want to stick in the France/Scotland leg as well. Alternatively you might not want to do that and see what happens if you try to do the minor leg on a cheapo carrier.
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10235 posts
Leasing makes sense only within the same country and for a minimum of three weeks.