Cost Train VS Car

A few things: You can estimate the cost of train travel on www.bahn.de. There's some help on the Graffiti Wall here for using it. You can also look at the national train sites - trenitalia.it and sncf.fr.

Don't underestimate your "gas and tolls". Gas can now be $75 to fill your tank. Also, does the $2000 include the drop charge for taking your car from Italy to France? And then there's the cost of the annual road pass in Switzerland. So, while it's often true that a group can travel more cheaply by car than train, on your route you have some considerations.

I would guess that your best bet would be to use trains in Italy (you don't need one/want one for Rome, Sorrento and Venice.) Training from Venice to Zermatt and then to somewhere in France would also probably be cheaper. Then you could rent a car somewhere like Lyon and enjoy traveling through Burgundy to then drop the car in Paris.

I used Rick’s train cost/time page and it looks like 5 people going Rome-Sorrento/ Sorrento-Venice/ Venice-Zermat/ Zermat-Paris is $2600 (or more don’t know how up to date the cost is with Euro now).
Add to this any Taxi and side trips to Pompeii, Amalfi drive....the cost will be well over $3000+
A car will be about the same, now I am thinking of driving again.

take trains, or look into flights on the budget airlines (but be careful about luggage weight limits).

Given where you're going, a car seems more like a hassle. First off, most cars in Europe are small. 5 people in a small car? Not fun! On the train you can walk around, stretch out, etc. Second, you can't take a car into venice unless it floats, but the train drops you off right in the city. You don't want a car in Paris or Rome; too much traffic, streets are small and hard to navigate, etc. Again, the train takes you right where you want to be.

David, keep in mind that five people and LUGGAGE is beyond the capacity of most rental cars. You will need to ask for a full size car or small van and that will add to your cost substantially unless you have already done that in your $2000.

How long are you going?

I leased a seven passenger Peugot (Renault also has a program) for my family of five. Picked up in Amsterdam, dropped in Rome. About $1,400.00 for 21 days (of 28 day trip) including walk-away insurance and extra charges for picking up and dropping off outside of France. It was a fraction of a rental car price or train passes for five. Diesel was cheaper and the car got great mileage. The only thing I would change is getting a GPS system; Italy was very hard to navigate, no road signs or addresses.

The catch is, you have to lease for at least 17 days.

The Euro is worse today so not sure the prices will be the same, but it's worth looking into if you will be there long enough.