Driving from Munich thru Italy to Madrid and then to Paris...Crazy?

What do you consider "all the highlights of Italy"? You'll have to drive through Austria to get to Italy, then backtrack through France to get to Madrid. In what order did you want to see these things? You might want to consider low-cost flights from, say, a point in Italy to Madrid. At first glance your plans seem too widespread to be very do-able by car.

Well the plan is to drive from Munich to Venice-Florence-Sienna-Rome-Nice-Barcelona-Madrid-Mid France somewhere-Paris than to Munich. We are planning to stay on average 2 nights per stop- exept Madrid(3) and Paris(3). What do you think? We have thought about flying from Rome to Madrid. Has anyone done a similiar trip?

At a minimum, driving Munich-Rome-Madrid-Paris-Munich direct, with no side trips, will be about 3500 miles, or about 165 miles per day, every single day of your holiday...almost 3 hrs/day on the road. With gas prices in those countries averaging about $8/gal, you'll be shelling out about $1100 for fuel. The cheapest station wagon I could find (you'll need at least that for four adults and luggage since European cars are generally smaller) out of Munich was about $1400 for the three weeks. So MINIMUM cost is already at $2500, never mind a longer route, tolls, and parking, plus the hassle of driving in the larger cities. You could use rail/air combinations between all of those cities for far less than that. Post again with an itinerary and board members can offer lots of suggestions as to rail/air combinations. You really will find that far more relaxing.

Lacey, I have to agree with Kent and Norm. Driving that particular route in three weeks would NOT be the best way to see Europe. In addition to the disadvantages mentioned, you could also be faced with "unexpected occurrences" during the trip - getting lost, getting nailed by the overzealous traffic police in places like Florence (see Post on that in another Thread), vandalism, tire problems, etc. Also (and maybe more importantly) driving in larger cities like Rome is a nightmare (not to mention parking)!!!

It should be possible to travel that route quickly and efficiently using trains/buses/budget air if you plan well.

Good luck!

I also vote no to driving. What people from the U.S. don't realize are the high gas prices and the inability to park ANYWHERE even in small towns as well as the often confusing signs (like restricted zones).

So in answer to your original question, "YES".

You can do it, but be sure to write an itinerary and list the number of days you spend at each location. Also figure the number of days you will need to travel.

Use the trains to travel between towns and rent a car locally if you can afford it. Remember that gasoline is over $4 a gallon and parking is impossible some places and costly if you can find it. Highway tolls in Italy are too costly for most of us.

There are discount airlines serving Italy and Spain which may help. A friend told me today he flew from Madrid to Barcelona for $38 on spanair.com last month.

I always ride local transportation because it is cheaper and easy to use once you learn how. You can research travel times on the internet and also learn distances between your towns if you drive.

I would do some by car ie. my choice by experience would be car in Germany, car in part of Italy. skip Madrid as it is so far for 3 weeks. Train to Paris.
realize one way rentals are very expensive if you don't care car for germany italy together then train to Paris. 3 weeks is not alot of time to see the high points of Germany, Italy and Paris.