Taking Bets On Which Will be Cheaper Train or Car (5 Countries)

Need more details. How many people? Two? Six? Obviously that makes a big difference in terms of train tickets.

What is your agenda in each place? is the car just a way to get point to point but you will just be parking in each town until you leave for the next? Or will you plan to do day trips - to where? Sometimes a car is just more convenient, depending on your plans.

One option is just to rent a car in each place if you need one but take the train from city to city.

I would price out and work out the logistics of getting point to point by train. if it's easy, and you have no interest in stopping in between, maybe take the train but rent a car in each place as needed.

As soon as I posted I realized I needed to edit to include 4 travelers (2 adults, 2 late teens) so purchasing 4 tickets for each train trip.

The 14 day trips would be done with the car if we have one, and by train (possibly some bus) if we don't)

And yes, I will consider a hybrid approach, but for the purposes of this post I'd like to consider one or the other based on cost only.

The 14 day trips would be done with the car if we have one, and by train (possibly some bus) if we don't

14 days? Your trip starting in Barcelona and ending in Paris is a lot more than 14 days; it’s over a month long so I’m confused.

I'm guessing 34 train / bus rides x 4 = $3000, less if you weren't going to so many high end places.

So, the difference is the gas and parking (wild guess).

35 days of parking maybe $1000. Yiu say your hotel has free parking, no it doesn't, nothing in life is free.

Gas for the long hauls 1500km/15km per liter × $1.75 per liter = $175. Double that for the day trips = $350 total

Tolls? No idea, toss in another $100.

So the car is maybe $1500 more, or less than $50 a day.

Since I could easily be off by $1000, it's a wash. I would rather be driven, than drive. And there is the whole carbon footprint thing.

I would price out the point to point train tickets between each destination. Then multiply by four for four people. That's your baseline.

For the car, you've obviously got to figure gas, tolls, parking, and/or the fact that having a car may either raise the price of your lodgings or force you to stay somewhere less central that is easier without having to drive there.

For taking trains, you have to figure in the cost of taxis I guess if you might need one to get to/from your lodgings.

In the Swiss Alps, you will probably need a train pass regardless because they cover the gondolas. Either a Half Fare card or a regional card. So you need to add that cost to your car rental comparison.

You don’t want a car in Barcelona or Paris, so hopefully your quote is for picking up the car on the way out of Barcelona and on the way in to Paris.

You don’t mention where in Bavaria you are going. This would be helpful.

Your car size should be an estate car or larger for 4 people plus luggage. We had a difficult time fitting luggage for 4 in a SUV in France. Cars are smaller in Europe. Remember that in addition to luggage, you will have day bags/backpacks. Don’t count on making any stops between cities where you are leaving the car loaded with luggage.

Weigh in the intangible cost of not being locked into train schedules.

Also consider the tangible and intangible costs of getting lost/misdirected while driving, time lost in delays in traffic jams, possible fines from driving into no-drive zones (surprisingly easy to do), difficulty finding parking, extra fees for tolls and required vignettes (Switzerland), and more.

I'll take a stab at this.

You have a quote for a lease, which I assume includes insurance, of $3000. The raw travel from Barcelona to Nice to Como to Lauterbrunnen to Munich to Paris is 2600 km. Figure another 1000 km of side trips. With a car big enough to hold 4 passengers and luggage, that could be about $750 in fuel, $200 in tolls, $250 parking, $800 Swiss mountain tickets. $5000 is a reasonable guess +/- 10%.

For rail, for simplicity sake, a 10-day in 2-month Eurail Pass for 2 adults and 2 late teens is $1640. Add $500 in for reservation fees $800 for Swiss mountain tickets, $1000 for local car rental costs in Girona and Bavaria. I get a hair less than $4000, again +/- 10%.

Its a big number, no matter how you cut it, Maybe spending an extra $1000 is worth it to you for convenience and occasional time savings.

Glad to see you are looking at a lease rather than a rental, that gets rid of a lot of the surprises like border crossing fees and extra driver fees plus it comes insured to the hilt. We always travel by car because we like the smaller towns and you just can't beat the priceless flexibility of a car. If you are a couple minutes late getting back to your car, it will still be there ready to go whereas the train will be a distant memory.
Regarding Paris my recommendation is to turn the car in at CDG and take the RER into town, you definitely do not want to dive in Paris.

Hotel parking costs can vary a lot so look carefully when you book.

The French Autoroute tolls can be rather pricey so depending on time you may want to bypass some of them. Also last year I had a problems using credit cards to buy fuel on the French Autoroutes so take cash or just top off before you get on oone.
You will also need an Autobahn sticker in Switzerland (40 Euros)

Thank you for the insight.

Continental - 14 "day trips" is an estimate for the number of "day trips" (out and back to home base in one day) we will take for the duration of the trip.

Andrew H- Yes I plan to start by getting point to point pricing for the longer train journeys

travel 4 fun - Specific town is to be determined, but South of Stuttgart in South-Western Germany
-Perhaps we would drop the lease car in Stuttgart and take the train to Paris eliminating the car before Paris
-Is there a high risk of theft if leaving luggage in the car at stops along the way?

Phillip- I have also considered the time spent in scheduling and confirming train schedules.

Lola-Thank you for the reminders

Sam- Your caluculations are approaching a comprehensive cost comparison. Thank you. I will research the Eurail pass more.

Irv - Thank you for the reminder on auto insurance. I will be sure to confirm that it is sufficient with the lease car.

Another thing to complicate matters - many cities/regions have zones where driving is not allowed without a special environmental permit. Here is a link for the one for France. There is a similar system in Germany. I stumbled upon this when researching driving to Strasbourg from Colmar. It’s quite challenging, since most park & ride lots are within the no-driving zone!. We’re just going to take the train. https://www.france.fr/en/holiday-prep/crit-air-anti-pollution-vehicle-sticker/amp

I would not leave anything in exposed luggage in a vehicle that you would be upset to have stolen. Even in the US it is a big problem in many places. I live in a small town where cars are broken into at trailheads all the time. Also remember that when you lease a vehicle, it’s as if you own it for that time period. You are responsible for getting it fixed if the windows do get smashed. You don’t just go pick up a different rental car and let the company deal with the repairs.

Specific town is to be determined, but South of Stuttgart in
South-Western Germany

Stuttgart is not in Bavaria, so what are your actual plans for Germany? Bavaria or Baden-Württemberg?

-Perhaps we would drop the lease car in Stuttgart and take the train to Paris eliminating the car before Paris

That is not a bad idea. Train vs car is not just a matter of cost, there are other things to take into consideration as well. Such as travel time, Stuttgart to Paris is 3:30 by train compared to 7-8 hours of driving.

A couple of things about leasing. Who are you considering leasing from? I’ve did it once through Auto Europe on my first trip to Europe. It included full coverage insurance, which was fantastic. Check to be sure that’s still true. One thing I’ve been told since I leased was that if you have an accident or mechanical problems it will be you that will be inconvenienced since it is effectively your car. Time to repair is on your vacation clock. If the car is totaled I’m not sure what happens. It would be good to check. As for pick up and drop off locations, there was no charge if picking it up and dropping it off in France. We picked it up in Frankfurt and had to pay a surcharge. We dropped it in Paris. If you choose to lease you might consider picking the car up in Montpellier on your way from Barcelona to Nice. You could also pick it up in Nice.

We spent 5 nights in Nice without a car last April and didn’t need one. The train and buses took us everywhere we wanted to go without the hassle of parking. If it were me I would pick up the car when leaving Nice. No way I would have wanted a car in Barcelona. I’ve been to Lake Como twice and didn’t need a car. There are ferries, trains and buses. Where do you want to go in the Swiss Alps? In Bavaria a car can be nice if you’re staying in a smaller town. If you crunch the numbers and eliminate a car from cities where you don’t need one you might find it less expensive to buy train tickets in advance for traveling from city to city and using public transportation for your presumably short distance day trips. Just rent a car for a few days if you need one.

Andrea,
Yes we are looking at Auto Europe, and I will look into the repair question, thank you.
It seems that a car would be good in Girona and South-West Germany, and trains would be good or sufficient in Nice*, Italian Lakes, Switzerland, and Paris.

*There are some destinations inland at Nice that a train may not get us to. For these I may look at a single or two day care rental.

If you plan to rent a car for a couple of days in Nice you should be sure you have a place to park it. For a single day you won’t have to worry about that.