Train vs. car lease

Tom, I tend to agree with Russ. Rent a car for the Normandy portion, but use trains for the remainder. A month is not a long time for travelling in Europe, and given the number of places you want to visit, travel by train (especially fast trains) would be faster and a more efficient use of your limited holiday time. Although you indicated that you're planning a "self guided" tour of the Normandy beaches, you might also consider one of the excellent day tours (will provide names if you're interested). You'll learn far more and it will be a much more interesting and memorable travel experience! Regarding the Railpasses, these do not include the reservation supplements that are compulsory on some trains (usually the fast trains), so you'd have to pay "out of pocket" for those. I haven't checked, but one of the Flex passes for specific countries may be a bit cheaper than the Global Passes. While the car might be initially cheaper, you'll also have to consider the high cost of fuel, tolls, CDW / insurance and parking if you stop at locations other than your Hotels. There's also the potential of theft, should you stop in a city and leave all your travel gear in the car while you go for lunch (or whatever). If you haven't travelled in Europe before, I'd highly recommend reading Europe Through The Back Door prior to your trip, especially the "Rail Skills" chapter. Depending on how you plan your route and the number of days in each city, it should be possible to fit a short visit to Gimmelwald in between Munich and the return to Paris. Good luck with your planning!

If you want the alpine experience, I might suggest the Oberallgäu, in the corner of Bavaria, between the Vorarlberg and Baden-Württemberg. There is the German ski resort of Oberstdorf and the Austrian Kleinwalsertal.

I would consider a car for your time in Normandy, where public transport is weak. I would use the train for the rest. A car in and between cities like Brussels, Berlin, and Munich is going to be a lot of trouble. You can pick up cheap advance-sale point-to-point tickets for tickets within Germany and from Germany to other countries at http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en The best prices will be available when they first go on sale - 92 days in advance of your specific travel dates. I'm sure you can save a bunch by cobbling together a p2p-ticket trip in lieu of the railpasses. For example, on June 25, there is currently a departure at 7 am for Trier to Berlin for 3 people - 69 Euros total.

"driving in Europe ... would enjoy the experience". I've driven in Europe. More often, I've ridden with others who were driving. It's really just like driving in the U.S., a PITA. When I'm driving, I'm looking (or should be) at the road, not the scenery. On the train, I have the freedom to look at the scenery, or sleep, or review our upcoming itinerary, or write my journal. That's freedom. To the $1600-2000 for the car rental, be sure to add the cost of fuel. Go to ViaMichelin.com. The have an entry for diesel. For gasoline, I've found that the cost of fuel usually adds 50% to the cost of travel. But don't necessarily compare the cost of a just a Global Pass with a rental. Considering the actual number of traveling days, a global pass is rarely more economical the other methods. Particularly, SNCF and German Rail have advance purchase, discount fares that make p2p tickets a good deal, and for travel in a single German state, the Länder-Tickets often provide great savings.

Personal preference... I'm a driver..don't mind exploring the US by car and the same for Europe. I also do enjoy some routes on the train...LaSpezia to CT...Paris to Avignon...Florence to Rome, but I have driven thousands of miles in Europe and would not give up those places I have found that are totally 'the road less traveled'. I want to pull over to the side of the road to walk in the fields of lavendar, or sunflowers or poppies...I want to wait for the sun to set behind a tuscan hill and I want the spontaneity of doing whatever I please. However, there are times when the car can be a hassle. (price on rental seems a little high...did you check numerous companies and are you dropping in another country...very costly) I am a professional photographer and I want to jump off the train when I see something I want to photograph, then I decide I need to come back with a car.

What you are getting is that this is a matter of preference and there may not be a "right" answer. Some more things to consider. You won't want a car in the big cities like Amsterdam, Berlin, and Munich. As has been suggested, you could consider a combination of p2p tix for the train to avoid dropping the car in a second country, and a rental car for smaller towns and for the likelihood of just stopping when you wish. BTW, it seems to me that parking is almost always an issuewhere, time, cost, safety, and on.
Good luck.

We are planning to both pick up and off the leased car in Paris, so there are no extra fees there. It is a leased car, so all insurance is included. Other than diesel, there shouldn't be any additional fees other than tolls, parking, sticker fees for any country that requires them and stickers for cities (if any). We are now looking at a Renault Grand Modus, as it looks as though it may fit all three of us and be reasonably comfortable. That brings the price of the lease to $1,409 and I don't think I can find it any cheaper than that. Buying P2P tickets may be cheaper, but without a defined itinerary, it makes it impossible to buy 92 days in advance. We may try to pin down some more specifics, but if we want to stay longer somewhere or leave early, we would be stuck with P2P tickets. Eurail passes or the car give us some flexibility. We are also having difficulty finding P2P prices on anything other than the more expensive high-speed trains anywhere other than Germany. What we are ending up with is reservation fees and additional fees on nearly every leg of our trip other than Germany. We're also trying to do this as cheaply as possible, so while I understand that the trains are quicker than driving, being in the countryside and stopping at some of the smaller towns seems more like seeing the country to me. I don't find driving in the U.S. a PITA at all, in fact I enjoy driving. Again, I'm not against the trains at all, but so far I'm just not seeing the savings. Maybe I need to have my wife make another post for train ticket help. Without an Itinerary, it makes it more difficult.
Thank you all who have posted. I have a little more information to mull over.

Tom, While you may not consider driving to be a PITA, my concerns are more with the distance you'll be covering in a one month time frame. Travel by train (especially fast trains like the TGV in France) is a MUCH faster and more efficient travel method (especially since no cars can legally travel at 300 kmH!). However, fast trains may not be as cost effective for three, so you'll have to do some "number crunching". You may find that a large part of your trip is spent looking through a windshield, and that you don't have time to get to all the places you wanted to see. Good luck!

Tom - the main reason to have a car in Europe is to go to places not easily accessed by train. Small towns, rural areas, battlefields. If that is what you want to do, then by all means lease a car and enjoy. But if you plan to mostly go to cities like Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, a car is of no use and no value. The driving distances are considerable (especially to Berlin) and the idea of stopping along the way in small towns conflicts with the number of places you want to go and the amount of time you are taking. I also think you have significantly underestimated the cost of gas, tolls and parking. Gas is very expensive (about 3x as much as the US) and many of the highways are tollways. And parking in big cities will be very expensive. Given your stated plans, I'd consider a mix of car and train.