Are we nuts? My husband and I will be in France and italy next October for two weeks. We have an apartment in Paris for the first 5 nights and then an agriturismo in Tuscany for the last 5 (we fly in to Paris and out of Milan). Our plan was to take the train to Avignon form Paris, rent a car, and then take three days driving along the coast before getting to our base in Italy. Other than the ridiculous drop-off fee for the car, are we nuts to do this (drive from France into Italy)? We know we want a car in Italy for touring around Tuscany.
Posted by
Minneapolis
1261 posts
Hi Judy. Taking the train to Avignon and renting a car is common and works well. As you say, it will be expensive to drop in Italy, but if you are OK with cost, it would work fine. Other options would be (1) drop the car in Nice, train to Italy and rent a different car, or (2) cheap flight from Paris to Pisa on Easyjet, and explore the Italy coast via car or train. Just depends on what tickles your fancy. Enjoy your trip!
Posted by
OP
Kirkwood, MO, United States
15 posts
Thanks, Bob. We're obviously still figuring out, but it's such fun to plan . . . and I know there's really no wrong way to do this.
Posted by
Monterey County, CA (formerly Verbania Italy-Lago Maggiore)
1641 posts
Last trip to Europe we flew in/out of Frankfurt with our primary destination Tuscany. I asked the same question on the helpline. "are we crazy"? Since we used miles and cash on United we had to book round trip instead of open-jaw. While we had a $500 dropoff fee, we loved the time we had "road tripping" from Germany-Austria, Switzerland to Italy. We scheduled the stops so we really didn't drive that much any one day, and took 5 nights (2 hours to Rothenburg, 1.5 hours to Fussen, 5 hours to Lake Como, 4 hours to Venice, and 4 hours to Cortona). Each day of our road trip, we planned time for sightseeing, exploring either before we left, on the way, or at our destination. Go for it. But enjoy the journey, and experience destinations along the way.
Posted by
Monterey County, CA (formerly Verbania Italy-Lago Maggiore)
1641 posts
One more thing, if you rent a car in France, check your credit car rules as you might be covered by insurance, even if you drive in Italy. If you rent a second car in Italy, you are required to pay for CDW when renting the car as most cc don't cover renting in Italy. But CDW might be less than the drop charge. I checked both options and it was less expensive renting one car from Germany for the entire 2 weeks.
Posted by
OP
Kirkwood, MO, United States
15 posts
Thanks, Karen! That's pretty much what we were planning--plenty of time to sightsee along the way, two nights on the road with really only 2-3 hours of straight driving each day. Thanks also for the scoop about the CDW charges. We're flying with miles, too, so we know the $$ we're saving on airfare will more than make up for teh drop off charge.