Hi, My mom and young son and I are embarking on our first international trip! We are excited and nervous too! We will be in Europe for 3 mos. The first leg of our trip will take us from Paris, through E France, to the Black Forest, Munich for Oktoberfest, then to Vienna and our eventual final destination of Krakow, where both of my parents are from (or close by in Slovakia). My main question is about travel. We would love to spend some time in the Burgundy region, and found lovely B&B outside of Dijon. There are numerous sites I'd like to see, including the famous battlesite at Alesia, where Julius Caesar crushed the Gauls (we named our son Julian partly because we studied the Classics at university). Our potential hostess has told me that we will need a car to get around and do the things we want to do-- but they are SO EXPENSIVE. $70/day. We can take a train to Dijon, but after that? Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated!
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
32813 posts
I see you are going for 3 months. To be legal under the Schengen visa waiver program you need to be in Schengen countries (collectively) for 90 or fewer days in any 180. It appears that all your destinations are within Schengen countries - you did not mention, for example, the UK or Ireland, so I suggest that your 3 months really need to be 90 days, FWIW. Sounds like a wonderful trip... can you post after the fact how the excursion to Alesia went? I loved reading Caesar.
Posted by
OP
Pittsburgh, PA
11 posts
ooh. Did not know that. Besides UK, what other countries should we break up our trip with? We will be there for 96 days total, I think. Oh my. We are headed pretty far east for family reasons (we are going to try to track down distant cousins). Would Slovakia or the Czech Republic count? Our next leg would tentatively take us back through Austria to Italy, then France and Spain. We had toyed with England, but haven't planned it that far. 3 mos is a long time, and we are just trying to plan 3 weeks in advance. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Posted by
Pensacola
9110 posts
Whatever you used for car prices is off. Look at kayak.com and I'll bet you can get a small car (for thirty days or so at a time) for about twenty-five or thirty bucks a day.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
32813 posts
Renee Rather than saying which countries are not in the program I will list those which are. Others are not. • Austria • Belgium • Hungary • Germany • Greece • Denmark • Iceland • Spain • Italy • Latvia • Lithuania • Luxembourg • Malta • Netherlands (Holland) • Norway • Poland • Portugal • Slovakia • Slovenia • Finland • France • Czech Republic • Switzerland • Sweden
• Estonia Can I also suggest that you consider a car lease? I am sure that Ed's advice is also good - maybe an idea is car for some time and city non-car for balance may work. Good luck with your planning.
Posted by
Boston
4132 posts
Your hostess is right, and so is Ed. You'll want a car in Burgundy and should be able to find one for less that $70/day. Unless you can find a rental, or a lease, arrangement that does not charge a hefty cross-border drop-off fee, you may wish to investigate using trains to get from country to country. You could rent a car in Burgundy, drive to Alsace, then take a train across the border to rent another car in Germany. And so forth through Austria and Poland.
Posted by
OP
Pittsburgh, PA
11 posts
Thanks for all of the thoughtful replies! Yes, I will need a car. I have become convinced of that. I am going to post a new topic--cheap cars in eastern france!