Hello all,
Can you please help me with travelling with a wife and 3 kids around Europe from London. I am coming out from Australia to London then we plan to travel with another family 2 Adults, 2 Kids arcoss Europe. Probably starting in Amsterdam, then to Belgium (monastery visits for beer) down to Paris etc. (disneyland for kids) and finally to Spain (south coast) for relaxing prior to returning to Australia via London. Travel will be July/August 2010.
My plan is to travel Amsterdam/Belgium/France by car then head back to London before flying out to Spain then back to London then out to Australia. We would like to travel through these countries with the family in a car so we have the freedom to stop etc. with the kids if need be.
My question is "Do we travel by train to the major cities and hire a car in each country we go to ? Or as my mate suggested should we buy a car in London and then sell it when we get back?
I have a mate in london who I could leave the car with to sell. Better still maybe I should register it under his name so he can have it when I get back and sell it if he likes.
The buying option seems the go but what are the costs and issues that go with it? Eg. insurance , tax etc. taking it to Europe.
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Cheers
Reply to this Hi Sam,
If you go for 2 months, there is a system by most european manufacturers....you"buy" the car, and than "sell" it back to them. I'ts cheaper than renting, and both side are making savings. Not sure of the exact name in english of the system, I know Peugeot is big in the market in Europe.
For two months, if there are a lot of you, look at renting either service appartments or flats in each city...it will be way cheaper. Europeans are not very good at putting more than 3 people in a room.
If you do rent, make sur un pick up and return the car in the same country, way cheaper. Train for a lot of people will be more expensive. Flights, yes, but only low cost. As they are many of you, you should be able to save some money on their luggages charges.
Hope this help,
Peter
Reply to this G'day Sam
We recently spent 2 months travelling around some of Europe. We leased a car under one of the schemes Peter is talking about. You can only do it if you are foreign, that is, not a French national. You get a new vehicle that is fully insured. You can drive it all over Europe and there is no mileage limits or such.
You can do it with Renault, Peugeot or Citroen. There are a few firms that will organise it. We used Renault Eurodrive. There is normally a lead time of about 6 weeks from time of order to pick up.
It came out a lot cheaper than hire cars and, for 4 of us with the travel we wanted to do, much more convenient and cheaper than trains. We had to hire one for a week for 4 of us plus luggage and it cost about $A80 per day. The Renault that was plenty large enough for the 4 of us - all adults - came out at about $A44 per day over the 2 month period. If you are able to pick up in France it will be cheaper and they do have a lot of smaller cars as well.
David
Reply to this Hi David,
It has actually nothing to do with your passport, but with residence. You have to be a resident of a country outside of Europe to use the scheme. Thanks a lot for giving a lot more details than I did.
Peter
Reply to this Thankyou for your replies,
I guess it sounds like the lease buy and sell back is the way to go with anything over 17 days.
I am thinking of maybe picking up and dropping off in Calais (ferry terminal) to avoid additional costs. Can anyone suggest a decent car that would accommodate our family of 2 Adults and 3 kids (4, 6 & 12) ?? It seems that for 17 days a Citreon of approx. size is around $2500 - $3000. Does this sound reasonable? Works out around $160 a day ??? Sounds a little high. Has anyone leased a car for a family of approx. our size?? If so, where from and how much?
Any help would be greatly appreciated cheers
Sam
Reply to this Hi, thanks for the info regarding eurodrive (leasing for non EU residents)
- We will be taking of the Peugot leasing agreement - (min 17 days) even though the Renault (21 days min) is basically the same ( a matter of choice). If you do a search there are heaps of listings; showing car sizes and prices etc. renault-eurodrive.com
My question is - Does one try and park in the city area or does one take the metro in? (capitals etc.)
Tony
Reply to this Hi Tony,
Most cities in Europe these days...the rule is park and ride...and I mean, ride the public transports.
Peter
Reply to this I was traveling over Europe for 3 months and I had similar problem when I was planning the trip. I was traveling to Germany, France, Spain and Portugal.
I could not decide what to do, but then I sent out some information about my traveling plans to some worldwide car hire companies that I found on the web, asking about discounts and better deals for renting a car for a long terms in several countries. And I got a really good deal from
Car Hire. As I understand they are new in the global car hire business and they are fighting for their place in the car hire industry. They are a brokerage company, but the commission that I paid for their services was less than 3%! (MISSING)
Reply to this When I went to 3 days trip around Madrid, I chose to use
car hire service. I could use public transportation as well, but it would be more expensive than use of car rental. Reply to this Friends, we are also planning to visit almost same places during our Christmas tour. We are a group of five people and our travel plan would be of around 3 to 4 months. Can we buy a used car for limited period there? <snip>
Reply to this I think that it's better to rent a car, you will not have to sell it then. And all insurances are included. For example me, I always rent cars <snip> and even do not think about buying for travelling in Europe.
[Edited: 2013 Dec 21 02:30 - Roosta:95057 - No commercial links in the forums, please. See TOS]
Reply to this In response to: Msg #85316
I prefer to use my car, but unfortunately it takes too much time to reach my destination. That is why I'm traveling by plane. Here is the website which is rich of good deals for travel and accomodation.
<snip> Please don't post commercial links in the forum.
[Edited: 2014 Jan 30 01:38 - bvchef:65357 ]
Reply to this 
