Planning a Month Long Europe Trip - Car/Train/Bus/Ferry/Plane?

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  altomic on 15/05/2016 - 15:42

  +1

  18 months ago I drove around europe for 3 weeks. Spent 5 days in paris and then picked up the car at st Gare De Nord station - cologne- prague - chesky krumlov - vienna - st. anton- venice - nice - barcelona - paris/charles de gaulle airport drop off. big clockwise trip doing around 4500kms all up -sounds a lot but autobahn baby! sharing the driving helps. plenty of road houses.

  Had a 5 seater peugot. cost around $40 a day. allowed the opportunity of going where you want and when (holy moly! that's cool, let's check it out". GPS/phone was essential for entering/leaving cities. and "carry" more stuff. e.g. food, beer. etc.

  there was 5 of us and we had one suitcase (2 adults + 3 kids).

  what's good about a car is that there is no real schedule.

  had a 1.2ltr diesel vehicle so it was fairly fuel efficient. plus the highways/autobahns are good. and never had a problem driving at 140kms/h (still was getting passed by faster cars). fuel in italy is really expensive!

  I'd suggest a similar route as above (either clockwise or anti clockwise). fly to and from iceland because it is a fair way away. same with Greece.

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  DrPotato on 15/05/2016 - 15:47

  +1

  What is the best way to travel between the cities?

  I'd recommend charting your itinerary on Rome2rio: www.rome2rio.com. Awesome Startup based in Melbourne. They will suggest every transportation method that could get you from A to B. It even provides schedules and ability to book certain trains in Europe. Saved me heaps of time when I was backpacking across Europe and South America.

  • 

    cheapm8 on 15/05/2016 - 17:47

    pretty cool site! Thanks!

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  mt19 on 15/05/2016 - 15:49

  Hi,

  Can only comment on this bit as have done it before:
  then car/train to Florence and Venice
  Plane/Train from Venice to Nice
  Train/Plane/Car from Nice to Paris

  Train for first 1 (Florence and Venice) destinations are all walk-able, you don't need a car (and the hassle of finding somewhere to park), plus your not there long enough to explore outside of the cities much.

  Plane Venice to Nice, will save you a heap of time, fair amount of cheap(ish) flights, takes no time to get into town from Nice airport
  Train Nice to Paris (stop at avignon?), nice journey, no need to get back in from CDG, get off in heart of Paris.

  Cheers

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  captobvious on 15/05/2016 - 16:26

  I was thinking we would travel by car starting from Frankfurt and ending in Vienna.
  You could do this by river/canal. Its very relaxing and scenic.

  Plane from Athens to Rome, then car/train to Florence and Venice
  Athens to Rome do it by a few day boat/cruise. There are so many places to stop and check out.
  In Italy definitely get a car and explore, drive through Tuscany, or along the amalfi coast. Its very scenic and lots to eat and drink.

  Plane/Train from Venice to Nice
  Train

  Train/Plane/Car from Nice to Paris
  Train

  Plane from Paris to Iceland, Plane from Iceland to Barcelona. Why Iceland? its completely out of the way for your trip - should just do a Scandinavian trip another time which includes norway sweden, iceland etc?

  Train/Car from Bercelona to Valencia to Madrid
  Train rhymes with Spain

  Your suitcases are not a problem in Europe by any means of transport. BUT it may be a pain in the butt at the train stations if the lift doesn't work which happens a lot in europe.

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  Stevetheadventurer on 16/05/2016 - 01:19

  plane

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  Donaldhump on 16/05/2016 - 20:48

  Ditch Frankfurt and Madrid

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    zappy32 on 16/05/2016 - 22:40

    I'd agree although I think they're probably arriving in Frankfurt, I wouldn't bother spending much time there though. With a limited amount of time I'd skip Madrid as well unless you really want to go for the Art/Museums. I think you're trying to see too many big cities in here and will spend A LOT of time in transit. I'd suggest to see some smaller destinations between the cities as well so you don't feel so stressed about making it to airports or train stations every few days.

    captobvious makes some good recommendations but I'd probably fly from Venice to Nice as it will be about the same price and even with the extra hour either side for security and transport, you'll end up 5 hours in front.

    Iceland is a little out of the way but you can get some cheap flights on WOW Air. Just remember it's getting in to winter so at the start of October there's 11 hours from sunrise to sunset and at the end of October there's only 8 so if you do go make sure it's early on so you have time to enjoy it and do day trips! To give you an idea, there shortest day of the year in Sydney(June 21st) has 10 hours between sunrise and sunset.

    • 

      Donaldhump on 18/05/2016 - 02:53

      frankfurt was disappointing, drug addicts and drunks every where near the Hbf.

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  spacemansam on 17/05/2016 - 10:17

  Hey cheapm8

  I've been to most those places in the past year, and agree with the previous poster about skipping Frankfurt if you don't really need to go there

  As much as you can, train it! It will save you time, money and the stress of figuring out where you are going! Plus the views can be spectacular especially in France. I've listed links to most of the country's rail services on my blog
  https://poonannsontour.wordpress.com/2016/02/02/hello-world/

  Good luck and have a great trip!