BootsnAll Travel Community

Over the past year I have completed the process of acquiring a work visa, residence card, purchasing a car, registering the car and finally insuring the car in Poland and all of the EU. It was painful, but it is done.

I have travelled most of Europe by train and bus but have often felt that these transportation methods limited my flexibility, forced me to stick to only the well-travelled routes and often increased my costs when compared to having a car.

When my job in Poland ends in early 2008 my wife and I plan to continue travelling Europe, except now by car. We will be able to use camp grounds more comfortably, stay in more cost effective hotels (i.e. suburbs of cities and then use public transport to the city), carry groceries for meals, have a cooler and get to places that involved a lot of logistics work before. I will basically eliminate most train and bus fare(x2) and don't have to worry about maintenance because I got a used VW with 5000 kilometers on it. Basically I just have to buy diesel. I already have to own the car for work so I don't see it as a cost either, maybe a bit of extra wear and tear before I sell it and head to the next continent.

Anyways, my question is: If you were two people and had a car in Europe at your disposal for a year, would you use it or would you be wooed back to the romance of the bus and train method? More importantly: Will I get kicked off the BNA boards for using my new found freedom?

Cars are interesting things. I've rented a car in Ireland (one weekend), Greece (Four days on Lesvos), and Romania (one week), and when I was younger, my parents rented them on family holidays in several other countries (England, Northern Ireland, France, Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic).

Probably since you own the car and aren't paying an expensive daily rate for it, you'll avoid falling into the trap that really made having a rental stressful - the feeling that we needed to use the car every day to get our money's worth out of it.

That said, we got to see all sorts of places that would have been difficult or impossible to see by bus/train. That's the number one upside to having the thing. Tiny towns are, in my opinion, the real gems of Europe, as they're all different, usually charming, and rarely overun by tourists. But without your own car, there's a limited number that you can actually see, and they're often the ones that are done up for tourists anyway.

Now the downside:
- Roads - I'm not sure where you're from originally, but if you're from North America, driving anywhere in Europe is an adjustment, since the traffic volumes on narrow roads is much heavier than we're used to - in NA, we'd just twin the highways to reduce congestion. Some eastern countries (Romania comes to mind), have just awful roads, with no shoulders, road repair projects that go on periodically for 100km, potholes everywhere...we had two falt tires in one week.

- Many countries (at least Greece and Romania in my experience, probably many others as well) have a tradition of "driving in the middle of the road." Greeks were pretty good about pulling over at the last minute, but Romanians actually ran me off the paved surface a couple of times. This makes driving not-much-fun. (However, I think the Romanian countryside was also the most rewarding scenery of our trip, and without the car we would have seen little of it.)

- Getting lost can cause tension and petty arguments about nothing between driver and navigator.

- Signage isn't great - it's not really standardized, some countries have default speed limits that are not posted, and as a foreigner, you don't necessarily know. Direction signs in particular can be frustrating - French signs that look like they're pointing right might actually be slightly angled back indicating "go forward."

- Driving in cities or, really, any town with more than 5 roads tends to get you lost, a lot. Make sure you have a road map with cities on the back, but even then it's not going to be enough. Best advice is to park on the edge of town and then walk/public transit within the town.

- Cars isolate you even more from other travellers, so with only the two of you, you may get tired of each others company. However, if you stay in hostels, or other places where you can meet up with people, they'll probably appreciate rides, so you can get some fresh conversation.

I'd have mixed feelings about owning a car. Rentals are expensive, but they allow you to mix the car in to see the countryside, while still being able to relax and let the train take you where you want to go on longer hauls. With owning the car, you're pretty much bound to it.

I'm sure you'll have a great time, but you may find after a few months that you want to ditch the car and take the train. Then, 3 weeks later, you'll wish you had the car again.

Enjoy.

I think it's a great idea. One caveat though - buy a SatNav before you leave! My friend and I did a week of roadtripping last summer and his satnav had campsites etc. listed already on it. Very handy!

Obviously driving isn't as "relaxing" as a long train ride, but as long as you don't spend 10 hours a day in the car, I can't see that it would be a problem.

If you can drive in Poland, you'll manage fine anywhere else... seriously

I tend to think it will be a better experience overall and I can't agree enough with the car being able to get us to the "real gems" of Europe that might otherwise be hard to get to.

As far as the driving and all that goes, we know what we are getting into there. We have lived in Poland for the past year and have had a rental car almost the whole time. We have also rented cars in various countries over our travels the past 2 years. Poland gives me great practice with bad driving and bad roads....

What is really different for us is that I won't be working again and we will start up our interrupted RTW trip. We will be travelling Europe full time in a car for 6 months or more before moving on to Africa and SEA. I am mostly wondering what the purists will say. Can you "experience" Europe while in a car, staying in hostels and campgrounds?

I know the answer from my perspective but I am curious what others think.

A friend of mine recently traveled through SEA and Europe. I have never met more of a traveler than him, seriously, ever. He bought a car somewhere in Europe (Poland maybe? I can't remember). His stories are better than most I have read. It didn't lessen his experience, it improved it. It would end up meeting and picking up folks at various hostels. It was pretty awesome.

He is a travel "purist," although I don't think he would be pretentious enough to call himself that, and he had a car (and, in fact, is planning a whole other trip around this car).

I say go for it!

And, also, if people are judging you because you choose to do something different, they are not worth your time or concern.

Since you already have the car, and it's a diesel, I'd say go for it.
Financially it makes sense and since you'e already done the train thing I see no reason to try Europe by car this time around. If people ask about buying or renting a car just for a trip, I usually think it's too expensive. But since you've already bought the thing, have insurance covered, and diesel is cheaper than regular fuel, why on earth not? It'll probably come cheaper than selling the car now and buying train tickets. Plus I think it is a nice change to have a car once in a while and - as you mentioned - get more easily to those out of the way places.
At the end of the day, if you decide you made the wrong decision you can always sell the car after having traveled with it for a couple of months and revert to the old train-and-bus mode. You really have nothing to loose.

Glad to hear these comments. I think that people who have travelled Europe extensively via public systems probably appreciate the value of a car more. I have to admit that 3 years ago, before moving over here (and first time in Europe), I would have thought the car was a sell-out. In my mind, trains, taxis, trams, and metros were going to be half the experience for me. I guess I have moved past that now, but I still like trains (despite having a car I have never drove to Warsaw yet).
I have to admit that I look forward to staying in hostels and being able to give someone a ride to the next town or helping on a grocery run. We plan on being very careful to not bring so much "luxury" stuff that we can't always have two seats free in the car.
Annie has spoken and it looks like with her support they can't kick me off BNA

Personally I always rent a car in Europe, as my in-laws live in the country. In my experience in France, 2 people travelling is a break-even proposition vs. train travel, and with 3 or more the car wins out.

I haven't driven in eastern Europe, but England, France, Germany, and the low countries pose no real problems. I would be hesitant to drive in Italy, although my only experience there was in Rome.

quote:

Can you "experience" Europe while in a car, staying in hostels and campgrounds?

IMHO its the very BEST way to see Europe ,EXCEPT by a camper. You can still do trains ,bikes ,bus,walk and all the rest....we have.

There are just too many places and experiences that would be missed without a car or camper.Why limit yourself?