OTish: Paging the DrivingAboutInEuropeisti

I was going to suggest carhire3000.co.uk, but they're £300+ as well.[1]

How about doing a "Top Gear"? Buy an old banger when you get there,
and sell it before you leave. What could possibly go wrong?!


[1] I had to guess some of the details.

 

A bit difficult to drive along the Cinque Terre when I was last there.
But the ferry was good.

 

Fuel is not usually the only incremental cost.
You could add 25% of the cost of a service, 10% of a set of tyres, etc.
Though in my case fuel is the only incremental cost, as it's a lease car.

 

Sadly not, they'll be living in a caravan for a while until the house
is finished. Loads of tent space though!

 

I would suggest using my method of not booking anything, & just going
up to the hire desk with the most local sounding name when you get to
the airport. They normally have the shortest queue & the cheapest
prices. Not sure I'd risk that with a family in tow though.

 

Despite the ... burglary was it?

 

They've been trying for nearly three years but it's taken this long to
sell their house.

 

Once bitten twice shy. I think they've got a gas detector now, plus
they'll have the dog with them (the biggest Alsation you've ever seen).

 

The bike is definitely the most sensible option, on the basis that
you're unlikely to get stuck if another volcano erupts.

 

You could go further east, over the Simplon or the Gotthard. In fact
there are all sorts of ways to incorporate an Alps road trip if you can
spend a bit of extra time. The Mt. Blanc tunnel and autoroute via Milan
is probably fastest, though.

 

Not on the Swiss ones. The vignette is 40chf for a car or a bike.

 

You're going the wrong way then. Although I haven't done all the sums,
I'd suggest that coming through CH would be a much better option. Down
past (or underneath) Basel, Bern, Lausanne, Martigny, over the Grand
St. Bernard, would be my first choice. Although of course that's from
a different starting point, particularly given that you're crossing
the channell to Caen

We're generally free for one night en-route in either direction, as
convenient ;-)

Of course. If not the rationale for driving just disappears.

 

....but if you sneak across the border on an industrial estate and then
hit the motorway, it's free!

 

I think most of the good advice has been given, but just to add that
we're usually happy to put up travellers en-route, and are about a
day's ride/drive from the channel, just on the French side of Basel.
You'd be welcome to use us as a staging post, as others have done on
more than a few occasions.

 

Sure. Until you all get pulled over, that was.

But I have often recommended such an approach in the past, and would
continue to do so for those people who might manage to make one single
journey through the country without getting arrested.

 

Heh. ****.

 

That had nothing to do with the lack of a vignette and everything to do
with a four-man eight-wheeled Gumball rally from Italy to Austria via
Switzerland the next day.

Best. Holiday. Ever.

 

Why don't you **** off to alt.people.optimists where your sort are
tolerated.

 

Count me in. I've got to do something next year because 2012 is going
almost certainly going to be another write-off.

-
ogden | gsxr1000 | rgv250

 

It's not a very big airport in Naples and the car hire price would suggest
that demand exceeds supply. I wouldn't arrive without a reservation.