Re: European Car Rental?
- From: argatlam_roads@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: 5 Mar 2006 07:15:18 -0800
[Mr. Tantillo:]
Just to add to the advice:
While in the USA, the rails cater to freight traffic, and most
passanger traffic is by road/plane, Europe is the opposite. Most
freight goes by truck, with significant intercity passanger traffic by
plane or train. Since European cities are compact and often have
excellent public transit (speaking from experience in Lisbon, Madrid,
Sevilla, and London, this is definitely true), a car is more of a
hassle than it's worth in most cases if you want to see the touristy
stuff. That being said, if you want to do some roadgeeking, or see
some off the beaten path stuff, definitely get a car, but only reserve
for days when you need it....ie, you want the rental company to have
the car when you are in a major city so you don't have to pay for
parking.
It's also worth checking the price of car rental before you go, because
there is huge variation in cost between countries. For instance, rates
in Britain are fairly close to the U.S. (£35 per day for a compact
with automatic transmission), but are three times higher in Italy--both
from Europcar (Dollar's European affiliate).
I suspect the variation in cost has to do with purchase tax on cars.
Britain doesn't have it (over here only V.A.T. is charged on car sales,
which is similar to the situation in most American states where only
sales tax is charged), but lots of other E.U. countries do, and it can
run to 100% of the purchase price or even higher. In Ireland I think
it is 30%.
You'll probably want to get an international driver's permit. Get one
at your local AAA office. I think you can get away with your Minnesota
license in the UK, but other countries will want the translation, so
IDP is best.
An American driver's license will definitely work in the U.K. I rented
a car for several days on a Kansas driver's license in February 2004.
Crossing most international borders in western Europe is a snap, since
within the Schengen zone, there are no customs stops between countries.
You'll obviously have your passport with you, and will need it for
petty much anything you'd need your ID for in the USA. Switzerland is
not part of the Schengen Zone, but land customs between Switzerland and
Schengen-land is pretty simple.
I have crossed the Swiss/German border multiple times (at Singen each
time) and the check has always been perfunctory. The border guards
just take a quick look in your car and then you are on your way. I
have always taken my passport, but I have never actually been asked to
show it.
It would be a mistake to assume that crossing a border, even within
Schengenland, is just as simple as crossing an American state line. I
believe that the Schengen treaty allows participating countries to run
occasional checks at their border inspection stations. I don't think
it precludes documentation checks at borders, which are generally more
cursory than full-blown immigration control.
I also understand (though this information is about five years out of
date) that Spain still operates full-blown checks at its border with
France even though both countries participate in Schengen; this may
have something to do with the fact that all non-E.U. foreigners
entering Spain need to fill out a landing card with a perforated
counterpart which has to be kept with the passport and surrendered when
leaving Spain. (This system was still in effect when I last visited
Spain in 2003, entering on a flight from London Luton.)
You will need to do a customs stop between UK and France....as
UK/Ireland is not part of Schengen. But you probably wouldn't want to
bring a car across the channel anyway (that is one of the moves thats
probably prohibited by contract...crossing the English Channel). So
arrange to drop off your right-hand drive car in France, take the ferry
across, and then pick up a left-hand drive car in the UK.
I have crossed the Channel multiple times via Eurostar and motorcoach.
It has never been necessary to deal with customs or immigration in
France when going from the U.K. to France. However, the British have
arrangements for checking passengers both coming and going. I am not
completely sure whether the passport check leaving the U.K. is done by
the transport operator or by the British immigration service, but in my
experience it has never entailed more than a simple documentation
check. Theoretically Britain has abolished exit controls, but
transport operators can be fined £2000 for each person they bring to a
U.K. port who can't be admitted to the U.K., so they have a financial
incentive to run a documentation check to be sure that each passenger
leaves the U.K. with valid documents he or she can later use to
re-enter the country.
Going from France to the U.K. via Eurostar some years ago, I had my
passport checked twice at the Gare du Nord, first by a French official
and then by a British official who was operating extraterritorially.
This was a simple documentation check. It was then necessary to clear
immigration and customs at Waterloo Station in London. On the
motorcoach, there is a documentation check at the bus station (Paris
Bagnolet), when passports are photocopied. Then immigration and
customs clearance occurs at Dover.
The difference between a documentation check and full-blown transit
through immigration and customs is generally the thoroughness with
which the passport is checked. In Britain, immigration officers have
the ability to scan machine-readable passports and, I would guess, pull
up the passenger's entire previous entry/exit history on a computer
screen built into their desks. The desks are of a standard design
which is intended to prevent people from reading the screen.
In my experience, customs checks are perfunctory even for passengers
arriving from First World countries outside the E.U. and thus walking
through on green. They are virtually nonexistent though still
theoretically possible for E.U. arrivals, who walk through on blue.
(Blue = E.U. arrivals; Green = Nothing to declare; Red = Goods to
declare.) However, at the London airports at least, customs inspectors
monitor flight arrivals and seem to take them into account in deciding
whom in the green line to pull over for inspection.
This means that if you are an obvious straggler--e.g. you are a white
man arriving on a plane from Chicago, take thirty minutes longer than
everyone else to get through immigration and customs because you have
taken a bathroom break, and the next flight has come from Delhi and is
full of swarthy-skinned Indians--you are liable to be accosted in the
green line and asked to show your passport or state which city you are
from. I have had this happen to me a couple of times, but I have never
actually been asked to open my bags for inspection. (If this happens,
the basic strategy is to stay very polite and insist on documentation
that will allow any duty charged to be reclaimed when you take your
baggage out of the country.)
Beware that a standard rental car in Europe is probably a compact, with
manual transmission. If you want an automatic, or a bigger car to fit
stuff into, that'll cost you extra.
In most cases it is necessary to specify a bigger car in order to get
automatic transmission (this will be evident from a few quick checks of
car rental agency websites).
[Budget flying options]
Yes, on discount airlines. Europe has a few equivalents of
"Southwest". In many cases, the train is faster, since trains are very
efficient and go downtown to downtown.
Well-known British budget carriers include EasyJet, Ryanair, Buzz, Go,
.. . . There are also a few Continental equivalents--for instance,
H.A.P.A.G.-Lloyd are now in the budget airline business--but on the
whole budget air travel seems less well developed on the Continent.
Budget airlines can offer considerable savings, but it is always
necessary to check WHERE the airport is. Under rather loose rules
which the E.U. commission periodically talks about tightening, budget
airlines are allowed to claim that an airport serves a large city even
if it is an obscenely long distance away from that city or is connected
to it only by awkward transport links such as infrequent bus and rail
services. Ryanair has become particularly notorious for this kind of
mis-selling.
Also, it's necessary to make sure departure and arrival times
coordinate well with public transport availability. Flights leaving
before nine A.M. or arriving after nine P.M. are just asking for
trouble, given the (general) six-A.M.-to-midnight availability of
public transport in most large European cities (which tapers down to
eight A.M. to ten P.M. in smaller cities). Again, Ryanair is notorious
for selling cheap seats on seven A.M. redeye flights for which
passengers have to arrive at the airport the night before and sleep on
chairs in the waiting areas. Websites of national railway companies
are a good place to start checking transport availability, because most
airports of any size have (or plan to have) rail links. Most airports
also have their own websites, which give an indication of how to access
bus services as well--though large airports (e.g. Stockholm Arlanda)
tend to do better at this than smaller ones.
With scheduling and ground transport costs taken into consideration,
flag carriers like B.A., Air France, Alitalia, etc. quite often compete
on cost.
As for cheap tix to Europe from the USA.....forget about going in
August (all of Europe is on vacation then pretty much), and summer is
high season. Christmas week and Easter week (especially in Rome!) are
busy times too. if you can do shoulder season, you'll find cheaper
rates. Buy early. I got my tickets last month from Raleigh/Durham to
Italy and back for end of June, and it was about $1,400. This is on US
Air connecting through Philly. From Minneapolis, you probably have
much better options as i'm sure you can fly straight to Europe from
there. Just buy early, whatever you do!
I usually manage to do LON <--> ICT roundtrip for no more than £500 if
I can leave before July 1 and return after August 31. But I usually am
willing to pay up to about £20 extra for connections which more
closely approximate a great circle routing (in this respect, LON <-->
ORD <--> ICT is much better than connecting through DFW, IAH, STL, and
ATL, all of which I have tried), or for a better airline (United and
American are all right; Continental is probably the best; Delta is
awful). I have gotten good prices up to a month before departure,
though I try to be two months or more early. I got a good price five
days before departure once, but that was pure luck.
In my years crossing the Atlantic I have found it psychologically
helpful to fly on aircraft which have real-time seatback flight
maps--United and Continental are good in this respect, but American is
spotty (LON <--> ORD has flight maps, but LON <--> DFW doesn't, so I
try to avoid the latter).
.
- References:
- European Car Rental?
- From: Monte Castleman
- Re: European Car Rental?
- From: Mike Tantillo
- European Car Rental?
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