[Idyllchat] traveling by car

[Joan Herriges]

Bob Bestor, a valulable contributor to the Idyllchat community, has a website that may be of interest to you in the planning process.  It is  http://www.travelessentials.com/TravelServices.html.  I asked some general rental car questions in planning our Untours trip to Germany/Austria this summer and his information helped a great deal.  

We are real rail fans, but wanted driving flexibility on this trip, especially in Austria.  We flew in and out of Munich (outstanding airport).  Rental car facility is onsite, and very efficient.  We did upgrade, as we preferred a mid-size car and it was a diesel, which is more economical than gas.  As mentioned in a previous message, roads in Germany, Austria, Switzerland are excellent, and we find signeage much better than US.  

One advantage of the car is saving time on round trip excursions,  We would dally on small roads to a destination, and take the autobahn back home.  We planned several intermittent journeys by train to get our train "fix".  And, they were most satisfying.  Also, getting to a more distant one way destination, i.e. Germany to Italy would save time.   Then some shorter rail journeys to give the driver (and navigator) a break.  

As mentioned in previous messages we prefer to stay over night near the airport after a west coast flight.  Starting out rested makes a big difference.  Also, renting a GPS is a plus.  Most rental companies have them, either installed in the car, or to rent--check the cost.  

Enjoy the planning and the trip.  Cheers.  Joan.  



  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: T. R. Maines 
  To: idyllchat at lists.untours.com 
  Sent: Sunday, January 14, 2007 6:03 PM
  Subject: [Idyllchat] traveling by car


  My husband and I are planning a trip to South Tuscany (Montalcino) in September.  We are also planning to visit an exchange student in Munich and my husband's relatives in Switzerland.  We are trying to decide the best way to travel between these three points.  We will probably be flying into and out of Munich, so will need to go from Munich to Schwanden (Switzerland) and from Schwanden to Florence.  After our two weeks in Tuscany we will go back  to Munich to fly home.  We have narrowed it down to: train, part train/part car, or all car.  We would really prefer doing it all by car, but are concerned re: the difficulty of managing an unfamiliar road system and all the parking (or lack thereof!) problems.  Cost is an issue with us, so we want to do this as economically as possible.  Any thoughts on how we should proceed?  Thanks so much.  Marie Maines 





  Ray and Marie Maines

  7909 Woodland Drive

  North Richland Hills, TX 76180

  ph  817-503-8371

  cell 817-422-4183

  fax 801-203-5799

  rm_maines at hotmail.com



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Find sales, coupons, and free shipping, all in one place!  MSN Shopping Sales & Deals 


------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  _______________________________________________
  This message was sent by IdyllChat.
  To reply or send a new message, email to:
  IdyllChat at lists.untours.com

  Visit the IdyllChat archives:
  http://mailman.dca.net/pipermail/idyllchat/

  Search Idyllchat Archives for any subject at: http://search.dca.net/sites/untours/main.html
  >
  Read real Untourists' candid accounts of their Untours: 
  > http://www.untours.com/triplogs.html To unsubscribe, change to digest delivery, or 
  temporarily pause delivery, visit:
  http://mailman.dca.net/mailman/listinfo/idyllchat
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.dca.net/pipermail/idyllchat/attachments/20070115/f1c4cf44/attachment-0001.htm