Should I rent a car or go by rail from Paris to Vienna?

Question

I am doing a whirlwind tour with a friend. We fly into London for the weekend, thinking about taking the Eurostar to Paris, spend four days in Paris and then I have to head to Vienna...where I will meet up with another friend, but also fly home. Any suggestions of things to do or places to see on the way? Renting vs rail? Thanks

Answer 1

How much time do you have to travel between the two? If your objectives are Paris and Vienna, you may want to consider budget flights to Vienna. Air Berlin has some flights for as low as 37 euro including taxes and fees. This would be cheaper and faster than the trains or driving.

If you have time along the way, the trains are a good option. Munich has a lot to see and do and is a convenient break point. Zurich is another interesting possibility. Or you could take a route across northern Italy and stop in Venice (night train from Paris to Venice - spend the day in Venice - night train to Vienna).

The only advantage of driving is that you can pick a more flexible route and see some of the smaller towns along the route. Gas is pretty expensive though and driving can be tiring. You would need to by a sticker in order to drive on the major roads in Austria.

This is a good site for locating budget flights anywhere in Europe: http://www.whichbudget.com/

Another source for cheap flights is: http://www.skyscanner.net/eur/?redirectu...

Answer 2

The answer to you question depends on a few things. If you are trying to conserve as much money as possible then I would say rent the car. If you go through a site like kemwel.com (I highly recommend this) then you should be able to get a reasonable deal on a car. I hope you drive stick, as these are about half the price of an automatic in Europe. If you are driving with another person, then the price of a car plus gas ends up being significantly lower than train prices. The train prices in Europe have gotten out of hand over the past few years.

If I were you, I would actually cut a day out of the Paris trip (you can get a really good feel for Paris in a few days) and drive through Switzerland http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Paris,+France&sa=X&oi=map&ct=title
and stop in Interlaken and do some glacier-climbing or water sports, and then head on to Austria. This is provided you like to drive a lot and the speed limit. There are no police that will radar you in Europe, but there are speed cameras everywhere and they will take pictures of you, your car, and send you tickets. We learned this the hard way....

So if it's about money, go car. If it's about convenience and time, go train. Long explanation, simple answer. :0)

Answer 3

I've never been to Paris or VIenna but I was in Germany for a couple years and I traveled by train and I enjoyed it. If u don't like it u can always get off and get a car. HAVE A GREAT TRIP.

Answer 4

Go by train, take as many high speed trains as you can. They are almost as fast as flying but you safe time because you do not have to be that early at the station. (Only the England-France trains have a 30 minutes check-in time.)

Renting a car for a straight drive is throwing money away, spoiling your fun and may be bad for your health too.
If you had twice as much time it might have been an option, as you would have been able to make stops underway, but not when you are putting in as much as you plan to.

Answer 5

You obviously have no idea how long it takes to get from one city to another over narrow roads.

If you were going to chicago and wanted to go to Kansas City, then Atlanta and on to New York city, could you do it in 4 days?