European Road Trip: Pros and Cons

Back in January, Matt and I rented a car in Barcelona and began our two-week road trip through parts of Spain, France, and Andorra. While I’d rented cars for shorter day trips before — like Munich to Neuschwanstein, and Dublin to Giant’s Causeway — this was my first time taking a real European road trip.

It’s always cool to try something new, and we had an amazing time visiting three countries and seven cities. And of course, when you try something new, you learn a lot. (Here’s what we learned about taking a road trip in Europe.)

If you’re thinking about taking a European road trip of your own, there are lots of things to think about before you make the decision. And now that I’ve done it, I’ve got a list of things for you to consider.

Here are the pros and cons of taking a road trip in Europe.

Pro: Flexible Schedule

Let’s start with the positives of renting a car and taking a European road trip.

The flexibility of having your own car is an advantage that becomes apparent as soon as you start planning your trip. When you know you’re going to have your own car, you are no longer beholden to booking the cheapest RyanAir flight that takes off at 5 a.m. in an airport two hours away from the city, or to the schedules of buses and trains that claim to depart at a certain time but might not, actually.

With your own car, you can focus more on getting to whatever hotel you have booked for that night… and that’s it. It doesn’t matter if you decide to roll into town early that morning, or late at night because you decided you were having a great time in the last city you were in and wanted to stay the rest of the day. There are no schedules to adhere to.

Traveling in Europe without a car, it can be financially costly to miss a scheduled flight/train/bus, and it can easily set your whole trip off course if you get messed up. But having your own car puts you completely in charge.

It also means that you have the freedom to do and see things that may not have been possible without the car. For instance, one of the days we were in Logroño, we decided to take a tour of a local olive oil producer that was located 30 minutes outside the city. If we hadn’t had a car, we would have had to figure out a bus schedule to take us out to this tiny town we’d never been to before — and we may not have thought it was worth it. But since we had the car, it was an easy decision to go.

Pro: Privacy & Comfort

I am no stranger to taking cheap and (mostly) efficient transportation. Whether it’s a charter bus across western Poland, an awkward overnight train from Munich to Rome, or any flight operated by EasyJet (which somehow makes RyanAir look like a paragon of luxury). And that’s not even to mention the public bus I took for four hours, round trip, my second year working as a teacher in Madrid.

Especially when you’re traveling for a few weeks, from place to place, it can get tiring to be constantly on the move.

With a rental car, though, you have your own space where you can ride in private comfort during your whole trip. Put the air conditioning or heat on the exact temperature of your liking. Play your own music through the Bluetooth speaker. Talk to your travel companions as much as you want without getting looks for being annoying, loud Americans. Sleep without worrying about missing your stop or someone taking your backpack.

Plus, you don’t have to worry about being crammed into a tiny seat on the plane where you can’t stretch your legs, or developing back pain at a level you weren’t expecting for 30 more years, thanks to the world’s most uncomfortable bus seats. Our rental car during our road trip was a BMW X1, which is actually way nicer than our car at home. So yeah, we we happy with our little home on wheels during the trip.

Pro: Go Where the Tourists Don’t Go

Depending on how comfortable you are with getting off the beaten path, some people may not see this as a “pro.” But for those of us independent, intentional travelers, going places that most tourists don’t go is definitely an advantage.

We drove 1,188 kilometers, or 738 miles, during our two weeks. And during that time, we passed through lots of tiny towns and visited lots of rest stops in the middle of nowhere that I’m sure don’t get a lot of tourists. Which made us feel like we found these little secret, hidden corners of the universe that only locals know about.

Here’s an example. Right after we crossed the border from Andorra into France, we stopped at a rest stop/McDonald’s in Tarascon-sur-Ariège, a small mountain town completely surrounded by the Pyrenees. It was clear that no one there spoke English. When they gave me my coffee in a glass mug — when I’d wanted a to-go cup, to take back on the road — I had to turn to Google Translate before timidly asking with my best French pronunciation, “tasse à emporter?” (Takeaway cup?)

It was such a little thing, and it was weirdly terrifying and I also loved it?

But, you know, there’s so much more to these countries than just the major cities. I’m from Missouri, so I know what it’s like to be considered “flyover country,” and while the big cities are popular for a reason… Tarascon-sur-Ariège is just as much France as Paris is.

Pro: Bag Storage

When you’re going from place to place over a span of a few weeks, it means a lot of packing and unpacking. And lugging your bag(s) around with you. Another benefit of the rental car is having a designated space for your stuff. Just being able to leave stuff in there sometimes can be a huge help.

With hotels, hostels, and Airbnbs, check-out time is usually between 10 a.m.-noon. But what if you’re not heading to your next destination until later in the day? If you don’t have a rental car, you can usually get hotels or hostels to store your bag for you. (Though sometimes they will leave them in an outdoor courtyard, and it will rain, and your stuff will get totally soaked. Definitely wouldn’t know that from experience or anything.)

Airbnbs, though, don’t always allow bag storage because they may have their next guest checking in very soon after you leave. In some cities, you might be able to find luggage storage, but it’s not always close by or convenient. With a rental car, you can just put your bags in the trunk and everything will *most likely* be safe. Though we usually keep our important/expensive items with us.

Con: Cost of Rental Car

Now onto the downsides of taking a road trip in Europe.

Renting a car is expensive. Especially for two weeks. Especially when you decide not to go with the tiniest, cheapest model because you need to get through the mountains. Oh, plus the fact that most cars in Europe are manual, while most of us Americans are more comfortable driving an automatic, so you’ll have to pay more for that, too.

The costs of renting a car can really add up anywhere in the world. But in the U.S., you might compare the cost of renting a car to the cost of flying and find it to be about the same. In Europe — a place where I’ve legitimately booked an international flight for €12 — the cost of a rental car might be harder to justify.

Not only was there the base cost of the rental car that we booked, but there were added expenses: buying both of our International Drivers Licenses in the U.S. before our trip, upgrading the car to the BMW at the rental counter (including a built-in GPS), and registering an additional driver. Plus a big healthy dose of Europe’s VAT tax.

All of which ended up costing us an additional $380 dollars on top of the original $500 we spent to book the car for two weeks. So if you decide a rental car is worth it, be aware of the cost.

Con: Buying Gas & Paying for Tolls

Once you’ve got the car… you have to keep paying for the car. Like paying for gas. Which is way more expensive in Europe than in the U.S. (Thanks, Biden! Oh, wait…)

Here’s a calculation I did in January regarding the prices of gas in Bilbao — the halfway point of our trip — compared to Kansas City, where I live.

In January, the price of gas in KC was $3.10/gallon. Remember that gas in Europe is sold in euros/liter rather than dollars/gallon. In Bilbao, the average price of gas was €1.647 per liter. Using the euros-dollars conversion rate, along with converting liters into gallons… the price of gas in Bilbao was $6.76/gallon.

Since we’d upgraded our car, the BMW took diesel fuel, which was also more expensive than regular gas. However, it also got better gas mileage, meaning we didn’t have to fill up as often. In the end, gas wasn’t as much of a major expense as I was expecting. But it’s just another one of those incidentals that comes along with renting a car.

Another incidental cost: tolls. There were so many tolls! And while some were small expenses, like €1-2, others were up to €20. We passed through 18 toll booths and paid a total of €142 in tolls. While most of them took credit cards, not all of them did.

Con: More Risk & Responsibilities

When you’re traveling Europe by plane, train, and bus, you don’t really have any responsibilities other than showing up to the airport, train station, or bus stop on time. When you’ve got a rental car, you’re taking on many more risks and responsibilities.

First, the rental car itself. If you hadn’t thought about the possibility of something going wrong during your road trip before, those rental car agents will put the fear of God in you when they remind you that you’ll be responsible for the cost of the whole car if it gets one single scratch, whether it was your fault or not. (Unless you’ve got the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card, like we have, which provides amazing rental car coverage.)

Then there’s the fact that, theoretically, you could get in an accident, the car could get stolen, you could get pulled over, you could get lost, you could run out of gas, you get a flat tire in the middle of nowhere…

All of these situations are difficult enough to manage when you’re driving in your home country, but being in another country where you may not be familiar with the language, the customs, or the road signs, could be a recipe for disaster.

Con: Driving in Cities

Maybe it’s all well and good while you’re driving through the gorgeous countryside. But driving in European cities is, in my opinion, at least mildly panic-inducing.

Some places have big-city vibes and you accidentally end up driving in a bus lane for a mile because it’s late and it’s raining and there are too many roundabouts (Matt in Bilbao on this trip). And maybe you get a traffic violation ticket for it by mail, months later (me in Belfast on a different trip, where I would also like to point out that they drive on the other side of the road). Here’s hoping we won’t be finding a surprise from Bilbao in our mailbox anytime soon.

And some places have the-oldest-tiniest-streets-you’ve-ever-seen vibes, and it makes you want to cry as you try to figure out how you’re going to squeeze your big-ass BMW through streets designed for pedestrians 500 years ago.

Either way, driving in cities is a major downside of having a rental car. Plus, the fact that… again… you’re going to have to pay. This time, for parking. During our trip, it typically cost us €15-22 per night for parking, and in some cases, it was still blocks away from the hotel. So just keep that fun little fact in mind. 🙃

 

Okay, I think that should be enough to help you decide whether a European road trip is right for you! Let me know what thoughts or questions you have in the comments, and I’ll be happy to get back to you.

-Cathy

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Originally Published on May 3, 2023.