Traveling Europe in your own car
In this story, I will not share my impressions about countries and cities, they were different for all family members. Impressions are subjective. One thing is for sure, there is something to see in Europe, and traveling by car gives mobility in choosing a route and the amount of time for sightseeing. I want to share some practical tips for organizing such a trip.
So, first. Visas. For such a trip, it is desirable to obtain a Schengen multivisa. I won’t tell how we got it, I’ll say one thing, we pretty much overpaid for it. When obtaining a multivisa, one of the essential conditions is insurance. We asked for an annual multivisa, but we had insurance for six months, so for six months we were given a multivisa. The second option is to get a Schengen visa to the country of final destination (in my version, Spain), but always by car (and not by air). When obtaining this type of visa, it is worth considering that it is a one-time visa, i. e. for one entry into Schengen and one exit from it. It follows from this that, for example, entry from Spain to Andora de jure closes your Schengen visa and, under adverse circumstances, you will no longer be able to return from Andora to Spain or France.
Automobile. For a car, you need to buy a green card for the entire stay abroad. And of course it is desirable to pass the necessary inspection, change the oil, filters, etc. Before going abroad, it is better to wash the car and fill up a full tank of course (after all, gasoline is cheaper here). Before the border in Chop, there are all the necessary services (and a car wash and gas stations, where the car is refueled in such a way that you can’t even believe that so many fit there).
Route planning. Most likely, you will not go on such a journey alone. Therefore, first you need to decide on the countries and cities that you want to visit. Be prepared for the fact that not all cities will fit into the route, so you will have to prioritize and make compromises. The best option is the distance between cities with overnight stays of no more than 500 km, provided that you are not a sleepyhead and are ready to hit the road no later than 8 in the morning, then by lunch you will be in a new city and have time to see it. You can proceed from the fact that in the morning you get to know the city, and after 3 pm you start the next one. And such an option is also possible, when you leave early in the morning, on the way you stop at an interesting city for you, get to know it and go on to spend the night in the next city. It happens that you need to overcome a long distance - 900-1000 km, this is also possible, but at the same time you need to plan that the next day you will not go anywhere, but calmly and slowly inspect the city. We had such options, from Graz (Austria) we went to Rome (a little less than 1000 km), but then we were in Rome for 3 days, and from Barcelona to Paris (a little over 1000 km), but again in Paris 3 days . If you have a limited visa, clearly calculate the route and all stops (by day), but if it is not limited, it also does not hurt to calculate at least approximately. A miscalculation may be needed to book hotels.
Hotels. Since our trip was mostly educational, we did not pursue good hotels. In Europe, there is a widespread network of Etap hotels, present in almost all European countries (not only in Italy), a good budget hotel, the cost, depending on the country and city, ranges from 30 to 60 Euro per room. The rooms are designed for a maximum of 3 people. If there are four of you, don't expect to sleep in one room, take two, because maximum 3 people means only three people maximum, with the third having to sleep on the second floor of the bed. The rooms are quite ascetic, but everything you need is there (shower, toilet, sink, double bed, third place across the bed on the second floor above the pillows, TV, small table, hanger). The rooms are clean, and in France, these hotels look very cozy due to the flowers. Breakfast is included, but don't be fooled by the French breakfast (bread, rolls, yoghurts, jams, butter, sometimes ham and cheese, coffee, tea and juice). Most hotels have their own parking, and in most cases it is free for hotel guests. Hotels can be booked via the Internet without paying for the rooms. When booking these hotels, pay attention to the booking rules, the reservation is kept until 22-00 maximum, and then it is canceled if you have not warned about your later arrival, but there are restrictions there too. We didn’t arrive later than 22-00, so I don’t know exactly what conditions are there. If you book this hotel in France via the Internet, do not be alarmed, besides the country you need to indicate the region (click on the map) and only then the city. In France, this network is very common. There is also a similar chain of Formula 1 hotels, where the rooms are even cheaper, but we did not use it, I cannot recommend it. In Italy, we used the Bed + Breakfast system, but were not satisfied, the same rent of a room in an apartment with the owner, but in any case, this system works on a prepaid basis. We didn’t find other budget options, if anyone knows, then tell me, there is a desire to ride to Italy again. Our trip lasted more than a month, because we had a two-week vacation on the coast of Spain, for which we rented an apartment (also prepaid).
What to do before the trip. Buy (if not) a navigator and maps. Do not be stingy, buy a good navigator and good maps for it. We had a Garmin, the maps were updated 3 days before departure and there was not a single hitch, even offered options for bypassing places where roads were being repaired. A real travel aid and time saver. In 2006, we traveled on maps, strayed a lot in cities and, accordingly, lost a lot of time on this. Open a bank card (preferably in euros), it will be needed to book and pay for hotels, pay for roads (you can also use cash, but the queue is much longer) and in general, in Europe they are quite suspicious of cash, in shops and supermarkets bills over 100 euros do not accept for payment (and sometimes more than 50). Of course, cash is needed, but not very much, it is better to keep the main money on a card. And most importantly, stock up on guidebooks for the countries and cities that you are going to visit, and in order to avoid mess in your head, distribute the countries according to the participants in the trip, i. e. each traveler thoroughly studies one or two countries and becomes a temporary guide to such a country, guiding you on what you need to see, visit, try, etc.
Roads and gas stations. In the countries in question, the roads are paid, but the methods of payment are different. In Hungary, you need to buy the so-called "matrix" at the first gas station after the border, it happens for a different number of days (minimum 4). You stop at a gas station, show the number of the car, they enter it into the database, and knock out a check for you (which, of course, you pay). It is similar in Austria, but I forgot what this card is called, however, the procedure is the same, the first refueling after a change of state, show the car number and pay for road tolls (minimum validity 7 days). Further in Italy, France and Spain, you pay for passing through special places. At the entrance to the autobahn, in front of the barrier, do not forget to pick up the registration ticket on the autobahn, you need it at the exit (it is used to calculate the amount that you have to pay for the roads). Even if you drove up to the checkpoint, and the barrier opened by itself, the coupon was automatically printed somewhere and popped up, look for it, otherwise you will pay double when leaving the autobahn and only at terminals where cash is paid. Gas stations. The cheapest gasoline in Hungary, Austria and Spain. The most expensive in France. In France and Spain there are gas stations where there are two or even three prices for the same gasoline. In this case, pay attention to the racks and prices below them. If there are three prices, then the cheapest gasoline is on special cards (there is a system for buying gasoline in advance in the country, something like our coupons), the second price is self-service, and the third one is fueled by a special person. If there are two prices, then this is either the first and second option, or the second and third.
Parking. Park only in designated places and at the same time carefully study the parking signs, it is better to look for a parking meter, if there is none, it is better to re-park. Parking, this is the expense item on which you should not save, it will come out more expensive. Parking on the street can be special, for example, for residents of this microdistrict, they usually have special cards that lie under the windshield, so you should take a closer look at parked cars nearby. And the safest option is to park in underground or multi-storey car parks. They are equipped with an electronic scoreboard informing about the number of free places, if there are less than ten of them, do not even enter, there is practically no chance to find them. Having parked the car, write down for yourself on which floor and in which sector (if it is indicated), believe it is necessary, when you change parking lots several times a day for a month every day, you forget where exactly the car is parked now. This is very important, because your time is limited, when you return to the parking lot you pay for the parking time and you are given 15-20 minutes to leave, so there is not much time to search for a car. In many cities, parking on the street (if there are parking meters) is free at night, parking can also be free on weekends, but this needs to be clarified on the spot (what hours are considered night, and what day is free parking). From what I remember, parking is free in Paris on Sunday, but this does not mean that you can park in the place of a disabled person or other places specially allocated for a certain category of citizens, this is a fine and if you got it more than two weeks before leaving you may have problems at the border, in Europe there is a single computer system for traffic police. The time for getting information about you (about your car) as violators is different, the minimum period is 2 weeks. This also applies to the speed limit, cameras take pictures and record speeding (in navigators, most cameras are applied), in addition, do not flatter yourself, the police, like ours, are standing with radars on the roads. And more about parking lots, parking lots near supermarkets are intended for supermarket customers and do not think that this is not monitored (well, unless you leave for an hour and return before it closes), cars are evacuated from there. I speak from my sad experience. In Vienna, in order to save money, we left the car in the parking lot of a small market near the hotel (the case when there is paid parking for hotel customers) and it was evacuated. We took the car by paying 250 euros for evacuation and storage. That's all the savings.
Excursions. Many major cities in Europe have such Open Tour buses, a very convenient way to get to know the city. Tickets for this bus can be purchased for 1 or 2 or 3 days. By purchasing such a ticket, you can ride these buses as many times as you like for a selected number of days, disembark and re-board at any stop. In some cities there are several routes, but the ticket is the same for any route. In the capitals of European countries, on these buses you can listen to a tour in Russian (you are given headphones, you sit in any seat, plug the headphone plug into the panel and select the language).
My story turned out to be very large, so I didn’t describe something, but if you have questions, I will try to answer. Separately, I want to say that the calculation of the route, booking hotels and all the rest of the preliminary work took me 2 months. No need to rely only on the navigator, you also need to have paper maps. You can get stuck in a traffic jam on the autobahn and you will need to look for an alternative road, the navigator will not choose it for you, it will rebuild the route when you move to another autobahn. There are also free roads, but driving on them is very slow, you need to plan no more than 300 km between cities with overnight stays.
We had 2 such extensive trips across Europe by car in 2006 (9 countries) and in 2008 (5 countries), and the memories still warm our souls.
Dream, dreams come true! Think, thoughts are material!