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Yup, used all my Google fu and ended up booking a FlexiBus. Bologna to K/B airport was cheapest but still wayyyyy cheaper then getting a hotel for extra nights. Thanks for the input! E: Final cost was €208 for the bus which is about triple what the original flight cost but less than another night of lodging and food. General Probe fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Oct 20, 2022 |
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Oct 20, 2022 21:43
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I would have rented a car but that's me
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Oct 20, 2022 21:56
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I guess I hadn't considered that, is the rental market less hosed here than in the US. Are drop off fees less heinous than the US and do you get a gas discount for renting? General Probe fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Oct 20, 2022 |
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Oct 20, 2022 22:00
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I can't remember, I just remember it being incredibly cheap to rent a big rear end Mercedes van and drive it from Austria to Munich and drop it off there. (on the autobahn no less)
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Oct 20, 2022 22:22
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I just checked. Rental prices before gas are about €1,000 for the day if we want to drop the car off at the arrival destination.
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Oct 20, 2022 22:24
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General Probe posted:I guess I hadn't considered that, is the rental market less hosed here than in the US. Are drop off fees less heinous than the US and do you get a gas discount for renting? Nope, it is extremely hosed especially after covid, and there are high fees for crossing borders and especially for dropping off in another country. Cars are almost never the answer in Europe, unless it's like far East where there is no good public transport.
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Oct 20, 2022 22:26
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General Probe posted:I just checked. Rental prices before gas are about €1,000 for the day if we want to drop the car off at the arrival destination.  it seems I got lucky. This was in 2018 too
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Oct 20, 2022 22:29
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kiimo posted:
You might've (maybe unwittingly) gotten a cheap relocation price or something? But yeah pickup and dropoff in different countries is almost always ludicrously expensive.
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Oct 21, 2022 04:38
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Yeah I think €200-€500 is a pretty common one-way fee, maybe even worse for a dropoff two countries distant. Like in Switzerland it makes a huge difference if you rent in Geneva Airport on the French side or on the Swiss side in terms of rental cars, if you're not doing a roundtrip. I've looked into it a few times and I only remember ever one time doing a one-way international dropoff, from Switzerland to Prague, and it was like €300, and more than 10 years ago. Nationally, I don't recall ever getting a one-way dropoff fee in Europe if I returned to a different city in the same country, but it might happen.
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Oct 21, 2022 10:30
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Entropist posted:Nope, it is extremely hosed especially after covid, and there are high fees for crossing borders and especially for dropping off in another country. Cars are almost never the answer in Europe, unless it's like far East where there is no good public transport. I'd say car rental is still a very good option in some parts of Europe. You can get pretty good deals from big companies in Germany, as long as you book well in advance and return the car to the same place. Cross country drop-off fees are (and have been) really high. In my experience, having a car gives you a lot of flexibility even in places like Germany with extensive train networks, as long as you stay out of the big cities. For reference, I booked a compact automatic for 24 hours early September and it was about 230€. Drove from Berlin to Munich and back the following day. One-way drop-off fee would've been 40€. Didn't book in advance, so of course more expensive. Then last July I booked a much better car in Southern Germany for 4 days, and it was 350€ total including insurance, because I'd booked like 6 weeks in advance. It was also Friday to Monday which had better prices than during the week. I've found that if you want to get a car for Switzerland, Austria or Northern Italy, it might be much cheaper to pick the car up in Germany, drive to the destination, and then just drive back once you're done. And then in Southern Europe you might have smaller rental places with good prices still, but quality and service varies a lot.
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Oct 23, 2022 11:23
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In the Netherlands you have these sharing car services. You can find these cars everywhere in cities on special reserved parking spots. You make an account, book a car with the mobile app, and then you can unlock the car with the same app. You can just drive off with it and as long as you bring it back within the time you booked it, it automatically bills you for distance + usage time. You don't deal with any humans at all unless your car breaks down or something. They're fine if you don't have a car and need to get somewhere quick but I don't know how their prices compare to more traditional car rental places.
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Oct 23, 2022 12:22
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Idk 350eur for a four day car hire still seems really expensive. Sometimes you don't have a choice but if there are other options they'll generally be cheaper (unless you have 3 kids or something)
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Oct 23, 2022 12:51
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That's about the cost of a one month/7 days travel eu wide interrail pass for comparison.
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Oct 23, 2022 12:52
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Yeah when I'm thinking of reasonable prices I'm thinking of €20-30 per day, which was possible before Covid in the slightly less expensive European countries.
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Oct 23, 2022 14:53
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Carbon dioxide posted:In the Netherlands you have these sharing car services. You can find these cars everywhere in cities on special reserved parking spots. You make an account, book a car with the mobile app, and then you can unlock the car with the same app. You can just drive off with it and as long as you bring it back within the time you booked it, it automatically bills you for distance + usage time. Those car sharing schemes in Switzerland charge per km. They're a pretty good deal if you just need to do a big shop or pick someone with luggage up from the train station but it gets expensive fast if you're going far.
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Oct 23, 2022 15:07
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greazeball posted:Those car sharing schemes in Switzerland charge per km. They're a pretty good deal if you just need to do a big shop or pick someone with luggage up from the train station but it gets expensive fast if you're going far. The ones here in Oz charge a subscription fee, plus the hourly rate, and a per km charge on top of that. You can also get a daily rate, equal to about 6 hours, which includes the first 150km free of charge but yeah - it can definitely add up fast. At least you don’t have to pay for fuel 
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Oct 23, 2022 15:14
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Fuel's included in the per km price!  Ours have a Shell card in the vehicle so people can just fill them up when they get low. You can also send receipts and get reimbursed but that takes longer.
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Oct 23, 2022 15:34
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Most of the time these services are absolutely useless for international visitors, though, as they often require a local transit pass subscription or a method of charging your bank account directly that is only available to local bank accounts (depends on the country, but even though SEPA direct debit now exists, banks will still want to use their national direct debit methods as they're often faster) in countries where credit cards aren't the most common payment method. Some of them can't deal with drivers licenses from other EU member states during customer onboarding (for both ID and actual driving purposes), let alone from other parts of the world, or they require proof of address. In most of the EU, these services are emphatically NOT for visitors but only for locals. In the Netherlands, if you can get the service to work, expect a little over €12/hour for a driving heavy session. And let's say you pay €6 an hour for any hours the car is just standing somewhere away from its designated spot. It's all a bit more dynamic than that, but in my experience this is what it about comes down to. That means these are NOT useful for the normal touristy stuff of going somewhere in the morning and going back to your hotel at the end of the day, because you'll be paying money for all the time your car is just standing there. Having used these often for short trips and to tie up some loose ends for several moves from one city to another and within the same city, even for those kinds of things (drive three hours straight with a little time for loading/unloading, pay €40), you're almost better off renting a car. The main advantage is that you can book these cars outside of car rental office opening hours (24h desks only exist at airports) close to where you live, and that car rentals are usually full/half days and not for shorter time frames. If I had to get one for a longer time than just a few hours, I'd go rental over "share car" any day of the week. Rental cars are also cleaner, and have less damage. And since this whole thing started with international one way trips, you can completely forget about that with these things
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Oct 23, 2022 16:37
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Yeah I've looked into those a lot because my wife likes the theory of not owning a car, but in practice they're mediocre for locals, and they're bad even for local roadtrips. They're for people who need to buy heavy groceries a couple times a month, but the per km price makes it exorbitant even if you want to use it for like, a ski trip. They're borderline worth it if you do a ski trip with a full car of 4 people (& skis in the middle). I haven't really found car rentals to be that crazy in Europe post-COVID. I've rented cars four times in the past 12 months: like €10/day in Valencia in March, like €20/day in Palermo in April, like €30/day in Tunisia in November, and €75/day in Montenegro in August. That was a lot but it's also Montenegro in high season and the entire coast is 100% booked out of lodging and cars. We rent cars really a lot, and the only other time I've paid anywhere north of €50/day in Europe was for a 4x4 Iceland in late June, which was ~€1100 for 10 days for a Dacia Duster since we needed a car with good clearance, although we didn't really need a 4x4. I don't usually travel in July and Aug though, since those months are so nice in Switzerland why bother going somewhere else? I was curious so I looked at my other most expensive rentals: Cuba - Hyundai Sante X: $1600 for 7 days ($228/day) - peak season (over Christmas) Iceland - Dacia Duster 4x4: €1100 for 10 days (€101/day) - high season (mid June) Ethiopia - Nissan Patrol 4x4: $97/day for 24 days - high season Namibia - Dacia Duster 4x4: $1330 for 15 days ($89/day) - mid season Montenegro - Dacia Sandero (midsize): €380 for 5 days (€76/day) - high season Good lord that was an expensive rental for Cuba. I think I'd generally balk at more than $50/day in Europe for a Clio or Polo or whatever the smallest class vehicle is, if it's somewhere in high season with little competition and with a real possibility of 100% of cars being rented out, like Norway or Iceland or Montenegro.
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Oct 23, 2022 17:18
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I don't own a car but when I need one I rent a 5EUR a day one (+km) from Leclerc. might even be worth it for a longer holiday (definitely if you can get a bus instead of a taxi) unless you're doing a road trip or something. Never had any issues with no french address even before I moved here. I think super-u does require a french address though.
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Oct 23, 2022 17:31
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Saladman posted:...  but that's specialized touristy prices of course. Though I rented at €50/day in Iceland last year. In Europe where you get normal business travel it's usually much more reasonable. In Frankfurt, Vienna, Milan you can book a Golf for €35/day from normal companies like Sixt or Avis. Even Dublin seems to have reasonable prices now, when I looked a few months ago they were through the loving roof. That's without insurance though.
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Oct 23, 2022 19:17
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distortion park posted:Idk 350eur for a four day car hire still seems really expensive. Sometimes you don't have a choice but if there are other options they'll generally be cheaper (unless you have 3 kids or something) Entropist posted:Yeah when I'm thinking of reasonable prices I'm thinking of €20-30 per day, which was possible before Covid in the slightly less expensive European countries. I think this really depends on if you want to pay extra for a "better" car. Looking at Sixt, you can get an economy car for 40€/day for a week next spring from Munich airport without extra insurance. I don't think we'll get back to the really cheap pre-Covid rental prices when using big companies, but they're still decently priced if booking in advance. Having a car opens up some opportunities you wouldn't have otherwise, even with the inflated petrol prices, and there just are places you can't really access the same way without a car. e: I figure the big point here is that you should figure out your needs. Sometimes it's better to have that Interrail pass, sometimes it's better to have a car, even though it might be more expensive. If I rent a car, I'm trying to visit places I couldn't really (easily) visit with a train or a bus, so rental cars have been really helpful for me. But I also like driving, which not everyone does, so YMMV. DanTheFryingPan fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Oct 23, 2022 |
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Oct 23, 2022 20:39
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Your car rental prices in Europe will also vary greatly depending on whether you can drive manual or not. If you need an automatic, most of those super cheap 20 euro/day deals are off the table!
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Oct 24, 2022 01:18
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The istanbul taxi app keeps recommending car share services when it can't find me a cab and I've never felt a bigger 'gently caress noooooooooooo'.
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Oct 25, 2022 12:11
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In the unlikely event anyone's in the north of England, you can get a special weekend (Fri PM-Mon AM) rate from Salford Van Hire (starting at £75 for a small car.) That's always the cheapest option here in my experience, but there might be other companies who generally cater to business customers and want to offload their cars cheaply over the weekend.
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Oct 25, 2022 16:59
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Well credit to the DDR Museum, did not expect to see a Kinect still in action.
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Oct 26, 2022 20:08
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i remember when i was at the old hohenschonhausen prison in east berlin, i found the documentary they had where a door slamming sound effect would play five times every ten minutes was a bit much anyway i'm taking a day trip to salzburg in about two weeks, any recs for what to do or see aside from all the mozart stuff? anything particular to the area to eat?
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Oct 26, 2022 21:17
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Jerry Manderbilt posted:i remember when i was at the old hohenschonhausen prison in east berlin, i found the documentary they had where a door slamming sound effect would play five times every ten minutes was a bit much Have just been there, was a nice enough town. Try all the different brands of chocolate ball. We ate at "GustaV" and enjoyed it, there's a great stationery shop down the road too, Kleine Welten.
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Oct 27, 2022 07:04
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I've also just been there. Get the Salzburg Card for entry into most museums and castles, paying individually for each place racks up cost quite fast otherwise. It also allows you to ride the public transit for free. If you like walking, I'd recommend hiking along the Mönchsberg and Kapuzinerberg. You reach them easily by foot and get good views of the City. If you like super sweet dessert, you can try Salburger Nockerl, wasn't my thing though. We had dinner in the Bärenwirt once which was quite good, caters a bit more towards tourists but quality and quantity was good, and you can get all the Austrian specialities you would want to try.
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Oct 27, 2022 08:43
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I really miss drinking at Augustiner Bräu Kloster Mülln. So if you're into beer halls and serviceable food, it's pretty good. It's at the opposite end of the Mönchsberg trail network from the old town, so it's a good way to walk off the calories.
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Oct 27, 2022 14:54
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WaryWarren posted:I really miss drinking at Augustiner Bräu Kloster Mülln. So if you're into beer halls and serviceable food, it's pretty good. It's at the opposite end of the Mönchsberg trail network from the old town, so it's a good way to walk off the calories. Was going to recommend this. Wonderful biergarten. And as far as the walking goes, it's all along the river so it's loving beautiful to see and experience the rest of Salzburg living outdoors.
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Oct 27, 2022 15:29
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thanks for the recs! deffo think i'm gonna try out the augustiner and i'll deffo want to burn the calories afterward. googled the salzburger nockerl and drat it looks delicious, but also a bit much
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Oct 27, 2022 16:04
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I can also definitely recommend anything the Fürst Confectionery makes. Don't miss out on their cakes with their main focus being the Mozart Kugeln.
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Oct 27, 2022 18:36
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Helios Grime posted:I can also definitely recommend anything the Fürst Confectionery makes. Don't miss out on their cakes with their main focus being the Mozart Kugeln. is there anything i should try if i go there in person? looking at their site those mozartkugel gift boxes look great for gifts for friends
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Oct 28, 2022 18:12
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They are all really good, tho you should like marzipan at least a little bit. There are also those square pralines that are like mini cakes.
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Oct 29, 2022 07:09
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Hey there. Got a family trip to Greece this Christmas, and after they go home (New Year's Day) I'm sticking around for another couple weeks. The plan is to branch out a bit into neighboring countries, tentatively Albania and Macedonia, but I'm open to see more of Greece beyond the Athens area, or pretty much anywhere with a shortish nonstop flight from Athens Intl. Of the region I've only ever been to Istanbul, so I'm interested in anyone's thoughts on what's interesting in southeastern Europe. I've heard the ferries don't run that time of year, so if that's correct then the islands are mostly out, but I'm more of a history and culture person than a beach person so I'm not terribly broken up about that.
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Nov 2, 2022 18:05
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There's plenty of history and culture on the islands too, like Crete which had the Minoan civilization there and is big enough to be a country. I have not looked it up but I find it hard to imagine that there would be no ferries to a place like Crete, there are a bunch of massive boats going back and forth during summer. There are also ferries to Bari, Italy that you could make use of. I don't know too much about Greece or this region otherwise, but I did like Bulgaria too. It's cheap, not that touristic and the food is good. The coast is surprisingly nice although I guess that's not so relevant in winter.
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Nov 2, 2022 18:28
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The Greek islands are mega shutdown all winter, except for maybe Crete. I guess it could be nice to go to Santorini in the super off season, but just keep in mind that a huge majority of restaurants and such will be closed. Lack of crowds is nice to some point, but going in early January is to the other extreme. Southern Italy sounds really nice to me in that season, or any other season, like the Naples area. If you're willing to rent a car and drive, go Bari-Matera-Amalfi then drop off the car at Naples airport and then spend the last few days in Naples and environs. Keep in mind if you rent a car, your regular credit card insurance will NOT cover Italy (which is a very rare exception), so you may want the extra CDW. Naples is awesome, and its bad reputation is like 15 years out of date.
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Nov 2, 2022 22:17
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I'm currently in Greece and yeah, ferries from now onwards are basically out, but everything is a very easy flight from Athens. We're doing Santorini and then Crete.
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Nov 3, 2022 05:50
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I rented a car and drove from Athens up to Delphi, it’s a beautiful drive and by the time you are in Greece it will probably be ski season. Highly recommend anyone interested in hiking and history visit the temple complex and stadium at Delphi, it’s a nice easy hike up the mountain with spectacular views of the valley. They also have a small museum with information on the area.
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Nov 3, 2022 11:22
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