Dave in AZ
Well-known member
If you write it, I will read it 
you're an interesting guy!
you're an interesting guy!
Texas to Alaska to Texas. 2020 Honda Accord Hybrid driving on the Dalton Highway and the Dempster Highway. July/August 2023.
- Thread starter PetitFrereArmada
- Start date
ITTOG
Well-known member
I have been to those countries and you have a good list. Given you our flying into Frankfurt you must experience Germany, obviously. The rest of the countries you show I would prioritize like this: Switzerland, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium, France. If it were me, I would spend all the time in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. Those countries are beautiful, the people are great, great beer, great food (except for Germany), nice people, and unbelievable scenery. I could spend months in just those countries. But just about wherever you go it will be great. Have fun and I look forward to the pictures.
Note: Germany does have good food, I like it, but it isn't as well liked by the masses compared to the others. I have never heard anyone list Germany when they talk about the best food in Europe. Also, France may have the worst food, in my opinion. I usually lose a lot of weight when I go there.
Note: Germany does have good food, I like it, but it isn't as well liked by the masses compared to the others. I have never heard anyone list Germany when they talk about the best food in Europe. Also, France may have the worst food, in my opinion. I usually lose a lot of weight when I go there.
Pacific Northwest yetti
Expedition Medic
I look forward to following along.
Arjan
Fossil Overlander
Not sure how long you're staying here in Europe but please note that we have loads of speed camera's, speed limit (Holland = 100 km/h. on the motorways 07.00-19.00 hrs.) and it is usually quite busy..
Food in France is quite nice but portions are less than in many other countries.
Be Safe, drive Careful and Enjoy !!
Food in France is quite nice but portions are less than in many other countries.
Be Safe, drive Careful and Enjoy !!
PetitFrereArmada
Explorer
Thanks. I plan to spend 12 days in Europe.
It would be a very short and busy trip. I will spend most of my time on the road. I love being on the road.
I have a friend in Germany and 1 in Italy. My friend in Germany will be picking me up and I will be staying at their house while I am in Frankfurt. He is married to a German lady and they have 2 kids. My friend in Italy is married to an Italian lady and they have a daughter. I will visit stay with them when I go to their tow in Italy. Those are the 2 primary guys I am visiting on this trip. Then I plan to detour to do my solo travels.
Thanks for the heads up about the speed cameras. I have heard a lot about them from my friends. The good thing is that I am a hypermiler. So I plan to drive the speed limit.
But I have always been facinated about the idea of going fast on the autobahn and watch faster cars overtake me. That is why my friend has always promised to take me on the autobahn to satisfy my need for speed. That is top on my list of things to do in Germany.
On top of the autobahn, I hope I will be able to drive on the Nurburgring. I would love to experience that also since I love watching YouTube videos of cars crashing on that road.
I have been looking at cars to rent and right now I have my eyes on a Peugeot or a Citreon. I see 90% of the rental cars have manual transmission. It has been a long time since I drove one and for fun, I am thinking I will rent a car with a manual transmission on this trip. It has been a really long time since I drove one but I just need an hour to get my bearings back on track. I am positive I will probably rent a manual transmission. I am just trying to decide now between the Peugeot and the Citreon.
No matter what I rent, I hope it takes me safely across Europe. I hear the speed limit on the highway is 130 km/h. That should be easy for me to maintain and not go over. I am used to hypermiling and I hypermile a lot. So, driving the speed limit is easy for me. I would hate for any cameras to take a picture of me and send me tickets to pay fines in another country.
Whatever car I rent, I plan to carry full coverage insurance on it in case of any accidents. I hear gas prices are quite high in Europe. So renting a car for 12 days and putting a lot of gas in it and paying vignette in many countries means that having a car during this trip for 12 days may easily cost me about $1,000 or more. Including price of hotels when I stop to spend the night in some towns.
I drive a 2025 Camry and I hypermile and get 67 miles to the gallon. So driving the speed limit in Europe should be easy for me.
PetitFrereArmada
Explorer
I decided to modify my plans for this trip. I originally was going to be gone from April 2nd to April 13th. My trip is now from April 2nd to April 17th.
My flight is with Lufthansa. Direct flight both ways. Turkish Airlines offers a cheaper flight but it takes a very long time. It could have saved me $300. Sometimes I wish I had taken that deal.
Because I changed my flight today with Lufthansa, they charged me an additional $299.
I am going to keep tabs as best as possible on exactly how much this whole trip would cost me.
I had a dilemma about what kind of car to rent and what company to rent from. After talking to some friends and researching online, I had 2 options to rent from. It was either renting from www.sixt.com or from www.europcar.com. I settled with renting from europcar.
I was also wanting to rent a car with a manual transmission instead of automatic transmission. I finally found myself choosing the automatic.
I am renting an Audi Q3 for 14 days. Basically, I am picking up the car as soon as I land in Frankfurt, Germany. I have visited Europe 3 times. I have been to Britain and France only. This will be my first time visiting Germany. I will also drive to Italy. These are the 2 countries I am going to visit for sure during this trip. But I plan to take advantage of having a car to drive and visit some other countries. Switzerland, France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxemboug. I have driven in France before for 2 days straight. This will be my first time driving in Germany and all the other countries listed.
I plan to have fun on the Autobahn. Got to see what the top speed of that Audi Q3 is. I plan to also go and drive on the Nurburgring. But that will be with my friend's car, not a rental car.
Here is the quote for my rental. I am going to make the payment by Friday.
My flight is with Lufthansa. Direct flight both ways. Turkish Airlines offers a cheaper flight but it takes a very long time. It could have saved me $300. Sometimes I wish I had taken that deal.
Because I changed my flight today with Lufthansa, they charged me an additional $299.
I am going to keep tabs as best as possible on exactly how much this whole trip would cost me.
I had a dilemma about what kind of car to rent and what company to rent from. After talking to some friends and researching online, I had 2 options to rent from. It was either renting from www.sixt.com or from www.europcar.com. I settled with renting from europcar.
I was also wanting to rent a car with a manual transmission instead of automatic transmission. I finally found myself choosing the automatic.
I am renting an Audi Q3 for 14 days. Basically, I am picking up the car as soon as I land in Frankfurt, Germany. I have visited Europe 3 times. I have been to Britain and France only. This will be my first time visiting Germany. I will also drive to Italy. These are the 2 countries I am going to visit for sure during this trip. But I plan to take advantage of having a car to drive and visit some other countries. Switzerland, France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxemboug. I have driven in France before for 2 days straight. This will be my first time driving in Germany and all the other countries listed.
I plan to have fun on the Autobahn. Got to see what the top speed of that Audi Q3 is. I plan to also go and drive on the Nurburgring. But that will be with my friend's car, not a rental car.
Here is the quote for my rental. I am going to make the payment by Friday.
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PetitFrereArmada
Explorer
Here are some details that I would personally like to ask someone about such a trip. I will share them here. Maybe it could help someone someday.
I just reserved and paid for my car rental. I will have the car for 14 days. I decided to rent a car because it will be a lot more convenient for me to travel to other countries and to stop at random places along my trip. I am taking my drone with me on this trip amd it would be cool to stop and take some random aerial shots. Besides, my friend housing me in Germany will not have time to be my personal Uber driver, taking me everywhere.
I paid $899.23 to rent the car dor 14 days I got a discount on the rental by subscribing to their free newsletter. I will cancel that later.
This is the warranty I paid for, which is included in the total amount paid of $899.23. I want to make sure this car is covered in case of any accident or theft.
I have to make sure to get an International Driver's License from AAA sometime next week, since it is required when picking up the car.
I just reserved and paid for my car rental. I will have the car for 14 days. I decided to rent a car because it will be a lot more convenient for me to travel to other countries and to stop at random places along my trip. I am taking my drone with me on this trip amd it would be cool to stop and take some random aerial shots. Besides, my friend housing me in Germany will not have time to be my personal Uber driver, taking me everywhere.
I paid $899.23 to rent the car dor 14 days I got a discount on the rental by subscribing to their free newsletter. I will cancel that later.
This is the warranty I paid for, which is included in the total amount paid of $899.23. I want to make sure this car is covered in case of any accident or theft.
I have to make sure to get an International Driver's License from AAA sometime next week, since it is required when picking up the car.
LexusAllTerrain
Expedition Leader
Looking forward to your pictures...
PetitFrereArmada
Explorer
You need to have an International Driving Permit when renting and driving a car in Europe. It cost $20 from AAA and it is valid for 1 year from the day of purchase.
Dave in AZ
Well-known member
Uhmm... that must be new. Stationed in UK and Germany, I rented cars and drove all over and never had one of those. 1990 though...
ITTOG
Well-known member
Yeah same here in the UK, Italy, and Belgium. Wonder if I was driving illegally?
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PetitFrereArmada
Explorer
I got my Global Entry approved yesterday. It took me exactly 4 days from when I submitted my application to approval. I submitted on Monday. I got my interview on Thursday at 11 am and was approved. Global Entry with SENTRI for my car.
For those who may not know; Global Entry is a program that allows for expedited processing through Customs and Border Patrol at airports and land borders upon arrival in the U.S. When you get approved, they also give you TSA PreCheck
For those who own one or both, I am sure they have good things to say about it.
I submitted my application for Global Entry online on Monday, March 10th. I already had TSA PreCheck before applying for Global Entry. So I was not surprised when exactly 24 hours after applying, I got the notification of Conditional Approval on Tuesday, March 11th.
I got online and the closest location with the earliest day and time for an interview was 6 hours away at the US/Mexico border. I had to work on Wednesday, March 12th. So I scheduled my interview for Thursday, March 13th at 11:00 am.
I woke up very early and hit the road. I got to the interview location at 10:00 am. An hour before my interview. I went in and since there was only 1 other person ahead of me, they interviewed me immediately. They asked me 3 questions and approved my Global Entry and SENTRI for my car.
The questions they asked me were;
Do you still live at (my address)? Yes.
Do you still work at (my job)? Yes.
Do you still own the red 2025 Toyota Camry? Yes.
That is it. We will get your finger prints and you will get your card in the mail in about 2 weeks.
I was happy and so after the interview, I drove into Mexico. I had some tacos, a roasted corn and did some shopping. Driving back intot he US, the Mexican army was searching every single car leaving their country. This is very new. It never used to happen for all the over 20 times that I have crossed this border with all my former cars. I got back into the US and drove 6 hours to get back home.
I am very happy that I now have Global Entry. They issued me a new number for my TSA Precheck and told me that my old number is no longer valid.
I am sure those who have Global Entry or TSA Precheck can share the benefits of being part of such programs. I look forward to skipping the long lines with my PreCheck and skipping the long lines when I land back into the country.
For those who may not know; Global Entry is a program that allows for expedited processing through Customs and Border Patrol at airports and land borders upon arrival in the U.S. When you get approved, they also give you TSA PreCheck
For those who own one or both, I am sure they have good things to say about it.
I submitted my application for Global Entry online on Monday, March 10th. I already had TSA PreCheck before applying for Global Entry. So I was not surprised when exactly 24 hours after applying, I got the notification of Conditional Approval on Tuesday, March 11th.
I got online and the closest location with the earliest day and time for an interview was 6 hours away at the US/Mexico border. I had to work on Wednesday, March 12th. So I scheduled my interview for Thursday, March 13th at 11:00 am.
I woke up very early and hit the road. I got to the interview location at 10:00 am. An hour before my interview. I went in and since there was only 1 other person ahead of me, they interviewed me immediately. They asked me 3 questions and approved my Global Entry and SENTRI for my car.
The questions they asked me were;
Do you still live at (my address)? Yes.
Do you still work at (my job)? Yes.
Do you still own the red 2025 Toyota Camry? Yes.
That is it. We will get your finger prints and you will get your card in the mail in about 2 weeks.
I was happy and so after the interview, I drove into Mexico. I had some tacos, a roasted corn and did some shopping. Driving back intot he US, the Mexican army was searching every single car leaving their country. This is very new. It never used to happen for all the over 20 times that I have crossed this border with all my former cars. I got back into the US and drove 6 hours to get back home.
I am very happy that I now have Global Entry. They issued me a new number for my TSA Precheck and told me that my old number is no longer valid.
I am sure those who have Global Entry or TSA Precheck can share the benefits of being part of such programs. I look forward to skipping the long lines with my PreCheck and skipping the long lines when I land back into the country.