by "duurtlang" (duurtlang)
Published 05/10/2017 at 14:41
by "duurtlang" (duurtlang)
Published 05/10/2017 at 14:41
Tags: Europpomeet
; ALPS
STARS: 9
Want to explore the Swiss/Italian/Austrian Alps plus the German Autobahn with some other Oppo members June 23-25 (or longer)? A two way flight to Munich at the correct days can be had for $800 ( New York ). London -Munich only £60 . I’ll try to address some of the additional costs below.
As it stands now we’ve planned this from the morning of Friday June 23th until the evening of Sunday the 25th. This is not definitive and one could tag along later or add some days extra at will
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Route as suggested right now (work in progress; interactive map):
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I’ve read many people having reservations at possible costs, so I’ll try to address those here.
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How do I get to the Alps?
Lodging
Car
Fuel
Food
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If you live in Europe you can drive and calculate costs yourself. Alternatively you can chose to fly there. The best location to fly to would be Innsbruck in Austria, but Munich (Germany) tends to be a cheaper/better connection and is only a 1 hour 45 drive to Innsbruck. Over the Autobahn, with unrestricted stretches.
Like I mentioned in the header you can fly two-way to Munich from New York for $800 and from London for £60.
I use websites like Skyscanner to calculate flight possibilities/costs.
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We haven’t had any discussions about what kind of lodging people will prefer. Some might want tents, others hotels or Airbnb. I’m discussing hotels and bnb (without the air) here. I’ll focus on cheap but somewhat decent hotels.
Munich (if you fly in): €60-100 a night
Stop 1, June 23th in Canazei (Italy) or somewhere close: €70-120 a night
Stop 2, June 24th in Livigno (Italy): €60-120 a night
Optional: June 25th, somewhere around Innsbruck (Austria) or Munich (Germany)
Note that rooms can be shared with someone else, cutting costs in half.
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For those of us who take our own car this is superfluous, but some will fly in. Or hitch a ride.
Rental cars in Munich are a lot cheaper than I expected. The cheaper rentals are always manuals, which is a big plus in the Alps. For 4 days plus some insurance options and whatnot a Ford Fiesta or similar was hardly over €100 total. A Mercedes C-class or similar double that.
I spotted a (manual) Mazda MX5 Miata at europcar Munich Nord, which can be had for €194 (4 days) including 1200 km.
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The trip itself as it is now is about 1000 km of mountainous B roads. Gasoline is about €1.35 a liter in Germany, diesel a bit less (€1.15? I’m not sure). With a gasoline rental Fiesta I suspect you’ll spend roughly €100 on fuel, excluding the trip to and from the Alps.
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You can make this as cheap or expensive as you like. Fill your car with cheap grocery store food or dine in style. I think €30 a day will easily be sufficient for those who want convenience but don’t need fancy restaurants.
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Assuming two mates flying in from London to Munich, staying 4 nights in shared hotelrooms and sharing a rented Fiesta. Flight: 2*£60 (2*€72) (flight) + 75+90+80+75 (lodging) + €150 (car) + €125 (fuel) + 8*€30 (food) = €979 total or roughly €500 a person. Estimated. When selecting hotels and food frugally I think you can scrape off €10/day/person on food, €20/night/hotelroom and a little bit for the car, resulting in roughly €400 a person for someone flying in from London.
These are the costs I suspect. Am I overlooking something? Any mistakes? Let me know.
"Out, but with a W - has found the answer" (belg)
04/24/2017 at 08:12, STARS: 1
If any US Oppos are contemplating this: it might end up cheaper adding a couple of days and flying to Frankfurt.
"fintail" (fintail)
04/27/2017 at 13:42, STARS: 2
If you’re going through Bolzano, be sure to stop in Brixen, filming location of “European Vacation”.
"duurtlang" (duurtlang)
04/27/2017 at 13:48, STARS: 1
I’d have to watch the movie first, but I get the reference. We should do a photoshoot!
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
04/27/2017 at 14:11, STARS: 1
Also, check out Norwegian for the cheapest possible flights to Europe. I flew from NY to Bergen for $200. Then found a separate flight to Rome for $50. Had to book entirely separately because there were 18 hours between those flights. But that gave me an excuse to rent a car and spend the day in Norway. London and Copenhagen are also cheap places to fly to generally.
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
04/27/2017 at 14:15, STARS: 0
I’d love to go but I had done a Europe trip last year so I gotta wait a bit. Definitely would be interested in joining in the future though, seems like a lot of fun! How practical is it in Europe to try and buy a car for like a few thousand euro and then sell it later? That would be more fun than renting.
"duurtlang" (duurtlang)
04/27/2017 at 14:20, STARS: 0
Depends on the country I guess. Buying a car can be easy, it’s registration and insurance that’s more complicated. I believe you can get a certain temporary plate in Germany that should be valid internationally and can be insured by a non-German easily in Germany.
I wouldn’t buy something for a few thousand though. This is Jalopnik, right? €750 max!
"The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock" (jukesjukesjukes)
04/27/2017 at 14:29, STARS: 0
I go if:
- If could afford it, lol
- If could rent a manual diesel Juke.
"fintail" (fintail)
04/27/2017 at 14:47, STARS: 1
It’s a classic. I was in the area about a year and a half ago, and spent the night in Brixen, scouting out some filming locations (I am a bit of a filming location geek).
If you recall the scene when they flee the angry mob and jump on a train, this is where it was filmed:
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
04/27/2017 at 14:59, STARS: 0
Oh yeah, them Europeans (especially ze Germans) probably frown on driving around an unregistered and/or questionably insured hooptie on public roads.
"duurtlang" (duurtlang)
04/27/2017 at 15:28, STARS: 0
Driving around unregistered and or uninsured is something that wouldn’t even cross my mind, to be honest. Depending on the country you wouldn’t even have plates though, which will not be very beneficial when wanting to make a road trip on roads where the occasional police officer is present.
"Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney" (braddelaparker)
04/27/2017 at 15:29, STARS: 0
Oh no! I fly out of Paris after two weeks in Europe on the 24th, what a shame.
"duurtlang" (duurtlang)
04/27/2017 at 15:30, STARS: 0
You can easily rent manual diesels and if you look hard enough you will find a Juke as well. Look even harder and I’m sure the manual diesel Juke is possible as a rental. That leaves the affordability question.
"duurtlang" (duurtlang)
04/27/2017 at 15:33, STARS: 0
Seriously? That’s some poor timing. What will you be doing in the weeks before the 24th?
"Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney" (braddelaparker)
04/27/2017 at 15:54, STARS: 0
Really is, I would have loved to have join for this!
Arrive in Paris on the 11th and spending the week there, then headed to Le Mans for the race and then haven’t quite decided what we’re doing the second week. Had been planning on heading to Burgundy, but now entertaining the thought of squeezing either London or Amsterdam in that second week; only thing constricting us is that our outbound flight is out of Paris (Orly) and was stupendously cheap, so flying out of another European city, while preferable, would be a bit of an expense, so we’re trying to keep within a reasonable (<3 hour) train ride from Paris.
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
04/27/2017 at 15:56, STARS: 0
Oh of course. There are definitely places in the US that I can think of where you can pretty much get away with anything. Crossing country borders and all that would be really difficult though lol.
"duurtlang" (duurtlang)
04/29/2017 at 16:45, STARS: 0
Sounds like a great trip to me! Have you ever been to Europe before? I went to the US for the first time last July.
If you’re into such a thing, note that on 17 and 19-23 June the Nürburgring is open for ‘tourists’ to drive their own cars there. You’d have to find out if you’re allowed by your rental company though. If you decide to drive to Amsterdam from Paris, the ‘Ring is a 3 hour detour. Upside is that you can hit the unrestricted Autobahn for a bit as well.
Can I ask what you paid for one two-way ticket to Texas?
"Bob Loblaw Made Me Make a Phoney Phone Call to Edward Rooney" (braddelaparker)
05/01/2017 at 08:54, STARS: 0
I have not, this is the very first trip for me and my wife, so we’re pretty excited to do a full two-week trip.
Round trip airfare from Dallas to Orly was $650, including the connecting flight through New York each way, which was about half of what most direct flights from Dallas to Degaulle were.
"Thomas Donohue" (tomonomics)
05/10/2017 at 15:08, STARS: 0
This is very tempting, though I’m already booked for Ireland in August. I’m trying to include a side trip to Stuttgart (Porsche factory) and Belgium (Spa F1), and if so will try to get some quality time on the road in Western Germany and Lux.
"gmporschenut also a fan of hondas" (gmporschenut)
06/25/2017 at 20:54, STARS: 0
Great googley moogley.
I just looked up car rentals. hot damn! they are cheap, compared to the US