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My husband and I have always enjoyed traveling.\u00a0 The anticipation, the adventure itself, and then the memories made that we can carry with us for the rest of our lives.\u00a0 We traveled before kids and then continued as we grew our family.\u00a0 We have had to readjust as we added more to our big family \u2013 but we\u2019ve always made travel a priority.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n Visiting family, camping, and exploring the outdoors were \u00a0favorites when the kids were little.\u00a0 In the past few years, we\u2019ve been blessed to be able to take longer and more exciting adventures.\u00a0 After our big trip across the US, we started looking at a vacation across Europe \u2013 the next \u201ceasiest\u201d continent for exploration with a large family, in our opinion.<\/span><\/p>\n Our US road trip logged over 12,000 miles<\/a> and provided 2 months of togetherness….and it was an incomparable learning experience and an amazing adventure.\u00a0 So many memories made that we thought we should give it another try \u2013 but this time about 6,000 kilometers and just over one month of time together- on a totally different continent.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n This time we\u2019ve got all togetherness and mileage plus international flights, passports, language barriers, new and different foods, and\u00a0 money exchanges.\u00a0 We were traveling by plane, van and ship \u2013 to and in Europe to drive our way through some of the most amazing history, culture, and scenery in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n So we started planning \u2013 which grew our anticipation and excitement!\u00a0 We quickly discovered that the airfare would be a large part of the budget.\u00a0 We\u2019ve not flown with the kids since 2000, when we only had one.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n Flying while easy, quick and convenient has not been an option for us since having multiple kids as the total airfare with a rental car was usually comparable to what we could use to fund an entire vacation if we drove.\u00a0 This time we HAD to fly as driving to Europe obviously isn\u2019t an option.\u00a0\u00a0 We found that flying into and out of major airports was going to save us quite a bit of money and that renting a van to the airport and then another for the drive home was going to be more affordable than driving our car and parking for a month, and that surprisingly, a side trip to Iceland would be the same price as a direct flight.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n Icelandair is currently promoting a stopover option for their travelers.\u00a0 For the same price as a ticket on any of the other major airlines (cheaper than some of them, actually), we were able to fly to Iceland, and layover for up to 7 days before continuing to mainland Europe.\u00a0 It was an option of which we felt we had to take advantage.<\/span><\/p>\n We also needed to plan transportation while in Europe.\u00a0 Our options seemed to be narrowed to either the Eurail train system, cheap European flights, or driving ourselves.\u00a0 We researched each option endlessly as the trains in Europe are well known for affordability, reliability and convenience and some air options (for example Ryan Air) are known for the ridiculously low cost to fly between major destinations.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n The deciding factor for driving was the ease and accessibility that came with our own vehicle.\u00a0 Both the Eurail and a van costed out similarly but with our own vehicle we could set our own schedule, and visit little stops, shops, and sightseeing opportunities along the way.<\/span><\/p>\n Renting a large van for a large family did come with its own complications including researching vans available to large families, insurance, border regulations, manual transmissions, and parking.\u00a0 First issue we researched was lease vs rental.\u00a0 For long term (21+ days) car rental in Europe, most websites say it is cheaper to lease, but we found it was much cheaper to rent (even including the added\u00a0 insurance) .\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n Leasing was a good option as insurance (CDW \u2013 collision damage waiver or LDW \u2013 loss damage waiver) was included.\u00a0 This option probably works for most people traveling to Europe for that long \u2013 but for our big family, it was much more expensive than renting.\u00a0 For example:<\/span><\/p>\n Since we were renting, we also needed to research insurance.\u00a0 In Europe neither CDW nor LDW are included in your rental fee.\u00a0 This is the insurance that pays for the rental car in case of damage\/theft\/etc.\u00a0 Insurance that covers personal injury for people in the car and injury or people\/objects outside of the car is included.\u00a0 CDW\/LDW insurance is offered by the rental car companies, but it is very expensive (for our vehicle insurance available through the agency included $1278 \u00a0with an additional $668 for theft protection).\u00a0 This insurance may be covered by a credit cards as long as you use the card to rent the vehicle, however, this did not apply for 9 passenger vehicles.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n Insurance can also be purchased by online insurance companies.\u00a0 The down side to getting your own insurance outside of the car rental company (either by credit card or online agency) is that you will be responsible for the entire repair\/replacement costs until your credit company or policy pays (up to $40K in some cases).\u00a0 We used insuremyrentalcar.com<\/a> and paid $242 for a yearly policy (Year was the same as 5 weeks).\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n Our ground transportation (rental, insurance plus gas allowance was 3100$ for the month (averaging out at $100 per day or just about 15$ per day per person allowing us access to whatever and wherever we chose to go) vs 7 people continuous\u00a0 Eurail pass for a month $4607 or 10 days travel for $3437 (neither which would have included our time in Iceland) and both restricting our travel times and destinations.<\/span><\/p>\n As we were traveling to multiple countries, we also needed to be sure that our rental was able to be driven across the borders both with the agency and the insurance company.\u00a0 For example, some brands of vehicles were not allowed across certain borders.\u00a0 Some were not allowed to be returned in other countries.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sixsuitcasetravel.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/familypic.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAIRFARE<\/span><\/h3>\n
GROUND TRANSPORTATION<\/span><\/h3>\n
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