Internal Travel: Barcelona-Alsace-Paris

Now that we have an apartment in Eguisheim, we have to figure out how we are going to get there. We'll be in Barcelona just before Alsace, and Paris after. Planes, trains, and automobiles are all possibilities, and we'll probably use all three. Here's my path toward figuring out the internal travel plans for this part of the trip.

Barcelona to Eguisheim

Source: Wikipedia

The two main options for going from Barcelona to Eguisheim are train or plane. My bias is toward trains. I like to be able to see the countryside where we're traveling, and that's just a lot more possible on train. I think it might also be easier with the Little Lady if she can get up and walk around and see things on the train rather than being stuck in a plane. However, the obvious downside of trains is that they can take longer, and are oft
en more expensive than flights.

So the first thing I need to figure out is how much more time and expense is involved in going by train as opposed to plane. There are two airport options near Eguisheim - Strasbourg and Basel-Mulhouse. To get a quick sense of pricing, I turned to kayak.com. I also checked out a list of airlines flying into both those airports to make sure Kayak was not missing any of the discount carriers. The best piece of information I gleaned from this search is that EasyJet flies direct from Barcelona to Mulhouse. It's about an hour-long flight. Figuring in time to get to the airport and collect a rental car in Mulhouse, we're probably looking at about a 3.5 hour commitment. And the price is under $100, but with luggage the price will go up using EasyJet's a la carte pricing. Still, probably less than $150 per person. Not bad, and very convenient.

The train option in this case is much less convenient. The routing options all go through Paris. It's about 7 hours for that leg. Then from Paris (for some options needing to change train stations in Paris) to Colmar (not many car rental options there) or Strasbourg is another three hours, without even counting the layover in Paris, whatever that would turn out to be. And, based on pricing for dates that can be reserved now, we're looking at at least 30-40 percent in additional cost. All of this information comes from looking at the German train site for finding route options (it's more flexible in finding routes all over Europe, but not the place to buy for French trains) and the French site for pricing. The Little Lady can travel for free (up to age 4, I believe) on the train and there is a small fee on EasyJet.

Source: Wikipedia

And if you're ever looking for general information on trains in Europe, check out seat61.com. It's full of really useful resources and advice on train travel.

Based on this, I think we'll opt for the plane in this case.

Getting Around in Alsace

While traveling around Alsace does not strictly require a car, it's clearly better to have one. Alsace is a great place to walk, and many actually travel between the villages entirely on foot or bike. But with the Little Lady along, I'm not even going to consider that. So, renting a car is what we'll do.

I've learned that we can rent a car in Mulhouse airport and return it either there or in the city of Mulhouse (if we opt for a train to Paris for the next leg of the trip) without paying a one-way fee. It seems that one-way fees in France used to be quite rare. That is no more. Pretty much all the major companies charge a one-way fee and extra-drive fees.

So what sort of car to rent and how to rent it? We will have four adults and the Little Lady. We'll have more luggage than usual because we'll have been living in Europe for over two months at this point. So space will be at a premium. And it appears to me that there are not any great options that will accommodate us in a single vehicle. Vans are possible, but many discussions I've read on travel boards don't recommend larger vehicles in this region. The roads and parking places can be a little tight, so less stressful with a smaller car. And, one can rent two small cars for quite a bit less than a van. So, it looks like we'll be going with two cars. Probably something in the compact class, VW golf or similar.

The main players at the Mulhouse airport that also have offices in town if we decide to go the train route are Europcar and Avis. Pricing through each of those companies is fine. But reserving through autoeurope.com saves as much as 50%, and the company gets pretty high marks for customer service (of course keeping in mind that you are still dealing with rental car companies). They are a broker, so you rent with them, but they give you a voucher that you use with one of the other companies.

To Paris

Finally, we have to figure out how to get to Paris from Alsace. Direct flights take about an hour from Mulhouse and are less than $100 on Air France. But, here the train option compares more favorably. It's only about 2.5 hours by train, the price is similar or less, and by the time you factor in travel time from airport to central city using the air option compared to arriving right in the heart of Paris, the time may actually be in favor of the train as well. So we'll do this portion of the trip by train.

I can't wait until we're actually there and I can tell about real experiences instead of the rather mundane aspects of planning our adventure!