A fairly odd question....

KingIsabella

My cousin is getting married in Italy in august 2012. Five of us from the immediate family ( me, mother father sister, and my girlfriend) are on the guestlist and thinking of heading down. We want a holiday out of it but not spending the entire budget on 7-10 days in italy, as we'll need to save right up until then for us all to go, and we don't want it to be a regular holiday as it may be the last we have together.

Instead we want to take a bit of a road trip...going brussels, luxembourg, germany, switzerland, northern italy. Making a thing of it! I think that 5 of us crammed into a 08 bog standard honda civic company car all the way would be a bit cramped, especially with the luggage of 3 women for 10 days for a wedding on board. I was thinking of maybe buying a small van, maybe a 1.9 98 berlingo, 99 VW Caddy, 2001 Courier or i'd even love and prefer a reliable estate turned van for myself and the girlfriend to drive down with all the luggage in the back, for in or around a grand.

My question is: by then i will be 21 years old, with a full (hopefully clean) irish licence for 3 and a half year years, named driving experience for four years, no accidents or anything like that, what would my chances of getting insured for that particular week or two driving through(and maybe back from) mainland europe in a van or estate type van? Would it be through the roof for just a week-10days or would it just be completely impossible?

Any advice or past experience is helpful! thanks in advance!
KingIsabella.
Feliz Ano Nuevo!

colm_mcm

Car rental in Italy is so cheap, do yourself a favour and rent a Lancia thesus or alfa 159. Driving across Europe in a ropey van isn't that much fun

KingIsabella

Didn't even think of hiring a car due to my age to be honest with you but i'm finding a couple sites saying i only need to be 21. Makes alot more sense to do that!

stimpson

Make sure to get collision damage waiver insurance. Italy is by far the craziest place I have ever driven.

Berty

You can hire at 21 but most companies have a 21-24 charge which can be the price of the car rental per day itself, thereby doubling the cost of the car hire.

You can buy as many vehicles here as you want and bring them all with you. If you only wish to ensure them for your trip then get the best prices from the insurance company, get the insurance, go on trip, return, return insurance disc/policy and cancel it ensuring that you are only paying monthly on direct debit.

Buy a nice car, bring all the luggage with you and leave a few days prior to the rest of the family who can fly down if they dont want a road trip. You bring all the excess luggage that the airline would screw them on at the airport, you get a roadtrip.

peasant

Another thing to consider ...ferry prices in August are absolute daylight robbery, adding another sizeable chunk to the price of your road trip

Berty

peasant wrote: »

Another thing to consider ...ferry prices in August are absolute daylight robbery, adding another sizeable chunk to the price of your road trip

Unless you go through the UK. Considerably cheaper than the Ireland - France(Direct) route.

Also gets you into Calais instead of Cherbourg or Roscoff.