Introduction to DIY travel by car in France and Europe

Dear fellow travellers,
Objective of this blog

It is written as a guide for travellers who love to DIY travel by car, to visit France and Europe easily and enjoy this country, France.

I speak French, but you don't have to lose out, for French people are pretty nice and I have outlined some interesting places for you to discover.

My guide is not on Paris nor did I drive in Paris. It's to discover other parts of France, beyond the big cities. In fact, I would discourage people from driving in Paris, as you would be frustrated by the traffic jams, expensive parking, etc...not to mention that Paris is visited easily via public transport. Their métro(subway) system is very good and efficient and brings you to all the places you want to see.

I have also listed our favorite food in France in "what to eat ?"...Most of the time, we would prefer to cook, ie why we have chosen to stay in Airbnb homes for our travel. It's also our first experience staying in such homes in Europe. We also tend to stay longer in a place and move around that place, as we dislike the hassle of moving our suitcases.

We do not generally visit monuments or places of historical interest. We are there for walks, food and shopping (for my wife). Therefore, we tend to visit local markets (marché in French) whenever possible, and also supermarkets. The marché is normally not opened everyday, but it's possible to find a market on any particular day in a region.

If you're interested in Japan, you can also read my blog at DIY travel by car in Shikoku and Japan.

email : sunnymuguet@gmail.com

How to choose Airbnb accommodation in Europe

Indeed, what are our criteria ?
     Based on our experiences :

1. Availability of Free WIFI

2. Free parking on-site

Parking is expensive in the city.

3. Entire Home/appartment

It would also be good if the host is living nearby and not miles away, because if you need help, calling the host is not really a good option because you wouldn't want to spend money on an international call. If you have purchased a local SIM card for travel, then this should not be a factor.

4. Fully equipped kitchen (preferably with conventional oven)

• When you see fresh seafood, beef, meat or vegetables in the market, seafood shop or supermarket, well...you may want to try your hand at cooking it your own way. 
• We usually order 1 meal to share for 2 in a restaurant. Continental food is alright to try but it's heavy for us, so it's good to cook 1or 2 meals a day.
• Why the conventional oven ? If you want to grill your seafood and eat it naturally just seasoned with salt, well the oven is helpful. There are also walnuts, hazelnuts, etc... that you can try.

5. Washer, dryer, dishwasher if possible.

• This will take the hassle out of your daily cooking or laundry and leave you to enjoy your travel.

6. A lift.

• If you have suitcases to carry, a lift is definitely worth considering, especially in a low-rise accommodation. If it's a house with 2 storeys, it would be better to leave the suitcases on the ground level, if possible.

7. Heating, if you're going during the colder months.

• You may want to check with the host if heating is turned on or if heaters are available in all the rooms.
• When we went in Oct, the daily temperature varies from 4 to 16 deg C. The host may not turn on heating or turn it on minimally, as heating is expensive in Europe. Europeans may only turn on heating in the bedroom at night when they sleep. In the daytime, they wear enough clothes to keep themselves warm inside. So you will find the accommodation and bathroom pretty cold without heating.
• If there is a fireplace, you could buy firewood from the supermarket to burn wood for fun or to keep warm.

8. Non smoking.

     Budget of course will play a part in your choice of the Airbnb. Using Airbnb is the best alternative option if you want a kitchen, as compared to an Appart-Hotel, where the kitchen facilities are minimal. Cost savings will be more if you want to stay in a higher class hotel. It all depends of course on what you are looking for in an accommodation.

Airbnb issues you should take note

Indeed, things that you want to know but Airbnb doesn't tell you. Airbnb is not at all transparent in its documentation.

1. Airbnb hotline.

• Try searching for one on the internet and you will never find it.

2. Airbnb helpdesk.

• Try emailing them a message is the same as 1. There is no such menu item in the Airbnb interface, whether in PC or mobile version.
• If you need to report a problem, you have to use your mobile phone and keep exhausting the options presented by Airbnb until finally you can type a message to helpdesk.

3. Airbnb hell. 

• There is a whole website dedicated to people having Airbnb issues.
• Read through it and you will be scared off to attempt using Airbnb.

4. Airbnb undocumented.

• If the host has a problem with your reservation and informs you that it would be cancelled, let the host do it. Do not cancel the reservation on your side as it is understood you wanted to cancel and therefore you will be charged an Airbnb booking fee.
• Once the cancellation is done by your host, you will be informed and Airbnb will give you 2 options : either get a refund immediately, or use it together with a bonus credit given to you to offset the next Airbnb booking.

5. Airbnb hotline (US) - (correct as Oct 2016)

• US toll free: +1-855-424-7262

6. Airbnb hotline (Singapore) - (correct as Oct 2016)

• +65 6622 7306 
• +1800 723 1238 (toll-free)
 

How to choose car rental in Europe

What are our criteria ?
     Based on our experiences :

1. Automatic car.

• In Europe, it's left-hand driving, as compared to right-hand driving for Singapore. So having an automatic car saves you quite a hassle in adapting to a left-hand drive.

2. Check the no of free kms given per day of car rental. 

• Depending on the distance you will cover, you will need to take these into consideration. The usual no. given by car rental companies is about 250 km/day, and if you exceed the total given over the duration of your rental, you will have to pay per km.
• The no. given is usually enough, unless you are doing a lot of travelling over long distances.

3. The sizing of the car.

• Depending on your needs and suitcases, you have to determine what kind of car you need to transport everyone and the luggage.

4. The location of the car rental company at the airport.

• If it's at the airport terminal, very good.
• If it's off-site, you might want to consider a car rental company that's on-site since you don't want to lug your suitcases just to get your rental car. It will not be that convenient moving from point A to point B overseas.
• Some people actually advise against getting rental car at the airport as it's more expensive. So imagine you arrive at the airport and that to get to your rental office downtown, where it may be cheaper, you still have to make your way there with your family and your suitcases. Why the hassle and the inconvenience ?
• When people say it's expensive, you also have to take it with a pinch of salt. Where do they get their prices, from which website, car rental supplier, etc. ? Are we talking about apples and apples ?

5. Paying option to reduce excess.

• This depends on your travel insurance coverage for excess and how comfortable you are with its coverage.

6. Paying cross-border fee.

• Some car rental companies charge a daily fee, so it's expensive and it doesn't make sense.
• With rentalcars.com, and subsequently the rental company Global Drive, I paid only 20€ for the entire trip.

7. Renting a GPS with the rental company

• It's costly and charged per day.
• The GPS may not be intuitive enough to use or good in giving navigational instructions. For example, for the car rental from Frankfurt, it was a very hi-tech car and equipped with a GPS. However, we abandoned it quickly as it does not tell you properly how to navigate in certain complex areas. We switched quickly to our Garmin GPS to continue.

8. Where to book ?

• rentalcars.com
• EconomyBookings.com
• Read car rental reviews on the internet. There will always be positive and negative reviews, so be prepared to avoid pitfalls when renting a car.

9. Personal Experiences.

• In my experiences with Europe or Australia, I have never booked directly online with Avis, Budget, etc... because they do not offer good prices.

At Paris CDG

• We used EconomyBookings.com.
• We took an option to reduce our excess to zero, and even then it was cheap, and also because it was also our first time driving in Europe.
• At Paris CDG, we had to ask and move around to find the car rental company Enterprise after getting our luggage, but it was not far.
• No issues with Enterprise after we returned home.

At Frankfurt Airport

• We used rentalcars.com.
• We took up an option with rentalcars.com to reduce our excess to zero, and even then it didn't cost much.
• We hired a car with unlimited kms, which is not available on their website, but which we negotiated with their helpdesk.
• At Frankfurt Airport, most of the car rental companies are located at Terminal 2, so once you get your luggage, it's convenient. Note that the car rental company CARO is not on-site.
• We had booked our car for 1300 hrs. When we went to the Global Drive (Buchbinder) counter at 1200 hrs, we were informed that our car wasn't ready, and that a bigger car at additional 10€ a day was available. Well, we waited.
• They would swipe your credit card for a deposit, to protect their excess coverage, if you did not buy this coverage from them.
• When we finally retrieved our car in the basement parking lot, we realised that we had been given a much bigger car, not the compact car that I had booked.
• What we deduced is that they didn't have the car we wanted and that they weren't kind nor gracious enough to let me have the bigger car upgrade at no additional cost.
• After returning home, Buchbinder returned us the deposit, however with a deduction for extra mileage (ours was for unlimited mileage) and cross-border fees (which was already paid upon getting our car). We are now disputing with them to refund us the actual amount.

Update : After providing Buchbinder with our car rental voucher from rentalcars.com and disputing the double charge on the cross-border fees, they finally refunded us the intial 1100€ deposit after 2 weeks.

• In countries like Australia, normally, the car rental company would offer you an upgrade car if the car requested is not available, at no extra cost.

How to minimise car rental "rip-offs" or "scams"

     Would a car rental company rip you off or "scam" you ? Quite unthinkable and unbelievable right ? Well, if you read enough of car rental reviews from the internet or even Tripadvisor forums, there are endless cases of such "rip-offs". But it's not outright cheating you, that's the problem. It happens only after you return to your homeland when you see your credit card being charged. Remember, they swipe your credit card to have a deposit to offset the possible "excess" charge, before you drive your car away for your holiday.

     Typical cases are :

1. A full tank of fuel to pay for, because you "have forgotten" to top up to full tank
2. A different amount for your car rental from your car rental voucher
3. A repair charge for some car "damage"

    Every car rental company Budget, Avis, Thrifty, etc has had its fair share of "rip-offs". Does it mean that we avoid these companies ? From my experiences (written in the next post) : 

1. For Australia, I have had only 1 "rip-off" by Thrifty out of more than 15 car rentals.
2. For Japan, I have driven there 4 times already. None simply because they don't do rip-offs.
3. For Europe, none by Entreprise car rental in France and the "rip-off" by Buchbinder in Germany has been settled.

    So how do we protect ourselves from such fraudulent claims or to minimise such problems ? I have outlined a checklist below to help minimise our own "damages" :

At the car rental counter (to take your car) 

1.  Present the booking voucher at the car rental company, together with your International Driving Permit and your local car licence.

2.  If you decline the car excess insurance they want you to buy, they will swipe your credit card for a deposit to cover for car excess. It's good to have your phone on at this time to have a banking alert via SMS to see if a monetary transaction has just taken place from this company.

• For Australia, no deposit is really taken, they just swipe it to have your credit card details.
• For France, with Entreprise car rental, same as Australia.
• For Germany, with Global Drive car rental, a deposit is taken rightaway.
• For Japan, no deposit is taken.

3. In some rental companies in Europe, they will insist to see proof of your other insurance coverage for this excess, otherwise they will insist upon you paying the excess insurance coverage per day. Reminder to read the terms and conditions of the rental car company you booked with.

4.  If additional driver, check for the additional rental charges.

5.  Is it a fuel or diesel car ?

6.  Sign the rental agreement. Check the amount against your booking voucher.

7.  Pay in cash if possible (if not previously paid  for or deducted via credit card).

8.  Collect car key.

9.  Ask for emergency breakdown tel. no.

10. You will then proceed to the car park area to find your car. Meticulously examine your car before driving away from the rental company. Have any damages, regardless of how small, listed in writing. This is important! You don’t want to be charged for damage done by someone else. If something is not right, insist for a change.

Check the following :

• brakes, rear brake light
• headlights, high beam light
• right signal light, left signal, hazard light
• heating, aircon
• front wipers, back wipers
• wheels
• full tank
• deep dents or heavy scrapes not indicated on the agreement form
• windscreen clear of deep scratches or marks

11.Take photos from all sides.

12. Put GPS mount, charger and the GPS.

13. Once you are out of the car park or if you can receive a GPS signal, save the current position so you can return to the car rental car park easily.

For Japan

14. Learn how to set to "avoid tolls" – 无料

15. Learn how to set Map Code coordinates.

NB : Always take note of the local police and ambulance phone nos.

• Western Australia : 000 for emergency
• EU : 112
• Japan : police – 110, fire & ambulance – 119

Returning the Car

1.  Top up to full tank before reaching the car rental car park.

2.  Remove GPS mount, charger and GPS.

3.  Take photos of full tank, mileage.

4.  Take photos from all sides.

5.  At the car rental counter, if nobody is around, or you pick up the phone and you are asked to drop the car key in the drop box, write clearly on the agreement that nobody was around to check the car. Take a photo of the agreement and return it together with the car key. 

• This happens quite often at Australia car rental companies or when you return at odd hours, ie non office hours.
• For Japan, you can only return the car during office hours. That means they want to check your car. I never have had to do any of the above checklist because the Japanese are highly professional.
• For France Entreprise car rental, they checked my car. Same as for Germany Global Drive. I guess I returned it during office hours.

My experiences with car rental "rip-offs" or "scams"

Experience with Thrifty in Australia

1. For this car rental, I booked with FastCarHire.
2. At the Thrifty car rental counter pick-up, I was shown a different amount, slightly higher than the one on my booking voucher.
3. The staff looked confused but said anyway that she would honour mine. I can't remember if I paid cash or credit card, for the amount shown on my booking voucher. But I signed the car agreement for the amount stipulated on my voucher. Anyway, we didn't think much about it and we went off on our holidays.
4. After our return, there was a charge by Thrifty for the extra amount of AUD399 that we didn't pay. There begins our dispute with Thrifty.
5. I reported to UOB credit card that I would dispute this amount. The staff wasn't helpful. They said that it's was alright for the car rental to charge me since it's indicated on any car rental agreement that the final sum could vary, due to damages or other possibilities. I told them that it wasn't so in my case and therefore I had to insist on disputing this claim. Since it's considered a "fraudulent" transaction, I was then asked to cancel this credit card and that they would issue me a new card replacement.
6. I was then asked to explain my dispute, which was as in (2) and (3) above and I submitted my Fastcarhire booking voucher to UOB.
7. Subsequently, UOB came back with a response from Thrifty. I was asked to settle the amount if I did not dispute the response, which claimed that I was supposed to pay the rest of the rental of AUD399 upon returning my car at the Thrifty counter.
8. My subsequent response to the dispute was : (a) the agreement I signed for was for AUD648. (b) if the car rental company did not agree with my car rental voucher booking, they would have issued another car agreement stipulating the amount they want to charge. (c) Even if they had wanted to charge me a higher amount, I would have disagreed to take up the car rental, and gone to another car rental agency. There are 4 more agencies at the airport. (d) No customer in his right mind, would sign any car rental agreement, only to know that the car rental agency would charge them higher, at whatever price they want later, afterwards, saying that the car hire charges are different.
9. Thrifty didn't want to back down from their claim, so I was asked by UOB to reconsider settling paying. Otherwise, this dispute would be taken to the Visa Worldwide Arbitration Committee, whereby it would be settled, and whichever party lost, they would have to pay an admin fee of 500USD.
10. Well, finally, Thrifty lost and I gained a lot of useful experience from this episode.

NB : 

• From then onwards, I will no longer use FastCarHire, as I wrote to them about my dispute, but I did not receive any response from them.
• I have been using drivenow.com.au for all the rest of my car rental needs. They are reliable and they respond to your queries.

Experience with Buchbinder/Global Drive in Frankfurt in Germany

1. I booked with Rentalcars.com. I had negotiated for unlimited mileage, automatic, compact(size) car, and full protection for my excess with rentalcars.com at the time of booking.
2. Upon arrival at Global Drive counter at 1200 hrs, I was informed my car wasn't ready(my collection time at 1300hrs). However, they would let me have a bigger car by paying an extra 10€ a day. My rental was for a month, so I'd have to fork out an extra 300€. No way, so we waited.
3. Rentalcars has already deducted the money from my credit card, so at Global Drive, they swiped my credit card for a deposit, as I did not buy the excess insurance from them but from Rentalcars. I also had to pay a cross-border fee plus some taxes together with the deposit. My phone SMS showed me that the amount deducted was as charged.
4. At the car park below the airport terminal, we then saw our huge rental car, a Ford Explorer type, hi-tech, GPS, sensor all-round, instead of a Ford Focus compact car. We would realise later that Global Drive was not gracious nor kind enough to give us this car rightaway, and wanted us to pay for it.
5. The in-car GPS unit was not as intuitive as our Garmin, so we discarded it almost immediately.
6. We regretted not using our Garmin to save our position at the car rental, as upon our return, the Frankfurt airport signage for car rental is really bad. Their in-car GPS unit also did not have the car rental car park as its home position.
7. Upon our return, our car was checked, I got a copy of the agreement and so we returned home happily.
8. Unfortunately, Buchbinder did not refund us the full deposit. They deducted for extra mileage incurred, and my cross-border fee a 2nd time.
9. So I had to write to their email hotline, stating my case, and also enclosing my rental voucher with rentalcars.com. Rentalcars has a very comprehensive detailed voucher, stating what's there, your requested car, with the deposit of 1100€ and unlimited mileage clearly stated at the top right.
10. I waited 1 week, no response. So I had to email them again for an update. In my email, I did not vent my frustration nor anger. I simply stated my case in the first email and in the 2nd, I asked for an update.
11. I got my correct refund a few days later.

Lesson learnt

• So was it a scam or rip-off ? Hard to say, as I have read other bad reviews of Buchbinder whereby they did not get their refund or claim.
• All I can say is that do the car hire checklist as mentioned in the other post "How to minimise car rental scams or rip-offs", and it could protect you from all these monetary nuisances.

Flights

Choice of Airline Carrier

1. For our first trip, we chose Air France , as we were travelling only in France.
2. For the 2nd trip, we travelled in Germany, Switzerland, France and Luxembourg. We decided to book with KLM based on cost. Our national carrier SQ, code share with Lufthansa, would cost us both about S$3200, whereas KLM cost us about S$2500. We had to however buy an extra luggage at about $200, because KLM which offers only 1 free check-in luggage as compared to SQ which offers 2.
3. For the 1st leg with KLM, as it is code share with Air France, it was a AF flight to Paris. The luggage goes straight to Frankfurt and you are free to shop at Paris CDG. Allow 2-3 hours transit time to catch the flight Paris-Frankfurt. There is no refreshment meal on this latter AF flight. 
4. On the return leg, we were with KLM itself. There is refreshment meal on board Frankfurt-Amsterdam flight. Allow 2-3 hours for transit at Amsterdam to catch your flight home.
5. AF flight entertainment and food were better than KLM. The AF equipment was touchscreen and newer. Both crew service were equally good.