Originally Posted by GUWonder
Thanks for the info about Eurail passes.
You're quite welcome.
11-day train passes you mention are $530 per person, so that is 1060 for two people for just 11 days. But what about for this situation where they are going for nearly 4 weeks? Are these passes otherwise limited geographically or by operator?
Since I live in Europe, I have no experience myself with these passes. From what I understand, all companies that sell them offer the same prices. They are available in many different forms. You can limit by geography if you want or not if you don't want. You can perhaps look
here for more details.
For the "inconvenient" hotels outside the city, many of these are located near airports from which public transit into city centers is often cheap and reasonably good. So one stays at hotels near the airport, along the road to the airport or on the outskirts -- and then park the car at the airport for the day if driving into the city center is not one's cup of tea -- and then head into/around the city center by public transit. Then when done with one city take the car and go to the next city or country.
Yes, what you say is perfectly possible to do, however, doesn't it come down to a question of cost over convenience?
As I have said many times, I would not use a car (and I have four people in my family) to go from city center to city center -- it's just not convenient.
I know if I relied on rail in many countries of Europe, I would miss half the beauty of the places -- e.g., the coasts along the Med and the foothills and mountain driving just get missed without a rental car in most countries (or involve major inconveniences in most).
Well, I guess you've been going to the wrong places then
Along the coasts of Italy, I take the train to the city, then a bus to my hotel on the coast. Unbelievably cheap (in Italy), a beautiful ride on the Amalfi coast, for example, and I don't even need to keep my eyes on the road!
I only drive if we need to do a lot of shopping or if we are going someplace that has no public transport, like a ski area.