By the time I got the nerve to try it, I was on my sixth European trip.
I've always been impressed with the speed, convenience and efficiency of European trains. If you're exploring Europe's big cities, it's possible to travel between city centers with a minimum of effort.
But on the sixth trip to Europe, I had two children with me. The need for four tickets is enough to make a budget traveler stop and compare options.
The leg of our trip where this came into question was Berlin-to-Amsterdam. We wanted to stop along the way and see my ancestral home of East Frisia, a beautiful and somewhat remote locale where bike trails greatly outnumber public transportation opportunities.
There are obvious lists of advantages and disadvantages connected to trains and cars. It is not my intention to rehash those here. I'm simply presenting what I found out when I considered making a short journey by car instead of by train.
Let's start with a discussion of the one-way train fare between Berlin and Amsterdam. For our plans, buying rail passes was not an economical option (your situation could be very different), so we were looking at straight ticket prices.
At the time of our trip, two adults needed a total of $252 USD in second class, $366 for first-class. That first figure is quite reasonable.
But we had a teenager and a child in our party, too. Adding them to the itinerary brings the second class total to $446.50 USD, and a whopping $646 for first-class.
Typically, the only major difference between first- and second-class on most European trains is the number of passengers who will be sharing your space. The comfort of the seats, the surroundings and the service are much the same in either place.
So first-class is not worth the extra expense for many budget travelers. But we're still looking at $446.50 to make this 488 mile (800 kilometer) leg of our journey.
With train costs at nearly a dollar a mile, can we afford to book a one-day European car rental, complete with its hefty drop-off fees and expensive gasoline prices?
Click "next" and find out!
