We spend three months in Europe every summer for the last five years and I can tell you right now driving around and and spending a single day per city is a total waste. We usually do four days in a relaxed city, say Nice (France), then do the weekend in Paris, or four days in Prague and then the weekend in Berlin.
Once you're in Europe flights are dirt cheap, I'm talking $16-$60 for a one way flight that would equal an 8 hour drive or train. The airports are all fast and security is a joke, so going in and out of the airport is as easy as walking into a train station to sit on a boring ass train for six hours, when you can be at your destination in 45 minutes by plane and be doing awesome shit in the city.
I'll never understand peoples infatuation with Europe's country side and taking long ass trains to nowhere. Other than the Alps and a handful of cute towns along the way, it's mostly boring grass, run down train stations for little shitty towns, and rolling hills. Then on top of all that, the train can even be more expensive in many cases. The fact you can miss a transfer or stop, and a handful of other things that just make trains suck. If you want to rent a car, find main city to use as a home base and then spread out from there. Then when you're ready to hit the next major city, fly there and rent a new car and use that city as a home base. It is a much better method than just dashing around Europe like some college backpacking expedition and spending the majority of your time traveling.
Once you're in Europe flights are dirt cheap, I'm talking $16-$60 for a one way flight that would equal an 8 hour drive or train. The airports are all fast and security is a joke, so going in and out of the airport is as easy as walking into a train station to sit on a boring ass train for six hours, when you can be at your destination in 45 minutes by plane and be doing awesome shit in the city.
I'll never understand peoples infatuation with Europe's country side and taking long ass trains to nowhere. Other than the Alps and a handful of cute towns along the way, it's mostly boring grass, run down train stations for little shitty towns, and rolling hills. Then on top of all that, the train can even be more expensive in many cases. The fact you can miss a transfer or stop, and a handful of other things that just make trains suck. If you want to rent a car, find main city to use as a home base and then spread out from there. Then when you're ready to hit the next major city, fly there and rent a new car and use that city as a home base. It is a much better method than just dashing around Europe like some college backpacking expedition and spending the majority of your time traveling.