OE travel advice please...

[kiwisfly]

Hey folks, wondering if you could help me out with some info.
Me and a mate are heading for Europe to visit another mate working in Brussells. Caught my wife in a weak moment & she said go for it! Was going to head off in October to clear the Rugby World Cup traffic but have changed that to September. Reason cause the F1 is running at Spa on Sept 16th & me pal can sort us a roof for the weekend. Then I was checking the Superbike circus & guess what, they're running in Germany (Eurospeed track in Lauitz) the weekend before! So the boys hit the road for a full on petrolhead trip topped off with a visit to Michael Schu's Kart Racing circuit in Germany where you can blat around in high powered carts! Seems a good part of the trip will be Germany & Brussells with a smattering of France (Paris) & a day or so in London. Heading back we're planning a couple of nights in Hong Kong. Wanna do the German castles, the history etc as well.
Anyway my biggest question is getting about. Rent a car or get a rail pass?
Any places you'd recommend in any of the mentioned places?
Of the 2 events, any suggestions on best places to get a seat?
Anything else you can throw in would be appreciated considered the furthest I've managed travel wise is the Gold Coast & the Chatham Islands!
Cheers.

[Rosie]

I've never rented a car in Europe, so can't comment on that, but have had very good experiences travelling around by train.

The Deutsche Bahn website is your friend: http://www.bahn.de/p/view/international/englisch/international_guests.shtml
It will even give you timetables for trains in other countries. That way you can see if the trains go to the places you want to get to, and price up different rail pass options. And compare it to rental car prices.

Eurail passes (multi-country ones) can be quite expensive, but if you are going to be spending a bit of time in one country, getting a rail pass for that country could be a good deal.

When Clint and I went to Europe in 2005, we got a 5 day German Rail Pass each (bought at Frankfurt airport, because it was cheaper than getting it here). It was significantly cheaper than buying the individual tickets for the train trips we planned on doing, and you just enter the date onto your pass and jump on the train, no ticket machines to worry about.

Most train stations are really close to the middle of town, so it's fairly easy to walk into town and find somewhere to stay, without having to worry about finding a car park.

We also found that it was sometimes cheaper to use discount airlines for longer trips than to catch the train. From northern Italy back to Germany was about 1/3 the price on Germanwings compared to the train (and it was a 1.5 hour trip, rather than 8 hours). Germanwings flies into Köln-Bonn airport, which has a train station and is just over an hour by train to Frankfurt airport, so it was really convenient. And cheap.

[Fat Tony]

If you're heading to Spa, it'd be plain rude not to do the Nurburgring Nordschleife as it's just down the road ;)

If you want any info on accommodation in the area drop me a PM... I've only been the once but some of my mates are over there every other weekend during the summer months.

Enjoy the trip! Sounds like a lot of fun.

[kiwisfly]

Thanks all for that guys. Gotta travel show here in Wellington tomorrow so hopefully should get some ideas. Still up in the air re the travelling about as theres minuses & pluses both ways.
Sorted for a bed as my mate is in Brussels & a workmate commutes from Spa which is about an hour & he's fine with a bunch of hairy sweaty kiwis crashing his house!

[Busy]

Consider buying a car or van and resell when you leave.
Don't forget the international drivers licence.