TripHip - Travel Tips and Advice for Traveling on a Budget

Whether or not you should rent a car in Europe depends on where you are going and how long you will be there. Europe has a good rail system, so once you narrow down the places you want to go, look on the Rail Europe website to see what trains are near your route. You can also take buses to get to places that the trains won’t go.

If you want to see places in rural Europe, renting a car is not a bad idea. You can take back roads, go off the beaten path, and see things you wouldn’t otherwise see. It’s a great idea for people who don’t want to be “normal tourists”.

If you rent a car in Europe, you’d better make sure you know how to drive a stick shift. Most rental cars in Europe are manuals, not automatics. Also, make sure you get some kind of auto insurance to make sure you’re covered in case of an accident.

Check with the country beforehand to find out if your US driver’s license is valid. Alternatively, find out if they’ll honor an International Driving Permit and then go to AAA and get one.

Finally, make sure you know a few emergency phrases in the country you’ll be traveling in, in case you have an accident or the car breaks down.

Stay safe during your road trip, and don't get distracted by your cell phone, PDA, Blackberry or even the GPS. You should NOT be texting, dialing, or any other kind of button-pushing while you are driving. You can change the radio station, but that's it.

This can be especially dangerous if you've already been driving for 8 hours straight, and in an unfamiliar area. Watch the road and concentrate on your driving at all times.

If you must use a GPS, do all the programming before you start your driving for the day. And try to let your passenger help you with the directions, so you don't have to keep watching the screen to see where you are going.

It's fairly common knowledge that driving in the United Kingdom is done on the left-side of the road. But did you know that 74 other countries do the same?

Aside from the UK, you will be driving on the left in Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Suriname, New Zealand and India (just to name a few).

If you intend on renting a car at your destination, you might want to see what the driving custom is. Unless you have some experience switching sides, you are just asking for a traffic accident by doing so for the first time on vacation.

If you are taking a long cross-country road trip, you will likely not have much room to spare in your car once you have packed all your luggage, snacks and people. Even if space is at a premium, do not forget to keep a box of emergency supplies somewhere in the car (ideally, not at the bottom of the trunk).

In a sturdy tote bag or box, you should have a good first aid kit, a flashlight, jumper cables (and know how to use them!), a blanket, work gloves, some basic tools such as screwdrivers and pliers, some food and a jug of water. If you do any driving at night, keep some road flares in your kit as well.

Hopefully, you have some kind of road service coverage (like AAA). Keep your membership number and their phone number handy as well.

Nothing will spoil a vacation more than nasty car trouble, so be prepared.

Packing plenty of snacks, toys, books and games is the best way to keep your children occupied during a long vacation drive. But all that stuff can take up a LOT of space, especially if you have a small vehicle. So plan for some games you can play with your children that can be just as fun, but without all the "stuff".

Eagle Eye - have a list of unusual things, and have your kids watch out the windows to spot them. Maybe a house with a blue roof, a horse in a field, or even just certain letters in a license plate or road signs.

Twenty Questions - its a classic game that most children should be able to play as long as you don't make it too difficult. You have to think of something, then they have 20 questions to ask you in order to figure it out.

Alphabet Game - have a list of themes ready, and ask your kids to name something from that theme for every letter of the alphabet. Things like animals, movies, foods or people's names. You might want to give them a break with Q and X though.

If you plan to drive while you're abroad, check to make sure that your driver's license is actually valid at your destination. There is no guarantee that it will be!

If you want to be sure that you can legally drive at your destination, get an International Driving Permit. You can get these through AAA for only $15. Be very wary of other, official-looking sites that may try to sell you an International Driving Permit for more money.

If you plan to travel to lots of different countries during your trip, an IDP is definitely handy because it is recognized at over 150 countries!

On a recent driving trip I made from my home in Virginia north up to Erie, Pennsylvania; and then west to Cheyenne, Wyoming, I used route plans which I'd gotten off the web.

If you look at a road atlas of the U.S., it's easy to see the major highways that crisscross the entire country, and so it's easy to figure out which highway you're going to take to you destination.

But, what about getting on and off those highways? What happens when you're driving on a five-lane divided highway outside the anthill that is the Baltimore/Washington DC nexus? Is that highway going to continue on, as it seems to say in the atlas, or are you going to have to exit off the highway you're on, onto a spur, and then zoom onto the continuation of the highway.

Travelling along at 70 miles per hour, keeping your eyes on those overhead signs that are supposed to tell you where to go, can be nerve-wracking.

They are slightly less nerve-wracking if you've gotten directions from the computer, because those directions tell you exactly where your turn-offs are going to be, and how long you drive before you'll be able to get back on the highway.

Of course, they have a caveat, as they themselves will tell you. Put in your starting point and your endpoint, and you'll be given the quickest way to get somewhere, not necessarily the most scenic. And of course, their might be a time lag in between the time highway construction is started, and it is reflected in any directions you receive. So you do have to be aware of that.

The driving directions let me down only once. I was in some small town in Ohio, I can't even remember the name of it anymore, but I pulled up directions from my motel to Cleveland, and wrote them carefully down. Yet the next day when I tried to follow the directions, the road I was supposed to get on petered out at a dead end, and the roads to left and right gave me no clue of which way to go. I had to go into a gas station and get directions.

But for 99% of the time, these directions worked great.

I didn't want to have to hold a paper in front of me while I was driving, so I wired a clipboard to the top of my steering wheel (cutting off all but the top inch). By placing my carefully folded directions on the right edge of the clipboard, I was able to see all my guages, including that all important one telling me how fast I was going, and I was able to safely drop my eyes down to look at my next exit, then look back up and carry on my way. The poor woman's GPS.

Several sites offer driving directions, including http://maps.yahoo.com and http://www.mapquest.com/. I'd suggest inputting your details into each system, and comparing their routes.