Planning a weekend away: what should you consider?

You are planning to go away for a weekend with a few people. Great of course, but you also have to think about a lot of things. Picking a date, booking accommodation, arranging transport...

pick date

It starts with picking the right date. The more people go, the harder it gets. Fortunately, you can find all kinds of handy date pickers on the internet that make this hellish task a lot easier. These are often also available as an app for your smartphone or tablet. It is also wise to create a WhatsApp group to arrange certain things.

Determine budget

Okay, the date is set. Before you choose a destination, it is smart to talk about the budget. Perhaps not everyone in the travel group has an equally fat purse. For example, you can agree that the weekend away may not cost more than 200 euros per person. This also gives you a practical handle when determining the travel destination and accommodation.

Destination plus accommodation

Then perhaps the most important question: where are we going? Will it be a city trip to Barcelona or Milan, an attraction or holiday park perhaps? Or an active weekend away? And where are you going to stay? In a luxury hotel, a sober (youth) hostel or with everyone in a holiday home?

Transportation

Finally, of course, there is transportation. Nowadays, people often book their trip including transportation and accommodation. That seems often the cheapest, but is that really the case? In many cases it is more advantageous to book accommodation and transport separately. As for transport, you can of course choose between car, bus, train or plane.

With today's low-cost carriers, flying has become very cheap, but often renting a minivan is cheaper, because you can share the total costs. A minivan will of course take you from door to door, while to take a plane you first have to drive to an airport. Unless your name is John Travolta and you have your own Boeing. Moreover, with a rental van you no longer have to rent a car on the spot to get around.

Of course, by plane you are usually faster. But if you go to Paris for example and have to drive to the airport first for your flight, you are not only faster with a rental van, but also cheaper! Of course you can also go by car. If you want to take a lot of stuff with you, you can go in a hashback Fold down the back seat of your car so you can take more stuff with you.

The math

We looked at Goeuro.com to see what it costs today (8-12-2016; 8.51:196,97) to travel from Maastricht to Paris. The cheapest offer is 22,80 euros per person – 175,17 euros for the train journey from Maastricht to Düsseldorf and XNUMX euros for the (return) flight with Lufthansa.

Let's take that same trip in a rented passenger bus…

We rent a bus for 6 people. Great to travel in, and also a lot of luggage space to take a lot of suitcases. Such a people carrier or van costs at Adrem Autoverhuur Limburg 39,90 euros plus 11,50 euros for insurance per day. The price for the kilometers is 19 cents. The distance from Maastricht to Paris and back is 804 kilometers in total. We rent the van from Friday to Sunday. Three whole days.

Then you pay (€):

Bus rental (3 days x 39,90): 119,70

+ Insurance (3 days x 11,50): 34,50

+ Kilometers (804 km x 0,19): 152,76

Subtotal: 306,96

+ VAT (21%): 64,46

+ Fuel (804 km): 88,-

Total: 459,42

This amount can be divided by 6 people (we assume a maximum occupancy of the van) and then you arrive at an amount of rounded 76,57 euros per person. More than 60 percent cheaper than train journey plus flight! That means more spending money to spend in the 'City of Love'. Or you can use the money to book a more luxurious accommodation of course.

An additional advantage of renting a passenger bus is that you have transportation available all weekend.

Have a nice trip!

Where are you going on your weekend getaway? Let us know and we will calculate exactly what it will cost you to rent a car or van in total!