Depending on where you live, you are most likely used to either fly everyhwere, or visit lots of places by car. If you live in Norway, you will most likely fly to most places, simply because it will take you lots of hours and nearly days to visit some other country. If you live in the United States, that is even more so. But, if you live in a place where you can visit another country and several other countries within a few hours of driving, it is very convenient to just get in the car, and go on a trip.
But, let us say that you are planning to visit the city of Prague, or maybe Vienna, Paris, Budapest, Lisbon, Rome, Barcelona, Toulouse, or maybe Athens. What can you do with your car? Can you park it anywhere in the city? How can you pay for your parking? Is it safe to park your car there? Do you have to put money in a machine every third hour, or can you pay for your parking for several days at once?
These are just some of the questions you might ask as you plan your trip to a new country and to a new city, and we also know that you often learn in the hard and expensive way. What do I mean by that?
Source: Bing Designer
I recently read a story about a person who wanted to park his car in Vienna. He quickly noticed that you are only allowed to park for two hours in the short-term zone (which is almost everywhere in the center and near the city-center). What did the person do? He parked for two hours, then he paid for parking for two new hours, and then for two more hours. In the end, he received a fine... Why was that?
He was only allowed to park for two hours in total. It didn't matter if he paid for six hours in total and renewed every second hour.. The problem was still that he wasn't allowed to park for more than two hours at most. That is learning the hard way.
I always do research before I arrive to a new city by car.
The easiest is always if you book accommodation that offer free parking. But, if you visit a city and live in the city-center, then not many hotels will give you free parking anymore. Instead, they often charge you tens of Euros per day, making it a quite expensive addition to the price you have already paid for the hotel or the apartment.
Are you looking for cheaper parking? Or maybe you don't have someplace to stay and you only want to park for some hours?
That is when I start to search the Internet for help. Is it easy to park the car in the center of the city I would like to visit? Are there maximum number of hours I can park? Can I renew my parking using a mobile phone application (and not just with ticket machines)? Are there special apps I need to use to pay for my parking?
If it has a crowded city center where it is both expensive to park and hard to find parking, then I look for P+R options where I can park my car cheaply, and then use public transportation to get to the city center. Thus I save time and lots of frustration having to look around in the city center hoping to find some expensive parking
There you go... this is my way of doing research.
Are you planning on visiting either Budapest, Vienna, or Bratislava in the near future by car? I recommend the following guides to parking your car in the cities.
Guides that will help you park your car...
Take a look at them, and I am quite sure you will find lots of information useful as you arrive with your car.
Do you have any cool stories, or maybe sad stories about parking or a failed parking somewhere as you tried to explore a city and have a good time? Well, let me tell you that once I tried to parked my car in Prague. I quickly unpacked the car, and as I returned to the car five minutes later, the car was gone! I asked the owner of the apartment, and he told me that it had most likely been towed away.
And so we had to walk to this office that had removed our car, pay a lot of money, and then return and park at a location where we were allowed to park. Nice, huh?