‘Every day, four hours of charging with four children in the back seat’ | Family

,,In a week we would go around Puglia from Naples, by car. Because we are two adults and four children, I wanted to rent a seven-seater, like a van. Our favorite and reliable car rental company had them no longer available, so I opted for another local rental company. Long before we left, I organized the bus and we mapped out our route. We probably booked all the accommodations for the road as I had seen some gems that I didn’t want to miss. When we arrived at Naples airport, our rental car turned out to be electric. Now I’m all for it, but it’s not practical for a road trip in an area with few charging stations.”

,,The rental company had no other option for us, so we put the disappointment aside and hit the road. The first evening started well: we couldn’t find the reserved accommodation, with an almost empty battery. It turned out to be somewhere isolated behind a creek, which we eventually found on foot. In the stress of the search, my husband left his suitcase on the street. We didn’t find out until late at night after dinner that he was missing; we thought about theft. Surprised we called the owner of the property but he saw no sign of breakage and said there was no way the suitcase was stolen from the room. A phone call to the police revealed that they had received a report of a gray suitcase on the street, which had of course disappeared without a trace in the meantime. So the next morning, we just stocked up on underwear and shirts.

“The car, heavily laden and in the mountains, turned out to have a range of only 150 kilometres. So it came down to four hours a day, sometimes twice a day, at a charging station. With four children impatient and bored. These charging stations are never near anything cool, so it was no more than an ice cream at the gas pump. Or we wandered around a vague slum in search of cakes in a bakery. This wait was a real horror, for all of us. Sometimes we did not arrive at our accommodation until 2 am, completely cooked. Once, late in the evening, we finally entered a village at no turtle, we just got the charging station, and it turned out an adapter was needed. The kids were tired and hungry, we were frustrated. On the last day, we missed the boat to an island that we wanted to see, again because of the battery vi of. This disaster holiday almost made me laugh.”

,,Once back home, I wanted to file a claim, but before sending it, I received an email from the car rental company. We would have done some damage, but there were pictures of a completely different car. After many galleys, we were able to settle the matter with a poorly English-speaking intermediary. My complaint resulted in compensation of 300 euros, which is little consolation. Then I look back on the vacation with a smile and a good feeling, because it was actually quite an adventure. This story also works very well on birthdays; we will never forget this holiday.”

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