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Continental Motoring
magpiecottage
Posts: 9,241 Forumite
If you are going to drive on the continent, it pays to do your homework on the route before you go.
We recently went to the Black Forest and found it was considerably cheaper to get a ferry to Dunkerque than to Calais. It takes 2 hours compared to 35 minutes using the Tunnel but we saved about nearly £200 on the round trip.
From Calais, we could have spent about €45 each way in Autoroute tolls but if you drive to start from Dunkerque (or use the free A16 from Calais to Dunkerque) you can then use free Autoroutes via Belgium and Luxembourg all the way to Metz where you can join the toll road to Strasbourg at about €12 each way.
As a bonus, fuel is cheaper in Luxembourg than in France, Belgium or Germany and the price is set by the government so it is the same on the motorway as elsewhere.
If you want to save a bit more, you can take the A13 out of Luxembourg and take follow it and the German Autobahnen to Saarbruecken but they are still not fully built and you have to then get onto local roads to find pick up the French motorway again - it will then cost just over €6 each way.
We recently went to the Black Forest and found it was considerably cheaper to get a ferry to Dunkerque than to Calais. It takes 2 hours compared to 35 minutes using the Tunnel but we saved about nearly £200 on the round trip.
From Calais, we could have spent about €45 each way in Autoroute tolls but if you drive to start from Dunkerque (or use the free A16 from Calais to Dunkerque) you can then use free Autoroutes via Belgium and Luxembourg all the way to Metz where you can join the toll road to Strasbourg at about €12 each way.
As a bonus, fuel is cheaper in Luxembourg than in France, Belgium or Germany and the price is set by the government so it is the same on the motorway as elsewhere.
If you want to save a bit more, you can take the A13 out of Luxembourg and take follow it and the German Autobahnen to Saarbruecken but they are still not fully built and you have to then get onto local roads to find pick up the French motorway again - it will then cost just over €6 each way.
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And the toilets at the motorway services are far better too.0
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