Road Trip! Western Europe

cundall

Hi, i do the York to Lux all the time.. Its 555miles door to door.

I dont go via Calais route as it quicker and cheaper to do the dunkirk (sorry just seen this has been posted). Lux is great and a very very very very very very very very very good night out (sorry it is just so good but don't tell anyone )

Don't miss out lux! I use theaa.com for all my map needs but remember petrol and desiel is cheaper is over there....

susieQ_2

My daughter is currently eight weeks into a 3 month tripdriving round Europe.
She started at Boulogne and drove the length of France, popped across into Spain, then to northern Italy, across into Ausria, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, and is currently in Sweden. From there she goes into Norway before returning via Holland and Belgium. Your itinery is far too ambitious in ten days!
She took two weeks just travelling down France and calling into Spain and Italy. They are BIG countries and there is so much to see. Much better to make frequent stops and soak up the local ambience. I know she would highly recommend the Dordogne, Biarritz, San Sebastian, Lake Garda ,Verona and Venice and you might just be able to squeeze those in with some fairly substantial driving at the beginning and end. Don't forget to add substantial motorway tolls to your costs, as you simply won't have time to drive on more minor roads across France. If you are young, have you considered Youth Hostels? They are now very comfy and often have private rooms for singles/couples. You can browse the selection on https://www.hihostels.com and see where they all are to plan your journey. For France there is also the Gites de France website on which you can find masses of graded B&Bs, many for 50 euros per night(£35) or less for 2 people. Select the English version, type in where you would like to stay, and it will give you a list of places to choose from.
Living as we do close to the Channel ports, we have had lots of ferry experience and would highly recommend Speedferries catamaran service from £20 each way. It operates a 50 min crossing from Dover to Boulogne, has a dedicated terminal and takes no freight or foot passengers, so loading is efficient and easy. Have a great time but don't spoil it by trying to cram too much into your holiday!!

susieQ_2

Forgot to say we find https://www.viamichelin the best route planner for Europe.

zappahey

Pricy147 wrote: »

Thanks for the tips all.

Now thinking of the following;

Day 1 (Friday Night): ...

I enjoy driving but that sounds like a complete nightmare. Where's the time to just chill? I suspect you'll be needing a holiday to recover.

I know you can fly somewhere cheaper - but fancy this as a change and you also see a lot in the space of a week!

I suspect what you'll mostly see is tarmac and white lines, especially if you stick to motorways to achieve your timetable. For me half the pleasure of road trips is being able to stop in cute little towns on a whim, just because it looks nice. or spotting an interesting looking route on the map.

Your trip sounds more like an American tourist bus trip, just ticking off places on a checklist.

Pricy147

Well, I'm back from holiday, and thought I would post how it went for anyone thinking of something similar! Havent worked out the costs yet - but came in around what I expected.

One thing I would definately recommend for anyon thinking of doing a trip like this is a TomTom One Europe - certainly helped, and despite the odd !!!! up - it proved invaluable.

So - this is how it went!

Day 1: Travelled to Deal near Dover and stayed over night Got held up on the M25 with 40 mile tail back - but the Tom Tom guided us through central Lodon to avoid some of it - althought still adding hours to the journey.

Day 2: Crossed the Channel on the Sea France ferry - and arrived in Calais around 10.30am. Set off for Munich avoiding toll roads (another beneit of the tom tom). Got to Munich quite late - around 9pm due to a 1 hour tail back on one of the roads, and also a few stops along the way. Selpt in the car this night as it was too late to check in anywhere.

Day 3: Spent the day in Munich. Got the Underground in which proved very easy and the ticket only cost 9 Euro for the two of us. Did a bus tour using the Grey Line bus service, and also went up the Olympic Tower. In total a superb day. The evening was not so good as we were spending the night in a camp site, and it was the first time we were putting up the tent! Doh! Took a couple of hours and a lot of swearing - but got there in the end! Probably picked the worst night to sleep in a tent as there was unbelivable thunder and lightning and it came down like a monsoon! Must say the camp site was excellent though - and highly recommended; München Thalkirchen Camping Ground.

Day 4: Set off for Venice. Drove down through the Alps, and the scenery was fantastic. Had to buy a 10 day tax disc in Austria available on the bordering garages. Got to Venice around around 8pm after setting off around 10am. Lots of stops, and just took in the views! Set up the tent (a lot easier the second time except the ground was hard). Again - another excellent camp site - Fusina. We were literally camped about three cards lenghts from the water (although got bitten to hell for the privilege). Views overlooking Venice, and a short boat ride took us in for the day.

Day 5: Took the boat trip into Venice for 10 Euro each. Spent the whole day in Venice with the highlight being St Marks Square. Got there early which was nice as it was quiet - then the cruiseliners arrived, and it got VERY busy and not so nice. Done Venice in a day looking at the main attractions, so decided to move on the following day rather than spend a second day there.

Day 6: Headed towards Zurich with the plan to set up and stay somewhere we fancied along the way. Heard about the Stelvio Pass - third highest tarmacced road in the Alps at 2760m - so decided to go via that route. Had to go via a toll road in Italy to get there - but when going up the pass - the views were fantastic. The temperature quickly dropped from around 20c down to -1c at the top with snow a plenty. Apparently also a popular ski resort. Stayed there for the night in a hotel where you would normally pay around 300GP for the views - for an excellent 90 Euro. Had a snowball fight the lot!

Day 7: Went to Zurich. Had a nightmare trying to find anywhere which sold the tax discs you need to drive in Switzerland - eventually finding a garage which sold them - 40 Euro for a year - dont sell smaller like Austria. Got to Zurich and checked into the Marriot Renaisence which was fantastic. First night was paid for with reward points. Spent the evening in the hotel and chilled out.

Day 8: Spent the day in Zurich - the trams were excellent for getting around. Visited the zoo - largest in Europe. There was also a festival on in the evening which was excellent - stunt planes the lot. Hoards of people and a great atmosphere!

Day 9: Set off for Luxembourg. Got there Quite quickly - by 3pm, and did a bus tour. Had food, and decided to head towards calais to reduce the drive the following day. Ended up staying in a hotel in Gent - Belgium.

Day 10: Got to Calais in plenty of time, and gor the ferry back. Picked up my grand paents in Deal, and got back to Swansea around 11pm - and had a nice curry to finish off the holiday! On the way back - again got held up in traffic on the M26, M25 and M4. Not much luck in Britain!

In all - an excellent holiday - and highly recommended. We had some up front costs like the TomTom, Tent and Emergency Euro Pack (triangle, etc) - but these can be used again.

Wll certainly be looking to do something similar in the future!

Skint_Catt

I've just used Google Maps to create our itinary for driving round France!

C xx

albalad

thank s for the update pricy147

glad to hear you enjoyed yourself and had some time to chill

I hadn't realised you would need to buy a tax disc for austria !

Pricy147

Yeah - its pretty cheap - only 9 Euros or so for 10 days. Switzerland is 40 Euros for a year (no lesser option).

Mickiengland

pompeyrich wrote: »

Via michelin site HERE is good for journeys across Europe. On the home page, click options just under the driving direction bit, then on the next page click show / hide stopovers, you can then add 2 stopovers to your route and it will show hotels at these stopover places. On this page you can also choose your type of route, quickest, shortest, avoid tolls etc. and at the bottom you can choose miles, the default is km, GBP for £ and even the cost of fuel per litre.

Just returned from Venice following ViaMichelin directions. Be very wary of the drawbacks of using them. They show roadworks (and there are many in Germany at the moment!!) - but then ignore them in the time allowance (and also make no effort to avoid the bad ones!). Same for "you should stop every 2 hours". Great advice, but helpful if timing adusted accordingly. Our 15 hour journey turned into 23 hours! This was painful enough, but at least we had planned overnight stops in Salzburg & Heidleberg. What if some poor soul had decided to attempt the journey in one go!!

Mickiengland

Pricy147 wrote: »

Yeah - its pretty cheap - only 9 Euros or so for 10 days. Switzerland is 40 Euros for a year (no lesser option).

We had to buy the austria pass on the outbound and return journey to Italy as it didn't cover us for the duration. Still, quite cheap. One thing though that we couldn't see was any sort of policing. I presume that the fine for non-payment is so severe that no-one would dare try to avoid?