Road trip in southern France and beyond

El_Torro

I'm currently planning a road trip for myself and a friend for next summer, probably in September after the peak season. My current itinerary:

Fly into Bordeaux and pick up the car
Travel east to the south coast, via Toulouse, Narbonne, Montpellier, Marseilles and Nice.
Either go to Monaco or just head straight into Italy, up to Turin.
Travel through the Alps to Geneva.
Go through Switzerland to Zurich.
Go into southern Bavaria (Germany) and do some exploring.
Finally fly back to the UK from Munich.

According to Google maps this will take 1,227 miles, though of course it will be more with sight seeing, detours, etc... We have 2 weeks; it's hard to judge but I think this should be a good balance of seeing lots and not driving too much on a daily basis.

Have any of you done anything similar? Can you make suggestions on any of these areas? Is 2 weeks not enough time to cover this area?

In terms of what we're interested in, we're looking for great scenery, maybe a bit of gentle hiking, historical buildings and just general culture. Neither of us is particularly interested in laying on a beach (seeing beaches is fine though )

Since this is MSE, here's my idea of budget:

Two people flying from Heathrow to Bordeaux and back to Heathrow from Munich: £240
Car hire: £600 to £1,000 depending on what car we choose. This is expensive as we are picking up in Bordeaux and dropping off in Munich.
Accommodation: About 80 Euros a night for a twin on average. So about £950.
Petrol and tolls: £250
Food and drink, attraction entrance fees, etc...: Not sure on this, say about £30 a day each, so £900 total.

So that's a total of £2,940 to £3,340, so up to £1,670 each for two weeks.

richardw

How many driving days do you want?
If you like a drink, how many non-drinking evenings before driving do you want?

AlexMac

This seems a feasible distance for a two week holiday, in that I've done commensurate - or greater - mileages in 2- 3 week hols in the past; usually driving all the way from the UK....

sometimes the 1,200 miles to Southern Italy- then the same back (through various routes involving France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, the Italian Lakes, Tuscany/Umbria and on), or both northern and Southern Spain (usually to visit mountan regions- the Picos de Europa, the Pyrenees (for a bit of gentle hiking) or the southern Sierra Nevada of Andalusia...again through France...

We tend to make the driving and enjoyable part of the holiday, travelling early, thrashing it usually for no more than 5 hours, so stopping at lunchtime and then often staying put for 2 days or more, and with a break of several days or a week or more in one destination.

I suggest you post Qs about places en route on Tripadvisor's Forums- maybe by region or on the national pages....

BUT (and its a big but)... do consider what you are trying to achieve, as you are covering a lot of ground, and you mention about 6-8 stopovers; implying shorter stays than we enjoy and that you'll be living constantly out of a suitcase?

If you really are set on that route, fine, but it seems quite dashy and expensive. I don't know if the airfare's per person, but while the toppy car hire rate is probably reflective of the premium to drop off in another country from the pick-up one , I think Via Michelin must have underestimated the fuel and tolls? The Swiss tax disc, bought at the border, is 40 Euros alone.

Via Michelin is great, especially as you can tweak the route (fastest? shortest? scenic? motorways or not? tolls...?) and very accurate on drive times, but these mean time at the wheel, so add at least 20% for jams, comfort and fuel stops.

Now that we're getting on a bit we prefer less demanding itineraries, and as we have a decent car, find that ferry and discount hotels stopovers often match or beat fly drive and freelance hotel nights. For example, Brittany Ferries knock a lot off crossings/hotels if you book at least 3-4 hotel nights at any of their thousands of partner hotels. With the additional big early booking discount (after 2015 'holiday' - as opposed to crossing only booking opens in mid Novemebr and before prices go up in early feb '15) we got crossings out via Caen, back on the Santander (Spain) 24 hour crossing, upgraded cabins both ways (so like a short cruise), 13 B&B nights in decent hotels this year... and all for just over a grand- so £500+ each plus only fuel and dinners! Their website map search is great unce you get the hang of it too and you only need book a few hotel nights to get a great deal

But if you don't have a car that's a silly suggestion; have a great trip

El_Torro

richardw wrote: »

How many driving days do you want?
If you like a drink, how many non-drinking evenings before driving do you want?

I'm not too fussed about the number of driving days. We'll want to spend two nights in the bigger cities so will have some off days.

We'll be drinking most evenings. The plan is to not drink too much though, so we're below the legal limit by the following morning.

AlexMac wrote: »

I suggest you post Qs about places en route on Tripadvisor's Forums- maybe by region or on the national pages....

BUT (and its a big but)... do consider what you are trying to achieve, as you are covering a lot of ground, and you mention about 6-8 stopovers; implying shorter stays than we enjoy and that you'll be living constantly out of a suitcase?

Good advice about the Tripadvisor forums, I'll have a look at that.

Yes, now that I'm looking at it closer I don't think it will be feasible to fit all that in. My current thinking is to end the trip in Geneva. I think that'll make a more balanced trip without too much rushing. I'll have more of a think the next few days.

AlexMac wrote: »

If you really are set on that route, fine, but it seems quite dashy and expensive. I don't know if the airfare's per person, but while the toppy car hire rate is probably reflective of the premium to drop off in another country from the pick-up one , I think Via Michelin must have underestimated the fuel and tolls? The Swiss tax disc, bought at the border, is 40 Euros alone.

Via Michelin is great, especially as you can tweak the route (fastest? shortest? scenic? motorways or not? tolls...?) and very accurate on drive times, but these mean time at the wheel, so add at least 20% for jams, comfort and fuel stops.

I've never used Via Michelin before, looks good.
Yes, I underestimated the cost of tolls and petrol. Ending the trip in Geneva is about £270 though so not far off what I originally budgeted.


What I'm currently thinking as an itinerary:

Saturday 5th September - Arrive in Bordeaux
Monday 7th September - Arrive in Toulouse
Wednesday 9th September - Arrive in Montpellier
Thursday 10th September - Arrive in Marseille
Saturday 12th of September - Arrive in Nice
Monday 14th September - Visit Monaco, arrive in Turin
Wednesday 16th of September - Arrive in Chamonix
Friday 18th of September - Arrive in Geneva
Sunday 20th of September - Fly home

maman

I've done most bits of your itinerary but not all in one go. Personally I'd prefer to spend longer in each area so we tend to rent a property and travel out from there having first done stopovers in various towns on the way down (and same on way back). I'd echo Alex in that we always take our own car on the ferry but then we only live about 20 mins from ferry port.


But if you want to do a massive touring holiday then enjoy!!

mad_rich

El_Torro wrote: »

My current thinking is to end the trip in Geneva. I think that'll make a more balanced trip without too much rushing.

This will save you a bunch on your car hire costs. Geneva airport has a French side, with French car hire offices. If you drop it here, you avoid the cross-border fee.

Similar thing with Basel, I think.

AlexMac

Mad Rich beat me to it with the advice to avoid cross border drop off fees. Dunno about France but point-to-point 'open jaw' drop off in Italy or Spain only adds about 40 Euros to the rental fee.

Your itinerary sounds much more manageable. Not that I can talk; my 1st European driving holiday- from UK - took us all the way to Malaga and back, via the short French crossings - and in a Citroen 2CV; hardly the luxury motor you'll get renting! We took the seats out and slept on its flat floor most nights.... and that was well over 40 years ago when some Spanish roads were positively third world.

And as regrds renting; we have used carhire3000.com for many years now with none of the rip-offs you get from some renters. They are UK-based (Manchester), and they search spare capacity with mainstream rental Co.s (Hertz, Avis, Budget...) but cheaper. And look for separate 'excess cover' online before you go; much cheaper than renters' own and gives you peace of mind by protecting the £500- £1k excess you'll pay for scratches, glass or tyre damage not covered by standard rental insurance.

JIreland

Annecy is very very pretty and worth a visit. B&B hotels (for overnight stopovers when travelling) are VERY good value.

I think you've underbudgeted for food/drink attraction costs.