Me and the missus are planning on a road trip around Europe for our honeymoon in August.
So far my missus has come up with:
Calais -> Paris (2Nights) -> Geneva (2Nights) -> Milan (1Night) -> Lido de Jesolo (7Nights) -> Strasbourg(1Night) -> Brussels (1Night) -> Calais
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Calais,+France&daddr=paris+to:Geneva+to:Milan+to:Lido+de+jesolo+to:strasbourg+to:brussels+to:calais&hl=en&geocode=FSeOCQMd70IcAA%3B%3B%3B%3B%3B%3B%3B&mra=ls&sll=49.89286,2.36598&sspn=2.51617,7.141113&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=6
Seems ok to me until the strasbourg and brussels really, I dont know anything about them but dont sound particularly exciting.
Anyone got any recommendations? Id like to put monaco in there somwhere.
Milan isnt very pretty; you might want to find somewhere nice elsewhere. Id recommend a visit to Pisa, the square is marvellous, not just the tower.
Avoid the Brussels ring-road near peak times, its worse than the M25. Bruges is a lovely place and isnt far from Calais, you could stay there.
Driving the auto-route through the Riviera is fun and exciting, but remember the long flog down through France is expensive on tolls and a bit boring.
When i go to Italy I go Calais - belgium - luxrmbourg - Freiburg - Basel - Switzerland and then through the alps. Driving almost anywhere through Swiss alps is lovely too.
Im going on my road trip on the 11th round Europe!!
Our 1st plan was:
Calais -> Paris -> Lyon -> -> Turin -> Genoa -> Venice -> Vienna -> Banska Bystrica (girlfriends home town in Slovakia) -> Prauge -> Nurburgring -> Calais
But, to be honest the Lyon and Genoa were randoms, so will miss them out, so will probably go:
Calais -> Paris -> Geneva -> Nice -> Venice -> Vienna -> Banska Bystrica -> Prauge -> Nurburgring -> Calais
We were thinking Milan as well, but know someone who worked there for quite a while, and said it was crap and wouldnt recommend it for a holiday!
Driving down the cote du azur along the french swiss border a few years back was gorgeous.
Youll need motorway tax in switzerland, it can be bought before you go or when youre there at service stations.
strausberg & brussels are both the centre hubs for Europe EU PM rubbish crap.
how about somthing like this - http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Calais,+France&daddr=paris+to:Geneva+to:Milan+to:Lido+de+Jesolo+to:47.830858,13.051758+to:A92+to:B27+to:L34%2FMilit%C3%A4rringstra%C3%9Fe+to:A16+to:calais+to:A15&geocode=FSeOCQMd70IcAA%3B%3B%3B%3BFStftgIdAJPAACF0mrirh9r--A%3B%3BFSQ14AId-vqvAA%3BFTBj5wIdwNGLAA%3BFQg8CQMdtghpAA%3BFf5FGAMdRjhFAA%3B%3BFZhmFwMdMqJEAA&hl=en&mra=mi&mrcr=4,5&mrsp=5&sz=6&via=9&sll=48.282235,7.236355&sspn=10.427399,28.564453&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=6
Adding some time in Salzburg, Munich, Stuttguart, Cologne & Rotterdam for only 6 extra driving hours.
Or if you do go with your original idea, detour into Luxemberg for europes cheapest fags to sell when you get home.
If your going through Belgium give Bouillon a flying visit. I spent maybe 2 hours there and its an amazing little town with a fantastic castle at the top.
Your last leg of your planned trip takes you very near.
(https://www.locr.com/photos/000/c4/d4/c4d4e97b65bae0467d3b6981f4d9cd68_M.jpg)
(http://cache.virtualtourist.com/2033204-Bouillon_from_up_there-Ardennes.jpg)
About 20 minutes drive away back over the border is Sedan. I think it has the biggest fort in Europe which is now a Hotel. Took some fantastic home made beer back with me from the Brasserie Artisanale du Château Fort, if you ever near it, drop by for a great drink.
Id be half tempted to visit Bruge.
Monaco, Bruges, Salzburg are my picks. And Id love to be joining you - I miss being able to get around Europe, its so beautiful. You dont appreciate it until you cant get there easily.
Sorted out the final route today. Thanks for all the advice.
Going:
Wrexham > Dover (1Night) > Calais > Bruge (1Night) > Luxembourg City (1Night) > Basel (1Night) > Andermatt (1Night !camping!) > Lido Di Jesolo, Venice (7Nights) > Monaco (1Night) > Saint Quentin (1Night) > Calais > Wrexham
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Wrexham,+Clwyd,+UK&daddr=dover+to:calais+to:bruge+to:luxembourg+to:basel+to:andermatt+to:lido+di+jesolo+to:monaco+to:saint+quentin+to:calais&hl=en&geocode=FXxuKQMdx1nS_w%3B%3B%3B%3B%3B%3B%3B%3B%3B%3B&mra=ls&sll=48.676454,6.306152&sspn=7.124116,19.753418&ie=UTF8&ll=46.980252,8.459473&spn=14.722466,39.506836&t=h&z=5
That section from Strasbourg to Basel is best done just over the Rhine and down the German Autobahn which is free and good, rather than the french motorway.
A couple of days into this now. Typing in a very nice 5star hotel in Basel.
Must have missed the above post as I went down the French toll roads and it was the biggest waste of 11euros ever, full of roadworks and single carriage ways.
Everywhere else has been great to drive.
Brugge and Luxembourg where really nice and Basel was nice too, very busy though.
Going for a bit of scenic route detour tomorrow down to Lauterbrunnen and take a walk by the waterfalls and all that, then onto Andermatt to find somehwhere to camp for the night.
The Audi is coping well and the fuel in Luxembourg is awesome 85c/litre for Diesel only cost 40~Euros for a full tank.
Glad your enjoying it!
I got back from my world wide europe road trip about 3 weeks ago!
I winged it while driving, and ended up going to Paris, Dijon, Aosta, Venice, Jesolo, through Austria to Bratislava, the then GFs home town Banska Bytrica, then to Prague (which was very nice), then the Nurburgring, then home!
Around 3500 miles, £650 worth of V-Power!
Quote from: DEViANCEthe fuel in Luxembourg is awesome 85c/litre for Diesel only cost 40~Euros for a full tank.
Must remember that! I used to stretch it out from Dover to get to Basel because fuel was cheaper in Switz.
Last day today, going for a walk around Monaco and then 12hour drive to Calais.
The tolls are getting ridiculous though, 40euros from Venice to the France border and an expected 90+Euros from Monaco to Calais.
Sounds like youve had a great journey. Arnt there non-toll routes you can take, or do those take much longer/arnt worth the saving?
Once on a trip to Corsica I resolved to avoid the peage by travelling down using A roads; this worked quite well until I reached the Massif centrale area where it started to get a bit twisty and I had to get back on the autoroute to ensure I got the ferry (with 5 mins to spare after 120mph dash through the Riviera..).
So you could reverse the idea and once north of say Lyons take the A roads (called Routes National iirc).
Quote from: Clockd 0NeSounds like youve had a great journey. Arnt there non-toll routes you can take, or do those take much longer/arnt worth the saving?
the toll roads are like their motorways.. you can get from A to B, but it takes longer. We have road tax, they have tolls.
We pay when we drive over there, they dont pay when they are over here.
# Autoroutes (Marked on signs with A) Express highways for which you must pay tolls.
# Routes Nationales (Marked on signs with N) National motorways for which there are no tolls, often with several lanes.
# Routes Departementales (Marked on signs with D)
# Smaller country roads with less traffic. Motorways (Peage)
We spent hundreds when we were travelling.
In places like Austria, Slovakia and Czech etc you had to buy a Vignetta, which is like our road tax. That was better IMO as they only cost something like 5 euro. One problem was in Austria though is that we didnt realise you needed a Vignetta and got pulled over by the cops.....that cost us 120euro :(
Back home now! That last slog was a real hard one, this time yesterday I was still in Monaco, 1100 miles away from my house.
The Tolls roads really did take the piss and would seriously stop me doing anything like that again, I was on a pretty tight budget but lucky I had over estimated the fuel so that helped with my underestimated tolls.
In total I think we spent €205 on Tolls and €250 on Diesel.
Yeah, they are a piss take. Like Egg said, anyone can come here, and not pay a thing!
250 euro on fuel isnt too bad! I spend £650, but that was driving a 435bhp impreza, so I wasnt expecting a cheap fuel bill!
How many miles did you do?
My worst stint was driving from Italy to Slovakia which was a 9 hour drive with only stops for fuel.
Quote from: chrisdickoYeah, they are a piss take. Like Egg said, anyone can come here, and not pay a thing!
250 euro on fuel isnt too bad! I spend £650, but that was driving a 435bhp impreza, so I wasnt expecting a cheap fuel bill!
How many miles did you do?
My worst stint was driving from Italy to Slovakia which was a 9 hour drive with only stops for fuel.
The car did great on fuel, I worked out my budget @ 40mpg @ £1.01/litre
but did closer to 50mpg travelling at 80-90mph and fuel was allways less than £1/litre and a couple of fills less than 0.85p/litre.
We did about 2800miles according to the sat nav.
The last 24 hours where the worst for me:
Left Monaco at 4pm - arrived at Calais 4am
Ferry left @ 8am
landed at 10am(9am UK time)
Arrived home at 2pm UK time today.
Although all the driving in Italy was crap, the Italians are really terrible drivers.
Makes me laugh, how my missus did 1200 miles, and spent over £600 on Diesel in my Delica :D
50p/mile ?
crist :o
Ive uploaded hundreds of pics of the trip to my facebook if anyones interested. Im a member of the Tek group and called Rob Davies so should be pretty easy to find, feel free to add me as a friend and have a look.