The A110 road trip topic
Discussion
LGC-Adams said:
Great trip!
Just planning tour, via Santander ferry, around north west Spain and Portugal, north of Porto. Any good road suggestions very welcome
Looked at the Cabin Zero 44L bags, but settled on Cabin Max Metz 44L. Also fit in 'frunk/froot' like a glove, and about half the cost....
.
We did that a couple of years ago, Bilbao across to Leon and down into Portugal, then bizarrely across Pau in France (a very long day from the Portuguese coast..). North Spain will be great - i'd love to explore it some more. And be aware that Spain and Portugal are in different time zones - that caught us out! Just planning tour, via Santander ferry, around north west Spain and Portugal, north of Porto. Any good road suggestions very welcome
Looked at the Cabin Zero 44L bags, but settled on Cabin Max Metz 44L. Also fit in 'frunk/froot' like a glove, and about half the cost....
.
Edited by LGC-Adams on Wednesday 27th July 12:39
Edited by LGC-Adams on Wednesday 27th July 12:40
biggles330d said:
..... And be aware that Spain and Portugal are in different time zones - that caught us out!
Well, many thanks for that tip. Had no idea!!Looking forward to trip. Took our Elise around the Picos Europa and down to Burgos a few years ago. Fabulous scenery and wonderful driving territory.
Edited by LGC-Adams on Wednesday 27th July 17:14
Edited by LGC-Adams on Wednesday 27th July 17:20
So… after a six-month decision process, in which I had almost had decided to order a Sable Beige A110 GT, my Alpine dealership at some point had a similarly specced Montebello Gris car in stock. Choosing this car would save me a few months of waiting, and suddenly the colour was no longer that important to me.
I was able to pick up this car on Monday, the 11th of July, exactly one day before I was to leave on an already planned trip to visit relatives in the south of France. The idea was to use my Mazda MX-5 for this trip, but in the end it appeared to be the ultimate maiden voyage for the new Alpine, which is of course labeled ‘GT’ for a reason.
To find interesting stretches of road I used the ‘discovery’ setting on the ViaMichelin navigation app. Subsequently I drew a route of the most interesting parts of ViaMichelin’s suggestion in TomTom (thank you Alpine for finally implementing CarPlay in your cars!), skipping every French toll road. I had to adjust the trip a bit because I did not have a Crit’Air sticker yet, which meant that I had to bypass cities such as Grenoble.
I had to pack my stuff using small plastic bags, as my trolley, which fits exactly in the MX-5’s tiny boot space, was too big for either storage in the Alpine.
The first evening I drove the boring Dutch and Flemish motorways to my first stop just south of Liège, looking forward to the first day of proper driving through the Ardennes and Vosges regions. It was an amazing start of endless stretches of impressive scenery and curvy roads. It was also the moment to start using the speed limiter, as it is so easy to drive this car way too fast, so much faster than the MX-5, which tends to lose grip easily on its hard Bridgestone tyres. On day 3 and 4 I drove through the Jura and Alps to my destination, where I spent a week before returning home.
Altogether I drove roughly 3000 kms in 12 days, mostly on French country roads and maybe only 700 kms on Dutch, Flemish and northern French motorways. So far I have not exceeded 130 km/h, but still the car brought a huge amount of fun. I averaged a fuel economy of 7.55 l/100kms (which equals 37.6 mpg, if I’m not wrong), using only 95 octane E10 fuels as recommended by my Alpine Centre. Not as fuel efficient as the MX-5, but certainly not bad.
I learnt to mainly use the ‘Sport’ configuration when driving through the countryside, whilst switching to ‘Normal’ when entering a village, not wanting to scare off too many people.
No annoyances at all, except for the entertainment system that kept shutting down every time start/stop was activated. This problem somehow disappeared on day 3 and has never returned (so far). Something else that I still have to get used to (coming from a convertible car) is to escape from the car as soon as I turn off the engine, as it gets incredibly hot in the cabin once the airconditioner shuts down.
That aside, everything was perfect: comfortable seats, a microfibre steering wheel that offers a really nice grip, amazing sound from the premium Focal audio.
Right now the hardest thing is having to wait until early October for my next trip to Corsica, which will obviously include some stretches of German Autobahn. This car really makes me want to do road trips all year long. One thing I really have to do before the next trip though is having an alarm installed, as driving around without theft insurance is not something I want to do too often…
I was able to pick up this car on Monday, the 11th of July, exactly one day before I was to leave on an already planned trip to visit relatives in the south of France. The idea was to use my Mazda MX-5 for this trip, but in the end it appeared to be the ultimate maiden voyage for the new Alpine, which is of course labeled ‘GT’ for a reason.
To find interesting stretches of road I used the ‘discovery’ setting on the ViaMichelin navigation app. Subsequently I drew a route of the most interesting parts of ViaMichelin’s suggestion in TomTom (thank you Alpine for finally implementing CarPlay in your cars!), skipping every French toll road. I had to adjust the trip a bit because I did not have a Crit’Air sticker yet, which meant that I had to bypass cities such as Grenoble.
I had to pack my stuff using small plastic bags, as my trolley, which fits exactly in the MX-5’s tiny boot space, was too big for either storage in the Alpine.
The first evening I drove the boring Dutch and Flemish motorways to my first stop just south of Liège, looking forward to the first day of proper driving through the Ardennes and Vosges regions. It was an amazing start of endless stretches of impressive scenery and curvy roads. It was also the moment to start using the speed limiter, as it is so easy to drive this car way too fast, so much faster than the MX-5, which tends to lose grip easily on its hard Bridgestone tyres. On day 3 and 4 I drove through the Jura and Alps to my destination, where I spent a week before returning home.
Altogether I drove roughly 3000 kms in 12 days, mostly on French country roads and maybe only 700 kms on Dutch, Flemish and northern French motorways. So far I have not exceeded 130 km/h, but still the car brought a huge amount of fun. I averaged a fuel economy of 7.55 l/100kms (which equals 37.6 mpg, if I’m not wrong), using only 95 octane E10 fuels as recommended by my Alpine Centre. Not as fuel efficient as the MX-5, but certainly not bad.
I learnt to mainly use the ‘Sport’ configuration when driving through the countryside, whilst switching to ‘Normal’ when entering a village, not wanting to scare off too many people.
No annoyances at all, except for the entertainment system that kept shutting down every time start/stop was activated. This problem somehow disappeared on day 3 and has never returned (so far). Something else that I still have to get used to (coming from a convertible car) is to escape from the car as soon as I turn off the engine, as it gets incredibly hot in the cabin once the airconditioner shuts down.
That aside, everything was perfect: comfortable seats, a microfibre steering wheel that offers a really nice grip, amazing sound from the premium Focal audio.
Right now the hardest thing is having to wait until early October for my next trip to Corsica, which will obviously include some stretches of German Autobahn. This car really makes me want to do road trips all year long. One thing I really have to do before the next trip though is having an alarm installed, as driving around without theft insurance is not something I want to do too often…
Some brief notes from my recent drive down to the South of France, via the Alps. I did London to Annecy in one go, and thereafter completely avoided motorways. My one piece of advice would be don't make the same mistake as me - don't do this in August.
Bourg St Maurice to Les Rosières - best road I found, awesome. Mostly well-paved, well-sighted and fast. Traffic was quiet by 4pm on a Sunday so I went up and down a couple of times.
Col du Grand St Bernard - nice driving (on both sides) but very busy on a Sunday in August.
Col du Petit St Bernard - windy and slow on Italian side, with two pretty villages (La Thuile + Pré St Didier) on the way up. It plateaus along the top for a few kilometres, with fantastic views.
Les Arcs - stopped off here for 2 nights to do some mountain-biking.
Col de l’Iseran, 2770m - Val Cenis side more fun to drive than Val d’Isere side, but generally too sketchy/narrow to cane it. Better for the views than the driving.
Col du Galibier, 2642m - stunning views, better sighted and less sketchy than Iseran.
Lac de Serre-Poncon - could be a nice overnight stop.
Dignes to Entreveaux (N85 Route de Nice) - awesome big wide main road, very quiet after hours, can go fast. Couple of speed cameras to watch out for.
My parents live in the South of France so I left the car there for a few weeks before doing the return leg, possibly via the Nurburgring.
I'm a new owner and super happy with the car and would echo all the previous positive comments from others on here. Performance, fuel economy, wind/tyre noise, comfort... all excellent. Small niggles were the lack of storage space for small objects in the cabin, some minor tram-lining in the slow lane, and the Bluetooth connection isn't the best and when you charge your phone via the USB, the car gets confused about whether you want to play Spotify via USB or Bluetooth. Really very minor in the grand scheme of things.
Bourg St Maurice to Les Rosières - best road I found, awesome. Mostly well-paved, well-sighted and fast. Traffic was quiet by 4pm on a Sunday so I went up and down a couple of times.
Col du Grand St Bernard - nice driving (on both sides) but very busy on a Sunday in August.
Col du Petit St Bernard - windy and slow on Italian side, with two pretty villages (La Thuile + Pré St Didier) on the way up. It plateaus along the top for a few kilometres, with fantastic views.
Les Arcs - stopped off here for 2 nights to do some mountain-biking.
Col de l’Iseran, 2770m - Val Cenis side more fun to drive than Val d’Isere side, but generally too sketchy/narrow to cane it. Better for the views than the driving.
Col du Galibier, 2642m - stunning views, better sighted and less sketchy than Iseran.
Lac de Serre-Poncon - could be a nice overnight stop.
Dignes to Entreveaux (N85 Route de Nice) - awesome big wide main road, very quiet after hours, can go fast. Couple of speed cameras to watch out for.
My parents live in the South of France so I left the car there for a few weeks before doing the return leg, possibly via the Nurburgring.
I'm a new owner and super happy with the car and would echo all the previous positive comments from others on here. Performance, fuel economy, wind/tyre noise, comfort... all excellent. Small niggles were the lack of storage space for small objects in the cabin, some minor tram-lining in the slow lane, and the Bluetooth connection isn't the best and when you charge your phone via the USB, the car gets confused about whether you want to play Spotify via USB or Bluetooth. Really very minor in the grand scheme of things.
Back home from another road trip to Corsica, so I decided to revive this old topic. To try out as many road types as possible I took the ferry to Corsica from Vado Ligure in Italy and the ferry back to Marseille.
On my way there I took the A61 in Germany to test the Alpine’s top speed. As the road was completely dark with only the occasional freight truck, and me not being used to those high speeds, I more or less chickened out at just over 240 km/h, at which speed the car was still accelerating amazingly fast. To me though, this was just a confirmation that high speed is not what the Alpine is about. Nice to give it a try, but I do not think that I will plan future trips around those Autobahn stretches.
The following days I drove two of my favourite German roads: the Burgenstrasse (B37 and B27) along the Neckar river between Darmstadt and Heilbronn, and the Fantastische Strasse (B313) down to Lake Constance. It is on these curvy 100 km/h roads that the Alpine feels best.
The original plan was to cross the Grimsel and Nufenen Passes in Switzerland, but both were closed due to early snowfall. I took a detour and crossed the San Bernardino Pass instead, which was stunning and had hardly any snow. Italy has some good roads too between Piedmonte and Liguria (I took the SP661 from Barolo to Montezemolo), but they lack on maintenance.
And then Corsica: the Alpine seems to be designed for the island. The loop around Cap Corse, just north of Bastia, is really a crazy road to drive: 120 kilometres of good tarmac with a great mix of longer stretches and curves. We drove around the island and it was totally clear to me why I saw so many Alpines crossing those roads. I must have seen almost twenty of them in a week.
On my way back I decided to skip the Route Napoleon I originally planned to drive, but visit some friends who happened to be in Uzès instead, one of the reasons being the current petrol crisis in France, and wanting to stay in populated areas. I turned the drive through France into a sort of fuel economy test and managed to average 45 MPG on a long stretch of Routes Nationales between Lyon and the Luxembourg border.
I finished the road trip with a nice piece of German autumn road between Bitburg and Gerolstein (and a radiator grille completely covered under a layer of yellow autumn leaves), before the inevitable return to my home country of rain and traffic jams.
On my way there I took the A61 in Germany to test the Alpine’s top speed. As the road was completely dark with only the occasional freight truck, and me not being used to those high speeds, I more or less chickened out at just over 240 km/h, at which speed the car was still accelerating amazingly fast. To me though, this was just a confirmation that high speed is not what the Alpine is about. Nice to give it a try, but I do not think that I will plan future trips around those Autobahn stretches.
The following days I drove two of my favourite German roads: the Burgenstrasse (B37 and B27) along the Neckar river between Darmstadt and Heilbronn, and the Fantastische Strasse (B313) down to Lake Constance. It is on these curvy 100 km/h roads that the Alpine feels best.
The original plan was to cross the Grimsel and Nufenen Passes in Switzerland, but both were closed due to early snowfall. I took a detour and crossed the San Bernardino Pass instead, which was stunning and had hardly any snow. Italy has some good roads too between Piedmonte and Liguria (I took the SP661 from Barolo to Montezemolo), but they lack on maintenance.
And then Corsica: the Alpine seems to be designed for the island. The loop around Cap Corse, just north of Bastia, is really a crazy road to drive: 120 kilometres of good tarmac with a great mix of longer stretches and curves. We drove around the island and it was totally clear to me why I saw so many Alpines crossing those roads. I must have seen almost twenty of them in a week.
On my way back I decided to skip the Route Napoleon I originally planned to drive, but visit some friends who happened to be in Uzès instead, one of the reasons being the current petrol crisis in France, and wanting to stay in populated areas. I turned the drive through France into a sort of fuel economy test and managed to average 45 MPG on a long stretch of Routes Nationales between Lyon and the Luxembourg border.
I finished the road trip with a nice piece of German autumn road between Bitburg and Gerolstein (and a radiator grille completely covered under a layer of yellow autumn leaves), before the inevitable return to my home country of rain and traffic jams.
I need to get the first year service done to my A110 sometimes at the end of April/beginning May. The nearest Alpine dealer to me is in Stockholm (2-3 h drive + 14-18 hours ferry trip) but I'm also considering an option to take a ferry from Finland to Travemunde in Germany (30 h ferry trip) and getting the car serviced somewhere in northern Germany (perhaps Hamburg or Berlin). This would allow me to combine this trip with some kind of continental European road trip.
I love mountains and driving Alpine in the Alps would be a lovely idea but my question is that how are the weather/road conditions in the Alps at the end of April/beginning of May? I've been to Alps several times during July/August and also during the winter but never around April/May. Would it be in anyway feasible to plan a trip to Alps during that time expecting to be able to drive some Alpine passes on an Alpine with summer tyres and to include some day-hikes to the trip?
Thoughts?
I love mountains and driving Alpine in the Alps would be a lovely idea but my question is that how are the weather/road conditions in the Alps at the end of April/beginning of May? I've been to Alps several times during July/August and also during the winter but never around April/May. Would it be in anyway feasible to plan a trip to Alps during that time expecting to be able to drive some Alpine passes on an Alpine with summer tyres and to include some day-hikes to the trip?
Thoughts?
Hi Portti,
My first thought is this website: https://www.alpen-paesse.ch. This well-maintained Swiss gem shows the current status of all major mountain passes in the Swiss Alps, but also keeps track of openings and closures in the past. This gives a good idea of when a certain pass typically opens in spring. You will notice that April/early May is quite tricky planning in the higher regions.
And even if you think your planning is quite safe, you can still be surprised by snowy conditions. On my most recent trip to Corsica I planned to cross the Grimselpass and the Nufenenpass (which typically close in late October) and had booked a hotel halfway in between. I was glad that I could still cancel that hotel, because three days before my departure both passes and the Furkapass (which was the third road leading to the hotel) were all blocked by snow. In the end I managed to cross the Alps using the San Bernardinopass, so I still had my share of mountain roads.
Make sure that your planning is rather flexible though, because weather conditions can change very quickly.
My first thought is this website: https://www.alpen-paesse.ch. This well-maintained Swiss gem shows the current status of all major mountain passes in the Swiss Alps, but also keeps track of openings and closures in the past. This gives a good idea of when a certain pass typically opens in spring. You will notice that April/early May is quite tricky planning in the higher regions.
And even if you think your planning is quite safe, you can still be surprised by snowy conditions. On my most recent trip to Corsica I planned to cross the Grimselpass and the Nufenenpass (which typically close in late October) and had booked a hotel halfway in between. I was glad that I could still cancel that hotel, because three days before my departure both passes and the Furkapass (which was the third road leading to the hotel) were all blocked by snow. In the end I managed to cross the Alps using the San Bernardinopass, so I still had my share of mountain roads.
Make sure that your planning is rather flexible though, because weather conditions can change very quickly.
Thanks for the reply bram070! Good tips and the Swiss alpen-paesse website has very useful info on it. It does seem like most of the passes are still closed in the beginning of May.
Most likely my trip would go to Austrian alps so if anybody would know of similar information on pass openings in Austria, that would be useful. Another option would be to drive to just German Alps.
Most likely my trip would go to Austrian alps so if anybody would know of similar information on pass openings in Austria, that would be useful. Another option would be to drive to just German Alps.
So... the wife is angling for a trip to an Algarve resort in April. Thankfully, she knows that beaches/golf/sitting around are my idea of hell, so she's suggested she flies out with the (adult) kids, and I drive down to pick her up for the journey home. Google is my friend on planning a bit of an expedition like this, but any useful tips/resources that might help? I'm not collecting the car until the end of the month, so I'm coming at this as a complete novice A110 owner.
gloomington said:
So... the wife is angling for a trip to an Algarve resort in April. Thankfully, she knows that beaches/golf/sitting around are my idea of hell, so she's suggested she flies out with the (adult) kids, and I drive down to pick her up for the journey home. Google is my friend on planning a bit of an expedition like this, but any useful tips/resources that might help? I'm not collecting the car until the end of the month, so I'm coming at this as a complete novice A110 owner.
Make sure you have luggage that fits! Actual total luggage space isn't too bad (much better than many would have you believe) - but normal sized suitcases don't fit so make sure you have something that does. You'll find plenty of suggestions on this forum.I did a two-week road trip from Finland to continental Europe and I returned from the trip on Sunday. The trip combined holiday, servicing the car and work. It was altogether approx. 3,500 kilometres long trip.
I wrote a travel story on my Alpine pages which can be found here:
https://www.pertti.com/en/alpine/01c-my-a110-exper...
The trip started with a 30-hour ferry trip from Helsinki (Finland) to Travemünde in Germany.
My Alpine on the ferry with a 911 GT3 Touring. The owner of the GT3 was quite keen on my Alpine.
From there I drove through Germany towards Austria. In Germany I stopped in Seevetal, Bamberg and Nürnberg where I had my Alpine serviced. Then I drove to Munich airport to pick up my stepdaughter. Next step was to drive to Bruck an der Grossglocknerstrasse in Austria which as the name suggests is right at the base of Grossglockner Alpine Road. Unfortunately the Grossglockner Road was closed when we were there.
From Grossglockner we drove to Kranjska Gora in the Slovenian Alps which was to be our base for the next five nights. We did several short hikes on the Triglav National Park in Slovenia and drove a lot on lovely Alpine roads.
An intermediate stop on the way to Vrsic Pass on the Slovenian Alps.
We also visited Italy which was not far from Kranjska Gora.
Lago di Fusine (Italy) and me.
Lovely Pericnik Waterfall in Slovenia.
Lake Bled in Slovenia.
Lake Jasna in Kranjska Gora.
Lovely views on one of the hikes.
We also drove the Villach Alpine Road in Austria which ended here.
From Kranjska Gora we headed to Vienna from where my stepdaughter flew home and I spent three days there for work. Then a quick 1,000 kilometres drive from Vienna to Travemünde stopping overnight in Prague.
My Alpine near Travemünde at the end of the trip.
Last leg of the trip was another 30-hour ferry trip from Travemünde to Helsinki.
Lovely trip and Alpine was great on the trip. No problems what-so-ever with the car.
I wrote a travel story on my Alpine pages which can be found here:
https://www.pertti.com/en/alpine/01c-my-a110-exper...
The trip started with a 30-hour ferry trip from Helsinki (Finland) to Travemünde in Germany.
My Alpine on the ferry with a 911 GT3 Touring. The owner of the GT3 was quite keen on my Alpine.
From there I drove through Germany towards Austria. In Germany I stopped in Seevetal, Bamberg and Nürnberg where I had my Alpine serviced. Then I drove to Munich airport to pick up my stepdaughter. Next step was to drive to Bruck an der Grossglocknerstrasse in Austria which as the name suggests is right at the base of Grossglockner Alpine Road. Unfortunately the Grossglockner Road was closed when we were there.
From Grossglockner we drove to Kranjska Gora in the Slovenian Alps which was to be our base for the next five nights. We did several short hikes on the Triglav National Park in Slovenia and drove a lot on lovely Alpine roads.
An intermediate stop on the way to Vrsic Pass on the Slovenian Alps.
We also visited Italy which was not far from Kranjska Gora.
Lago di Fusine (Italy) and me.
Lovely Pericnik Waterfall in Slovenia.
Lake Bled in Slovenia.
Lake Jasna in Kranjska Gora.
Lovely views on one of the hikes.
We also drove the Villach Alpine Road in Austria which ended here.
From Kranjska Gora we headed to Vienna from where my stepdaughter flew home and I spent three days there for work. Then a quick 1,000 kilometres drive from Vienna to Travemünde stopping overnight in Prague.
My Alpine near Travemünde at the end of the trip.
Last leg of the trip was another 30-hour ferry trip from Travemünde to Helsinki.
Lovely trip and Alpine was great on the trip. No problems what-so-ever with the car.
Some amazing posts on here which I look forward to adding to soon!
On collection day, my wife and I took ours up to Norfolk from central Essex, staying just south of Norwich. Day 2 was spent driving out towards Gt Yarmouth and then all the way around the Norfolk coast to Kings Lynn. Sounds ridiculously tame compared to these adventures but a fun way to begin ownership!
A couple of questions for future trips;
1. Does anyone have a good itinerary for Normandy? We'd ideally do the South of France but only have 5 days which feels too rushed.
2. Any links for those Cabin Max bags? Tried Amazon but couldn't find the 44l versions!
Cheers -Matt
On collection day, my wife and I took ours up to Norfolk from central Essex, staying just south of Norwich. Day 2 was spent driving out towards Gt Yarmouth and then all the way around the Norfolk coast to Kings Lynn. Sounds ridiculously tame compared to these adventures but a fun way to begin ownership!
A couple of questions for future trips;
1. Does anyone have a good itinerary for Normandy? We'd ideally do the South of France but only have 5 days which feels too rushed.
2. Any links for those Cabin Max bags? Tried Amazon but couldn't find the 44l versions!
Cheers -Matt
Edited by Gatsods on Thursday 25th May 23:31
I ordered a couple of bags directly from Cabin Max: https://cabinmax.com/search?q=44l+metz+&type=p...
Portti said:
I did a two-week road trip from Finland to continental Europe and I returned from the trip on Sunday. The trip combined holiday, servicing the car and work. It was altogether approx. 3,500 kilometres long trip.
I wrote a travel story on my Alpine pages which can be found here:
https://www.pertti.com/en/alpine/01c-my-a110-exper...
Wow, such an amazing trip, the Triglav region in Slovenia is great fun to drive, if you don't mind the bad conditions of the roads. Too bad that you could not drive the Großglocknerstraße. When I was there a few years ago on my way to Athens, it was also closed.I wrote a travel story on my Alpine pages which can be found here:
https://www.pertti.com/en/alpine/01c-my-a110-exper...
Looking forward to summer with some nice trips coming up!
bram070 said:
Wow, such an amazing trip, the Triglav region in Slovenia is great fun to drive, if you don't mind the bad conditions of the roads...
Thanks, yes it was a great trip. It is true that some of the roads on the Slovenian Alps were in quite bad condition. For example the road leading from Kranjska Gora to Vrsic Pass was quite bad occasionally. There were however also some roads that were in good condition like the road from Bovec in Slovenia to Lago del Predil on the Italian side which was mostly on good condition and offered l a lovely driving experience.Have just planned and booked our first overseas trip with the Alpine for next May (ie 2024): ferry to Bilbao, then drive back via the Pyrenees and France; about 1000 miles in total.
Although we are unlikely to visit cities where one is required, I have ordered a Crit' Air sticker for the car, too.
Although we are unlikely to visit cities where one is required, I have ordered a Crit' Air sticker for the car, too.
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