Epic Euro Road Trip ideas

[Wozy68]

Pennick93 said:

Definitely need to do a decent tunnel in the run, to get some good audio on the GoPros :P Had never heard of the Vielha tunnel before! How much traffic does it get?

Not masses of traffic, it is single lane going north (downhill) towards vielha though, two lane heading south. It's a great tunnel, but like someone else above has pointed out, they all become pretty nondescript after the 10th tunnel of the day.

It really made me laugh when I saw the best UK tunnel thread on PH. Tunnels? We have no real such thing in the UK you can drive a car through.

Lads, seriously scrub the euro trip and just drive Spain. You will not get better anywhere near as good in Western Europe for great empty roads.

Edited by Wozy68 on Monday 27th October 22:37

[CarbonXKR]

+1 ^^ and cheaper fuel, better food, prettier girls

[Zed 44]

In all probability I'll be doing Spain again in June, 2015.

[Wozy68]

Zed 44 said:

In all probability I'll be doing Spain again in June, 2015.

We will be trying for April, sod the Cols, I need to feel the speed so will be keeping to the lower parts of the mountains. I would like to do two trips next year, April and September.

We drove from St Malo to the mountains earlier in the year, no probs in a day, think it was 550 miles to Vielha, around 9 hours if memory serves. Tolls were bloody expensive mind.

[dcb]

Wozy68 said:

you can free wheel from the tunnel crest downhill for over 10 miles into the town.

Lightweight ;->

I did the drop from Soelden, Austria to Fuessen, Germany and got over 60 mpg !

Google reckons it's a 1700 foot drop and about 75 miles.

[AndrewCrown]

I have a few suggestions

The A75 you can do this from Marseille as you head North...

Amazing hills and of course the Millau Viaduct.

The hills.. are very long, curvy and steep ... recovery trucks hang around at regular intervals like vultures
See here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A75_autoroute

My Second suggestion is the C2 Verdon Gauge to Castellane... this is not for the feint hearted.. or if you have vertigo...

[AndrewCrown]

Agree... spend some time in San Sebastian ... wonderful... you can take a car up Mont Igueldo...

brianjone5 said:

From Barcelona, head north into the Pyrenees to pick up N260. Follow this west, heading for Pamplona. From Pamplona, head to San Sebastian, not Bilbao. SS is a beautiful coastal resort with three great beaches. Bilbao has the Guggenheim and a really big port.

[AndrewCrown]

Just be very careful where you park in Marseille... try and get a hotel with a nice locked garage.

Pennick93 said:

Thanks for the replies and suggestions guys. Dcb, a lot of the cities are just resting points that are on our route, they aren't of any significance, such as Rotterdam, Zurich and Marseille. We're considering starting all the way up in Norway instead of Rotterdam, but that'd add a lot of miles onto the journey.

For the main cities, specifically in Italy, where we will be stopping for a couple of days to enjoy the city, we'll be parking outside of the city in a secure car park and getting the train in. After visiting Rome in June I will never even consider driving in that free-for-all!!! When it comes to Naples, it'll specifically be Sorrento to see Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii and that'd just be a single day stop.

[DkVelo]

Wozy68 said:

Personally if you want a decent tunnel, in fact a fabulous (well as as fab as one can be) tunnel then Vielha in the Pyrenees is the one. Brand new and yes a 50MPH speed limit, but at least its free and you can free wheel from the tunnel crest downhill for over 10 miles into the town.

7 miles of tunnel sounds a bit boring.

But seriously, if you want tunnel, the why not going in and out of Genova? The motorways just sweps in from and thorugh the mountains. It must be the A7 I think.
Ristorante Gelletto al Mattone is worth a vist

http://www.tripadvisor.dk/Restaurant_Review-g18782...

Oh, and some bloke named Christopher Columbus was born in that city ;-)

[DkVelo]

Pennick93 said:

I've found a vast amount of good roads between Zurich and Venice, as well as south-eastern France. Struggling to find any in northern Germany/ Denmark, Central and the eastern and western coasts of Italy excluding the Amalfi Coast, and in Western France! Any of you got any ideas for these locations?

Denmark Calling!

We have a few spots in Denmark, though it aint the Alps though.
What are you wishing for your trip.
Just roads or some historic, WWII, shopping, culture or gourmet? Or perhaps something completely different?
I wouldn't mind going with you though Denmark if my calender isn't booked

[crossy67]

998420]cb said:

Ah the innocence of youth.

Rotterdam is the Dutch version of Hull,
Dortmund is twinned with Leeds and IME isn't as nice,
Zurich is a sleepy banker's town,
Marseille is the French version of Liverpool with added Algerians,
most of the others seem ok except possibly Naples.

Done much driving in Africa ? Naples and most of Southern Italy
is a close simulation. Traffic lights mere decoration, speed limits
and lane markings merely advisory at best. Essex it very much isn't.

Don't forget that Naples is rife with crime and is prime Mafia country,
so keep your eyes open and don't go upsetting anyone.

OTOH, the food is excellent and the people are very friendly.[/quot15e]

This.

S.Italy, great food, scenery, people, but the crime and craziness is on another level. The different Mafias do exist and are some of the most profoundly vile humans you will ever meet. N. Italy is great, as is N. Spain, as others said, forget Bilbao, but take in the wild North Atlantic coast, Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia.

From my experiences with the ones listed here they are very accurate.

We flew into Naples a few years back, okay, it was dark but what we saw wasn't nice. We then drove down the Amalfi coast, from what I saw it was nice but I didn't see much because I was watching the road for nutters on bikes, in cars, wagons and coaches hairing wound blind bends on almost single track roads.

As for the east coast, really, seriously unless you're looking for a prostitute don't go there. We rode down to Bari in September. The speed limit was 90kph, we ended up doing 140 because we would have been killed in no time as we were the only ones doing the speed limit. Even at 50kph over the speed limit we almost got killed by a car approaching from behind doing what must have been minimum 200kph. We went to pass a car in the inside lane, checked mirrors, signaled and moved, he covered 100 meters in seconds. Absolutely the worst driving standards I have ever experienced.

As for the prostitutes. There is a stretch of road from Tremoli to Bari about 100 miles long and every mile there is a lay by and in EVERY lay by there is a plastic chair with a prostitute sitting on it. After about 60 miles they started wearing less and less at one point they were naked from the waist down. This is on a busy main road. It's really sad and shocking. That area looks like something out of Mad Max, desolate and full of desperate people.

If you want somewhere nice to visit on the south coast of France visit Cassis then get the ferry to Corsica, the beaches are stunning but the mountains are breath taking and the roads, mmmmm.

[jock mcsporran]

Like most of the other posters have said. If you're doing 5000 miles round Europe then there's better options than what you've suggested.
I wouldn't want to be trying to find a chain hotel, in a generic city centre, in rush hour, after a days driving. Look for small hotels or B&B in the villages, there's usually some nice little places tucked away somewhere where you can relax with a decent view, good food and a bottle of wine or a few beers.
Tunnels? Loads of tunnels. So many tunnels you'll be fed up with them.
Limit yourselves to about 200 miles a day of mountain roads. More than that will get to be too much, especially when you add in stops for lunch/photo's/fuel/etc.

I'm surprised there's been no pictures yet so here's a few of mine from a detour on the way home from Le Mans to hopefully give you some ideas. So many options that it will be impossible to cover them all in one trip.

Millau Viaduct


Mont Ventoux


Gorge du Verdon


Umbrail Pass


Bubble Car up an Alp


Tremola Pass


Ice


Reims Grandstand

[AndrewCrown]

I can totally agree on Corsica... the roads are utterly amazing.. generally quiet and the Ferry trip is quite fun...

crossy67 said:

If you want somewhere nice to visit on the south coast of France visit Cassis then get the ferry to Corsica, the beaches are stunning but the mountains are breath taking and the roads, mmmmm.

[Wozy68]

AndrewCrown said:

I can totally agree on Corsica... the roads are utterly amazing.. generally quiet and the Ferry trip is quite fun...

crossy67 said:

If you want somewhere nice to visit on the south coast of France visit Cassis then get the ferry to Corsica, the beaches are stunning but the mountains are breath taking and the roads, mmmmm.

Hmmm interesting. I sense a road trip comng up next year.

[Zed 44]

Wozy68 said:

Hmmm interesting. I sense a road trip comng up next year.

I thought you had two planned for April and September.

I'm planning two to the Pyrenees, one in June, the other in September. But first, a warm-up tour to Monte Carlo in April.

[Pennick93]

Thanks fore more replies and suggestions guys. We've made the decision to include Norway, Sweden and Denmark in the start of the trip. To the people commenting on the roads in southern Italy, remember that this is a sight seeing holiday as well as a driving holiday. If it weren't for that then most of Italy would probably be excluded!

[crossy67]

Pennick93 said:

To the people commenting on the roads in southern Italy, remember that this is a sight seeing holiday as well as a driving holiday. If it weren't for that then most of Italy would probably be excluded!

The south is not pretty at all, the bits I mentioned are really so bad we paid extra to ferry back as far north as possible to avoid. We vowed never to return there again. I'm not exaggerating when I say it's like a scene out of Mad Max.

The northern countries sound good.

[DkVelo]

Pennick93 said:

Thanks fore more replies and suggestions guys. We've made the decision to include Norway, Sweden and Denmark in the start of the trip. To the people commenting on the roads in southern Italy, remember that this is a sight seeing holiday as well as a driving holiday. If it weren't for that then most of Italy would probably be excluded!

Where do you plan to enter Denmark?

My advice is Fredrikshavn or Grenaa, with the ferry from Göteborg or Warberg

[Wozy68]

Zed 44 said:

Wozy68 said:

Hmmm interesting. I sense a road trip comng up next year.

I thought you had two planned for April and September.

I'm planning two to the Pyrenees, one in June, the other in September. But first, a warm-up tour to Monte Carlo in April.

This is true , but maybe I shouldn't be so selfish and only take one with the lads and head to Corsica with the wife. In fact I actually put the idea to her last night.

Problem is a mate as asked me if I fancy a trip across the most northenly road in Europe through Norway Sweden et al. Problem is I've read the Norwegian police are very very strict. 18 days in prison for 20 kph over the limit is kind of worrying.

[DkVelo]

I have had this topic in mind for some time.

And I acctually had this idea in my head for some years.
So I created this topic:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Just a couple of hints for you maybe