Quick and boring route Calais to Ancona, Italy?
Discussion
For the record, and hopefully of help to others, I ended up doing the Tauern to Udine.
For the record 0430 start from north west London, 0640 shuttle, lunch outside Metz 1300, 1500 restart (French restaurant not exactly in a hurry), arrive Holzkirchen south of Munich 2100. Petrol cheaper in France and Germany, and significantly cheaper in Austria.
I had subscribed to the Sanef toll bleeper contraption which you just wave in the automated booths while slowing down to close to walking pace, and at the last moment the thing beeps and the barrier raises. Very cool - wish it was compatible with the Italian system too.
We did the journey on 8 April. Winter tyres are mandatory in Austria until mid April. On the morning of 9 April in Holzkirchen all the other cars in the car park had winters on, and there was frost on the windscreen. So perhaps there's good reasoning behind it.
The day after was a breeze. A few contraflows in place on the Tauern autobahn but relatively little traffic. Perfect visibility through the Alps, and plenty of snow and even ski-runs visible. A very impressive sight.
I found if you have a reasonable lunch then the digestion seems to give me a bit of a lull at about 1500-1600 which makes it harder to concentrate but otherwise it was pretty easy with cruise control.
For the record 0430 start from north west London, 0640 shuttle, lunch outside Metz 1300, 1500 restart (French restaurant not exactly in a hurry), arrive Holzkirchen south of Munich 2100. Petrol cheaper in France and Germany, and significantly cheaper in Austria.
I had subscribed to the Sanef toll bleeper contraption which you just wave in the automated booths while slowing down to close to walking pace, and at the last moment the thing beeps and the barrier raises. Very cool - wish it was compatible with the Italian system too.
We did the journey on 8 April. Winter tyres are mandatory in Austria until mid April. On the morning of 9 April in Holzkirchen all the other cars in the car park had winters on, and there was frost on the windscreen. So perhaps there's good reasoning behind it.
The day after was a breeze. A few contraflows in place on the Tauern autobahn but relatively little traffic. Perfect visibility through the Alps, and plenty of snow and even ski-runs visible. A very impressive sight.
I found if you have a reasonable lunch then the digestion seems to give me a bit of a lull at about 1500-1600 which makes it harder to concentrate but otherwise it was pretty easy with cruise control.
Well, we made it there and back without incident!
Set off from Yorkshire 3.30 Thursday afternoon, A1 was shut so had to trudge down the M1 in the rain, got the eurotunnel about 11pm then with the kids asleep we hit the autoroute South until about 3am. Pulled into an aire South of Reims and got a bit of shut eye. I think it was about 8.30 by the time we set off again Friday morning, but we made good time through France. Somewhere around Strasbourg it started raining, and it didn't stop. We crossed into Switzerland at lunchtime, and were planning to stop to let the kids have a run around, instead we all huddled in the back of the van eating sandwiches. Switzerland would have been scenic I expect, if it weren't for the low cloud, torrential rain and thunderstorms. The rain turned to snow while climbing to the Gotthard tunnel, and was settling on the road as we entered it (this was the 15th May for the record). The 17kms tunnel was a pleasant respite from the weather, but it kicked in again when we came out, with a vengeance! The waterfalls were quite a sight as we dropped down to Italy, and the rain got worse. We got some tea about 19.30 at an Italian service station, and booked a hotel room in Bologna online for that night, which we made by about 11pm! The next day we just had 2 hours down to Ancona, which was easy enough, the weather had even brightened up a bit, ferry left at 16.00, and we arrived in Greece at 10.30am Sunday, with just a 2 hour drive down to Lefkas.
The return trip, we'd left ourselves a little less time. Had a full day on Lefkas, left 19.30, drove to Igoumenitsa, ferry was late so didn't leave till midnight, docked in Ancona 15.30 Saturday. It was gone 4pm by the time we got out of town onto the autostrada. We stopped for tea South of Milan about 19.30 for an about an hour, then with everyone else in the van asleep I cracked on. Didn't stop again through Italy, didn't drop below 80kph through Switzerland (it was a lot warmer on the way back), stopped for diesel just into France (it's significantly cheaper the Switzerland), then did another half hour or so drive. I've no idea where we pulled over to sleep for 3 hours, but it left us a 6 hour drive, and we had 6 and a half to make it. We were away again at 6.45, eldest threw up all over himself before breakfast, and we just made it to Calais in time - in the rain, and at the end of spring bank week. The eurotunnel check in was in meltdown, by the time we booked in we'd been shunted to the next train, which we went straight to boarding once we'd cleared immigration.
And that just left the 5 hour drive back up North from Folkestone. We were home for 19.30, bang on 48hours since leaving Greece.
Would we drive it again, absolutely!! The weather made the drive there harder than it should've been. I know for next time that we don't need such a big cabin on the ferry, we'd all fit in an en suite twin, and if we didn't the ferry's next to empty at that time of year, there's loads of places to sleep on deck (with the truckers). The aprr tag I got was brilliant, especially on the rush back into Calais, I just wish it worked in Italy too. It meant we could take what we liked, bikes etc, and had a car there all the time, and I reckon we saved a good £800 in total over the cost of flying, next time we'd have to pay for a flight for the youngest too - so we'll save even more.
I made a bit of a timelapse of the highlights of the journey out, it doesn't really show how bad the weather was, and it got even worse when it got dark!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOkHoNRGHhI
Set off from Yorkshire 3.30 Thursday afternoon, A1 was shut so had to trudge down the M1 in the rain, got the eurotunnel about 11pm then with the kids asleep we hit the autoroute South until about 3am. Pulled into an aire South of Reims and got a bit of shut eye. I think it was about 8.30 by the time we set off again Friday morning, but we made good time through France. Somewhere around Strasbourg it started raining, and it didn't stop. We crossed into Switzerland at lunchtime, and were planning to stop to let the kids have a run around, instead we all huddled in the back of the van eating sandwiches. Switzerland would have been scenic I expect, if it weren't for the low cloud, torrential rain and thunderstorms. The rain turned to snow while climbing to the Gotthard tunnel, and was settling on the road as we entered it (this was the 15th May for the record). The 17kms tunnel was a pleasant respite from the weather, but it kicked in again when we came out, with a vengeance! The waterfalls were quite a sight as we dropped down to Italy, and the rain got worse. We got some tea about 19.30 at an Italian service station, and booked a hotel room in Bologna online for that night, which we made by about 11pm! The next day we just had 2 hours down to Ancona, which was easy enough, the weather had even brightened up a bit, ferry left at 16.00, and we arrived in Greece at 10.30am Sunday, with just a 2 hour drive down to Lefkas.
The return trip, we'd left ourselves a little less time. Had a full day on Lefkas, left 19.30, drove to Igoumenitsa, ferry was late so didn't leave till midnight, docked in Ancona 15.30 Saturday. It was gone 4pm by the time we got out of town onto the autostrada. We stopped for tea South of Milan about 19.30 for an about an hour, then with everyone else in the van asleep I cracked on. Didn't stop again through Italy, didn't drop below 80kph through Switzerland (it was a lot warmer on the way back), stopped for diesel just into France (it's significantly cheaper the Switzerland), then did another half hour or so drive. I've no idea where we pulled over to sleep for 3 hours, but it left us a 6 hour drive, and we had 6 and a half to make it. We were away again at 6.45, eldest threw up all over himself before breakfast, and we just made it to Calais in time - in the rain, and at the end of spring bank week. The eurotunnel check in was in meltdown, by the time we booked in we'd been shunted to the next train, which we went straight to boarding once we'd cleared immigration.
And that just left the 5 hour drive back up North from Folkestone. We were home for 19.30, bang on 48hours since leaving Greece.
Would we drive it again, absolutely!! The weather made the drive there harder than it should've been. I know for next time that we don't need such a big cabin on the ferry, we'd all fit in an en suite twin, and if we didn't the ferry's next to empty at that time of year, there's loads of places to sleep on deck (with the truckers). The aprr tag I got was brilliant, especially on the rush back into Calais, I just wish it worked in Italy too. It meant we could take what we liked, bikes etc, and had a car there all the time, and I reckon we saved a good £800 in total over the cost of flying, next time we'd have to pay for a flight for the youngest too - so we'll save even more.
I made a bit of a timelapse of the highlights of the journey out, it doesn't really show how bad the weather was, and it got even worse when it got dark!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOkHoNRGHhI
Drove there & back to Crete via Ancona quite a few times & found especially when towing avoid Milan at all costs because the Autostrada
around there is quite harrowing. 3 Days to Crete & three days back ain't bad & found the best places to aim at from Calais is Metz Nancy
then to the right of Basil where they screw you for 60 e Gottard tunnel then como but keep to the left of Milan & aim at Bologna & on route there are quite a few towns that have good qual hotel/pizza then due south out of the way of the big cities. All the roads mentioned are better than ours through France with lots of countryside. Won't be going back though now but nice thoughts & memories. If you don't mind going the extra approx 200/300 miles the Austria mountains are something to be seen -Grosglockner etc.......... spelling may not be accurate..... pretty rugged & the rivers all green!
around there is quite harrowing. 3 Days to Crete & three days back ain't bad & found the best places to aim at from Calais is Metz Nancy
then to the right of Basil where they screw you for 60 e Gottard tunnel then como but keep to the left of Milan & aim at Bologna & on route there are quite a few towns that have good qual hotel/pizza then due south out of the way of the big cities. All the roads mentioned are better than ours through France with lots of countryside. Won't be going back though now but nice thoughts & memories. If you don't mind going the extra approx 200/300 miles the Austria mountains are something to be seen -Grosglockner etc.......... spelling may not be accurate..... pretty rugged & the rivers all green!
Mick50NCD said:
avoid Milan at all costs because the Autostrada
around there is quite harrowing.
This thread is a bit done n dusted but I agree with this bit.around there is quite harrowing.
Drove into Italy from Austria this year, Brenner pass way ,down to Verona and then to Milan and the V to M
bit was in heavy heavy rain.
I wasn't in a rush so pulled off and rested ,slept for an hour to avoid being on an Autostrada with the mad
locals.
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