Review my European Road Trip for Apil 2016

[JapFreak786]

I'd like to have my provisional route around Europe checked over please. Been looking at this for a while and want to book the ferry/hotels by the end of this week ideally.

So far, my plan is;

20th Wed - Birmingham to Geneva
21st Thu - Geneva to Nice via Route Napoleon
22nd Fri - Nice
23rd Sat - Nice
24th Sun - Nice to Modena
25th Mon - Modena to Lake Garda
26th Tue - Lake Garda
27th Wed - Lake Garda to Stelvio Pass
28th Thu - Stelvio Pass to Milan
29th Fri - Milan to Lake Como
30th Sat - Lake Como
1st May - Start journey home, route to be confirmed

Any recommendations or adjustments to the above plan right now? Wouldn't mind going through Germany and stopping off in a few places, planning on returnin to Birmingham by late evening of the 2nd May.

During my stay in Nice, be getting the train to Monaco and either train or drive to Cannes too.
In Italy hoping to visit the Ferrari museum and Pagani.

So far, I'm estimating around £1000 of fuel and 3,000 miles. Me and my wife will be sharing the driving and I know the first stint is quite long. Plan is to meet my brother there as he is driving down a few days earlier to Geneva.

Any hotel recommendations please that have secure parking?
Tips on fuel? I'm taking my R35 GTR, planning on filling up when it gets to 1/4 tank.

Finally, any routes to avoid tolls without increasing driving time on the way to Geneva? Thanks

[Gnits]

I'd be tempted to break up that first stint - that's a long way in one day!
Otherwise have a look at best biking roads for nice roads and plan accordingly.
Looks like a bloody nice trip though!

[JapFreak786]

Thank you , yeah the first stint is very long! Plan is to leave Birmingham around 5am with my wife driving, followed by more sleep on the ferry to then head down to Geneva. The other option is to leave late Tuesday evening but it means driving through the night, sadly can't break the journey up at the start apart from pit stops

[vonhosen]

Unlikely the Stelvio pass will be open in April.

[Cabrony]

RE Lake Como.
Had a lovely stay at Miralago B&B
Secure Parking, big breakfast etc etc
http://www.bellagiomiralago.it/index_en.html

[akadk]

Drive to Folkestone night before, get the last tunnel and stay in the ibis budget 5 mins from the train French side for £30

Calais to Geneva then more manageable

[Inverted]

Ive been to stelvio twice. Both june/july. First time it was closed. Second time open but very heavy snow, and closed as we were leaving due to snow fallen on the road. April I reckon you have a slim chance of it being open.

[JapFreak786]

Thanks for the feedback so far, shame if the pass is closed I initially thought it would be fine in April.
Are there any other roads I should try to visit or avoid? Getting excited as the day comes closer!

[JapFreak786]

Two hotel's booked already for Maranello and Milan, staying at Hotel Maranello Village

Is the Ferrari factory tour that can be brought worth going on? Pagani Tour can't be booked as they are already booked for that day

[a17vts]

I'm doing a similar route in June.

If you have a read through my thread I give a relatively detailed itinerary about day-2-day driving routes and all my hotels.

I was originally planning on doing the trip in April/May but delayed due to the closure of certain passes, I do hope all the passes are open when I go.

Link to my thread:

European Road Trip

[heebeegeetee]

Hi fellow Brummy, (or traveler therefrom) done a few of these trips myself.

I totally agree with the poster who said travel to Folkestone the night before. We always try to do this, then stop in Calais or somewhere near, then your drive to Geneva is dead easy.

If you plot on Google maps irts seasonal function doesn't allow you top plot where you can't go, and currently even Mont Cenis is closed. I'd suggest most of the high passes will be closed in April and Stelvio definitely will be. (It's fking frustrating that I can't plot my route on TYRE because it uses Google maps, thus I can';t plit my route for June simply because it's currently April. )

I don't think the Italian lakes areas are good for driving unless you head up into the hills on single track roads, whereas the French equivalent such as Lake Annecy, Aix=les-Bains etc, (and south therof) are massively better for driving.

I understand the desire to visit Modena etc but it means a lot of m'way stuff.

[mr pg]

Try using motogoloco.com to plot routes. I've just done my July trip on it. Works ok, and easy to use.

[heebeegeetee]

mr pg said:

Try using motogoloco.com to plot routes. I've just done my July trip on it. Works ok, and easy to use.

Many thanks. I'm still not sure I've got it right, that I can't plot a route until the snow melts.

[0836whimper]

Depends on what the goals are.
If it's pure driving enjoyment, I'd avoid long motorway stints, the Stelvio and the Italian lakes. There are many many fabulous roads in europe, those aren't.
As a cruise around a bit of Europe, see some nice towns and mountains it will be fun.
And the Stelvio is likely to be shut in April.

An example of amazing driving road is the D946 through the Jabron valley, west of Sisteron. Examples like that off the beaten track will blow your mind after the crawling round the Italian Lakes. They are pretty and good for posing, but not great for driving.

[s70rmp]

should be loads of Shell or BP stations for Nitro or Ultimate fuels

[JapFreak786]

Thanks for the input folks. My trip has been amended abit and I am no longer going to Geneva, and instead it will the Eurotunnel Wednesday midday, followed by an over-night stop in Dijon before going to Nice.

Question please, where is the best place to pick up Route Napoleon on the drive to Nice, I've read its best to pick it up by Grenoble?

Also going to the 'ring now and planning on going through the black forest, I've got the tab open for a thread from the Germany forum page to read, but any recommendations on where to pick this up while going from Lake Como to Nurburgring?

Staying at the Lakes for the scenery there and some downtime away from driving, but any fun roads avoiding the motorway is much appreciated! Also reading the linked threads on here

Interesting point for planning the route, got a TomTom device I wanted to pre-plan routes on, so will be checking out the route planner linked in here too

Edited by JapFreak786 on Wednesday 13th April 12:16

[CarbonXKR]

heebeegeetee said:

mr pg said:

Try using motogoloco.com to plot routes. I've just done my July trip on it. Works ok, and easy to use.

Many thanks. I'm still not sure I've got it right, that I can't plot a route until the snow melts.

Change the date when using Google maps....

[JapFreak786]

Got home back from my trip on Monday evening just gone. My car was perfect the entire time, no issues whatsoever and also a lot of fun on the autobahns! Got up to 175mph on the clock, 167mph GPS. Could have gone faster but the motorway wasn't as quiet as I would want and there was a lot of wind noise at that speed.

The TomTom Start 50 that I got could have routes pre-programmed in using the TomTom software downloaded from their site, which was great! I didn't use the pre-planned routes in the end due to various reasons.

We've done about 2700 miles in total, not calculated how much fuel used yet but I'm estimating around £900/1000.

[s70rmp]

Pictures ????

[JapFreak786]

Still need to shift through the photos as most of them are on my wife's phone or SLR, but i'll share some when I can