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c3m
Original Poster
101 posts
20 months
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Hey guys,
I'm hoping to get some advice on our upcoming car trip to Europe. It will be my first road trip to the continent, so I've got a few questions - I'd be very grateful if you could provide your input from your past experiences:
1) Equipment: Would it be enough to buy the AA Euro Travel Kit so that I'm all good with the law? Is there anything else that you consider essential that I should bring along?
2) Accommodation: Where do you usually stay on your trips? Do you have any recommendations for nice places? Do you pre-book or just turn up? Ideally, I'm looking for some chilled out hotels, preferably not located in busy city centres - small towns would be even better. I'd love to hear if you were impressed by specific hotels.
3) Route / Roads: We would like get to the Alps as we expect the roads there to be superb, so we're looking to get there via France, maybe do a bit of Germany on the way back and lots of Swiss roads. I'd love to hear about what roads you consider really good - we're not looking to make time, I prefer going slower on exciting roads than faster on boring motorways.
4) Driving: I've got some experience driving a LHD car but I've never driven my RHD on the continent (it was a long time since I drove on the continent). Any particular bits that I should be aware of with regards to speeding, police, overtaking etc.?
Thanks very much for any input - please feel free to provide as much advice as possible, things to avoid, things that you consider important etc.
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Lordbenny
5,065 posts
88 months
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c3m said: Hey guys,
I'm hoping to get some advice on our upcoming car trip to Europe. It will be my first road trip to the continent, so I've got a few questions - I'd be very grateful if you could provide your input from your past experiences:
1) Equipment: Would it be enough to buy the AA Euro Travel Kit so that I'm all good with the law? Is there anything else that you consider essential that I should bring along?
2) Accommodation: Where do you usually stay on your trips? Do you have any recommendations for nice places? Do you pre-book or just turn up? Ideally, I'm looking for some chilled out hotels, preferably not located in busy city centres - small towns would be even better. I'd love to hear if you were impressed by specific hotels.
3) Route / Roads: We would like get to the Alps as we expect the roads there to be superb, so we're looking to get there via France, maybe do a bit of Germany on the way back and lots of Swiss roads. I'd love to hear about what roads you consider really good - we're not looking to make time, I prefer going slower on exciting roads than faster on boring motorways.
4) Driving: I've got some experience driving a LHD car but I've never driven my RHD on the continent (it was a long time since I drove on the continent). Any particular bits that I should be aware of with regards to speeding, police, overtaking etc.?
Thanks very much for any input - please feel free to provide as much advice as possible, things to avoid, things that you consider important etc. Forget trying to DIY it, just join us next year  http://cannonballruneurope.co.uk/
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swerni
19,894 posts
79 months
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Lordbenny said: I'm not sure how we managed to drive in Europe without you OP make sure you have European insurance and breakdown cover. Inform your insurance company when you are going to be away.
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c3m
Original Poster
101 posts
20 months
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swerni said: OP make sure you have European insurance and breakdown cover.
Inform your insurance company when you are going to be away. Thanks - those are definitely on my list.
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D_G
1,413 posts
78 months
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1) You need a warning triangle, bulb kit, hi-vis, headlight benders, GB sticker and now a breathalyser I believe. 2) We just rocked up at places we liked the look of and found cracking guest houses and a couple of hotels, if you want to stay on lake geneva I have a great recommendation. 3) Alps are great but bear in mind you won't make much progress on the windy stuff, the Swiss speed limits are really strict too with loads of cameras. 4) Don't speed on the Autoroute on France when you are within 50 miles of the border, overtaking is fine make sure you can see past the car properly. We had some places of interest we had researched before we went, you won't want to be in the car all day, we planned for no more than 200 miles max even when using the motorways. I would plan stuff you want to do and then drive at a comfortable pace / time, if you don't have hotels you can take your time a lot more than needing to get to a destination. We had an European Ibis hotel book as a backup plan if we couldn't find a local one. This way we had loads of time to explore in the day too. We had loads of random experiences and it was great fun, loking to do another to Norway next time round. Shameless pic.... 
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Far Cough
401 posts
37 months
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Look here for some route ideas : http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...A quick search will tell you what car spares you need including a breathalyser now to be on the safe side. Driving a RHD car is no biggie but made easier if you have a trustworthy passenger. You`ll have a blast
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swerni
19,894 posts
79 months
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D_G said: , we planned for no more than 200 miles max even when using the motorways. Sod that, I'm doing 550 miles (plus 80 in the UK) on the first leg of my trip in 12 days
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c3m
Original Poster
101 posts
20 months
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Hey guys, appreciate the input so far. I've got another question - would it be unwise to set my GPS to avoid motorways so that we get to see a bit more of the country side and hopefully some more interesting roads?
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swerni
19,894 posts
79 months
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Go on line and plan your route. loads of stuff if you use google.
Work out how long you want to travel and where.
All depends on your timings.
I'm heading down to Grenoble on the motorway then going across country, but I only have a couple of days to get to Monte Carlo.
No fixed rules, just do what you want and go explore!
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D_G
1,413 posts
78 months
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swerni said: D_G said: , we planned for no more than 200 miles max even when using the motorways. Sod that, I'm doing 550 miles (plus 80 in the UK) on the first leg of my trip in 12 days That's OK if you are taking your time when you are down there, trust me you won't get anywhere near that in the Alps or off the motorways unless you don't want to see / do anything! If you do use the Swiss motorways then you need a permit before going on to them BTW.
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c3m
Original Poster
101 posts
20 months
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By the way, do I need to keep any of the original documentation for the car with me while on the trip (for example, the V5)? I usually have just photocopies in the glovebox.
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swerni
19,894 posts
79 months
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custard, you need custard, just in case
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team gilmurray
25 posts
14 months
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Take only originals,don't forget if your sat nat has locations of all radar cameras they are illegal in France so don't display it in your windscreen,this only applies if you get pulled over so don't worry too much,don't use back roads too much as you will get better scenery but you won't get anywhere
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Grey Ghost
2,769 posts
89 months
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Check your breakdown cover is valid across Europe. If not join ADAC 
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c3m
Original Poster
101 posts
20 months
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Grey Ghost said: Check your breakdown cover is valid across Europe. If not join ADAC I was thinking of getting the AA European Cover. Given that ADAC has a reciprocal arrangement with AA, I should be able to just relax and not think about any hassles if we do break down?
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nonuts
15,528 posts
98 months
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c3m said: I was thinking of getting the AA European Cover. Given that ADAC has a reciprocal arrangement with AA, I should be able to just relax and not think about any hassles if we do break down? That would work, the AA have been very good in my experience. The only real problem (as an FYI for others) if you are going to be on a French Autoroute none of the breakdown cover will actually cover you, you will have to pay the locals to recover you off the motorway and then meet up with your breakdown service etc. after. PS. Don't run out of fuel on an autoroute or you will discover all of the above.
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Gruffy
4,530 posts
128 months
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swerni said: Sod that, I'm doing 550 miles (plus 80 in the UK) on the first leg of my trip in 12 days I see your 550 and raise you to 700 (without a windscreen). Can't say I'm overly excited about this stint though, but it should pay dividends once we get to the hilly stuff. When are you heading down and which motor did you decide to take in the end?
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Gruffy
4,530 posts
128 months
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1) Equipment: Check the requirements for all the countries you plan to drive through. http://www.driving-in.com/ Foreign police are quite keen to enforce their laws quite strongly on visitors so don't give them any extra opportunities. 2) Accommodation: If you're travelling as one car then I might only book hotels in the big cities. It's great to have that flexibility, particularly if you're new to touring and don't have a strong idea of the distances you'll be covering each day. During summer you will not struggle to get rooms on arrival in most of the ski resorts (which are usually in amongst some great driving). 3) Route / Roads: Northern France is a bit tame compared to what's on offer further south, so I usually make use of the very efficient autoroutes to cover the first 600-700 miles and then I'll avoid motorways, unless I'm heading into Italy. If you don't have a set schedule then you could just aim for a few key passes and just 'get lost'. There are lots of incredible roads to discover and I've found some of my favourites by just exploring. 4) Driving: attitudes to speeding are different in each country. When pulling out to overtake on de-restricted German autobahns be very sure that the speck in your rear view mirror isn't going Mach 3. The speed differential can catch out the unfamiliar. In the twisties of France don't try to keep up with the local bangers. You would not believe how quickly a 30 year old 1L snotter can be driven with a bit of local knowledge and a complete disregard for the redline (and a few glasses of vin rouge?).
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Roo
5,877 posts
76 months
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And if you wear glasses you need to have a spare pair in the car.
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ShankCraft
131 posts
36 months
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How many miles is a realistic amount to try to cover in a day? I have from sunday morning until late tuesday night to get from zurich to london and i want to take in a few mountain passes. Is this doable? Where is a good stopping point?
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