European trip ideas

European trip ideas

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Woolfie

Original Poster:

674 posts

271 months

Monday 12th January 2015
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Thinking of taking this route at end of May - but i am guessing the Stelvio pass will probably be closed. Would love to hear from others as to possible journeys to cover:

- Calais to Montreux (Lake Geneva) on day 1

- Montreux to Lake Konstanz (Swiss/German border) on day 2 via the Stelvio Pass (or another pass/es)

- Konstanz to Calais on day 3 through Germany and Belgium, taking in as many unrestricted autobahns as we can find (are they stll around)

So far three of us: 996 Turbo S, AM Vanquish, DB9.....


Zed 44

1,242 posts

155 months

Monday 12th January 2015
quotequote all
Long way to go for only 3 days and imho, the Stelvio is vastly overrated. You could nicely fill 3 days with an autobahn thrown in by concentrating on the Black Forest.

api330

673 posts

199 months

Monday 12th January 2015
quotequote all
There is a group of us going down to switzerland and doing 4 passes over 4 days at the end of may time, Maybe we could join up or meet at some point as they say the more the merrier (not as far as the stelvio pass either)

spike ST500

1,295 posts

154 months

Saturday 31st January 2015
quotequote all
I would agree the Stevio is over rated, some much better passes about, such as the Grossglockner, and Furka pass, and many more in those areas.


sixspeed

2,060 posts

271 months

Monday 2nd February 2015
quotequote all
It's doable in 3 days but a long way to go and I would be inclined to extend it and include a few more passes and take a bit more time generally.

We are doing a trip in June, but taking 12 days out admittedly. However we're including some of the French cols', Mont Ventoux, Route Napoleon, Monaco, a trackday at Imola, the italian lakes, about 5 or 6 Swiss passes (not Stelvio!), the black forest, and the Nurburgring! Plus some mandatory Italian and German factory visits smile

Happy to trade ideas, as we've planned some good routes (hopefully!)

Zed 44

1,242 posts

155 months

Monday 2nd February 2015
quotequote all
sixspeed said:
It's doable in 3 days but a long way to go and I would be inclined to extend it and include a few more passes and take a bit more time generally.

We are doing a trip in June, but taking 12 days out admittedly. However we're including some of the French cols', Mont Ventoux, Route Napoleon, Monaco, a trackday at Imola, the italian lakes, about 5 or 6 Swiss passes (not Stelvio!), the black forest, and the Nurburgring! Plus some mandatory Italian and German factory visits smile

Happy to trade ideas, as we've planned some good routes (hopefully!)
Very much agree with this. We quite easily filled two weeks just in the Black Forest and doing the Andermatt Loop last Sept. There are plenty of excellent roads in the Black Forest if you know where to go.

Makes more sense to pick a specific area and concentrate on it rather than racing all over Europe for the odd few well known peaks imho.

SELON

1,172 posts

128 months

Wednesday 4th February 2015
quotequote all
Any roads you recommend in the Black Forest. Staying over in Gernsbach in June and driving to Stuttgart, so any roads on that route you know of would be good. Currently planning to go the quiet route (probably the longest route).
Any tips greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Zed 44

1,242 posts

155 months

Wednesday 4th February 2015
quotequote all
Sorry, none that we did were up in that neck of the woods. I was told that the better routes were in the south and south west of the Black Forest closer to the French and Swiss borders and indeed we did some excellent drives there. Based on my own experience, I would say just plan your routes on the "L" roads. They seem well surfaced, lightly trafficked and lightly policed. Hope this helps

SELON

1,172 posts

128 months

Thursday 5th February 2015
quotequote all
Thanks, will do. I'm heading to Prague (U21 football) so I need to keep to a fairly direct route so the southern part of the forest is a bit too much of a detour. I'm hoping that taking the forest will give some opportunity for scenic driving at least and also there will be some unrestricted autobahn between there are the Czech border to make it a bit interesting. Have got plenty of nice places to stay and visit on the route.

Cheers

pewe

648 posts

218 months

Friday 6th February 2015
quotequote all
sixspeed said:
We are doing a trip in June, but taking 12 days out admittedly. However we're including some of the French cols', Mont Ventoux, Route Napoleon, Monaco, a trackday at Imola, the italian lakes, about 5 or 6 Swiss passes (not Stelvio!), the black forest, and the Nurburgring! Plus some mandatory Italian and German factory visits smile
Agree totally about taking your time.
It's all very well saying you can do 500 miles a day but if it's ordinary roads that's a lot of driving and if it's motorway it's boring.
FYI Mont Ventoux is best avoided on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays - too many cyclists.
Route Nap - more by accident than design we once ended up driving it North to South after 1800hrs.
We had it to ourselves bar one campervan so what is already a stunning drive turned out to be historic.

HTH.
Cheers, Pewe.

chevronb37

6,471 posts

185 months

Monday 9th February 2015
quotequote all
I reckon 250 miles per day is a manageable amount. If you're doing passes then that can be eight hours driving.

The old man and I are off to the Rechberg Hillclimb in April and doing some advanced planning on our route. So much to see and do on Continental Europe. It's so bloody exciting!

Stevoox

367 posts

129 months

Monday 9th February 2015
quotequote all
A mate and I were planning a Europe trip for July/August which would look something like:

Uk to Dordogne, France (via Le Mans)

Dordogne along the south cost to Monaco

Monaco through Milan to Stelvio pass

Stelvio Pass up to the Nurburgring

From the Nurburgring head back home.

sixspeed

2,060 posts

271 months

Monday 9th February 2015
quotequote all
pewe said:
Agree totally about taking your time.
It's all very well saying you can do 500 miles a day but if it's ordinary roads that's a lot of driving and if it's motorway it's boring.
FYI Mont Ventoux is best avoided on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays - too many cyclists.
Route Nap - more by accident than design we once ended up driving it North to South after 1800hrs.
We had it to ourselves bar one campervan so what is already a stunning drive turned out to be historic.

HTH.
Cheers, Pewe.
Thanks for the heads up! We're doing Mont Ventoux on a Thursday so fingers crossed. We'll also be staying just a few miles away, so should hit it early morning.... We're then heading over to Nice to stay at Monaco for the evening and the next day.

Is the Col de Turini worth doing on the way? We could take it in, but looking at it on street view etc it's hard to say whether it's really that good a road by car? I'm more tempted to go up the Col de Vence at the moment, having see a few Evo articles/videos from when they went that way in the Enzo. Looks to be some better roads suited to cars maybe? Also we're only touching a small section of the Napoleon....

In fact - here is our route: http://goo.gl/AWQXnV Any recommendations/tweaks?

Sorry for the slight thread hijack, but hopefully it will provide useful info for all biggrin