European road trip - Visiting all contiguous EU countries.

[julian427]

I'm planning to drive to all contiguous EU countries this summer, as a big road trip.

I'm going to make a small excursion from Estonia into Russia to "Bag" Finland, and then return the same way, and carry on through Latvia etc.
I know driving in Russia has a few issues (Insurance, Licence, car docs etc).

Can anyone recommend some mapping software to make a file I can make a single file that can be downloaded to my sat nav?

Can anyone recommend any "shortcuts" to maximise country count and minimise mileage?

Having to drive through Spain and back to get Portugal is a bit of a pain.....
The list of countries (and route so far) is as follows :-
France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Bulgaria , Romania, Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, (Detour into Russia), Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, (Denmark, by road), Sweden, (Denmark), Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and finally Luxembourg.
Any thoughts about the merits of going Estonia, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, rather than the route above?

Thanks in advance.

[Gareth79]

This article (and the links) might provide some ideas:
http://www.datapointed.net/2012/08/fastest-route-t...

edit: The linked article has some European challenges mentioned in the comments:
http://www.howderfamily.com/blog/busy-days/

Edited by Gareth79 on Tuesday 24th March 00:05

[Looket]

Ferry from Helsinki/Turku to Stockholm is a worthwhile shortcut.

http://www.sales.vikingline.com/
http://www.tallinksilja.com/en/web/int/book-a-crui...

[simoid]

Re. driving in and out of Spain - could you start or finish with Spain and Portugal? You could get a ferry to/from Northern Spain from Plymouth/Portsmouth to save repeating mileage:

http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/ferry-routes/fer...

[mj01]

Don't forget Andorra (use it to cross from France to Spain) and Monaco (although this'll be both from and to France, although it's almost into Italy!). And rather than risk a detour into Russia, how about Kaliningrad, which is a Russian exclave / enclave on the Baltic between Poland and Lithuania?

Edited by mj01 on Thursday 26th March 17:15