1st time Euro Trip.......My route

[Juber]

The trip will be.....
Day 1:
Basingstoke - Folkestone
Calais - Dijon - Stay over night in Dijon

Dijon to Lyon - Stay over night in Lyon

Lyon - Nice - 7 nights in Nice, will be doing the Monaco boat show and visit St Tropez etc.

Nice - Lake Como - 3 nights in Bellagio

Lake Como - ????? Basel? Geneva?? Any other ideas?

Then home.

Suggestions on roads, routes, and locations would be appreciated. I would like to go and drive on Route Napoleon, is it worth doing?

[0836whimper]

Unless you need to get down to Nice asap, get off the autoroute. There are a thousand roads to choose from Lyon across the Rhone-Alpes/Alpes-Maritime including the Route Napoleon, take your pick basically, you won't go far wrong.

[AdiT]

Looks like a great loop... if you like motorways and to avoid some great driving roads.

The drag down to Lyon is probably unavoidable to get south quick.Go from Lyon via Grenoble the either Route Napoleon or through the alps. After Monaco the coast road to Genoa is pretty frustrating and the alternative is the m/way. It's worth going to Sospel and doing the Col du Torini (of MonteCarloRally fame). Have a look through the road trip reports for other good routes to stitch together after that.

Personally, I'd also avoid the big cities and stick to small towns.

[Wozy68]

When are you going? Mid summer and you'll be crawling from one destination to the next, especially around Lake Como.
As reply above, stay off the autoroutes if you can. There are some beautiful roads and not so busy.

Edited by Wozy68 on Thursday 18th June 11:31

[uk_vette]

As said before,
Get of the toll roads.

Far more fun to be had on the A75 for example.

vette

[RizzoTheRat]

The area north of Como is bloody lovely. I think the road past lake Valvestino was the best days riding (motorbike) on any European trip I've done. Andematt in Switzerland is well worth a visit as you've got mountain passes all round, and it's a good run from there to Davos, as then to the Stelvio pass at Bormio, and south to the lakes.

[Juber]

Thanks for the replies.

So as an alternative to Dijon, where can I stay overnight between Calais and Lyon? Something that has a bit of character etc.

Also the way back from Bellagio, a night before I reach Calais on the way home, any suggestions?

I will make sure I use the sat nav to route me away from the Autoroutes.

[dcb]

Juber said:

I will make sure I use the sat nav to route me away from the Autoroutes.

Calais to Marseille and back is over 1,300 miles.

To compare, London to Edinburgh is about 410 miles.

So thats like London to Edinburgh, back to London, London to Edinburgh again + 90 miles
and you are proposing to do all that away from the fast routes ?

A novel and courageous solution.

Even if you take the fast routes and you can average near the French legal
limit (hint: you can't), then 1,300 miles will still take you over 16 hours.

Drop onto the back roads and your average is likely to be about 40 mph.
That's over 32 hours.

[Juber]

I never said I'm doing 1300 miles in one hit or without autoroutes.

The journey down to Lyon will be all the tolls, the roads from Lyon yo nice will be off the motorways and the rest of the journey from lake Como and back will be the fastest.

I would appreciate some advice from others who have done a similar route

[plop71]

Juber said:

Thanks for the replies.

So as an alternative to Dijon, where can I stay overnight between Calais and Lyon? Something that has a bit of character etc.

Also the way back from Bellagio, a night before I reach Calais on the way home, any suggestions?

I will make sure I use the sat nav to route me away from the Autoroutes.

You could stay in Troyes - a beautiful town with plenty of character. My wife and I have just got back from our first Euro Roadtrip and stayed there last night. I can recommend the Hotel le Relais Saint Jean which is in the centre of town with secure parking and very reasonably priced.

I would also suggest that you try the D996 between Dijon and Troyes. This is a great road and one of the highlights of our trip. We also drove the Route Napoleon and thought it was excellent.

Edited by plop71 on Friday 26th June 20:22

[Juber]

Thanks

So from Calais we were planning to staying overnight in Dijon before we stay in Lyon. Instead of Dijon any other alternatives before Lyon?

[A993LAD]

If you decide to do the D996 south to Dijon, which most on here seem to recommend, you could try staying here....

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/6393584?s=EojC

I found it on airbnb a couple of days ago. Its a privately owned converted abbey in its own grounds and the owner rents bed and breakfast for £68 a night. It looks stunning in the pics and is just off the D996 about 50 miles north of Dijon.

Can't give you a personal recomendation yet but I'm booked in for Monday night on my 5 day trip down to the alps in my 993. So I'll add a first hand review in a couple of days if you're interested.

Marc

[akadk]

Route Napoleon
/end thread

[Juber]

Change of plan, this is my route now. Lost £100 on a booking in Lyon which is non refundable so anyone want a free hotel in Lyon for a night. You can have mine

Any idea on where to stay over south of Lyon on my way down?

Also to book somewhere on my way home from Como?

Edited by Juber on Friday 24th July 10:19

[don logan]

Juber said:

Change of plan, this is my route now. Lost £100 on a booking in Lyon which is non refundable so anyone want a free hotel in Lyon for a night. You can have mine

Any idea on where to stay over south of Lyon on my way down?

Also to book somewhere on my way home from Como?

Edited by Juber on Friday 24th July 10:19

Can I ask a few questions first?

How many days can you take to get from Calais to Nice?

What car will you be taking?

What kind of driving are you hoping for? easy going, quite pleasant scenery or a little bit more extreme with regard to scenery and roads!

[Juber]

don logan said:

Can I ask a few questions first?

How many days can you take to get from Calais to Nice?

What car will you be taking?

What kind of driving are you hoping for? easy going, quite pleasant scenery or a little bit more extreme with regard to scenery and roads!

Sure mate, answers in line.

Can I ask a few questions first?

How many days can you take to get from Calais to Nice?
Happy to do the journey in a day but i would prefer to break it up so i can apreciate Route Napolian and other scenery aswell as the distance will be exhausting

What car will you be taking?
[b]BMW 1 series Diesel Convertible, the mrs car purely because of fuel economy[b]

What kind of driving are you hoping for? easy going, quite pleasant scenery or a little bit more extreme with regard to scenery and roads![100% easy going, and scenery. No extreme 997 GT3RS driving[b]

[don logan]

Juber said:

Sure mate, answers in line.

Can I ask a few questions first?

How many days can you take to get from Calais to Nice?
Happy to do the journey in a day but i would prefer to break it up so i can apreciate Route Napolian and other scenery aswell as the distance will be exhausting

For once I wasn`t going to suggest a one hit / one day job, I was going to suggest Basingstoke (you did say Basingstoke didn`t you?) to somewhere like Beaune, Beaune to Grenoble where you would pick the road to Briancon up and either stay in Briancon or an interesting place I know in a village called Eygliers (30mins south of Briancon) and then to Nice the next day using the Col De Vars and Bonnette which will eventually lead you straight to Nice

OR

You could go Dijon to Chambery, Chambery to the Frejus tunnel, just through the tunnel you turn right for Sauze D`Oulx and eventually Briancon and continue as already mentioned

What car will you be taking?
[b]BMW 1 series Diesel Convertible, the mrs car purely because of fuel economy[b] Ok, you`ll still enjoy the above!

What kind of driving are you hoping for? easy going, quite pleasant scenery or a little bit more extreme with regard to scenery and roads![100% easy going, and scenery. No extreme 997 GT3RS driving[b]

Only the Col De Bonnette is a bit Extreme

On the way back Chamonix to Calais isn`t a killer to do in one hit at 6.5-7hrs so one last really good night with Mont Blanc to look at is a great way to end, so Como to Chamonix either via the Autostrada to the Mont Blanc tunnel OR the very long but amazing way round via the Col de Grande Bernard and the Col De Forclaz from Martigny

Not all my answers are outside of the quote box so there are answers inside it too, odd!

Edited by don logan on Friday 24th July 14:38

Edited by don logan on Friday 24th July 14:40

[Juber]

Thanks for the advise. I will go via Mont Blanc on the way back.

Just looking to book a hotel south of Lyon now for our 1st stop, long days worth of dricing but i dont mind a huge journey on the way down.

[don logan]

Juber said:

Thanks for the advise. I will go via Mont Blanc on the way back.

Just looking to book a hotel south of Lyon now for our 1st stop, long days worth of dricing but i dont mind a huge journey on the way down.

No problem!

If you don't mind a huge drive on the way down then Briancon is do-able in a day at 9hrs from Calais at legal speeds

To get there you have a choice of left at Grenoble or through the Frejus tunnel and turn right.

9hrs 45 from Calais is here http://www.lamaisonduguil.com have stayed quite a few times and it's pretty amazing!

[Zed 44]

Re hotels: Just use Booking.com. Select the filters you want to apply. You can cancel up to 24 hours before for free or alternatively select cheap hotels for your "in transit" nights like Ibis, B&B hotels, Campanile, F1. Some of them you can book on Booking.com with the same cancellation terms. After all, all you need is a bed.