European Road Trip in my VX220 - write up & pictures
Discussion
Last month I went on a 2,500 mile road trip in my VX220, we did 5 countries in 12 days.
Just thought that I would share a few of the pictures and videos in the hope that it inspires other people to do the same.
This is the route that we took
Day one was from Essex to Reims
Reims was a really nice city with a great atmosphere and lovely food.
Day two was from Reims to Lake Geneva
We stopped off at Gueux, just outside Reims to visit the historic grandstand. It had a really weird eyrie atmoshophere and the misses really didn't like it
We didn't go in to Geneva itself, but visited an old town on the lake called Yvoire that was recommended to us. Really nice place and would recommend it too.
Day 3 was from Lake Geneva to Avigliana in Italy (just outside Turin). this is where the fun started as it had been motorways up until this point.
Stopped off at some really lovely places such as Chamonix
We went via the Saint Bernard Pass, which was a brilliant road.
A quick video to give an idea what the roads are like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AiI3dz1ts4&fea...
Trying to keep up with a 458
Day 4 was from Avigliana to Nice on the south coast of France
The highlight of this was driving the Col Du Turini, which is part of the Monte Carlo Rally stage.
A couple of videos to show you what the roads are like (had to slow down a bit once the Misses started to freak out
)
http://youtu.be/ZbW_Nzlf0-4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLVTf1hKyLg&fea...
That's my type of sign
We stopped off at the Hotel des Trois Vallees, which was a pretty cool place dedicated to the Monte Carlo Rally. All the walls were covered with pictures like the one below.
Nice lived up to it's name & was really nice
Day 5 was from Nice to Maranello in Italy.
This leg was only Motorway, but we did stop off at Monaco for a couple of hours. I managed to drive a bit of the circuit including the tunnel & hairpin.
A few of the cars parked in Casino Square
The Fairmont Hairpin
We stayed at the Ferrari Hotel in Maranello, which was a great place to stay.
Day 6 we travelled from Maranello to Lake Garda.
We visited the Ferrari Museum on the way
We stayed at Lake Garda for a couple of days, nice being able to relax and not drive.
Day 8 we traveled from Lake Garda to Davos in Switzerland
This meant that I could take in a couple of great roads like the Stelvio Pass & Flüela Pass.
The Stelvio was what I expected it to be, can't believe that Top Gear named it as the best drivers road, but I couldn't go all that way & not experience it.
On our way up the Stelvio Pass
The top of Stelvio
The Flüela Pass was a really good road, quite busy when I drove it so quite difficult to get into a rythum
Day 9 we travelled through the Alps from Davos to Andermatte, we drove some amazing roads such as the San Bernadino Pass, Furka Pass & Grimmsel Pass
The San Bernadino Pass
Thought we would leave our own little mark there & build our own (mini) version
Next up was the Furka Pass
This was the last time that I would ever see my front number plate again
Then from the Furka Pass we carried onto the Grimsel Pass
Quick video of me trying to catch a local Opel Speedster Turbo (VX220) up the Grimsel Pass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCzcXPIldOw&fea...
I was chatting the the guy in the Speedster at the top when he asked me where my front number plate was We had to drive from the top of Grimsel Pass to the top of the Furka Pass twice trying to find it , but no luck 
Day 10 we drove from Andermatte to Baden Baden
On the way we stopped off at Lucerne in Switzerland, really lovely little town
Then we drove into Germany and the fun started again, we turned off the motorway at Wehr & drove 120 miles throught the Black Forrest
I have to say that these were the best roads of the trip, they really suited the VX220 with the fast sweeping corners. I Managed to get advice on a couple of good roads, but mainly just looked for the twisty stuff on Google Maps & and added that to the route.
My poor car without it's numberplate
Not quite the scenery of the Alps due to the number of trees, but still a nice place to visit.
Day 11 was from Baden Baden to the Nurburgring
No real fun roads this day, well apart from the Nurburgring itself. Driving the autobarns was an experience, doing 100mph+ and you still have cars racing past you
At the Nurburgring I hired a stage 1 Suzuki Swift from Rent4Ring for 2 laps. It was so weird to drive the Swift after driving 2,000 miles in a VX220
I don't mind admitting that I was absolutely bricking it before I went out after hearing all the horror stories. The briefing from Rent4Ring was brilliant & just told us to treat it as a two lane highway, so I spent most of my time on the right letting all the Porsches fly past I wasn't out to set a new lap record & just stayed well within my limits.
Couple of videos of me driving like Miss Daisy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU7SoQl-QYg&fea...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL7p6OFDlrQ&fea...
Had to leave our mark at Rent4Ring
I was so tempted to take the VX220 round for a lap once I was finished, but luckily my wife thought that was a bad idea
About as close as the VX got to the track
We stayed at the Hotel Tiergarten whilst we were there & would really recommend it. I think it is owned by Sabine Schmitz's mother
Louise decided that she wants a Porsche 911 GT3 RS as her next car, they are far too common at the Ring thou
We had dinner at the Pistenklaus which is attached to the hotel & I had to have the infamous steak on a stone
Day 12 was just driving from Nurburgring to Calais to catch the ferry. A bit of speedy driving through Germany, Belgium & France meant we was the second to last car to catch the earlier Ferry
I have to say that apart from the lost number plate & a broken roof cable the VX was brilliant. It drew attention wherever we went, people waving, wanting to know what it was etc.
Whenever I was parked you could almost gaurantee that the would be a bloke 45-55 with grey hair looking around it
Just thought that I would share a few of the pictures and videos in the hope that it inspires other people to do the same.
This is the route that we took
Day one was from Essex to Reims
Reims was a really nice city with a great atmosphere and lovely food.
Day two was from Reims to Lake Geneva
We stopped off at Gueux, just outside Reims to visit the historic grandstand. It had a really weird eyrie atmoshophere and the misses really didn't like it
We didn't go in to Geneva itself, but visited an old town on the lake called Yvoire that was recommended to us. Really nice place and would recommend it too.
Day 3 was from Lake Geneva to Avigliana in Italy (just outside Turin). this is where the fun started as it had been motorways up until this point.
Stopped off at some really lovely places such as Chamonix
We went via the Saint Bernard Pass, which was a brilliant road.
A quick video to give an idea what the roads are like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AiI3dz1ts4&fea...
Trying to keep up with a 458
Day 4 was from Avigliana to Nice on the south coast of France
The highlight of this was driving the Col Du Turini, which is part of the Monte Carlo Rally stage.
A couple of videos to show you what the roads are like (had to slow down a bit once the Misses started to freak out
)http://youtu.be/ZbW_Nzlf0-4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLVTf1hKyLg&fea...
That's my type of sign
We stopped off at the Hotel des Trois Vallees, which was a pretty cool place dedicated to the Monte Carlo Rally. All the walls were covered with pictures like the one below.
Nice lived up to it's name & was really nice
Day 5 was from Nice to Maranello in Italy.
This leg was only Motorway, but we did stop off at Monaco for a couple of hours. I managed to drive a bit of the circuit including the tunnel & hairpin.
A few of the cars parked in Casino Square
The Fairmont Hairpin
We stayed at the Ferrari Hotel in Maranello, which was a great place to stay.
Day 6 we travelled from Maranello to Lake Garda.
We visited the Ferrari Museum on the way
We stayed at Lake Garda for a couple of days, nice being able to relax and not drive.
Day 8 we traveled from Lake Garda to Davos in Switzerland
This meant that I could take in a couple of great roads like the Stelvio Pass & Flüela Pass.
The Stelvio was what I expected it to be, can't believe that Top Gear named it as the best drivers road, but I couldn't go all that way & not experience it.
On our way up the Stelvio Pass
The top of Stelvio
The Flüela Pass was a really good road, quite busy when I drove it so quite difficult to get into a rythum
Day 9 we travelled through the Alps from Davos to Andermatte, we drove some amazing roads such as the San Bernadino Pass, Furka Pass & Grimmsel Pass
The San Bernadino Pass
Thought we would leave our own little mark there & build our own (mini) version
Next up was the Furka Pass
This was the last time that I would ever see my front number plate again
Then from the Furka Pass we carried onto the Grimsel Pass
Quick video of me trying to catch a local Opel Speedster Turbo (VX220) up the Grimsel Pass
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCzcXPIldOw&fea...
I was chatting the the guy in the Speedster at the top when he asked me where my front number plate was
We had to drive from the top of Grimsel Pass to the top of the Furka Pass twice trying to find it , but no luck Day 10 we drove from Andermatte to Baden Baden
On the way we stopped off at Lucerne in Switzerland, really lovely little town
Then we drove into Germany and the fun started again, we turned off the motorway at Wehr & drove 120 miles throught the Black Forrest
I have to say that these were the best roads of the trip, they really suited the VX220 with the fast sweeping corners. I Managed to get advice on a couple of good roads, but mainly just looked for the twisty stuff on Google Maps & and added that to the route.
My poor car without it's numberplate
Not quite the scenery of the Alps due to the number of trees, but still a nice place to visit.
Day 11 was from Baden Baden to the Nurburgring
No real fun roads this day, well apart from the Nurburgring itself. Driving the autobarns was an experience, doing 100mph+ and you still have cars racing past you
At the Nurburgring I hired a stage 1 Suzuki Swift from Rent4Ring for 2 laps. It was so weird to drive the Swift after driving 2,000 miles in a VX220
I don't mind admitting that I was absolutely bricking it before I went out after hearing all the horror stories. The briefing from Rent4Ring was brilliant & just told us to treat it as a two lane highway, so I spent most of my time on the right letting all the Porsches fly past
I wasn't out to set a new lap record & just stayed well within my limits.Couple of videos of me driving like Miss Daisy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU7SoQl-QYg&fea...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL7p6OFDlrQ&fea...
Had to leave our mark at Rent4Ring
I was so tempted to take the VX220 round for a lap once I was finished, but luckily my wife thought that was a bad idea
About as close as the VX got to the track
We stayed at the Hotel Tiergarten whilst we were there & would really recommend it. I think it is owned by Sabine Schmitz's mother
Louise decided that she wants a Porsche 911 GT3 RS as her next car, they are far too common at the Ring thou
We had dinner at the Pistenklaus which is attached to the hotel & I had to have the infamous steak on a stone
Day 12 was just driving from Nurburgring to Calais to catch the ferry. A bit of speedy driving through Germany, Belgium & France meant we was the second to last car to catch the earlier Ferry
I have to say that apart from the lost number plate & a broken roof cable the VX was brilliant. It drew attention wherever we went, people waving, wanting to know what it was etc.
Whenever I was parked you could almost gaurantee that the would be a bloke 45-55 with grey hair looking around it
g3org3y said:
Brilliant, thanks for sharing!
Did something similar a couple of years back though not quite as extensive as yourself.
Did you do all the driving or did you share with your wife?
Euro drives are great holidays, super adventures with properly epic scenery.
Looked like a very good trip Did something similar a couple of years back though not quite as extensive as yourself.
Did you do all the driving or did you share with your wife?
Euro drives are great holidays, super adventures with properly epic scenery.
, kinda made my pictures look at bit tame, think I should work on my photograthy skills I did the majority of the driving, but the misses did some of the motorway stuff, which suited her. She flat refused to drive on the Autobarn though
Cyrus1971 said:
Looks like you had a blast. PH sholud have more of this kind of sharing IMHO. Did you give the 458 Itallia a run for it's money ?
Cyrus
I'm sure if he was trying properly I wouldn't have seen which way he went. Seemed to be giving it beans on the straight, but slow through most corners.Cyrus
Agree about sharing these kind of trips, it's what inspired me to do it and I'm really glad I did.
sagarich said:
Cracking write up! Really enjoyed reading this and would love to do something like this at some stage.
How did you navigate? Sat nav? Or was the misses operating the map?
I produced ITN files for each day of the exact roads that I wanted to drive that I then uploaded onto my TomTom. How did you navigate? Sat nav? Or was the misses operating the map?
Each morning it was just a case of selecting the correct route and then following the TomTom.
Craikeybaby said:
Great thread! I've got a similar trip planned, but I need to go out there and do it!
How was the luggage situation in a VX220 for 12 days?
As you can imagine we were a little tight on space, but we packed sensibly & made the most of the space we had.How was the luggage situation in a VX220 for 12 days?
Edited by Craikeybaby on Wednesday 31st October 12:50
I was also very good at Tetris as a child
krallicious said:
Quite funny that you turned off by Wehr for the Schwarzwald and I know where the picture was taken. It's part of my weekend route when I'm visiting the MIL!
I read a thread on here that said Wehr to Todtmoos to Todtnau was a great route & it was, I just made it up the rest of the way up to Baden Baden & had a blast.Very jealous that you get to drive it all the time
Nano2nd said:
great pics and write up what sort of costs did you incur on the whole trip?
I didn't really keep track of costs, one of those once in a life time trips and we didn't really skimp on hotels or food. I would estimate in the region of 2,500 Euros. But it can be done for a lot cheaper if you wished. what sort of costs did you incur on the whole trip?jontymo said:
Great thread, do you have a list of the hotels you stayed at and did you go for secure parking every time?
jontymo
I'll dig them out for youjontymo
g3org3y said:
That's useful.
When we did ours, we only had (and still have the Tom Tom Start 2 (I think)) which has no extra memory slot. Not sure if we are able to do this? Is it done via the Tom Tom PC program?
I have a newer TomTom & had to reprogramme it to allow for ITN files as they removed this functionality from all TomToms. Hopefully yours being older it will have it, I think you need to look for an icon on the TomTom called 'Itinerary planning'When we did ours, we only had (and still have the Tom Tom Start 2 (I think)) which has no extra memory slot. Not sure if we are able to do this? Is it done via the Tom Tom PC program?
I used a programme called Tyre to create the routes (www.tyretotravel.com), works a bit like Google Maps. I then save these as ITN files, plug in the TomTom to the PC and drop them into the TomTom's ITN folder. Then whenever you need the route, just go into 'Itinerary planning' & TomTom will follow this.
I've probably made it sound more complicated than it actually is
Roastie ITR said:
jontymo said:
Great thread, do you have a list of the hotels you stayed at and did you go for secure parking every time?
jontymo
I'll dig them out for youjontymo
Reims - Ibis Reims Tinqueux
Annemasse near Lake Geneva - Ibis Annemasse
Avigliana near Turin - Hotel Chalet del Lago
Nice - Esatitude Hotel
Maranello - Hotel Maranello Village
Lake Garda - Hotel Bisesti
Davos - Hotel Edelweiss
Andermatte - Chalet Hotel Krone
Near Baden Baden - Gasthaus Auerhahn
Nurburgring - Hotel Am Tiergarten
I didn't always go for secure parking, but I did always insist that they had parking at the Hotel. Places like Nice it is very difficult to get a hotel with parking, we ended up staying slightly on the outskirts to get the secure parking.
timapp said:
Brilliant write up and photos,just what I was looking for.
Will visit most of the places you did but then going more into Italy and Spain.
Did you have any problems with parking at hotels or anywhere really?
If you have names of hotels to hand I would appreciate it please.
Many thanks really enjoyed reading it and hope to do same soon.
No issues with parking through out the trip. I did ensure that each hotel had parking, it wasn't always secure but I didn't want to just leave my car in some random carpark.Will visit most of the places you did but then going more into Italy and Spain.
Did you have any problems with parking at hotels or anywhere really?
If you have names of hotels to hand I would appreciate it please.
Many thanks really enjoyed reading it and hope to do same soon.
These are the hotels that I stayed at.
Reims - Ibis Reims Tinqueux
Annemasse near Lake Geneva - Ibis Annemasse
Avigliana near Turin - Hotel Chalet del Lago
Nice - Esatitude Hotel
Maranello - Hotel Maranello Village
Lake Garda - Hotel Bisesti
Davos - Hotel Edelweiss
Andermatte - Chalet Hotel Krone
Near Baden Baden - Gasthaus Auerhahn
Nurburgring - Hotel Am Tiergarten
Apart from the Ferrari hotel & Hotel Am Tiergarten at the Ring we just used Booking.com to find the others based on where we were going to be stopping each night.
Sods Law said:
Blimey! Great write up, I am looking at trip routes and there some I mighty useful info in there!
Thanks glad you had an awesome time!
I started a thread over in the Roads section for everyone to share a link to their Euro road trip write up, have a read of those and you should have plenty of ideas Thanks glad you had an awesome time!
http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...
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