Driving holidays
Discussion
We have done the trip down to Austria and Switzerland a couple of times to do various passes inc the Stelvio and had a brilliant time with a run through Germany and a visit to the 'Ring on the way back. The only spoiler we had though was that the snow was still a problem in some areas despite it being mid-June and we got turned away when they toll road operator at the Grossglockner Pass noticed the lack of snow chains on the caterhams...!
A few of the lads went across to Bilbao on the ferry earlier this year and said that a trip to the Picos area was much, much better with less traffic, quiet roads with excellent surfaces and definitely better weather. This trip in on the cards for the future.
Otherwise we had a superb trip to the top of Scotland with incredible roads, scenery and hospitality. I suppose the weather plays a large part (but then we did a thousand miles to Austria to have problems with snow!) but we have been a couple of times and had very sunny and dry days to blast round the area. Well worth considering.
A few of the lads went across to Bilbao on the ferry earlier this year and said that a trip to the Picos area was much, much better with less traffic, quiet roads with excellent surfaces and definitely better weather. This trip in on the cards for the future.
Otherwise we had a superb trip to the top of Scotland with incredible roads, scenery and hospitality. I suppose the weather plays a large part (but then we did a thousand miles to Austria to have problems with snow!) but we have been a couple of times and had very sunny and dry days to blast round the area. Well worth considering.
This is a useful resource to find good driving roads : http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
The best thing is to work out where you want to go to and then plan the route yourself. I use trip advisor and booking.com to find good places to stay on the way.
Think about how long you want to stay in the car as it can be quite a distance unless you use autoroutes, which are less fun in a 7.
As an idea, my wife and I went over for 10 days this summer - Reims / Lausanne / Grenoble / Nice x2 / Pt Grimaud x2 / Rodez / Montlucon / Rouen, which involved 6-7 hours driving each day apart from the lighter days in Nice and Pt Grimaud. The first and last days were motorway blasts to get th distance done, but other than that the roads were pretty interesting to spectacular.
Steve
The best thing is to work out where you want to go to and then plan the route yourself. I use trip advisor and booking.com to find good places to stay on the way.
Think about how long you want to stay in the car as it can be quite a distance unless you use autoroutes, which are less fun in a 7.
As an idea, my wife and I went over for 10 days this summer - Reims / Lausanne / Grenoble / Nice x2 / Pt Grimaud x2 / Rodez / Montlucon / Rouen, which involved 6-7 hours driving each day apart from the lighter days in Nice and Pt Grimaud. The first and last days were motorway blasts to get th distance done, but other than that the roads were pretty interesting to spectacular.
Steve
I did this in a MX5
Left home 0600 Thursday Late July to get the 0810 shuttle ,
A gentle drive of about 170 mles to our first overnight stop, the intention on this trip is to avoid autoroutes and toll roads
After our first stop in LA CHAUSSEE SUR MARNE we are ready to leave
Fuel consumption for the first part of the trip 33.5mpg
This is a very clean simple hotel ,good food , quiet
on the road to Besancon , nice drive
Arrived at the hotel , fantastic room
The Hotel , note handy shop next door ;D
BUT A/C not working , and day time temp was 32c + , so we are moved to new room next day , workng A/C bliss
Saturday much cooler 23c
no car pics , the MX5 is tucked up under cover in the hotel garage ,
Spent the day walking around Besancon
and up in the Citadel about 200m above the town
looking in
looking out
The river Daube which flows round the town
Sunday
About 150 miles round the countryside visiting noted viliages
Here Louis Pastur's house in Arbois
A couple circuits of the fountain in the same town
Cant have the roads to my self ALL the time ;D
No update Monday
The longest drive of the trip around 380+miles to get to the Gorges du Verdon , some fantastic drives there , I hope to video and upload to youtube when I getback
More soon
This a look back on a part of the trip on Monday , you can see the road to the left of centre of the pic
The 5 taking a break and enjoying a look at the countryside
The Hotel in Aguines near the Gorges du Verdon
Tuesday
a different form of motive power today
here is why
pictures just can not convey the fantastic scenary
Wednesday
Before 8am roads empty , starting the drive round the gorge
Down in the gorge , the water is icy cold , great for a paddle and face splash
Nicky hanging on for dear life there is a sheer drop the other side of the rails
Thursday Monaco
Any petrolhead will know this
A Ford
I want that one
The Casino , the car park was knee deep in 4 wheel exotica
Gorges du Tarn Friday
The Hotel
View from room
Saturday , a drive round the Gorges du Tarn
Stopped at pont sublime (yup the have such a view point in all the national parks)
The car, newly washed, looked rather nice in this setting , in fact stunning
Wash and brush up
The birds , Griffon Vultures, bit of a dull day
We then moved on to the Loire, to the town of Montaureau
A fantastic setting for the hotel , just behind the Chateau
This is the hotel from the chateau ramparts
and the room
Apart from a day in Honfleur and a qk wiz round Cite Europe that was it
A bit of background to our trip
All the hotels were part of the “Logis de France “ group , independent hotels ,but all members of the association , we chose hotels on the basis mainly of secure parking , price and star( or in their case table lamps ) rating , it was amazing the difference in hotels of a similar rating , the best were Hotel Florel in Besancon , and the Hotel Bussy in Montasureau , and least impressive were a hotel in Oradour su Glane , where the reception was not manned , and you had to walk to an adjacent hotel to book in , and the rooms were stuck in a time warp , clean but much needing modernising .
The other was the Hotel Claire in Honfleur where we had a studio , complete with a kitchen , again needing a make over , the décor being mostly varnished pine panel , and a worn bed where the bias is for the 2 occupiers to roll together , best of all ( or worst ) was 10pm Friday night ….no power … so a walk to reception …. No reception , seems they clock off , leave a note with a phone number on the reception door , and leave guests to their own devices , problem was the phone number was hotel reception , where the phones were set to divert to on duty receptionist who was at home , without power the hotel phone was dead so no divert , no person to restore power , 0700 next morning presumably someone turned up . cos the power came on , needless to say a discount was demanded and given, That was the only glitch in what was otherwise a great holiday
The price per room was from €69 to €99 , breakfast €8/10 per person
Dining out , we stuck to fixed menus on average €15/23 per person , and lunch was a baguette with ham or cheese from the local supermarket .
Fuel was €1.26 per ltr supermarket and €1.49 Autoroute
We did 2700 miles , and the average fuel consumption for the whole trip was a shade over 30mpg
The hood was down for 99% of the time , it was only up 3 times, twice during heavy rain , fortunately each time we were moving from one area to another , and once after the visit to Monaco , where the temperature was in the high 30s even maybe as high as 40c.
After the walk round Monte Carlo the car was a cool haven with the A/C on full blast
The car did not miss a beat , not a drop of oil was used .
We managed to pack all we needed in the boot , The lump you see on the boot rack is a powered cool box , might seem excessive , but with cold cans up to £1.00 or more in cafes , getting a few in a supermarket bought the cost down to much the same as the UK , and French hotels do not do a fridge in the room , so cold water and milk for a morning cupper , was a boon
And the French love MX5s
Do it again ? if I had time
Downsides ? not being able to just sit and chill , read a book , do zip , there were never comfy chairs to sit on where ever we stayed
Some Vids
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR1mhS87Yz4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SecxRXiu6ro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLD_X0e7szM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSPSttzUpUs
Left home 0600 Thursday Late July to get the 0810 shuttle ,
A gentle drive of about 170 mles to our first overnight stop, the intention on this trip is to avoid autoroutes and toll roads
After our first stop in LA CHAUSSEE SUR MARNE we are ready to leave
Fuel consumption for the first part of the trip 33.5mpg
This is a very clean simple hotel ,good food , quiet
on the road to Besancon , nice drive
Arrived at the hotel , fantastic room
The Hotel , note handy shop next door ;D
BUT A/C not working , and day time temp was 32c + , so we are moved to new room next day , workng A/C bliss
Saturday much cooler 23c
no car pics , the MX5 is tucked up under cover in the hotel garage ,
Spent the day walking around Besancon
and up in the Citadel about 200m above the town
looking in
looking out
The river Daube which flows round the town
Sunday
About 150 miles round the countryside visiting noted viliages
Here Louis Pastur's house in Arbois
A couple circuits of the fountain in the same town
Cant have the roads to my self ALL the time ;D
No update Monday
The longest drive of the trip around 380+miles to get to the Gorges du Verdon , some fantastic drives there , I hope to video and upload to youtube when I getback
More soon
This a look back on a part of the trip on Monday , you can see the road to the left of centre of the pic
The 5 taking a break and enjoying a look at the countryside
The Hotel in Aguines near the Gorges du Verdon
Tuesday
a different form of motive power today
here is why
pictures just can not convey the fantastic scenary
Wednesday
Before 8am roads empty , starting the drive round the gorge
Down in the gorge , the water is icy cold , great for a paddle and face splash
Nicky hanging on for dear life there is a sheer drop the other side of the rails
Thursday Monaco
Any petrolhead will know this
A Ford
I want that one
The Casino , the car park was knee deep in 4 wheel exotica
Gorges du Tarn Friday
The Hotel
View from room
Saturday , a drive round the Gorges du Tarn
Stopped at pont sublime (yup the have such a view point in all the national parks)
The car, newly washed, looked rather nice in this setting , in fact stunning
Wash and brush up
The birds , Griffon Vultures, bit of a dull day
We then moved on to the Loire, to the town of Montaureau
A fantastic setting for the hotel , just behind the Chateau
This is the hotel from the chateau ramparts
and the room
Apart from a day in Honfleur and a qk wiz round Cite Europe that was it
A bit of background to our trip
All the hotels were part of the “Logis de France “ group , independent hotels ,but all members of the association , we chose hotels on the basis mainly of secure parking , price and star( or in their case table lamps ) rating , it was amazing the difference in hotels of a similar rating , the best were Hotel Florel in Besancon , and the Hotel Bussy in Montasureau , and least impressive were a hotel in Oradour su Glane , where the reception was not manned , and you had to walk to an adjacent hotel to book in , and the rooms were stuck in a time warp , clean but much needing modernising .
The other was the Hotel Claire in Honfleur where we had a studio , complete with a kitchen , again needing a make over , the décor being mostly varnished pine panel , and a worn bed where the bias is for the 2 occupiers to roll together , best of all ( or worst ) was 10pm Friday night ….no power … so a walk to reception …. No reception , seems they clock off , leave a note with a phone number on the reception door , and leave guests to their own devices , problem was the phone number was hotel reception , where the phones were set to divert to on duty receptionist who was at home , without power the hotel phone was dead so no divert , no person to restore power , 0700 next morning presumably someone turned up . cos the power came on , needless to say a discount was demanded and given, That was the only glitch in what was otherwise a great holiday
The price per room was from €69 to €99 , breakfast €8/10 per person
Dining out , we stuck to fixed menus on average €15/23 per person , and lunch was a baguette with ham or cheese from the local supermarket .
Fuel was €1.26 per ltr supermarket and €1.49 Autoroute
We did 2700 miles , and the average fuel consumption for the whole trip was a shade over 30mpg
The hood was down for 99% of the time , it was only up 3 times, twice during heavy rain , fortunately each time we were moving from one area to another , and once after the visit to Monaco , where the temperature was in the high 30s even maybe as high as 40c.
After the walk round Monte Carlo the car was a cool haven with the A/C on full blast
The car did not miss a beat , not a drop of oil was used .
We managed to pack all we needed in the boot , The lump you see on the boot rack is a powered cool box , might seem excessive , but with cold cans up to £1.00 or more in cafes , getting a few in a supermarket bought the cost down to much the same as the UK , and French hotels do not do a fridge in the room , so cold water and milk for a morning cupper , was a boon
And the French love MX5s
Do it again ? if I had time
Downsides ? not being able to just sit and chill , read a book , do zip , there were never comfy chairs to sit on where ever we stayed
Some Vids
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR1mhS87Yz4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SecxRXiu6ro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLD_X0e7szM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSPSttzUpUs
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