Discussion
Hi guys,
Me and my mates are planning a 2 week trip around Europe. Were be Driving our own cars.
Currently our route takes us in UK, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Slovakia, Poland, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium.
Was just seeing if anyone has done something similar before and would help with any tips or places to go.
We were planning to camp most of the time and stay in occasional hotels, so any tips on where to camp would be good.
Me and my mates are planning a 2 week trip around Europe. Were be Driving our own cars.
Currently our route takes us in UK, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Slovakia, Poland, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium.
Was just seeing if anyone has done something similar before and would help with any tips or places to go.
We were planning to camp most of the time and stay in occasional hotels, so any tips on where to camp would be good.
Here is a link to people's write up's of the Euro road trips that they have done.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Hopefully this should give you plenty of ideas.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Hopefully this should give you plenty of ideas.
If you're going that far why not go that little further south?
http://www.pistonheads.com/xforums/topic.asp?h=0&a...
I did this last year - some of the lake parks are amazing (pictures in my link) plus accommodation is cheap, camping even cheaper and beer for £1.20 a 1/2 litre!
http://www.pistonheads.com/xforums/topic.asp?h=0&a...
I did this last year - some of the lake parks are amazing (pictures in my link) plus accommodation is cheap, camping even cheaper and beer for £1.20 a 1/2 litre!
I did a similar thing last year over 9 days, except we bought an old BMW to do it in.
Compulsory photos: http://imgur.com/a/meqQd
We went to France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Holland and Belgium.
I'd get through as much of France as you can do in one day first. The roads are quiet and its pretty boring, so you can get to Lyon by the within a day if you leave early enough.
We never went to the southern coast of france, but I hear its nice and maybe worth a visit. Failing that head through the Alps to Italy, its a really great drive. Northern Italy around the big lakes is very pretty and well worth a visit.
Turin and Milan are great places to visit, but the drivers out there are truly mental(weaving lanes, cutting you up, jump red lights etc) so be careful. The food is great though and they Italians are really nice.
We did the Stelvio pass and I really enjoyed it. There is a campsite just the other side of it too that is a really scenic place to stay. Although its 1600m up and rather cold, so bring warm sleeping bags.
The southern side of Switzerland is really really pretty on the other side of the alps. Its quite expensive though and you have to buy a toll sticker to use the motorway. Don't get caught speeding in Switzerland, they will send the fine to you back home!
I found Zurich a bit boring and lacking character (Grey audi's and shiny new buildings everywhere).
Germany is nice, the black forest is a really interesting area to stay in. Food and fuel is reasonably priced too. Autobahn is fun, but its narrow and watch out for coach drivers as they seem to pull out onto the fast lane with no real indication.
Holland is very flat and ok to drive through. Amsterdam is worth a visit, but don't drive in as its not car friendly, hire a bike.
Belgium is an awful place with cobbled roads. The chocolate is nice though.
Book campsites ahead of time and print out all the confirmation emails to take with you just in case.
Compulsory photos: http://imgur.com/a/meqQd
We went to France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Holland and Belgium.
I'd get through as much of France as you can do in one day first. The roads are quiet and its pretty boring, so you can get to Lyon by the within a day if you leave early enough.
We never went to the southern coast of france, but I hear its nice and maybe worth a visit. Failing that head through the Alps to Italy, its a really great drive. Northern Italy around the big lakes is very pretty and well worth a visit.
Turin and Milan are great places to visit, but the drivers out there are truly mental(weaving lanes, cutting you up, jump red lights etc) so be careful. The food is great though and they Italians are really nice.
We did the Stelvio pass and I really enjoyed it. There is a campsite just the other side of it too that is a really scenic place to stay. Although its 1600m up and rather cold, so bring warm sleeping bags.
The southern side of Switzerland is really really pretty on the other side of the alps. Its quite expensive though and you have to buy a toll sticker to use the motorway. Don't get caught speeding in Switzerland, they will send the fine to you back home!
I found Zurich a bit boring and lacking character (Grey audi's and shiny new buildings everywhere).
Germany is nice, the black forest is a really interesting area to stay in. Food and fuel is reasonably priced too. Autobahn is fun, but its narrow and watch out for coach drivers as they seem to pull out onto the fast lane with no real indication.
Holland is very flat and ok to drive through. Amsterdam is worth a visit, but don't drive in as its not car friendly, hire a bike.
Belgium is an awful place with cobbled roads. The chocolate is nice though.
Book campsites ahead of time and print out all the confirmation emails to take with you just in case.
I did 2 weeks in the summer and never got around to my write up, I'll have to do it next weekend to help out other people.
My trip was fairly well planned but I'd left 2 days of contingency for anything we wanted or needed to stop for which helped when I left my passport at the Nurburgring and only realised when we'd got to Belgium.
It all depends on what you want out of the trip, mine was a mix of driving and scenery but I still didn't get to do all the things I'd wanted to do.
I'd probably start off by making a short list of places/things you want to see. That way you can input them to Google Maps to formulate a rough route to drive, from there you can then change bits of the route to take into account any nice roads that take you to the next destination.
The planning stage is great fun and adds to the whole experience of the trip though so enjoy it and don't rush it.
Edit to add: I camped for the majority of the time but stayed in hotels for a bit of luxury every couple of days, most campsites in Europe are well equipped. I wish I'd have researched a bit more around the camping to improve the nights such as taking an electric hookup cable to charge phones/fridge etc. whilst camping. A lot of the campsites we chose were purely random ones found on Google at the time, the problem with pre planning is you cannot account for everything running on time. I couldn't find a campsite on the last night so roughed it in the car. I blame Belgium for a lack of mobile signal.
My trip was fairly well planned but I'd left 2 days of contingency for anything we wanted or needed to stop for which helped when I left my passport at the Nurburgring and only realised when we'd got to Belgium.
It all depends on what you want out of the trip, mine was a mix of driving and scenery but I still didn't get to do all the things I'd wanted to do.
I'd probably start off by making a short list of places/things you want to see. That way you can input them to Google Maps to formulate a rough route to drive, from there you can then change bits of the route to take into account any nice roads that take you to the next destination.
The planning stage is great fun and adds to the whole experience of the trip though so enjoy it and don't rush it.
Edit to add: I camped for the majority of the time but stayed in hotels for a bit of luxury every couple of days, most campsites in Europe are well equipped. I wish I'd have researched a bit more around the camping to improve the nights such as taking an electric hookup cable to charge phones/fridge etc. whilst camping. A lot of the campsites we chose were purely random ones found on Google at the time, the problem with pre planning is you cannot account for everything running on time. I couldn't find a campsite on the last night so roughed it in the car. I blame Belgium for a lack of mobile signal.
Edited by PHuzzy on Wednesday 23 April 13:33
dcb said:
kiethton said:
beer for £1.20 a 1/2 litre!
You paid how much !?Perfectly reasonable 5% beer is about 30 Eurocents per 500 ml in your average German
or Austrian supermarket. That's about 24p a pint.
The posh stuff like Paulaner Salvator at 8% ABV is about 80 Eurocents per 500 ml.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff