Most planning done, but would appreciate bit o' help

[Montezooma]

I'm very excited as a friend and I are off on a road trip through Germany and France for 9 days. We're combining a fair amount of driving with a few rounds of golf on our rest days. I've secured the route and where we're staying, but would really appreciate any suggestions as to a couple of details.

Here's a google map of the route that I'm planning, the basic version is:

Fri: London -> Eurotunnel -> Calais
Sat: Calais -> Baden-Baden
Sun: stay Baden-Baden
Mon: Baden-Baden -> down the B500 -> then across West into Burgundy (just West of Dijon)
Tues: stay Burgundy
Weds: Burgundy -> Chamonix
Thurs: stay Chamonix
Fri: Chamonix -> Reims
Sat: stay Reims
Sun: Reims -> Eurotunnel -> London

As you can see I've set the route to include the B500 in the Black Forest as (based mostly upon research done in this very forum!) it sounds amazing. Aside from that I am looking for any tips - we were thinking of going via Belgium to Baden-Baden to avoid a lot of the toll roads (and hopefully it'll be more interesting) but would love specific road recommendations.

The last roadtrip I did we drove to the south of France and back, basically taking the option of 'Turn sat-nav onto avoid motorways' and it worked out fantastically well (admittedly I planned route de napoleon in there) - do you think that'll work on the route above? If not, again road recommendations would be appreciated!

Oh and finally - unfort we aren't blessed with sat-navs capable of dealing with very detailed itineraries so any suggestions for via-points to plug in to make sure we go roughly where we want to?

Thanks very much in advance!!
Ben / Monty

PS - oh and coming back to the B500 - is it worth driving literally all the way to the south end of it or should I be getting off a bit earlier do you think?

[Janosh]

If you're coming all the way to Chamonix, make sure you find time to do some of the 'Tour du Mont Blanc': Col du Forclaz, Petit & Grand St Bernard and Val d'Arly..

Let me know if you need any help planning, or if you haven't got time to do the whole lot, I can advise which parts are best depending on where you're coming from / going to.

[Far Cough]

Just finished planning my route but we are going Alpine instead of German. Use a program "Tyre" which is free off the net and it works just like google maps. You can plug in way points and destinations all on one route and then simply click the button " Copy to my TomTom " and job done. Switch on TomTom and load itinery.

[G Man]

Most people would go via Luxembourg Saarbrucken,Pirmasens,takes you thru the Forest to Baden Baden
Here are the good routes in the area http://goo.gl/maps/tcGDw

[Montezooma]

thanks guys, really appreciate the suggestions. Can't access those links here at work so will look later on. I did consider getting the passes in down near Cham but I'm concerned about whether we have time - my mate who is going with me is somewhat into driving but doesn't want to spend the entire holiday doing it (hence the golf stops!). If you can suggest a shortened version where we get in a couple but that wouldn't take too long that would be great.

And cheers for the tyre suggestion - I know the program actually but my sat nav can't cope with itineraries unfort!

[Edit] Oh and we'll be staying in Samoens, travelling from Dijon on the way in to the area, and out to Reims on the way out

Edited by Montezooma on Thursday 9th August 10:57

[Craikeybaby]

Montezooma said:

we were thinking of going via Belgium to Baden-Baden to avoid a lot of the toll roads (and hopefully it'll be more interesting) but would love specific road recommendations.

My advice would be avoid Belgium, the roads are pretty crap there to be honest (unless there has been a lot of improvement over the last 5 years), via Luxembourg would also be my suggestion as the roads/scenery are nicer than Belgium and fuel is cheap!

[Montezooma]

Craikeybaby said:

My advice would be avoid Belgium, the roads are pretty crap there to be honest (unless there has been a lot of improvement over the last 5 years), via Luxembourg would also be my suggestion as the roads/scenery are nicer than Belgium and fuel is cheap!

fair enough - sounds reasonable, so from hardelot where we are starting off what would you suggest? the E17 to Amiens then E44 to the border? I guess that would allow us to cover a good chunk of ground on the autoroutes in the first leg, then get to the more enjoyable / slower driving in lux & germany. thx again for the input

[BoostMonkey]

Craikeybaby said:

My advice would be avoid Belgium, the roads are pretty crap there to be honest (unless there has been a lot of improvement over the last 5 years), via Luxembourg would also be my suggestion as the roads/scenery are nicer than Belgium and fuel is cheap!

No Belgium's roads are still crap and fuel expensive.