If you had 9 days to play in Europe where would you drive?

[ChristianM]

Hi all,

Myself and 2 mates are embarking on a 9 day roadtrip in Europe, leaving in around 4 weeks time via the Dover - Calias ferry. Having wanted to do this for years, I'm pretty excited to say the least.

It now comes down to getting the map out and sticking the pins in to mark out the best roads and must see experiences along the way, then join up the dots to form the route. We have done a bit of research already and analysed the Top Gear route but welcome the experience of those who have been there and done it!

So I've got two questions for those in the know...if you had 9 days to play with...

1. Could you suggest some 'pins' to stick on our map? amazing roads, experiences, places to stay all welcome...

2. How many miles do you think is sensible to aim to average in a day? We all love driving and don't mind a few hours behind the wheel, but at the same time we want to experience things not sit on motorways munching miles the whole time and don't want to tire outselves out.

All experience and advice welcome!

[steve z]

Nurburgring and Stelvio Pass wouldn't be bad places to start!

[Bonne Route]

My suggestion would be: -

Day 1 - Alsace - great roads and scenery. Overnight in/near Molsheim for that 'Bugatti' experience. 379 miles, 5h31.
Day 2 - To Mulhouse for the Schlumpf Collection - French National Motor Museum (Fantastic), the overnight in/near Grenoble. 329 miles, 5h 12.
Day 3 - to Nice via the Route Napoleon - Fantastic days driving. 227 miles, 5h 35.
Day 4 - Rest day Nice to explore Monaco.
Day 5 - to Lake Como, Italy - great M/way drive. Over night in Varenna. 256 miles, 4h 30.
Day 6 - Stelvio Pass day! 175 miles, 4h 49. Overnight in Sankt Anton, Austria - lovely town in summer and great scenery.
Day 7 - More great passes including Furka and Grimsel. Overnight in Interlaken, Switzerland. 210 miles, 6h 45.
Day 8 - Troyes, France (overnight) 311 miles 5h 22. More great scenery and roads.
Day 9 - Homeward bound! To Calais, 249 miles, 3h 49.

All mileages and times courtesy of ViaMichelin. HTH!

[skodamanpat]

Just got back from 9 days away, http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

you could do a lot worse plenty of exciting roads and a bit of r&r time, of course if the eagles nest didn't interest you , you might like to drive up and spend a day at the 'ring instead

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[ChristianM]

This stuff is pefect, I think were going to start with the 9 day interary suggested, and maybe add some tweaks - thanks.

Has anyone done this any camped along the way, we were thinking of mainly using B&B/hotels but would happily camp for the off night if there were some nice places to do so. Someone told me about a camp site about Monarco with stunning views for example. Luckily we should have one hot hatch with a boot so should be able to take some stuff..

[jazzybee]

Planning a family trip at the moment for 10 to 12 days. However it will be in the diesel barge, not the MX5.
Thinking of heading down through Le Mans, Villandry, Biaritz, to San Sebastian, then across to Barcelona, and up along the French Riviera to Monaco, across to Venice, back to the Swiss lakes via Como and then home. We've been to a few of the places before, only Swiss lakes are new (advice for this area would be great).

works out to roughly 3000 miles. And, yes we do like these sorts of trips flying around all day in the car.

[allen l]

Just drive to France. Throw a tent and Michelin roadbook in the trunk. Don't plan anything and just stay off the highway. Stop at any camping / hotel / bed & breakfast you see when you want to call it a day and look out for small places to eat when you get hungry. You'll probably have the best 9 days of your life. I always say it's best to leave planning and schedules at work.

[Marvindodgers]

Scotland! Nothing more need be said if you are truly interested in driving the best and emptiest roads in Europe. Basically head towards the north west coast and keep going until you get wet!

[350zroadster]

The Sussten and Furka passes are great, but by far the best road I have done recently is the road from lanslebourg st Cenis to Val dis

[350zroadster]

That was from Suza in Italy to Lanslebourg st cenis and on to val dis ere, awsome roads and no one about.

This is our trip in 2009 and 2007.

http://www.youtube.com/user/350zroadsterGT#p/u

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxG0DZENrJA

http://www.youtube.com/user/350zroadsterGT#p/u/4/d...

http://www.youtube.com/user/350zroadsterGT#p/u/3/K...

http://www.youtube.com/user/350zroadsterGT#p/u/6/m...

[FamilyDub]

I'd add three possibles to your list to consider:-

a) Route Napoleon,
b) Any North-Western German Autobhan,
c) Any stretch along the French Riveria to Monaco.

[Davey S2]

Calais to Reims
Reims to Dijon (via the old road D996)
Dijon to Grenoble (via Route de Lyon)
Grenoble to Cannes (via Route Napoleon)

Few days in the south of France to relax then back up via Switzerland and the various passes.

[drakart]

I've just come back from an epic road trip with nine days driving. Calais to Portimao and back! Found an incredible road in Southern Spain that is 170 miles long, billiard table smooth and can only be described as "outrageously fun" Think it is the D453. 3500 miles of driving with as little driving as possible on dual carriageways and motorways. Camped at proper sites and they all had space and are amazingly cheap. Spain is a great country to drive through - much better than France.

Shot taken in Andorra on return leg

[Davey S2]

Looks great. What car were you in?

[drakart]

Davey S2 said:

Looks great. What car were you in?

This is the funny bit!! a 1993 Vitara in white, pulling a large twin axle trailer!! I was employed to support a few bikers on a trip to the faro bike festival. i went to watch the le mans series racing at portimao instead though!

[Rubin215]

I would say get across tourist europe as quickly as you can and get into central/eastern europe instead.

Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Austria.

Each country is fantastic for just getting off the main roads and going exploring, the people are fantastic and massively into foreigners with flash motors, the beer is cheap and the women are beautiful.

Anyone care to argue?

[Davey S2]

drakart said:

Davey S2 said:

Looks great. What car were you in?

This is the funny bit!! a 1993 Vitara in white, pulling a large twin axle trailer!!

Glol! How many times did you wish you were in your Caterham?

[dcb]

Rubin215 said:

I would say get across tourist europe as quickly as you can and get into central/eastern europe instead.

Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Austria.

Each country is fantastic for just getting off the main roads and going exploring, the people are fantastic and massively into foreigners with flash motors, the beer is cheap and the women are beautiful.

Anyone care to argue?

I've been to CZ and SLO a few times and liked it.
Not somewhere I'd take a flash car, and I'd be
really careful about pickpocketing, but still nice
places to visit.

SK & H I can't tell you anything about - bit far off
the beaten track for me.

A is nice, Alps sensational, beer prices are nothing special,
but the petrol is cheaper than Germany.

I still think the nicest women are elsewhere, though.
The Bavarians do a nice line in big beefy ladies who
can carry ten litres of beer no problem, according to
their beer garden tourist literature.

[ChristianM]

Chaps,

Thanks for all the advice, were using alot of the ideas. So far we have drafted out the first few days, as below.
The challenge seems to be how to map out the route as an itenery we can upload to the satnav as we won't have passengers to read the maps while driving. We have been doing this by creating a Google map with routes that can be uploaded to a TomTom but its fairly time consuming.

a. Has anyone got a itenary or googemap of the route from when you did the mountain passes that you could kindly share?
b. Any ideas on traffic levels between Calais to Monaco during the last week in August? We are wondering whether we could do it in two days as it seems to be about 9 hours a day driving for two days to get there.
c. Has anyone done the Stelvio or Bust route and is it a good one? (http://www.hazelnet.org//stelvio/index.htm)/


So far the draft plan is:
Day 1. Calais to Reims then Reims to Dijon (via the old road D996)
Day 2. Dijon to Grenoble (via Route de Lyon) and Grenoble to Cannes (via Route Napoleon)
Day 3. Out of Monarco and head up to do the Col de Turini and on towards Val Dis Air.
Somehow go past Lake Como and pleanty of the Alpine passes but not sure how to tie them all together...
Up through some of the Black Forest
Up on some of the North German Autoroutes...
On to Amsterdam then back to Calais

Cheers

[G Man]

ChristianM said:

Somehow go past Lake Como and pleanty of the Alpine passes but not sure how to tie them all together...
Up through some of the Black Forest
Cheers

I can help here my Alpine Bikers map

Try this http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en...