European Trip Noobie Questions
Discussion
Hey guys,
I'm hoping to get some advice on our upcoming car trip to Europe. It will be my first road trip to the continent, so I've got a few questions - I'd be very grateful if you could provide your input from your past experiences:
1) Equipment: Would it be enough to buy the AA Euro Travel Kit so that I'm all good with the law? Is there anything else that you consider essential that I should bring along?
2) Accommodation: Where do you usually stay on your trips? Do you have any recommendations for nice places? Do you pre-book or just turn up? Ideally, I'm looking for some chilled out hotels, preferably not located in busy city centres - small towns would be even better. I'd love to hear if you were impressed by specific hotels.
3) Route / Roads: We would like get to the Alps as we expect the roads there to be superb, so we're looking to get there via France, maybe do a bit of Germany on the way back and lots of Swiss roads. I'd love to hear about what roads you consider really good - we're not looking to make time, I prefer going slower on exciting roads than faster on boring motorways.
4) Driving: I've got some experience driving a LHD car but I've never driven my RHD on the continent (it was a long time since I drove on the continent). Any particular bits that I should be aware of with regards to speeding, police, overtaking etc.?
Thanks very much for any input - please feel free to provide as much advice as possible, things to avoid, things that you consider important etc.
I'm hoping to get some advice on our upcoming car trip to Europe. It will be my first road trip to the continent, so I've got a few questions - I'd be very grateful if you could provide your input from your past experiences:
1) Equipment: Would it be enough to buy the AA Euro Travel Kit so that I'm all good with the law? Is there anything else that you consider essential that I should bring along?
2) Accommodation: Where do you usually stay on your trips? Do you have any recommendations for nice places? Do you pre-book or just turn up? Ideally, I'm looking for some chilled out hotels, preferably not located in busy city centres - small towns would be even better. I'd love to hear if you were impressed by specific hotels.
3) Route / Roads: We would like get to the Alps as we expect the roads there to be superb, so we're looking to get there via France, maybe do a bit of Germany on the way back and lots of Swiss roads. I'd love to hear about what roads you consider really good - we're not looking to make time, I prefer going slower on exciting roads than faster on boring motorways.
4) Driving: I've got some experience driving a LHD car but I've never driven my RHD on the continent (it was a long time since I drove on the continent). Any particular bits that I should be aware of with regards to speeding, police, overtaking etc.?
Thanks very much for any input - please feel free to provide as much advice as possible, things to avoid, things that you consider important etc.
c3m said:
Hey guys,
I'm hoping to get some advice on our upcoming car trip to Europe. It will be my first road trip to the continent, so I've got a few questions - I'd be very grateful if you could provide your input from your past experiences:
1) Equipment: Would it be enough to buy the AA Euro Travel Kit so that I'm all good with the law? Is there anything else that you consider essential that I should bring along?
2) Accommodation: Where do you usually stay on your trips? Do you have any recommendations for nice places? Do you pre-book or just turn up? Ideally, I'm looking for some chilled out hotels, preferably not located in busy city centres - small towns would be even better. I'd love to hear if you were impressed by specific hotels.
3) Route / Roads: We would like get to the Alps as we expect the roads there to be superb, so we're looking to get there via France, maybe do a bit of Germany on the way back and lots of Swiss roads. I'd love to hear about what roads you consider really good - we're not looking to make time, I prefer going slower on exciting roads than faster on boring motorways.
4) Driving: I've got some experience driving a LHD car but I've never driven my RHD on the continent (it was a long time since I drove on the continent). Any particular bits that I should be aware of with regards to speeding, police, overtaking etc.?
Thanks very much for any input - please feel free to provide as much advice as possible, things to avoid, things that you consider important etc.
Forget trying to DIY it, just join us next year I'm hoping to get some advice on our upcoming car trip to Europe. It will be my first road trip to the continent, so I've got a few questions - I'd be very grateful if you could provide your input from your past experiences:
1) Equipment: Would it be enough to buy the AA Euro Travel Kit so that I'm all good with the law? Is there anything else that you consider essential that I should bring along?
2) Accommodation: Where do you usually stay on your trips? Do you have any recommendations for nice places? Do you pre-book or just turn up? Ideally, I'm looking for some chilled out hotels, preferably not located in busy city centres - small towns would be even better. I'd love to hear if you were impressed by specific hotels.
3) Route / Roads: We would like get to the Alps as we expect the roads there to be superb, so we're looking to get there via France, maybe do a bit of Germany on the way back and lots of Swiss roads. I'd love to hear about what roads you consider really good - we're not looking to make time, I prefer going slower on exciting roads than faster on boring motorways.
4) Driving: I've got some experience driving a LHD car but I've never driven my RHD on the continent (it was a long time since I drove on the continent). Any particular bits that I should be aware of with regards to speeding, police, overtaking etc.?
Thanks very much for any input - please feel free to provide as much advice as possible, things to avoid, things that you consider important etc.
http://cannonballruneurope.co.uk/
1) You need a warning triangle, bulb kit, hi-vis, headlight benders, GB sticker and now a breathalyser I believe.
2) We just rocked up at places we liked the look of and found cracking guest houses and a couple of hotels, if you want to stay on lake geneva I have a great recommendation.
3) Alps are great but bear in mind you won't make much progress on the windy stuff, the Swiss speed limits are really strict too with loads of cameras.
4) Don't speed on the Autoroute on France when you are within 50 miles of the border, overtaking is fine make sure you can see past the car properly.
We had some places of interest we had researched before we went, you won't want to be in the car all day, we planned for no more than 200 miles max even when using the motorways. I would plan stuff you want to do and then drive at a comfortable pace / time, if you don't have hotels you can take your time a lot more than needing to get to a destination. We had an European Ibis hotel book as a backup plan if we couldn't find a local one. This way we had loads of time to explore in the day too.
We had loads of random experiences and it was great fun, loking to do another to Norway next time round.
Shameless pic....
2) We just rocked up at places we liked the look of and found cracking guest houses and a couple of hotels, if you want to stay on lake geneva I have a great recommendation.
3) Alps are great but bear in mind you won't make much progress on the windy stuff, the Swiss speed limits are really strict too with loads of cameras.
4) Don't speed on the Autoroute on France when you are within 50 miles of the border, overtaking is fine make sure you can see past the car properly.
We had some places of interest we had researched before we went, you won't want to be in the car all day, we planned for no more than 200 miles max even when using the motorways. I would plan stuff you want to do and then drive at a comfortable pace / time, if you don't have hotels you can take your time a lot more than needing to get to a destination. We had an European Ibis hotel book as a backup plan if we couldn't find a local one. This way we had loads of time to explore in the day too.
We had loads of random experiences and it was great fun, loking to do another to Norway next time round.
Shameless pic....
Look here for some route ideas :
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
A quick search will tell you what car spares you need including a breathalyser now to be on the safe side. Driving a RHD car is no biggie but made easier if you have a trustworthy passenger.
You`ll have a blast
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
A quick search will tell you what car spares you need including a breathalyser now to be on the safe side. Driving a RHD car is no biggie but made easier if you have a trustworthy passenger.
You`ll have a blast
swerni said:
D_G said:
, we planned for no more than 200 miles max even when using the motorways.
Sod that, I'm doing 550 miles (plus 80 in the UK) on the first leg of my trip in 12 days If you do use the Swiss motorways then you need a permit before going on to them BTW.
Take only originals,don't forget if your sat nat has locations of all radar cameras they are illegal in France so don't display it in your windscreen,this only applies if you get pulled over so don't worry too much,don't use back roads too much as you will get better scenery but you won't get anywhere
c3m said:
I was thinking of getting the AA European Cover. Given that ADAC has a reciprocal arrangement with AA, I should be able to just relax and not think about any hassles if we do break down?
That would work, the AA have been very good in my experience.The only real problem (as an FYI for others) if you are going to be on a French Autoroute none of the breakdown cover will actually cover you, you will have to pay the locals to recover you off the motorway and then meet up with your breakdown service etc. after.
PS. Don't run out of fuel on an autoroute or you will discover all of the above.
swerni said:
Sod that, I'm doing 550 miles (plus 80 in the UK) on the first leg of my trip in 12 days
I see your 550 and raise you to 700 (without a windscreen). Can't say I'm overly excited about this stint though, but it should pay dividends once we get to the hilly stuff.When are you heading down and which motor did you decide to take in the end?
1) Equipment: Check the requirements for all the countries you plan to drive through. http://www.driving-in.com/ Foreign police are quite keen to enforce their laws quite strongly on visitors so don't give them any extra opportunities.
2) Accommodation: If you're travelling as one car then I might only book hotels in the big cities. It's great to have that flexibility, particularly if you're new to touring and don't have a strong idea of the distances you'll be covering each day. During summer you will not struggle to get rooms on arrival in most of the ski resorts (which are usually in amongst some great driving).
3) Route / Roads: Northern France is a bit tame compared to what's on offer further south, so I usually make use of the very efficient autoroutes to cover the first 600-700 miles and then I'll avoid motorways, unless I'm heading into Italy. If you don't have a set schedule then you could just aim for a few key passes and just 'get lost'. There are lots of incredible roads to discover and I've found some of my favourites by just exploring.
4) Driving: attitudes to speeding are different in each country. When pulling out to overtake on de-restricted German autobahns be very sure that the speck in your rear view mirror isn't going Mach 3. The speed differential can catch out the unfamiliar. In the twisties of France don't try to keep up with the local bangers. You would not believe how quickly a 30 year old 1L snotter can be driven with a bit of local knowledge and a complete disregard for the redline (and a few glasses of vin rouge?).
2) Accommodation: If you're travelling as one car then I might only book hotels in the big cities. It's great to have that flexibility, particularly if you're new to touring and don't have a strong idea of the distances you'll be covering each day. During summer you will not struggle to get rooms on arrival in most of the ski resorts (which are usually in amongst some great driving).
3) Route / Roads: Northern France is a bit tame compared to what's on offer further south, so I usually make use of the very efficient autoroutes to cover the first 600-700 miles and then I'll avoid motorways, unless I'm heading into Italy. If you don't have a set schedule then you could just aim for a few key passes and just 'get lost'. There are lots of incredible roads to discover and I've found some of my favourites by just exploring.
4) Driving: attitudes to speeding are different in each country. When pulling out to overtake on de-restricted German autobahns be very sure that the speck in your rear view mirror isn't going Mach 3. The speed differential can catch out the unfamiliar. In the twisties of France don't try to keep up with the local bangers. You would not believe how quickly a 30 year old 1L snotter can be driven with a bit of local knowledge and a complete disregard for the redline (and a few glasses of vin rouge?).
Comfortable is a relative term. It will depend on your own stamina, choice of car, whether you have a passenger, the weather etc. On French Autoroutes and German autobahns I would suggest 400 miles as a baseline comfortable limit. On twisty passes more like 200 miles.
My own choice would be to get to Geneva/Chamonix area in a day and then spend the next two travelling to Zurich via the mountains at a more comfortable pace. I'd probably go for somewhere like Andermatt for the second overnight stop. There are so many awesome passes around Andermatt. It all depends on your own circumstances, preferences and tolerances.
My own choice would be to get to Geneva/Chamonix area in a day and then spend the next two travelling to Zurich via the mountains at a more comfortable pace. I'd probably go for somewhere like Andermatt for the second overnight stop. There are so many awesome passes around Andermatt. It all depends on your own circumstances, preferences and tolerances.
When we did our euro trip in may we got some bits off of eBay...headlight deflectors, hi viz etc. much cheaper than halfords, or AA
We used google maps to pick out places to stay, and used sites like hotels.com to pick hotels. We booked everything in advance to save worrying about where to stay. We did Lyon as a stop off in France...but from experience would stay out of big cities. Traffic can be horrendous, and parking in cities is pricey. Then Monaco, bologna, lake como, Zurich, luxembourg. From experience I'd recommend having at least a couple of nights in the Italian lakes-(we loved our hotel la darsena), and then a couple in the alps....maybe around andermatt is a good base for some great roads.
I got used to driving in Europe pretty quickly, take your time at roundabouts- it takes a bit of concentration to do it the opposite way round. And on the motorway always double check your blind spot when pulling out to overtake-especially if you've got little mirrors.
We chose to get through France with just one stop so that most of our time could be spent elsewhere. Doing 300-400 miles is fairly easy in one go and the motorways are more enjoyable than ours. Tolls can be pricey, but we thought it worth it for the progress you make. We saw a few cops on the motorway, we stuck to 80ish to be on the safe side.
My main advice would be, pick smaller towns, get France done so you can enjoy the alps/lakes. Maybe a quick stop in Reims on your way through France.
One last thing.....a lot of petrol stations are manned, twice we had the idiots leave the nozzle in to go automatically and it fell out spaying fuel all over the car.....with no roof on , and the nozzle crashing down the bodywork! Keep an eye on them!
Adam
c3m said:
Thanks guys for the wonderful advice.
Our current route includes going via Germany instead of France so that we can make better progress in the first few days (Calais - Frankfurt - Zurich). Do you think that's better than going via France?
It may be cheaper and more fun, the tolls soon add up in France, but I would guess you're doing more miles going the way you are. You can easily get to Geneva / Chamonix in a day however it will be a long day and it cost about €85 in tolls last time I did it, that's assuming you're starting somewhere that's not too far from folkestone.Our current route includes going via Germany instead of France so that we can make better progress in the first few days (Calais - Frankfurt - Zurich). Do you think that's better than going via France?
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