Euro road trip advice needed

[fridaypassion]

OK so by some miracle I think I have pursueded the OH to go on a two week jaunt round Europe over this summer. Of course there are some strings attached but in fairness I want it to be a good break for her and a reasonable amount of hooning for me.

So what would you recommend as a route?

We have 2 weeks to play with
Don't want to spend exsessive amounts of time driving
Want to have 2/3 days inbetween major parts of the route
We will be doing hull Rotterdam so that's the start/end point
Don't worry the Nurburgring is already pencilled in for the last couple of days

Other than that we have no other requirements other than just wanting wall to wall sunshine

Suggestions welcome!

[Orb the Impaler]

I'm planning a similar trip this summer, but probably over 4 to 6 weeks, I've still not started planning properly tbh.

However a suggestion: you're doing an outward leg from Hull, so you're on P&O (I love P&O North Sea Ferries - like a floating pub! )

Can I suggest that you make your return leg to Portsmouth from Bilbao/Santander - that way you can come round in a big loop that finishes in Spain. That's a P&O route too.

[rfn]

Think about seeing how many of these destinations you can get to

http://tinyurl.com/ao2n5c

[grumbas]

Make sure you take in a few passes in the Swiss alps (names escape me though) - brilliant for hooning plus great views.

The Ferrari museum is worth a stop if it's en-route.

[thehawk]

The last route that I did was this :

Calais
Bruges
Brussels
Reims
Cologne
Munich
Schwangau
Verona
Milan
Monaco
Nice
Avignon
Paris
Calais

Skipped Switzerland because we did a week there earlier in the year.

[fridaypassion]

Looks Like a great route. Going to sit down with multimap later, nice/Monaco/st tropez would be good just wondering if coming back up through Switzerland from there would be doable without breaking our excessive driving rule?

[thehawk]

You could go from Avignon through to Grenoble and then to Switzerland, but also remember some of the roads north of Monaco and in Provence are spectacular too. The route from Sisteron/Gap through to the Italian border - plenty of hairpins and reasonably little traffic.

[Stuart J]

Mount Ventoux in Provence, great drive, stay at hotel de pins at the foot of the mountail, restaurant is excellent means you can play on the mountain early in the morning hotel http://www.hotel-des-pins.fr/

Stelvio is a box to tick


If you want to spoil the boss try staying here http://www.labenjamine.net/ Cedric used to run a restaurant near stckbridge in Hampshire, a truly oustanding cook & a great guy with it

Edited by Stuart J on Wednesday 4th March 15:48

[Furyblade_Lee]

Col du Turini Monte Carlo Rally Stage, just north of Nice and Monaco. A must.

[heebeegeetee]

Bruges is nice, and reims is worth a visit. From there you could continue south through the Vosges and jura, into the French Alps and down into Provence if you wish.

However, the hoon/brownypoint balance can be difficult. One way to avoid it is to avoid spending hours and hours on a motorway, or hours on boring roads. I say forget going beyond france apart from maybe a bit of Switzerland. I reckon the french Central and alps is as good as anywhere else in europe, and practically everywhere else will have more traffic too.

Annecy is a very nice lakeside town indeed, with hundreds of miles of fantastic driving roads heading off in every direction. You could explore the area around Mont Blanc from there, if you explore the smaller roads you could get some hooning in amongst spectacular scenery.

Mont Ventoux is great, but can get very busy and is often a cycle-fest and campervan hell. Personally, if going in the summer, i'd research some of the less obvious areas.

Route Napolean can be hellish in summer too, unless you get up early.

[Stuart J]

Furyblade_Lee said:

Col du Turini Monte Carlo Rally Stage, just north of Nice and Monaco. A must.

[Stuart J]

heebeegeetee said:

Mont Ventoux is great, but can get very busy and is often a cycle-fest and campervan hell. Personally, if going in the summer, i'd research some of the less obvious areas.

Agreed, thats why a very early start up the mountain is the only way to really enjoy it. We normally stay in or around Bedoin, go up very early over the top & down the other side for a relaxing spot of breakfast. Also in the summer a late night blast up is fun, the views at the top are incredible & a star gazers (romantics) dream but beware of the wildlife, Ive seen deer, Foxes, the usual rabbits & there are also wild Boar, all of which come out at night

Ventoux is best in September, its when manufactureres test so you can often see something "interesting"

Edited by Stuart J on Thursday 5th March 08:55

[api330]

We are doing a euro trip leaving in july for 2 1/2 weeks, First stop nurburg then on to rheinfall then lake luzern then onto lake como then down to monaco then accross to agde in corner of south of france then over to bourdeux then my wife is flying back giving me 2 days to drive back on my own , It should be a very fast trip back up me thinks, Booked all are hotels using booking.com,

Edited by api330 on Thursday 5th March 09:58

[fridaypassion]

Cool will check that site later.

So far we have got to day 3 LOL. First stop Nurburging just to get it out of the way plus I've been a couple of times so we know where to stay etc. So then were onto Stuttgart and from there at the moment we're trying to decide between heading west and doing Milan,Monaco etc or as a curve ball heading east and doing lake Garda/Venice/Croatia. At the moment I'm swaying towards the latter just because Croatia is such an awsome country and it gives us two mountain passes

Another night in front of the laptop bekons!

PS in relation to Stuttgart we were thinking of doing two nights there so is there much to see other than the car museums (the mrs will HATE those haha)

[andye30m3]

Me and a few friends are doing a euro trip this summer, starting at SPA for a trackday, on to some mountain passes and finishing and the nurburgring.

Have a look at www.alpineroads.com for some good driving roads.

[api330]

Lake garda is a very nice place, But the scooter riders are mad as -uck,

[Furyblade_Lee]

We found that the Alps and Swiss passes were pretty clear of traffic, last week of June, only the Grimselpass was busy. However, be aware that Saturdays and Sundays anywhere scenic are hellish as the cyclists and French caravanners are out in force.

[fridaypassion]

Yeah should be hitting the passes on Monday/Tuesday

[fridaypassion]

Ok I think we have a basic outline planned so going to firm it up and start booking hotels over the weekend!

Looking like this at the moment:

After doing a Hull/Rotterdam Sailing

Nurburgring
Zurich
Stelvio pass (stay in Bormio at the south end of the pass)
Lake Garda (4/5 days here)
For the way back:
Milan
Lyon
Paris
Northampton
Wakefield

You can see the route gets a bit less salubrious towards the end but we have an engagement to get to in northants at the end of the trip and I cant help living in wakey

Really looking forward to it now. Hoping for more than 20 mpg from the Z4 and generally hoping it wont be too financially ruinous! Staying a few days in Lake Garda is proving pretty cheap through lastminute.com but we do need to find some reasonably inexpensive hotels/B&Bs for the rest of the trip! I'm trying for a total budget of 2k including spends and petrol.

[molestrangler]

A pal and self are taking an old Saab (V4) on the ferry to Calais on the 29th of May to enter the Laon rally, then on to the Nurburgring, then the Senhiem Museum , then the Schlumphe Museum, then a Chateau/Vinyard , and then back to blighty for a rest.