Newbie, saying Hi and planning a road trip :)

[ds2000]

Hi all,

I've posted a few times already so thought I best introduce myself and say Hi!

I'm Dave, 30, living in Reading and working in London at the moment. I'm crossing everything as I should be landing a new contract in the next 4 weeks which means my Aston dream will be realised and without clearing me out (another dream in itself)

I can see there is a good community here and some interesting cars, Yeti's sounds pretty epic!

I'll be on the look out probably after the turn of the year for a manual, low mile, 07+ Vantage with the (imo) beautiful Iron Ore interior.

Enough about me anyway, the road trip.......

My best friend is getting married at the beautiful Podere Finerri in the Siena province of Italy. As he is rudely demanding we spend 7 days out there (selfish git) my brother and myself have decided that we're driving and making a road trip out of it, the wedding is a side show

Its early days but thus far we're planning on visiting Vierwaldstättersee, staying in Zermatt before heading on down via the Stelvio pass, then staying near Lake Garda before heading on to the wedding venue. We intend to take 5/6 days to get from the UK to our destination so we'll have plenty of time to stop over, see POI and drive some of Europe's best roads! The return trip will be via Monaco but as you can imagine, the thought of this, with the added reality of doing it in an Aston is very exciting.

Have any members driven this route and if so, any recommendations on roads to drive and places to stay are most welcome.

Thanks and sorry for the lengthy post! I look forward to getting to know the members on here!

Dave

[mikey k]

Welcome
When is the wedding
You will need to keep an eye on the passes as they often close.

[ds2000]

Thanks, the wedding is May 28th. We're planning on leaving Sat 25th and returning 2nd June (give or take a few days for starting out/returning)

We've just got to choose a starting point; North-East France looks terribly dull, so we're considering Rotterdam and heading south.

[mikey k]

Might be tight on the Stelvio

This is a good resource

http://www.alpineroads.com/passstatus.php

[Johnfrancis]

Why not get the ferry from Plymouth to Santander and drive the Pyranees west to east then cross the Alps, cuts out the boring drive through France

[mikey k]

Johnfrancis said:

Why not get the ferry from Plymouth to Santander and drive the Pyranees west to east then cross the Alps, cuts out the boring drive through France

Oh - that's my plan for September!

[krisdelta]

Johnfrancis said:

Why not get the ferry from Plymouth to Santander and drive the Pyranees west to east then cross the Alps, cuts out the boring drive through France

And there are some lovely roads and cheap hotels in that part of the world too

[qualityscrew]

North east France, around Alsace is certainly NOT dull! Great scenery and roads!

Then northern Switzerland and Austria to the mighty Stelvio!

[AdamV12V]

qualityscrew said:

...

I assume by your name that you are actually a purveyor of fine hardware and not a high class callboy?

[BingoBob]

Or prison warder...

[qualityscrew]

AdamV12V said:

I assume by your name that you are actually a purveyor of fine hardware and not a high class callboy?

I must admit that once upon a time I dremt of being the latter

[ds2000]

Thanks for all the replies everyone, very much appreciated!

Johnfrancis said:

Why not get the ferry from Plymouth to Santander and drive the Pyranees west to east then cross the Alps, cuts out the boring drive through France

I have considered this for the return leg, as I intend to visit Monaco on the way home and have a cousin in the north of Spain, so its certainly viable.

qualityscrew said:

North east France, around Alsace is certainly NOT dull! Great scenery and roads!

Then northern Switzerland and Austria to the mighty Stelvio!

Without wanting to sound rude (or more ignorant on my part), I've had a bit of a google and I was really struggling to come up with anything that looked fun around Metz & Reims; I'm all for enlightenment though

Thanks again!

Dave

[mikey k]

You didn't find the Reims race circuit then


Eurohoon 2011 23 & 24 021 by mikey k V8VR, on Flickr

[mikey k]

Brugge, Arras & Lille are all worth a pock around as well
Metz is ALONG way South though
Nice hotel in Metz - Hotel La Citadelle
Have you tried Tripadvisor?

[ds2000]

Haha no I didn't see the circuit mentioned at all; unfortunately I'm very ignorant when it comes to France. Reims does indeed look like a good stopping point for Day 1, the aim is to give ourselves about 4 hours of travel a day and then a good bit of sight seeing time.

The (via)Michelin website seems quite helpful to be fair so it seems more research is in order. Only 11 months to plan so no rush

[mikey k]

I often use a combination of bestbikingroads.com (for the good roads) and tripadvisor.com (for the hotels & sight seeing)

[qualityscrew]

ds2000 said:

Without wanting to sound rude (or more ignorant on my part), I've had a bit of a google and I was really struggling to come up with anything that looked fun around Metz & Reims; I'm all for enlightenment though

Thanks again!

Dave

Both cities are very nice for a visit!