Road Trip Easter 2012 - East Mids to Italy

[slimtater]

Feeling like an adventure next year after a few years of travelling to Australia and doing long driving trips over there.

Want to take the wife and kids (girls 10+14) down to Italy from Derbyshire. Will be at a steady pace so may have a night down South before crossing the Channel. Don't mind another stopover on the way to/from Italy and all of the girls want a day trip to Milan at the very least included. Other than that, just want nice, family friendly places to stay with nice places to eat, drink and see sights. Obviously the trip to and from needs to include some good/famous driving roads e.g. Stelvio. Aim to be away for 10-14 days so a couple of places for 2-3 nights would be fine.

Let me know if you have any proven itinerary or accommodation recommendations. Car will be an M3.

Thanks.

[diddly69]

Drive the 'Andermatt Loop' in Switzerland it's much better than Stelvio. Also the Lukmanier pass is a gem
Contra dam is a great thing to see very impressive and was featured in the start of Goldeneye.
Stay at Lake Como for a few nights, very nice place to be for a while with the good food and wine of course!

[slimtater]

As a starting point, how does this look?

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&source=s_d&a...

It will be 2 or 3 overnight stops on the way down, 3-5 nights around Lake Como / Nth Italy (recommendations please) and 3 or 4 nights on the way back via Monte Carlo.

[kryten]

Stelvio at Easter? Are you going to be driving a snowplough?

[slimtater]

kryten said:

Stelvio at Easter? Are you going to be driving a snowplough?

Good point - I presume if it is still closed there are fairly easy re-routes?

[slimtater]

Based on the view that my route of choice may still be closed, I will probably go from Calais and loop down to Italy and back.

Anyone got any routes already prepared including Route Napoleon (Nth>Sth or Sth>Nth) Lake Como and Monaco?

Want to aim to do 250-300 miles per day max but with a few days in Italy - got a wife and young kids to keep happy!

[johnnyreggae]

Your route does not yet show Route Napoleon but allow a day from Monaco to the top near Lyon - Chateau de Pizay is good & convenient near Lyon - even using the inconsistent search function here lots of Route Napoleon options come up - there's a big designer outlet village on the main road south from Como towards MOnaco before you turn right at the coast

[slimtater]

johnnyreggae said:

Your route does not yet show Route Napoleon but allow a day from Monaco to the top near Lyon - Chateau de Pizay is good & convenient near Lyon - even using the inconsistent search function here lots of Route Napoleon options come up - there's a big designer outlet village on the main road south from Como towards MOnaco before you turn right at the coast

Cheers - that was my original idea for a route before I realised about Stelvio etc being closed. Just wanted to know if anyone had done anything similar and had a good root plotted.