Euro Trip May/June 19' France/Italy/Switzerland/France
Discussion
Well throw Spain in there too but only for a little bit.
I'll update this with some proposed routes in picture form but I'd like to get the ball rolling on this. The purpose of this thread is to get some feedback/advice on preliminary plans to spend 2 weeks travelling and then 1 week in a gite near Gorron in Normandy (have that bit covered so the prequel to this is the bit I need assistance with).
OK so plan is .. Mrs SF and I leave Plymouth or at least somewhere in the south of the UK and travel down to either Santander or Bilbao and very simply drive east to Tuscany (890 miles) then go north through Switzerland over the Alps and head north west up through France to Mayenne. The planned route is the Riviera through France with a detour to route Napoleon (N85 - D4085) starting in Digne Le Bains and heading back toward Cannes. Then on toward Italy on the autostrada. Once in Tuscany we'll go north upto Aosta and over the Grand St Bernard pass. From Tuscany to Gorron is about 840 miles I think.
So the trip is split into two parts in my mind Spain to Tuscany, Tuscany to the gite. I don't mean two driving stints but over all to break up the trip. My questions focus around timing:
Is 2 weeks enough to do the full trip? (Spanish port to France to Italy to Swtizerland to the gite in France)
is 2 weeks too long?
Not having done this before I can't work out if we'll be languishing for days at various points as we have too much time on our hands so to speak or whether the 'pace' will be correct. I don't want to stay in any single destination for more than say 2 days or so. Accommodation will likely be in the form of Airb&b and possibly a little but of camping. Car will likely be my Rover 216gti so progress will be tepid, I'm not looking to storm across Europe in any rush.
Maybe my questions are too specific, maybe I'm not asking the right questions or have missed the most important ones all together but I'm really looking for some steer on the timeframes. it may be a how long is a piece of string as any holiday can be what you make it but hopefully my question make sense.
p.s. Big nod to Harry of Harrys Garage for his euro trips detailing much of the proposed route above, massively entertaining and a big help
I'll update this with some proposed routes in picture form but I'd like to get the ball rolling on this. The purpose of this thread is to get some feedback/advice on preliminary plans to spend 2 weeks travelling and then 1 week in a gite near Gorron in Normandy (have that bit covered so the prequel to this is the bit I need assistance with).
OK so plan is .. Mrs SF and I leave Plymouth or at least somewhere in the south of the UK and travel down to either Santander or Bilbao and very simply drive east to Tuscany (890 miles) then go north through Switzerland over the Alps and head north west up through France to Mayenne. The planned route is the Riviera through France with a detour to route Napoleon (N85 - D4085) starting in Digne Le Bains and heading back toward Cannes. Then on toward Italy on the autostrada. Once in Tuscany we'll go north upto Aosta and over the Grand St Bernard pass. From Tuscany to Gorron is about 840 miles I think.
So the trip is split into two parts in my mind Spain to Tuscany, Tuscany to the gite. I don't mean two driving stints but over all to break up the trip. My questions focus around timing:
Is 2 weeks enough to do the full trip? (Spanish port to France to Italy to Swtizerland to the gite in France)
is 2 weeks too long?
Not having done this before I can't work out if we'll be languishing for days at various points as we have too much time on our hands so to speak or whether the 'pace' will be correct. I don't want to stay in any single destination for more than say 2 days or so. Accommodation will likely be in the form of Airb&b and possibly a little but of camping. Car will likely be my Rover 216gti so progress will be tepid, I'm not looking to storm across Europe in any rush.
Maybe my questions are too specific, maybe I'm not asking the right questions or have missed the most important ones all together but I'm really looking for some steer on the timeframes. it may be a how long is a piece of string as any holiday can be what you make it but hopefully my question make sense.
p.s. Big nod to Harry of Harrys Garage for his euro trips detailing much of the proposed route above, massively entertaining and a big help
Edited by squareflops on Monday 12th November 08:54
Edited by squareflops on Monday 12th November 15:02
I’ve done a couple of eurotrips my first thing was going to suggest avoiding France but as you have accommodation then I won’t.
Bilbao to Tuscany is a 2 day drive and even then they’ll be 7+ hour drives each day without stops for fuel and food.
Tuscany to Gorron is another 2 day drive of 7+ hour days.
So your holiday will be 4 days of solid driving potentially. We found 4 hours was about the most we enjoyed doing on our trips. With the longest stint 11 hours plus eurotunnel and a lunch and fuel stop. We both agreed if we wanted to get somewhere we would repeat that but we wouldn’t be driving for the next couple of days.
Don’t forget you’ll need vignettes (I used tolltickets to purchase them) and all the European kit like hi-viz vests for all and first aid kits.
Bilbao to Tuscany is a 2 day drive and even then they’ll be 7+ hour drives each day without stops for fuel and food.
Tuscany to Gorron is another 2 day drive of 7+ hour days.
So your holiday will be 4 days of solid driving potentially. We found 4 hours was about the most we enjoyed doing on our trips. With the longest stint 11 hours plus eurotunnel and a lunch and fuel stop. We both agreed if we wanted to get somewhere we would repeat that but we wouldn’t be driving for the next couple of days.
Don’t forget you’ll need vignettes (I used tolltickets to purchase them) and all the European kit like hi-viz vests for all and first aid kits.
Thanks for the info ecsrobin. We do stay in France most years but I get you point 
4 days solid driving then, which were not looking to do and with the detours, stop offs 12 days may be about right then depending. Next step will be to get on the maps and plan routes and accommodation stops etc and get some more specifics on timings.
Is the best port to go down to Santander or Bilbao? Bilbao seems to be 'closer' (further west) but is anyone aware of any advantages to either?
Ah yes the tolls, will need to remember to sort something for those too.
Thanks again.
4 days solid driving then, which were not looking to do and with the detours, stop offs 12 days may be about right then depending. Next step will be to get on the maps and plan routes and accommodation stops etc and get some more specifics on timings.
Is the best port to go down to Santander or Bilbao? Bilbao seems to be 'closer' (further west) but is anyone aware of any advantages to either?
Ah yes the tolls, will need to remember to sort something for those too.
Thanks again.
I think you need to factor in whether you are just going to hoof it up the motorways or enjoy the twisties which will obviously take longer but give you a better taste of the locality.
When I lived in Germany many years ago I did lots of trips back to the UK in my old VR6. I went through lots of nice country but never really experienced it as it was all motorway driving for 500 miles.
So I think 2 weeks is too short for that lot.
One thing , if you are going to interact with a lot of locals try and learn a smattering of the local lingo. You might be crap at it but they will appreciate the effort and be more friendly.
When I lived in Germany many years ago I did lots of trips back to the UK in my old VR6. I went through lots of nice country but never really experienced it as it was all motorway driving for 500 miles.
So I think 2 weeks is too short for that lot.
One thing , if you are going to interact with a lot of locals try and learn a smattering of the local lingo. You might be crap at it but they will appreciate the effort and be more friendly.
Manarola is one of the towns of the Cinque Terre. It is as beautiful as per the pic. Always bombed by tourists. Impossible to drive into the town. However, there's a really good local train service that goes to each Cinque Terre town and it's a short walk to town centre. You'll need somewhere to park/stay. I would recommend Rapallo but it was damaged by the recent storms in northern Italy.
R.
R.
Manarola is one of the towns of the Cinque Terre. It is as beautiful as per the pic. Always bombed by tourists. Impossible to drive into the town. However, there's a really good local train service that goes to each Cinque Terre town and it's a short walk to town centre. You'll need somewhere to park/stay. I would recommend Rapallo but it was damaged by the recent storms in northern Italy.
R.
R.
2 weeks is the outside envelope so will have make do with that, can't remember if I noted it explicitly but the week in France is outside of the 2 weeks being discussed here of course.
Good point about the language, I've always struggled in France when out and about by myself, no one but myself to blame there as I could make the effort to pick some up but not tried so far. Could be an interesting dynamic to the trip in learning important phrases etc for the up coming country.
Leaper, will look into that as looks like a great stop off.
Good point about the language, I've always struggled in France when out and about by myself, no one but myself to blame there as I could make the effort to pick some up but not tried so far. Could be an interesting dynamic to the trip in learning important phrases etc for the up coming country.
Leaper, will look into that as looks like a great stop off.
If you do decide to use Rapallo for a stay I can recommend the Hotel Astoria. It has limited parking so I recommend booking that as well as a room. When I was there in July 2017 there were two Ferrari 308s parking there.
There's boat trips from Rapallo to the Cinque Terre and to Portofino which you may wish to consider due to the lack of access by road and especially parking at these places.
R.
There's boat trips from Rapallo to the Cinque Terre and to Portofino which you may wish to consider due to the lack of access by road and especially parking at these places.
R.
Great idea for a holiday, I love road trips. 
Route Napoleon is a superb road.
I really loved the drive along the coastal roads of S France and into N Italy. The elevated motorway heading towards Genoa is stunning.
2 nights in each location is decent. First day you'll get there potentially in the evening, so go out for dinner. Next day actually enjoy the location.
I've included a link to our trip above which will hopefully give you a flavour of our route, the amount of miles covered each day and time spent in each location. We were doing about 200 miles a day. Enjoy the drive and relax.
The Leaper said:
Manarola is one of the towns of the Cinque Terre. It is as beautiful as per the pic. Always bombed by tourists. Impossible to drive into the town. However, there's a really good local train service that goes to each Cinque Terre town and it's a short walk to town centre. You'll need somewhere to park/stay. I would recommend Rapallo but it was damaged by the recent storms in northern Italy.
R.
100% on the Cinque Terre. We visited as part our road trip in 2012. You can drive to the first village where there is some parking but v limited. Lots of cars park on the road leading up to the village so that's what we did and walked in.R.
Route Napoleon is a superb road.
I really loved the drive along the coastal roads of S France and into N Italy. The elevated motorway heading towards Genoa is stunning.
2 nights in each location is decent. First day you'll get there potentially in the evening, so go out for dinner. Next day actually enjoy the location.
I've included a link to our trip above which will hopefully give you a flavour of our route, the amount of miles covered each day and time spent in each location. We were doing about 200 miles a day. Enjoy the drive and relax.
Leaper - that hotel looks lovely and isn't too expensive so will likely book that, cheers bud.
g3org3y - Superb, I'll read up on that now, can't wait the goal of about 200 miles a day sounds great and will be a good yard stick for accommodation stops etc. Yes it dawned on me just now that the whole trip will be dictated by the arrival time of the ferry so will look to book that today quite possibly,
Thanks for the input chaps, very useful and much appreciated.
For those who aren't familiar this will be the transport of .. choice
I was looking at buying an SL350 for the trip but buying a car for 3 weeks seems a little excessive, I'm sure the Rover will do very well
IMG_1655 by Kaeser Devon, on Flickr
IMG_1651 by Kaeser Devon, on Flickr
g3org3y - Superb, I'll read up on that now, can't wait
the goal of about 200 miles a day sounds great and will be a good yard stick for accommodation stops etc. Yes it dawned on me just now that the whole trip will be dictated by the arrival time of the ferry so will look to book that today quite possibly,Thanks for the input chaps, very useful and much appreciated.
For those who aren't familiar this will be the transport of .. choice
I was looking at buying an SL350 for the trip but buying a car for 3 weeks seems a little excessive, I'm sure the Rover will do very well IMG_1655 by Kaeser Devon, on FlickrIMG_1651 by Kaeser Devon, on FlickrBrave man 
Just kidding.
In that case, you may be interested in my Rover banger rally Euro trip write up as well.
Just kidding.In that case, you may be interested in my Rover banger rally Euro trip write up as well.
27 year old economy box from a now defunk british car maker, I have no apprehension whatsoever
Great reads on both g3org3y! thanks so much for posting, so really good info in there and will refer back to those again during planning.
Both outbound & return ferries booked. Arriving in Santander @ midday on a Sunday so gives some time in the afternoon to acquaint ourselves with the locale and get to our first accommodation stop.
Great reads on both g3org3y! thanks so much for posting, so really good info in there and will refer back to those again during planning.
Both outbound & return ferries booked. Arriving in Santander @ midday on a Sunday so gives some time in the afternoon to acquaint ourselves with the locale and get to our first accommodation stop.
Good point bud. On that I've been discussing the Switzerland leg and have had a conversation about Swiss not being quite necessary as part of the trip. Mont Blanc could be an alt route and keeps us in France, Switzerland has a charge to enter I believe and I hear there's a zero tolerance policy on any type of shenanigans; not that I'll be honing about too much. Something to think about.
I was looking forward to the Grand St Bernard pass though, maybe we'll do the petit instead!
I was looking forward to the Grand St Bernard pass though, maybe we'll do the petit instead!
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