Euro Adventure - camping question and route plan advice
Discussion
Afternoon!
3 friends and i are undertaken the following road trip at the end of May for 10 days (this is our first Euro trip):
Dunkirque - Nurburing - Stuttgart (porsche museum) - Innsbruck - St Leonardo pass and on to stelvio pass - Como - Genoa - Monaco - Nice - Cannes (all along the coast road) - Le Viaduc de Millau - Reims - Home
A couple of areas we could do with some advice on:
1) We are taking a michellin map per car and satnav and have a rough route but havn't fully planned anything on the Satnav. We were more thinking of planning at the end of each day and seeing where our fancy takes us. When programming the tom tom on the continent is it best to have a postcode of a place in the area you are staying in or simply rely on town names?
2) From Millau to Reim are there any places anyone recommends specifically that are worth stopping off or seeing?
3) As we are leaving the ladies at home we are going to try and camp the whole time. We havn't booked any specific sites.... and although this is a braod question, will this be ok ie just wing it? Does anyone know of any specific places you could recommend on that route.
4) If we can't find a campsite we are going to try and find a field and do the boy scout thing....obviously we would try and find the land owner and ask beforehand but has anyone had any experiences similar?
Thanks, i've enjoyed reading other people's reports!
CT
3 friends and i are undertaken the following road trip at the end of May for 10 days (this is our first Euro trip):
Dunkirque - Nurburing - Stuttgart (porsche museum) - Innsbruck - St Leonardo pass and on to stelvio pass - Como - Genoa - Monaco - Nice - Cannes (all along the coast road) - Le Viaduc de Millau - Reims - Home
A couple of areas we could do with some advice on:
1) We are taking a michellin map per car and satnav and have a rough route but havn't fully planned anything on the Satnav. We were more thinking of planning at the end of each day and seeing where our fancy takes us. When programming the tom tom on the continent is it best to have a postcode of a place in the area you are staying in or simply rely on town names?
2) From Millau to Reim are there any places anyone recommends specifically that are worth stopping off or seeing?
3) As we are leaving the ladies at home we are going to try and camp the whole time. We havn't booked any specific sites.... and although this is a braod question, will this be ok ie just wing it? Does anyone know of any specific places you could recommend on that route.
4) If we can't find a campsite we are going to try and find a field and do the boy scout thing....obviously we would try and find the land owner and ask beforehand but has anyone had any experiences similar?
Thanks, i've enjoyed reading other people's reports!
CT
My experience of continental camping suggests that you are going at the right time of year to just 'wing it' around Europe. You are likely to see many signposts to campsites and many villages and towns will have signs to their own municipal sites, but as has been mentioned, you are slightly out of season for northern Germany and France. Tourist info offices will always help if you need it, but a backup guide book wouldn't be a bad idea.
Re using sat nav, just punch in town or village names unless you have more specific detail, but make sure that your device doesn't have speed camera locations on its database.
Re using sat nav, just punch in town or village names unless you have more specific detail, but make sure that your device doesn't have speed camera locations on its database.
I'm not too sure about the camping side of it as I used hotels but I did a Blog you could take some pointers from. Most of the Alps is still covered in thick snow and will be for a while longer.
My road trip Blog. http://euroroadtripper.blogspot.co.uk/
My road trip Blog. http://euroroadtripper.blogspot.co.uk/
It was absolutely awesome, only problem we had was reversing the route as the weekend we were planning to go to the Nurburing they had 'Rock at the Ring' on and therefore no access for cars on the track.
The route we took is as follows:
Dunkirque - Le Mans - lots of shennanigans finding a campsite
Le Mans - St Etienne - camped in the grounds of a Chateaux overlooking the river valley, loads of mozzies but wonderful none the less
St Etienne - Millau via the Gorge De terrne (sic) - do not miss this road, stunningly beautiful running along the side of the river and really good for a blast
Millau (stunning experience across the bridge) - St Tropez (dip in the sea) - Cannes
Cannes - Monaco - bonkers place, loved every minute of it, especially driving the F1 track with all the stands still up and blasting through the tunnel as i had a clear run!
We also parked in the yacht club car park for free and no one seemed to mind
Monaco - San Remo (Italy) - great ocean drive with lots of tunnels
San Remo - Lake Como - camped in a wonderful site towards the north west of the lake near a town called Dongo (love the name)
Lake Como - Innsbruck (Austria) via the St Bernard Pass, Stelvio Pass and St Leonard Pass - all fantastic bit the St Leonard Pass pipped it for me. The campsite we stayed in near Innsbruck was the best by far and ringed by snow capped mountains.
Innsbruck - Stuttgart - lots of beer and the Porsche museum, do not miss this museum, it's brilliant.
Stuttgart - Nurburing - Dunkirque - the ring was wet and it was my first time so there were some squeaky bum moments!
Cars taken:
987 Boxster S
Audi S4 (B6) with upgraded RS4 turbos and mapped to 450BHP with flat shifting.
Total Miles - 2,500
Petrol spend per car - circa EUR700
Avoided tolls apart from the journey to le mans and millau.
No speeding tickets
Highlights:
1) Hitting 160mph in the Boxster with 2 men in and both boots fully loaded with camping kit
2) Stopping, engaging sport mode and blasting pretty much every tunnel we came across
3) Watching the look of horror on the Aston Martin Vantage owners face as he couldn't get past the debadge S4.....priceless.
If anyone wants any tips or help i can recommend campsites etc or link you to great websites.
Pics to follow.
We will be running similar trips next year as OBAC (Old Blues Automobile Club) which is a not for profit organisation. If anyone is interested let me know.
Chris
The route we took is as follows:
Dunkirque - Le Mans - lots of shennanigans finding a campsite
Le Mans - St Etienne - camped in the grounds of a Chateaux overlooking the river valley, loads of mozzies but wonderful none the less
St Etienne - Millau via the Gorge De terrne (sic) - do not miss this road, stunningly beautiful running along the side of the river and really good for a blast
Millau (stunning experience across the bridge) - St Tropez (dip in the sea) - Cannes
Cannes - Monaco - bonkers place, loved every minute of it, especially driving the F1 track with all the stands still up and blasting through the tunnel as i had a clear run!
We also parked in the yacht club car park for free and no one seemed to mindMonaco - San Remo (Italy) - great ocean drive with lots of tunnels
San Remo - Lake Como - camped in a wonderful site towards the north west of the lake near a town called Dongo (love the name)
Lake Como - Innsbruck (Austria) via the St Bernard Pass, Stelvio Pass and St Leonard Pass - all fantastic bit the St Leonard Pass pipped it for me. The campsite we stayed in near Innsbruck was the best by far and ringed by snow capped mountains.
Innsbruck - Stuttgart - lots of beer and the Porsche museum, do not miss this museum, it's brilliant.
Stuttgart - Nurburing - Dunkirque - the ring was wet and it was my first time so there were some squeaky bum moments!
Cars taken:
987 Boxster S
Audi S4 (B6) with upgraded RS4 turbos and mapped to 450BHP with flat shifting.
Total Miles - 2,500
Petrol spend per car - circa EUR700
Avoided tolls apart from the journey to le mans and millau.
No speeding tickets
Highlights:
1) Hitting 160mph in the Boxster with 2 men in and both boots fully loaded with camping kit
2) Stopping, engaging sport mode and blasting pretty much every tunnel we came across
3) Watching the look of horror on the Aston Martin Vantage owners face as he couldn't get past the debadge S4.....priceless.
If anyone wants any tips or help i can recommend campsites etc or link you to great websites.
Pics to follow.
We will be running similar trips next year as OBAC (Old Blues Automobile Club) which is a not for profit organisation. If anyone is interested let me know.
Chris
Oilchange said:
Found Stelvio but St Bernard and St Leonard passes are eluding me, can you give me a pointer
St Bernard Pass, Stelvio Pass and St Leonard Pass - all fantastic bit the St Leonard Pass pipped it for me.
I'm planning my Euro trip at the moment.St Bernard Pass, Stelvio Pass and St Leonard Pass - all fantastic bit the St Leonard Pass pipped it for me.
I assume the OP meant San Bernardino Pass? Not too sure about the St Leonard Pass.
Roastie ITR said:
Oilchange said:
Found Stelvio but St Bernard and St Leonard passes are eluding me, can you give me a pointer
St Bernard Pass, Stelvio Pass and St Leonard Pass - all fantastic bit the St Leonard Pass pipped it for me.
I'm planning my Euro trip at the moment.St Bernard Pass, Stelvio Pass and St Leonard Pass - all fantastic bit the St Leonard Pass pipped it for me.
I assume the OP meant San Bernardino Pass? Not too sure about the St Leonard Pass.
The St Loenard Pass (defo the best) it's found North of Merano on the SS38.
Enjoy and let us know how you get on!
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