European Road Trip - advice needed

[DanielJames]

Hi all.

My GF came up with a brilliant proposition the the other night. She knows I hate boring package holidays sat by the pool and see them as a waste, so why not go on an adventure?

The route we've planned so far is:

Ferry to Calais
Calais to Paris (2 night stay)
Paris to Monaco (2 night stay)
Monaco to Venice (2 night stay)
Venice to Munich (2 night stay)
Munich to Welcherath (Nurburgring for me - 1 night)
Welcherath to home (do able in a day)

My immediate concern is that most of the hotels we are looking at do not have car parking, or they have about 5 spaces outside the door which will always be full.

Does everyone normally just do B+Bs for this reason? B+B then bus into town might have to be the way.

Interested to know your opinions

[e46acs]

I did something similar a few years back with Mrs e46acs. We had the same issue with car parking at hotels but managed through the power of the internet to get a hotel with proper car parking at every stop, took some effort though.

One comment on your itinerary is that Paris - Monaco will be one long boring motorway drive to do in a day. We broke it up by having a night in Lyon, which is a lovely city, like a mini and relaxed Paris.

Also, we had stayed in Nice and got the train (20mins iirc) into Monaco. More choice of hotel for you.

[marshalla]

If you're using the autroutes (and it looks like you are) then get one of these : https://www.saneftolling.co.uk/

makes life so much simpler and also works for parking.

If your route takes you to Lyon, and you aren't planning on stopping there, follow the truckers route (fairly well signposted) to avoid the jams that always seem to happen at the tunnel in Lyon. It's easy to lose an hour or more because of the tunnel.

[DIW35]

I've done a few European trips over the years, and secure parking at each stop was a pretty high priority given the nature of the cars we were travelling in. As such, I didn't have any problem finding suitable hotels simply by using the internet.

[AdiT]

Is this trip about the destinations or the journey?

That looks like some big boring motorway mileages or, if avoiding the auto routes, very long days. I'd be tempted to miss out Paris (can be easily done in a weekend some other time) and head south quickly then take your time on the rest. Take time to plan at least one day off the autoroutes through the Alps. Personally finding the lesser known roads and villages is the fun bit.

Antibes is a good spot and get the train in/out to visit Monaco (traffic into the principality is bad). Once there the cafes on the front by the harbor can have some surprisingly good lunch deals

A toll tag will save a lot of hassle. Planning your route day by day on something like TYRE route planner and then load the routes to your sat-nav...
http://www.tyretotravel.com/download-tyre/download...

[plenty]

Seconded the above. Unless you enjoy countless hours on featureless motorways and paying tolls you'd be better off picking fewer destinations or ones that are less geographically dispersed.

If you want to drive from the UK and back in your own vehicle and as you want to visit the 'Ring I would suggest you focus on Paris and Munich - there are many attractive destinations in-between and you could build a very nice two-week holiday for two around these two cities.

Venice - you'd really be better off flying there. It's a long haul down and no motor vehicles are allowed in Venice although it is possible to drive to the outskirts of the city and park in an expensive car park (35 euros per day).

Monaco is also a long way from any of your other destinations, whereas unlike Venice it's really not worth more than about a couple of hours of your time imo. Although as an alternative to Paris and Munich, you could spend two weeks taking in Monaco and Venice with the French and Italian Riviera and the Italian Lakes in-between.

[DanielJames]

Thanks for all the feedback guys, you all make sense to me and the route definitely needs re considering. I'll see what SWMBO thinks

Dan

[Wozy68]

My wife and I, were going to the Italian riviera a couple of years back but after a lot of internet trawling we decided on Spain

Basically it just seemed expensive hotelS that were mostly run down, expensive food and then spend most of our days on busy roads

We saw many beautiful sights on empty roads over 11 days in Spain with cheap great hotels, food and fuel.

Just food for thought.

[BoyBlue]

Venice must not be missed. Go to lido de Jeselo, book into hotel, much cheaper than city. Get the bus to the ferry which threads it's way through the islands in the lagoon and arrives at St Marks Sq, a great way to arrive. I stayed in Hotel Eden, just across from the bus station.

[BoyBlue]

Venice must not be missed. Go to lido de Jeselo, book into hotel, much cheaper than city. Get the bus to the ferry which threads it's way through the islands in the lagoon and arrives at St Marks Sq, a great way to arrive. I stayed in Hotel Eden, just across from the bus station.