Intercontinental white van man

[stedale]

The other day I was yabbering away to friend of mine who was contemplating the intracacies of shifting a load of stuff from northern Italy back to these fair shores and she was quite concerned that it would cost her 1500 quid to get a man in a van to do the round trip.

Well, upon on hearing her predicament, I bet you can guess what I started to imagine?

Yup, me and van-rental-companies finest hooning it across the continent - well it sounds like fun even though its not the ideal vehicle.

So the question is this: Assuming a sensible number of hours on the road, some one to share the driving with and a (unfortunately) limited top speed, how long would it take and what route would people here recommend? (destination: Venice(ish)) Give as much detail as you like!

TIA, Steve.

[Bruce Fielding]

Depends - try it in this:
www.renaultcarclub.com/eyecandy/espacef1.htm

[Simonelite501]

Bristol to Milan in 40 ton Artic, 2.5 days, obeying all tacho laws, so using that as a bench mark, I'd say that with two drivers you could feasibly do the trip in 24 hrs, non stop. Personally, my route is Calais to St Omer, watching out for the Douanes at the Payage, then on down the A29 to Arras, Saint Quentin and Reims. Onwards down to Dijon, and then through Macon and on to Lyon, where you bear left and head for Chambery where you can stop to purchase tickets for the Fresues Tunnel (sorry about the spelling) you may be a ble to get tickets at the tunnel entrance if your in a van, but I've only ever done this trip in a truck. You then start to climb, don't do this bit at night, not because its dangerous, though it is, but because it would be a waste, as you MUST see the scenery. Its a long way up to the fresues tunnel and when you get there, the tunnel looks like a mouse hole in the side of the mountain, its 13km long and France to Italy is uphill. The tunnel is two carrige ways one each way with no central divide, and the locals and regulars don't hang about! Out on the Italian side usually into snow, and then your on your way down, fast road,tunnel, fast road,tunnel etc until you level out and head for Turin. Go to the toilet before the tunnel as the facilities in Italy are of the hole in the ground type. The road across the top of Italy, The Tansanalie (well thats how its pronounced) is a toll road but unless you are carrying a VIA card, which I presume your not, you will need cash for the tolls. Its not a bad trip, I used to do it regular, thankfully I drive a desk now. I hope you do get around to it, lifes to short not to, best of luck, Simon. P.S my reload was out of ISR Sital a wasjhing machine factory in Bassano De Grappa, at the foot of the Dolomites, north of Venice, this was about half a days drive from the Milan post office warehouse which was my 1st drop.

>> Edited by Simonelite501 on Monday 28th October 19:40

[stedale]

Thanks Simon, that gives me a lot to go on - I didn't want to commit to something like this until I knew what was involved. Saying that, driving around europe is one of my ambitions so I don't know why I'm worrying, except for the choice of steed!

Cheers again, Steve.

[GrahamG]

Don't get caught the same way I nearly did with our rental for LM this year - We got to the counter to pay and were told that since we were taking the car abroad there was an additional £200 to pay - I pointed out (really rather forcibly!) that this hadn't been mentioned when I booked the car and that I had had a long and entertaining conversation with the booking agent who was himself an LM regular and that I'd therefore have though that the fact we were going to France was a given. It took the company several hours to review their phone tapes to confirm it but in other circumstances I could have been left with a rather bigger bill!!