Another Euro Road Trip Thread

[guffhoover]

Thinking of swapping out our normal package holiday by the sea for a European road trip.

Loose plan is to start in Le Havre or Calais and return via Bilbao, 14 or 16 day trip.

I 'd like to tick off Paris, Baden-Baden, Interlaken and Nice/Monaco/St Tropez area. After that I'm a bit of a loss Barcelona possibly.

Want to try and keep driving down to 4-hrs max per day which will mean the odd night stay over.

Ideas and tips very much welcome, it's a bit of a minefield!

[NDA]

I reckon on a comfortable driving trip across France to be around 250 miles a day - any more and it starts to get very tedious. The French are hot on speed, so you're stuck cruising.

I've done the Med back to the UK in single hops a few times - but it's a stretch.

Paris? in your own car? I wouldn't. However, if you do, be aware that you will need a Crit'air sticker for the car - not expensive, but you'll need one.

Also it might be worth getting a toll tag for the motorways.

I assume just the two of you?

[loskie]

Done a lot/most of that. Hull to Zebrugge. BUT avoid Paris at all costs. Go there another time. cheap flight or tunnel. There will be only pain NO pleasure.

[Baldchap]

Swiss Alps and Luxembourg are amazing. Monaco is pretty underwhelming.

[Bobtherallyfan]

Baldchap said:

Swiss Alps and Luxembourg are amazing. Monaco is pretty underwhelming.

Monaco is a fantastic place to visit for anyone with an interest in F1 or classic films.

[bennno]

San Sebastián and Carcassone both nice places for a stop over.

[Baldchap]

bennno said:

San Sebastián and Carcassone both nice places for a stop over.

San Sebastian is great if you get the right part.

[SmithCorona]

Baden Baden is meh, worth about an hour of your life. Suggest Strasbourg - Colmar - Basel or Porrentruy - Interlarken as much more varied.

Mullhouse has the french national car museum, a train museum and the bugatti museum.

If you must Baden Baden then come out of Lux towards Speyer (amazing museum) and then take the A5 down. You can then follow it to Switzerland.

[Batfoy]

Or take the B500.

[bennno]

Baldchap said:

San Sebastian is great if you get the right part.

Old town, but we stayed at the arima and just got the bus in.

[plenty]

As above, Baden-Baden massively over-rated unless you're a German tourist looking to spend a lot of time bathing. Stay on the French side and explore Alsace.

The B500 is far too busy to enjoy except first thing in the morning. Take a look at the Vosges area for driving roads, albeit it's very popular with cyclists. Or the D996 from Troyes to Dijon.

[hiccy18]

bennno said:

Baldchap said:

San Sebastian is great if you get the right part.

Old town, but we stayed at the arima and just got the bus in.

Bus service is excellent, we also used it from the Arima. There's plenty of small hotels to the east of the old town, the one we stayed in was 6 minutes on the bus, or a 25 minute walk; I remember we got a bus once.

[omniflow]

Your preferences may vary, but I'm not a fan of 1 night stops. Even if you get there at 3pm and don't leave until noon the next day, it still feels like you're only there to break up the drive.

Personally, I'd do a monster first day to get as far into Europe as I could, and then do 2 night stopovers with between 2 and 5 hours of driving between them. Having a strict rule on time or distance might mean missing out on places you really want to visit and visiting places you're not really bothered about. If you're coming back via Northern Spain (Santander is only about 1 hour from Bilbao, so it's more about the timing of the boats) then there's no need for a monster last day.

In Northern Spain, San Sebastian (already mentioned), Logrono, Santander and Bilbao are all well worth visiting, as are many other places.

[loskie]

Lat time I/we did this.
Hull to Zebrugge

2 Nights in a village an hour or so S of Paris

2 or maybe 3 Nights Annecy (I'd been there in 1985 with school and always wanted to go back)

1 Night Leysin Switzerland
1 Night Bern

2 nights a small town near Baden Baden

1 night Bastogne

3 Nights Bruges and back on the ferry.

Coming from SW Scotland so Hull/Zebrugge a good option

I booked everything in advance. I've fallen foul before booking on the day. It just created stress at 6 to 7pm when yo had no where to stay.
Mind you at this point there was no mobile phone or intranet.

Used a Logis De France directory.
Did a similar holiday flying into Marseilles and renting a car. One or two others too.

[omniflow]

loskie said:

2 or maybe 3 Nights Annecy (I'd been there in 1985 with school and always wanted to go back)

Did you go to school in Cheltenham?

[loskie]

No a little further away. Stranraer. It was a geography field trip.

It was a long bus ride to Annecy. But at 14 a big adventure.

We were really lucky: got to see the TDF pass through.

[Batfoy]

plenty said:

The B500 is far too busy to enjoy except first thing in the morning. Take a look at the Vosges area for driving roads, albeit it's very popular with cyclists. Or the D996 from Troyes to Dijon.

Depends on the time of the year, I went in late August and it was virtually empty. So no, it isn't always far too busy.

Edited by Batfoy on Saturday 8th February 11:28

[NDA]

loskie said:

No a little further away. Stranraer. It was a geography field trip.

It was a long bus ride to Annecy. But at 14 a big adventure.

Did you buy a flick-knife?

We all did on our school French trip.

[croyde]

hiccy18 said:

bennno said:

Baldchap said:

San Sebastian is great if you get the right part.

Old town, but we stayed at the arima and just got the bus in.

Bus service is excellent, we also used it from the Arima. There's plenty of small hotels to the east of the old town, the one we stayed in was 6 minutes on the bus, or a 25 minute walk; I remember we got a bus once.

I'm currently on a boat to Tenerife from Huelva in SW Spain. I stopped at San Sebastián as it was the first place over the border with France and I'd been driving for hours.

Wow! I had no idea what to expect. Absolutely beautiful.

I picked a hotel on Booking.Com that was about 25 minutes walk to the promenade. I did a lot of walking, which is good

Hotel was perfect, big room, big bathroom, free parking right outside in a quiet residential area. €50 a night. Maybe because it's February.

It was warm enough for just a t-shirt yet the locals were wrapped up for Siberia

Eating out in the town was pricey but I decided to stay a second night and drank and ate at a locals bar near the hotel which was very cheap.

My next stop was Salamanca, knew nothing about it, just a spot on the map between San Sebastian and Sevilla.

My gawd, amazing looking medieval city and this time very cheap to stay, eat and drink.

Hotel was €30 a night although it did cost an extra €17 a night to park my car in a safe locked garage. Right in the centre next to the fabulous Plaza Mayor where I had breakfast and dinner.

Evening meal in a very posh looking place was €20 for 3 courses, 2 large glasses of red and a coffee.

Huelva was a come down, like a Spanish Harwich

San Sebastian, I'd left Poitiers the morning before I took this pic, where it was freezing fog and -2c, maybe 300 odd miles of driving and I was in 16c and sunshine.



Plaza Mayor, Salamanca.

Edited by croyde on Saturday 8th February 11:43

Edited by croyde on Saturday 8th February 11:45

[loskie]

No. But we did spend a day in Geneva and I bought a Swiss Army Knife. We also bought cheese from a farm which was quite ripe a few days later when we got home on the bus. Late June/early July.

We also got quite drunk. It was a wee hotel on the lake edge like a chalet maybe a mile or so from Annecy.