Europe Road Trip

[Jonny671]

This year, as I've not booked a holiday anywhere, and I've just got my first drivers car (MX5 ) I think a drive around Europe sounds a good idea this summer.

Anyone have any recommendations for this?

I think about 10 days or so should be long enough, maybe 2 weeks if I stopped for a day in Cities rather than drive through.

Few places I want to have a look at would be;

'Ring
Stelvio
Alps
Paris

But I wasn't the best at Geography, so have no idea if they would just make the drive difficult.

[Laurel Green]

Have a look Here.

[nonuts]

You can easily do all those listed in 10ish days if you don't mind driving.

[Jonny671]

nonuts said:

You can easily do all those listed in 10ish days if you don't mind driving.

I recon 300-400 miles a day would be fine?

That would be around 7-8 hours driving I think..

[nonuts]

I depends a)what you car is like for long journeys and b)what you're like at long journies.

We've done Nurburgring to Krakow in a day which is about 1100km, and I've done geneva to home in a day which is another long day but I don't mind driving all day.

I'd make sure you have at least a few of the days where you actually get to see places rather than just drive.

[Jonny671]

Yeah I'm fine with long journeys, love driving and long journeys I do no problem.

I was thinking of a whole day at the 'Ring, whole day in Paris.. Where else along the kind of route would be worth stopping for a day/night in?

[Kneetrembler]

Stop off at the Schlumph Motor Museum with the biggest collection of Bugattis in the world, at Mulhouse,Alsace allow a morning there.Some great driving roads around there.

[v15ben]

Susten Pass
San Bernardino Pass
Millau Bridge

We drove for 7 days and did 2200 miles including a full weekend at the Nurburgring so it can definitely be done. Awesome trip

[rfn]

I've got a 2 week trip booked in a fortnight.

Destinations/Places we're visiting:

Birmingham (start)
Folkestone(train)
Dunkerque
Reims
Magny Cours
Millau Viaduct
St Tropez
Cannes
Monaco (as well as the col du Turini, col Saint-Martin)
Maranello/Modena (Ferrari, Lamborghini Factory Tours)
Stelvio Pass, Umbrailpass, San Bernadino Pass
Julierpass, Splugenpass
Domodossola, Villadossola, Simplonpass
Kandersteg
Luzern
Basel
Strasbourg
2 days at the 'Ring
Cologne
Dusseldorf
Home

about 3800 miles, 13 days In the '5. HTH.

[hornetrider]

Pyrenees > Alps. That is all.

[Jonny671]

rfn said:

I've got a 2 week trip booked in a fortnight.

Destinations/Places we're visiting:

Birmingham (start)
Folkestone(train)
Dunkerque
Reims
Magny Cours
Millau Viaduct
St Tropez
Cannes
Monaco (as well as the col du Turini, col Saint-Martin)
Maranello/Modena (Ferrari, Lamborghini Factory Tours)
Stelvio Pass, Umbrailpass, San Bernadino Pass
Julierpass, Splugenpass
Domodossola, Villadossola, Simplonpass
Kandersteg
Luzern
Basel
Strasbourg
2 days at the 'Ring
Cologne
Dusseldorf
Home

about 3800 miles, 13 days In the '5. HTH.

That sounds cool, very long!

Which way is that going? UK>France>Italy>Germany>France>UK?

[F i F]

Not kidding about geography not being your strong suit were you.

tbh I'd miss Paris out, you get far more pain as a driver than you reap back as a tourist imo.

If you want to do Paris fine, but do it by train, air or however.

Just my 2p though; hate driving in Paris, and whilst the feeling when you escape unscathed always seems like a major victory it's just not a holiday for me.

[Jonny671]

F i F said:

Not kidding about geography not being your strong suit were you.

tbh I'd miss Paris out, you get far more pain as a driver than you reap back as a tourist imo.

If you want to do Paris fine, but do it by train, air or however.

Just my 2p though; hate driving in Paris, and whilst the feeling when you escape unscathed always seems like a major victory it's just not a holiday for me.

Thanks! I just thought Paris looked a good one for seeing things, but sounds not so good..

[davido140]

Jonny671 said:

F i F said:

Not kidding about geography not being your strong suit were you.

tbh I'd miss Paris out, you get far more pain as a driver than you reap back as a tourist imo.

If you want to do Paris fine, but do it by train, air or however.

Just my 2p though; hate driving in Paris, and whilst the feeling when you escape unscathed always seems like a major victory it's just not a holiday for me.

Thanks! I just thought Paris looked a good one for seeing things, but sounds not so good..

drive in late at night, drive past the main attractions, tower, arc, champs, etc... drive out again.

Job jobbed. you can say you did it and you get to miss the utter chaos of Paris traffic during the day!

[zcacogp]

Serious advice?

Driving holidays are great, but the appeal of sitting in your car for hour on end can pale after a while. Maybe I'm getting old (34), maybe a Porsche 944 isn't that great as a road-trip steed, but I find a day's good driving is much more enjoyable if interspersed by a day's much shorter trip or a day's sightseeing.

Horses for courses perhaps, but going at distance hammer-and-tongs is perhaps not quite as much fun as it may at first appear. We've done two decent road-trip holidays in the last couple of years. Both a week long, both covering about 1600 miles. And that's about right in terms of rate of progress. One of those was London - Scotland and back, one was London - Loire Valley and back. (And that second one started off as London - Dordogne, but we decided to cut it slightly short once we were hald way down France. Why? Because there is more to a holiday than driving.)

The other thing is that doing seriously long distances gets pricey on juice, and I'd rather spend the cash on other things. Like nice places to stay, or good food ...


Oli.

[rfn]

Jonny671 said:

rfn said:

I've got a 2 week trip booked in a fortnight.

Destinations/Places we're visiting:

snip
about 3800 miles, 13 days In the '5. HTH.

That sounds cool, very long!

Which way is that going? UK>France>Italy>Germany>France>UK?

That's correct yeah - however although it's a long way most of the mileage is done in 4 days (of 500ish miles each). There'll be some days when we won't be driving at all.

[heebeegeetee]

For a route, you could do worse than research the route this lot took:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WVmHt9mBc4

PS St Flour to Valence and up to Col de la Machine is a terrific drive.