Euro Trips

When I was a teenager I did a roadtrip of Europe with my parents and covered France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and then France over a period of about 3 weeks, it was great fun :)

The only difficulty I can possibly see is the different languages but that could also be a good thing - bit more adventure :)

I think the places we went was something along the lines of Dover, Dijon, Freiburg (Black Forest), Munich, Salzburg, Verona/Lake Garda, Venice, Lucerne, Paris, Calais.

I doubt it'd cost any more for food than it does in the U.S. and accomodation can probably be found at prices comparable to the US as well in terms of Euros:Dollars the only difference will likely be the exchange rate.
 
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Surely pitching up a tent and cracking open a few beers and fighting with a gas stove is all part of a big road trip? :) On my last Euro trip we cheated the first night and stayed in a motel, but only because we had driven from Plymouth to Dover and then about another 100 miles on from Dunkerk so we were shattered and it was dark. The rest of the time we stayed in proper camp sites chosen from the Alan Rogers books and we never found a bad one, all had clean toilets, hot water and friendly staff etc.

If you don't want to camp but want to keep a relatively tight budget then there are loads of decent Hostels in Europe that offer private rooms, far better than anything you get in the UK.

Your trip is similar to the one we did, though we didn't have time to go to Spain. Make sure you call in at Neuchwanstein castle in the south west of Bavaria, right on the Alps. Obviously the Stelvio and the Col de Turini are mandatory if you've never driven them.
 
I need to know details too, I want to visit the Alps, and Nurburgring, not sure what else. I like the idea of coming home on a different route, ie Santander or something.
 
Not done this as a driver but did it with my parents a few years back. Intact we did the same route down but went all the way to Sicily to visit family before coming back up to do southern France. Last year I hired a car in Spain and did Barcelona, southern coast and Madrid. If you've been to Barcelona before I honestly wouldn't bother with the Spanish part of your trip. Madrid was ordinary at best and Spain is just such a bare and boring place to drive through. There's nothing to see whilst you're driving along. Definitley not something I'd do again,especially when compared to driving through the rest of Europe.

I'd suggest leaving that out and venturing down into Italy a little further. Maybe as far as Rome (fantastic place) and visit pompeii while you are there. Florence is also a beautiful place.

As for hotels you're really best ordering a novotel and best western brochure before you go. Its great to have especially when things don't go to plan. Say for example you don't feel like driving as far as originally planned, just look up where you are find the nearest chain hotel and you are sorted. Particularly handy If you're going to be getting ripped off for internet use on you're mobile.

Are you against camping occasionally? It really is a different ball game in Europe. Fantastic facilities, most places have pools, restaurants, nice tidy showers and changing facilities.

Forgot to mention there are a chain of hotels in France iirc called f1 or formula 1. These are usually found joined onto service stations and are very cheap, Im always a bit dubious about leaving the car though. Don't attempt anything like this in Spain. Service stations here are regularly covered with immigrant coming from the south up through Spain. You won't miss them, cars fully loaded, roof rack holding things twice the size if the fiat panda they are attayched to, mattresses ready for their nap at the services.

Last time I pulled over for a couple hours Kip in a motorhome I was woken by the sound of two lads trying to break in while we were in the vehicle. When we woke found about 30-50 cars all parked up with people sleeping on the floor around them. Really not a nice place to go.

There's probably so much more I could write but if there's anything in particular youd like to know or let me know the kind of things you are looking to do I may be able to recommend some stops.

Monaco is a must! Port grimaud is well worth an overnight stay for.a nice meal by the canals.

Eurocamp is another alternative depending on budget. Its not fantastic being in a caravan but they have some great locations of you want a spontaneous stop.

EDIT : from my phone so no doubt spelling mistakes.
 
Why don't you stop in Prague? Its probably the nicest city in europe.

When driving through germany if found it was very hard to find a place to stay close the the motorway unless you have planned it in advance.
 
Dogbreath said:
Surely pitching up a tent and cracking open a few beers and fighting with a gas stove is all part of a big road trip? :) On my last Euro trip we cheated the first night and stayed in a motel, but only because we had driven from Plymouth to Dover and then about another 100 miles on from Dunkerk so we were shattered and it was dark. The rest of the time we stayed in proper camp sites chosen from the Alan Rogers books and we never found a bad one, all had clean toilets, hot water and friendly staff etc.

If you don't want to camp but want to keep a relatively tight budget then there are loads of decent Hostels in Europe that offer private rooms, far better than anything you get in the UK.
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Absolutely 100% no camping - really doesnt appeal to me.

As for being on a tight budget, thats what I'm trying to find out. Am I on a tight budget? I'd normally consider £3.5k to be quite an extravagant budget for a holiday. But is Europe so expensive that this doesnt go far?
 
I did this about 10 years ago in an MX-5 MK2.5, back when you needed a road atlas and a bag of mixed local currencies to get anywhere.. much easier now with the Euro (apart from Switzerland ofc).

my route was Amsterdam (NL) via Germany to Aarau (CH) on to Torino (IT), Genoa (IT), Cannes, Nice and ending in Barcelona. Then back again through France and Belgium.

On another trip we went Amsterdam -> Austria -> Budapest (in my E36), and to Poland in an E34, canned it all the way with no stops :)

Mainly we stayed with friends but there are plenty of Travelodge type places about or find some B&Bs to get into the local atmosphere.. Surely your Nav system will have these kind of things as POI? if you are using TomTom get the complete EU maps (1gb worth) and it will save you from the speed cameras too.

make sure you have plenty of limit on a credit card for incidentals and a recovery service available.

The only tolls were in Switzerland, Italy and France, but as has been said the French ones can be avoided if you are taking the "Scenic route".

I have done similar trips in the US (Texas/mexico, Cali-Nevada-Arizona, S.carolina -> DC) too.. and both were equally enjoyable.. but I the Eu trip was always the more memorable.. maybe it was the car, or the adventures on the way (running out of money and gas in the middle of some french mountains at night, and having to eat a blue steak at the only place my Visa would work lol, almost getting arrested at the swiss boarder and being told to drive "around" to get to germany.. oh, happy days :) ).. but you need to do it!

Edit, I think 3.5k would be more than enough for 16 nights, even if you had to pay 100 euros a night, which I doubt.. are you using your own car or hiring?
 
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This is something i'd love to do, i may have to plan something like this for next summer, i'll keep my eye on this thread though :)
 
Myself and my old man regularly drive Calais to Alicante theres not much in the way of tolls in Spain but looking about £200 euros in trolls, of course this is in a Van the toll price is should be lower and the route you take will be different but even just to cross the south of france is a fair amount, like others have said you can drive around them but its not really worth it, also occasionally they use the tolls as a speed gate and time you point to point.
 
I have not been on a Euro Trip, but I have planned many times, and if your after a cost saving trip I can help out....

Hotels - Plan your nights stays in cheaper cities e.g. not Geneva or Milan!!
We set a route from Calais to, Brussels, nurburgring, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Munich, Zurich, Geneva, Lyon, Dijon, Paris back to Calais. The original route which included Croatia, Holland, Italy and South of France was too expensive for our budget.

Tolls - Be prepared to set a large budget for toll roads especially on the Swiss border (if you cross it). Tolls can be avoided and you will save a fair bit of money, and don't add any extra miles onto the journey. But this is entirely up to choice...

Hotels - Shop around before you go, we planned a Euro Trip many times and hotel prices change daily. They can cost anywhere from £39-£89 per night, there is a chain of hotels which are the equivalent of a travelodge, but I can't remember there name.

Food - We planned to buy most of our food in England, and put it in the back of the car in a cooler box, to save money really. I'm not sure if this would be to your desires, but money WILL be saved by doing this option. Of course put some aside for when you wish to have meals out :)

Fuel - I think you have budgeted on best case scenario there, I would add an extra £100 or so for traffic, and also higher costs in many parts of Europe to buy at the pump.

Hope this helps, oh and if your wondering, my cut down budget Euro Trip with exactly the same mileage as you plan came to £1,500 (with hotels, food, and fuel)
 
I did it a couple of years ago down to the French alps and back. I did a mix of toll roads (pretty much a constant 85MPH and non toll roads (lots of speed cameras)/lanes. Was great fun but started to get worn out after 250 miles in the VX per day.

Hotels were between €50-80 in the middle of the city centre (Etap/Ibis were OK but much preferred the independent ones) and parking was about €6 a night in public multi story car parks.


Have you ever tried Hostels? They are really good fun. The stay at Ostello Bello in Milan is one of my travelling highlights. http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/Ostello-Bello/Milan/54097
 
I can add nothing constructive but ever since seeing photos of Lake Bled in Slovenia I've always wanted to road trip there via the interesting bits of Europe. Thanks for reminding me. Will keep an eye on this thread to see an idea of the true costs, although don't fancy doing it alone! OcUK Euro trip anyone? :D
 
I've done a couple of road trips, both for business and pleasure and always had a great time. My advice is pick a route and find your first couple of nights hotels and then go with the flow from there in. The reason I suggest this as you will never struggle to find somewhere to stay unless you are really unlucky and getting to a location to find the hotel you booked is a tip or next to a much better hotel that is £5 a night less is annoying. When I spent 9 days going down to Monaco in 2007 we booked the first night outside Dijon and then 3 nights in Nice and we ended up spending 1 night in Nice as the hotel was crap, even after we'd done all the research to make sure it wasn't. I booked private parking, which meant they reserved me a parking space in an underground car park open to everyone 1/2 a mile from the hotel! Europe is such a fabulous place to tour you are spoilt for options and I don't think you'll have too much of a problem finding a place for sensible money everywhere you go.
 
I've done similar trips several times. Accor group hotels are great and normally clustered together. Etap cheap, Ibis mid range and Novotel at the top. Prices vary a fair bit depending on city, but £50 will usually get you an Ibis without breakfast. Ibis rooms are much nicer than Etap and usually about £10-£15 a night more. We tend to pick one on the ring road of a city or near the airport, park for free and get trains or buses into town(this is usually dirt cheap and easy). You save a fair whack on the hotel and parking doing it this way and avoid sitting in local rush hour traffic every day!

Other cost considerations are motorway tolls particularly in France and vignettes(road tax). In Belgium, Austria and Switzerland you must buy these at service stations before you enter the country or face big fines.

Also make sure you carry reflective jackets for all passengers, spare bulbs, first aid kit and warning triangle.
 
Belgium has no requirement for a Vignette or toll as far as I recall, and I lived there for 2 years. teh roads are #$%&# anyway so if they are charging to use them, well..:eek:

Agree with the safety vest etc, this is a legal requirement in several countries.
 
Ezah said:
Belgium has no requirement for a Vignette or toll as far as I recall, and I lived there for 2 years. teh roads are #$%&# anyway so if they are charging to use them, well..:eek:

Agree with the safety vest etc, this is a legal requirement in several countries.
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Doh sorry, yeah not sure why I put Belgium. Czech Republic and a few others do, but Belgium definitely not.

Cheers!
 
Have you considered Interail? I bought a 15 day pass this year and had unlimited intercity travel and found it much better. I arrived at my destination fresh and relaxed and didn't have to worry about my car. Plus it worked out cheaper.
 
Trifid said:
Have you considered Interail? I bought a 15 day pass this year and had unlimited intercity travel and found it much better. I arrived at my destination fresh and relaxed and didn't have to worry about my car. Plus it worked out cheaper.
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You dare post that in "Motors"? sacrilege :D

edit: Fox could also tow a caravan behind him :)
 
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