Questions: Road trip to Italy

snips86x

snips86x

snips86x

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My brother has a friend with a house in Italy (Ragoli) and in September/October I will be doing the road trip with my sister. The plan is to get the Ferry to Calais and drive from there and we'll be looking at a total of 2 weeks allowing 2 days travel each way.

I know there are some tolls depending on the route, which is fine. This is the route I'm looking at which includes tolls. The 17h 38m is the non-toll route according to Google Maps.

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I'm wondering if anyone has done a similar trip or can tell me where to find details about the tolls for this route? Is there a website which gives a breakdown?
 
None toll route is only extra 30 min give or take, I'd go that route if your not set on driving through France.
 
Yep, I do this annually, or at least have done for the past two years. Calais to Lyon, which is generic French /European city but actually very nice, then plough on the next day through the Mont Blanc tunnel to Lake Garda. Dead easy drive on the French and Italian roads.

Consider the Euro tunnel over the ferry. The ferry just adds the complexity and pressure of time. You can arrive at the Euro tunnel upwards of 2 hours either side of your scheduled crossing time, and get straight on a train with no extra cost. You don't have that luxury with the ferry
 
Django x2 said:
Yep, I do this annually, or at least have done for the past two years. Calais to Lyon, which is generic French /European city but actually very nice, then plough on the next day through the Mont Blanc tunnel to Lake Garda. Dead easy drive on the French and Italian roads.

Consider the Euro tunnel over the ferry. The ferry just adds the complexity and pressure of time. You can arrive at the Euro tunnel upwards of 2 hours either side of your scheduled crossing time, and get straight on a train with no extra cost. You don't have that luxury with the ferry
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I hadn't actually thought of the train! Will research this for sure, thanks :)
 
I'd take the route through Germany.

You can see how much the tolls would be using viamichelin.com - they are considerably expensive.

The German route may be quicker than it states as don't forget that quite a lot of it is on unrestricted Autobahn sections.
 
IIRC there's a lot of roadworks around Ulm, or at least there was when I was there last year. Great roads if they are clear though.
 
Django x2 said:
You can arrive at the Euro tunnel upwards of 2 hours either side of your scheduled crossing time, and get straight on a train with no extra cost.
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Every single time I have done this they've turned around and said oh sorry it's busy today, booked train only, please spend 2 hours in our awful retail unit :(
 
[TW]Fox said:
Every single time I have done this they've turned around and said oh sorry it's busy today, booked train only, please spend 2 hours in our awful retail unit :(
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And, ironically, every time I've been early for a ferry crossing (either Dover-Calais or Dover-Dunkirk or their reverse journeys), I've been able to board the earlier crossing with no questions asked.

Have never missed one though, so don't know how it would have panned out the other way.
 
[TW]Fox said:
You can see how much the tolls would be using viamichelin.com
Click to expand...

I found this site to be very inaccurate last year. I plotted my route back to Calais on the site, and the actual toll charges (for the same route) were almost half of what they said it would cost.

Like paradigm, we were also let onto an earlier train.
 
Same, in 10 years of multiple annual trips across, I've never had to wait or pay more money and if I have been really early and had to wait, I've still got on an earlier train than booked.

There are several good life hacks at the tunnel too. For instance, it costs no more to book your car on as over 1.85m. this means you get on in the much larger carriages with the occasional motor home or Vito van and you enter a different booking system and queue. You'll always get on a much earlier train using that method if you arrive early.
 
Django x2 said:
Same, in 10 years of multiple annual trips across, I've never had to wait or pay more money and if I have been really early and had to wait, I've still got on an earlier train than booked.

There are several good life hacks at the tunnel too. For instance, it costs no more to book your car on as over 1.85m. this means you get on in the much larger carriages with the occasional motor home or Vito van and you enter a different booking system and queue. You'll always get on a much earlier train using that method if you arrive early.
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Would this not raise some questions if I booked as over 1.85m and turn up in a 2 seater? I'd expect them to bump you into the normal car carriages then?

If not, I might take this into account!
 
I would be going Euro Tunnel myself. 9 times out of ten they let you get on early especially in September/October. Last thing when you got a 17 hour drive ahead of you is to be wasting time on a ferry. Also if you are going to do the trip in one sitting and do not have head lights that can adjust to LHD I would be planning the journey to do the driving with as much daylight as possible. driving RHD in a LHD country with those horrible LHD reflector stickers is not nice and that was in a car with Xenons. Also I would just plan for the shortest journey and take some change for the tolls. I spent £20-30 going from UK to Lithuania on tolls but all toll roads were empty so you could give it the beans.
 
I'd personally get out of France as soon as possible and that's exactly what I do when I go on my euro trips. Not because I don't like France, but you'll have no tolls if you drive through Belgium/Luxembourg/Germany. It doesn't add all that much time and you'll be able to stop of and see more if you can be bothered to. Be aware that to drive through Austria on the motorways you'll need to buy a vignette but they're not expensive - €8.90 for 10 days, not sure if you can buy two but I don't see why not (since it'll be cheaper than the 2 month option).
 
Invertigo said:
Would this not raise some questions if I booked as over 1.85m and turn up in a 2 seater? I'd expect them to bump you into the normal car carriages then?

If not, I might take this into account!
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Never raised an eyebrow when I've done it in many saloon cars. In fact, poor sign reading as you approach the lanes can easily put you in the plus 1.85m lane. The crossing letters are the same so I don't see that it massively matters. We used to do it because there was more room to get doors open and get kids out etc.
 
adam cool dude said:
I would be going Euro Tunnel myself. 9 times out of ten they let you get on early especially in September/October. Last thing when you got a 17 hour drive ahead of you is to be wasting time on a ferry. Also if you are going to do the trip in one sitting and do not have head lights that can adjust to LHD I would be planning the journey to do the driving with as much daylight as possible. driving RHD in a LHD country with those horrible LHD reflector stickers is not nice and that was in a car with Xenons. Also I would just plan for the shortest journey and take some change for the tolls. I spent £20-30 going from UK to Lithuania on tolls but all toll roads were empty so you could give it the beans.
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Beam deflectors are not a legal requirement. I've spent a couple of years living abroad using a few different RHD cars and have never used them. Never been flashed either so they can't be that blinding.
 
My experience of France is toll roads are lovely, quiet and smooth, non toll roads less so. My experience of Italy is the reverse of that.
 
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