Europe Road Trip

[miikeeyy92]

I know I posted a while back asking about other peoples experiences from European road trips, but now our idea's are turning more towards reality.

Here is a rough route we were thinking of.



We are planning to be away for 10ish days. Do you think this would take longer? roughly 4-5 hours driving a day. Not sure if that is a lot for a road trip.. (anyone with experience on this?)

Car wise..I am hoping to pick up an E46 3 series diesel (do like them ) from somewhere for this, and I would keep it for the year after as I am on placement. Good/bad car choice for the journey? I am full aware that ~2300 miles is a long way.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[miikeeyy92]

We did a similar trip in C reg Merc about 3-4 years ago, slight difference being we went to Lille, Paris, Lyon, and then through Turin to Milan. Then straight into Zurich, Munich, Nurburgring, and then back home. Took us a week (rather than 10 days) to do and was a very enjoyable trip - roughly spent about the same time as you've accounted for in the car, but with regular breaks to break it up a little.

Had an absolute blast and hopefully we'll be doing it again in a year or two. An E46 diesel should be able to handle that without a sweat - just make sure the cooling system is up to scratch before departing

Would you say that the 7 days was enough? Or did you feel pushed for time at any point?

Looks like we have more driving in the alps than you, which would take up time due to the wiggly roads

 

[miikeeyy92]

Have you thought about taking your Southerly route a bit further east and taking in the route Napoleon? (roughly from Grenoble to down to Nice).

That looks good, although we were looking to take in a lot of the south coast of France, and then along to the riviera

 

[miikeeyy92]

Cheap e46 diesels are rubbish money pits, don't bother with them. If you can shrug the bills and hassle off then you can afford the extra fuel for the proper ones, too.

I did 3000 miles around Europe in a 530i and it averaged 35mpg.

That was my only issue with one, being that if/when it went wrong, it would be $$$. What year was your 530i? Any recommendations instead?

Was going to say this. Your drive from Calais to Monaco, apart from the Millau bridge, is extremely boring. However, it is quick and Orleans has a nice town centre/square if you want to stop somewhere other than Paris.

We haven't really looked into the journey through France much yet. The Millau Bridge is the main attraction, but the girlfriend grew up in France, and so she'll be wanting to stop here and there all over the place. Orleans looks like a good suggestion for a first nights stop. We did want to pop to Le Mans, although from memory apart from the track, theres nothing there.

 

[miikeeyy92]

Your going right past the Davos to Stelvio pass.. you'd be a fool to miss it.

Don't worry, we're going down it!

 

[miikeeyy92]

For our route, 7 days was perfect, we'd be up at 8ish in the morning each day, jump into the car onto the next destination and we'd generally have a solid afternoon and evening there (with the exception of Paris, Zurich, and Turin which we stopped at for a couple of hours). Gave us the opportunity to walk around and discover the cities we were in nicely.

The year after, the same group of friends (minus me) did a very very similar route to you for a 7 day trip in an E39 540i tourer (Geneva, Monaco through to Milan, and then through the alps (Stelvio pass) through Stuttgart and onto the Nurburgring) and while they all said they had a great time, I got the impression that they spent a lot of time in the car and it got very annoying, very quickly!

I think with 10 days at your disposal, you'll have an enjoyable trip if you're hitting the road early in the morning

We were aiming for leaving at 9ish ... getting us to locations around lunchtime, and having the afternoon/evening there, which sounds very similar to your timings. We collectively had thought that 7 days was definitely too short, we were even thinking of stretching to 14 days, but it sounds like 10 should be enough.

Well thats alright then!

Planning a pretty identical trip myself

Let me know how it goes!

 

[miikeeyy92]

SNIP

Had already watched your video! Looked so good! Very jealous of the car, my wallet wouldn't stretch for the insurance!

How long was your route? and what sort of timings were you running? From the video it looked like you stayed a reasonable amount of time in some places?

 

[miikeeyy92]

Very good video Booner! Enjoyed that!

What camera/pole was that?

Think i read somewhere it was a go pro 3 black

 

[miikeeyy92]

We did ~2500miles in total. We gained a day as I drove from Oxford to Marseille in day 1 (22 hours with stops). But mostly spent 3-4 days in each country in a range of places. Getting food poisoning put me down in France for a few days on the coast and being the only driver it meant we stayed put for longer than we wanted.

From memory:
French coast = 3-4 days
Genoa/Milan/Monza/Lake Como 3 days
Alpes = 1 day (wish I spent more time here)
Austria = 1 day (wish I spent more time here)
Munich = 2 days
Stuttgart = 1 day
Black forest = 2 days

It was all fairly tight, but once you have reached that bottom coast everything is small distances (1-3 hours) away and doesn't feel far at all.

You say 3-4 days on the French coast, did you stay in the same place? Also, camping/hostels/hotels?

 

[miikeeyy92]

We stopped near Marseilles day 1, then camped in Agay (laugh it up!) which was very nice for beach etc. Sanuary sur Mer is another great stop for beach action, then stayed Monaco, then to Genoa ITA.

Haha, sounds like an interesting place. I guess Monaco was pretty awesome?

 

[miikeeyy92]

Thought I would revive this, and list the information about what has been planned so far.

Car: E91 335d M Sport touring. (unfortunately it looks like we will need a roof box)

Day 1: 12 Hour blast to Marseille
Day 2: Marseille
Day 3: Marseille - St. Tropez
Day 4: St. Tropez
Day 5: St. Tropez - Nice
Day 6: Nice
Day 7: Monaco/Menton
Day 8: Nice - Lake Como
Day 9: Lake Como
Day 10: Lake Como - Stelvio Pass - Camping in Austria
Day 11: Austria
Day 12: Austria - Neuschwanstein Castle - Munich
Day 13: Munich
Day 14: Munich - Strasbourg
Day 15: Strasbourg - Home

We are camping in the majority of places, which seam to average out at about £8pnpp, so costs are reasonably low for now. Travelling with the top box will add about £30pp we estimate. Being allowed to burrow a friends GoPro for the trip too

 

[miikeeyy92]

I'm curious about your budget if yo don't mind?

Budgeting £500pp to include everything. So far we have come in at around £350 for over-nights and a rough estimate on fuel. So a bit of room for tolls and spending money.

Have a play around planning your route on viamichelin.co.uk if you haven't already done so. It will estimate how much you are going to get charged using the toll roads.

Thank you! I'll have a look, definitely something I need to do.

If your in the south of France you should visit gorge de Verdon, well worth the visit, not to far from Nice

I'll take a look

 

[miikeeyy92]

Thats very, very cheap. Are you sure you've done your maths right?

Also how did you go from looking to pick up an E46 diesel whilst on placement to suddenly having a 335d?! Bit of a change

The E46 changed slightly to me picking up a 2.0T A3 which I'm loving , As for the 335, its a friend who's coming along so getting insured on it for the trip.

Cost wise, we have totalled up everything we've booked so far so we know how much that costs, with only 2 more places to book. (we are camping, so its averaged at £11pppn). Fuel is roughly going to be £130 each. Thats at 25mpg, as we don't really know what we are going to be getting with a roof box. As for tolls, a brief look at viamichelin.co.uk, tolls will roughly be €50 each.

 

[miikeeyy92]

And you are going to eat no food?

Nope Admittedly we don't have loads left in the budget for food, but we aren't going to be eating out often, maybe twice. And we are students after all so we can make food go a long way!

 

[miikeeyy92]

So no lunch, no coffee stops, no beers by the lake in a nice pub, etc etc?

I think you are quite significantly underestimating what this trip will end up costing you.

Food maybe, but surely not drink? Last time I went abroad with friends, I budgeted quite a lot for food and drink, and still ended up exceeding that budget by quite a considerable margin. A holiday isn't much fun if you're eating crap food and drinking tap water!

Hmmm I see what you're both saying. I guess only time will tell to see how much it costs! Its not the end of the world if it goes over budget, as you say its all about having a good holiday!

 

[miikeeyy92]

What about entrance fees to sights?

I spent ~€70 in two days last week in Barcelona just seeing things that Gaudi built.

The only place we know we are going into is the neuschwanstein castle... need to look into how much that is. Might need to extend this budget...

And excluding the long drive, we are averaging 2 hours per day, but doing driving roughly every other day.

 

[miikeeyy92]

So I've got back from a very awesome trip! Weather was a bit iffy for the 2nd half, freezing nights! Had a great time and very comfortably have spent below £550. Ill upload some shots at some point.