sotonjoe Posted 11 April, 2012 Share Posted 11 April, 2012 I haven't really seen an awful lot Europe. I've driven through bits of France, Belgium, Germany and Austria just to get to Northern Italy, but did that without stopping at all. Recently I've been watching that programme the Hairy Bikers are doing where they've been touring Europe on their bikes and doing all sorts of baking, and it's made me think how nice Germany and Austria look. I also remembered Top Gear talking about the best driving roads 'in the world' being in the Swiss Alps so I've done a bit of research and found some of their ideas. Now I fancy putting together a little European jaunt with the aim of seeing some of the best tourist places, driving some awesome roads and eating / drinking some nice food and drink, but I'm fairly short on ideas and wondered if anybody had done something similar and could suggest some places to visit for nice scenery, drives and nice food and drink. My ideas are at a really early stage. I know Top Gear spoke about driving the Stelvio Pass and the San Bernardino Pass, and I've pencilled in a stop at the Nurburgring, but that's all I've got so far. I guess I'll go to Calais and work my way down the to Swiss Alps for the two roads I've already mentioned, so I could do anything in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium or North East France within reason! Has anybody had a go before? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Posted 11 April, 2012 Share Posted 11 April, 2012 Head Southest from the Alps. Last year we drove from Venice, round the coast through Slovenia and into Croatia. Beautiful countries, nice coastal roads, everything is cheap, nice people. I'll definitely get back to Eastern Europe to travel, probably backpack it though as trains are so cheap. By June in 2008, myself and a mate had saved around £4000 and were going to drive down to Austria and Switzerland to follow England around in the Euros. Obviously England didn't qualify, so being 21 years old, we thought we'd drive to Ibiza instead as we'd already booked the Eurotunnel and didn't want to lose that money. Endless, boring motorways and too many tolls. We should have flown and stayed there longer for the money we spent, about £600-700 on fuel and tolls as fuel was already €1.60 in France at the time. Was a good experience but if I was to drive into Europe again I'd be getting out of the Eurozone ASAP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pedg Posted 11 April, 2012 Share Posted 11 April, 2012 If you are passing anywhere near here: http://www.germanplaces.com/cave-tours-berchtesgaden/salt-mine-berchtesgaden.html the tour is quite fun. Also around there (I think) is the chitty chitty bang bang* castle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_Castle (*) getting in some sort of motoring link! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint_Jonny Posted 11 April, 2012 Share Posted 11 April, 2012 If you are planing on heading into Bosnia and Serbia be prepared to be sat at the border for a while. I did a driving tour of eastern Europe last summer and found the further east you go the worse the borders get. Serbia also fleeced us for **** loads of money to let us over the border. Remember to get green cards on every border outside of the EU. Erm.. thing thats about it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint_Jonny Posted 11 April, 2012 Share Posted 11 April, 2012 Also, I wouldn't advice Serbia to be honest. Had one cracking night out in Belgrade, but apart from that found it to be a bit soulless and empty, and the people weren't particularly friendly. Bosnia on the other hand, I can't recommend enough. Beautiful country with friendly helpful people, and Sarajevo is a delight not to be missed by anyone. Stunning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suewhistle Posted 11 April, 2012 Share Posted 11 April, 2012 You could head down to Italy using the route I do: Dunkirk, Luxembourg (fill up with fuel!), then Nancy, Metz, Besancon, Pontarlier and over the Great St Bernard Pass with it's fantastic views and into Italy. Turin is worth a visit then pootle across northern Italy getting fatter, perhaps visiting Ferrari or the Italian Lakes. That way you also avoid French motorway tolls [and NEVER buy fuel on French motorways - always come off to some supermarket] although you'll need a motorway carnet for Switzerland. It's certainly a more interesting route than hacking down the middle of France on the motorway, and I find I save a fortune on fuel by relaxing and keeping the revs down! Chuck in a tent and you could occasionally save some money which I'd prefer to spend on good food and decent wine. Try staying at agriturismo/i in Italy for pig out local meals in nice locations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Posted 11 April, 2012 Share Posted 11 April, 2012 Also, I wouldn't advice Serbia to be honest. Had one cracking night out in Belgrade, but apart from that found it to be a bit soulless and empty, and the people weren't particularly friendly. Bosnia on the other hand, I can't recommend enough. Beautiful country with friendly helpful people, and Sarajevo is a delight not to be missed by anyone. Stunning. Strange, my experience of Serbia was the opposite. Flew into Belgrade, just spent a day there but enjoyed it. We then went north to Novi Sad which was an amazing place. Friendly people, beautiful city, everything cheap, and a good festival. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotonjoe Posted 12 April, 2012 Author Share Posted 12 April, 2012 You could head down to Italy using the route I do: Dunkirk, Luxembourg (fill up with fuel!), then Nancy, Metz, Besancon, Pontarlier and over the Great St Bernard Pass with it's fantastic views and into Italy. Turin is worth a visit then pootle across northern Italy getting fatter, perhaps visiting Ferrari or the Italian Lakes. That way you also avoid French motorway tolls [and NEVER buy fuel on French motorways - always come off to some supermarket] although you'll need a motorway carnet for Switzerland. It's certainly a more interesting route than hacking down the middle of France on the motorway, and I find I save a fortune on fuel by relaxing and keeping the revs down! Chuck in a tent and you could occasionally save some money which I'd prefer to spend on good food and decent wine. Try staying at agriturismo/i in Italy for pig out local meals in nice locations. Hi Sue, Thanks for this. I want to see some bits of Germany so my initial plan was to stay a little bit further East than some of those places you mention. However, it makes sense to do a loop so there's no reason why I can't see a bit of eastern France on either the way back or down. Can you suggest anything particularly interesting about those places that Google might not tell me? I'm sure Turin is self-explanatory as a largish Italian city but I wonder if you could recommend any Italian lakes other than Garda as that's the only one I've really heard of (I've been there for one day on a flying visit actually). I've just look up the Ferrari factory tour and the Ferrari website seems pretty useless. It just gives a description of what seems to be involved but no idea of prices or when it happens. I think I'll have to get Googling some more on that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotonjoe Posted 12 April, 2012 Author Share Posted 12 April, 2012 If you are passing anywhere near here: http://www.germanplaces.com/cave-tours-berchtesgaden/salt-mine-berchtesgaden.html the tour is quite fun. Also around there (I think) is the chitty chitty bang bang* castle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_Castle (*) getting in some sort of motoring link! Will definitely look these up as I wanted to see some of Germany. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotonjoe Posted 12 April, 2012 Author Share Posted 12 April, 2012 Head Southest from the Alps. Last year we drove from Venice, round the coast through Slovenia and into Croatia. Beautiful countries, nice coastal roads, everything is cheap, nice people. I'll definitely get back to Eastern Europe to travel, probably backpack it though as trains are so cheap. By June in 2008, myself and a mate had saved around £4000 and were going to drive down to Austria and Switzerland to follow England around in the Euros. Obviously England didn't qualify, so being 21 years old, we thought we'd drive to Ibiza instead as we'd already booked the Eurotunnel and didn't want to lose that money. Endless, boring motorways and too many tolls. We should have flown and stayed there longer for the money we spent, about £600-700 on fuel and tolls as fuel was already €1.60 in France at the time. Was a good experience but if I was to drive into Europe again I'd be getting out of the Eurozone ASAP. Thanks Jack, but I think this might take me a bit far from home. I'll check the map though and see what the distances look like though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotonjoe Posted 12 April, 2012 Author Share Posted 12 April, 2012 If you are planing on heading into Bosnia and Serbia be prepared to be sat at the border for a while. I did a driving tour of eastern Europe last summer and found the further east you go the worse the borders get. Serbia also fleeced us for **** loads of money to let us over the border. Remember to get green cards on every border outside of the EU. Erm.. thing thats about it! I really hadn't thought of going that far south or east to be honest. That part of the world seems attractive but I think time and money might keep me away from it this time round. I want to be able to have enough time and money to enjoy bits of Germany and Switzerland etc rather than having to worry about going quite so far from home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trousers Posted 12 April, 2012 Share Posted 12 April, 2012 Does anyone have a link to websites for budget 'motels' in Europe? I'm thinking the equivalent of Travelodge and Premier Inn in the UK. Looks like I might be driving down to Italy in the summer and we'd want to stop overnight somewhere 'functional' (i.e cheap!), either based at a motorway service station or close by a junction. Looking at a map of Europe, Lucerne in Switzerland looks about the right sort of location to stop over distance and time wise (were probably going to be based near Rome initially) Cheers (Sotonjoe....apologies for hijacking the thread somewhat here but as the subject matter was the more or less the same as my own enquiry I thought it might make more sense to lump it into one thread) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotonjoe Posted 12 April, 2012 Author Share Posted 12 April, 2012 Does anyone have a link to websites for budget 'motels' in Europe? I'm thinking the equivalent of Travelodge and Premier Inn in the UK. Looks like I might be driving down to Italy in the summer and we'd want to stop overnight somewhere 'functional' (i.e cheap!), either based at a motorway service station or close by a junction. Looking at a map of Europe, Lucerne in Switzerland looks about the right sort of location to stop over distance and time wise (were probably going to be based near Rome initially) Cheers (Sotonjoe....apologies for hijacking the thread somewhat here but as the subject matter was the more or less the same as my own enquiry I thought it might make more sense to lump it into one thread) Links will prove useful for me mate so I wouldn't worry too much. I plan on taking a tent to save money at some point, but I'd like to spend some nights under a proper roof as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotonjoe Posted 12 April, 2012 Author Share Posted 12 April, 2012 Just in case anyone else gets similar ideas, here is a good thread I've just started reading on the Pistonheads forum ... link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toofarnorth Posted 12 April, 2012 Share Posted 12 April, 2012 Will definitely look these up as I wanted to see some of Germany. Thanks. If you go to the Chitty Bang Bang castle go early. Went at midday and quued for an hour before they ran out of tickets. Scenery in the Bavarian Alps is incredible and the beer and food are pretty good too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Window Cleaner Posted 12 April, 2012 Share Posted 12 April, 2012 (edited) Does anyone have a link to websites for budget 'motels' in Europe? I'm thinking the equivalent of Travelodge and Premier Inn in the UK. Looks like I might be driving down to Italy in the summer and we'd want to stop overnight somewhere 'functional' (i.e cheap!), either based at a motorway service station or close by a junction. Looking at a map of Europe, Lucerne in Switzerland looks about the right sort of location to stop over distance and time wise (were probably going to be based near Rome initially) (Sotonjoe....apologies for hijacking the thread somewhat here but as the subject matter was the more or less the same as my own enquiry I thought it might make more sense to lump it into one thread) Just look up on Accor's website. You can go Formule 1 which is really cheap or Etap'Hotel which is pretty cheap but at least you get your own shower. You're talking about 35 euros a night for l'Etap, makes that about 26£ of your money I think. Edit just read all of the post, if you want cheapish hotels you need to stay out of Switzerland, in fact if you want cheap anything you need to stay out of Switzerland. There is an Etap in Lucerne but it's far more expensive than any other country that the group does. Cheers Edited 12 April, 2012 by Window Cleaner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotonjoe Posted 12 April, 2012 Author Share Posted 12 April, 2012 Just look up on Accor's website. You can go Formule 1 which is really cheap or Etap'Hotel which is pretty cheap but at least you get your own shower. You're talking about 35 euros a night for l'Etap, makes that about 26£ of your money I think. Edit just read all of the post, if you want cheapish hotels you need to stay out of Switzerland, in fact if you want cheap anything you need to stay out of Switzerland. There is an Etap in Lucerne but it's far more expensive than any other country that the group does. Cheers This is handy to know as most of the driving routes I'd made a note of are in the Swiss Alps, and I'm considering a stay in Interlaken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suewhistle Posted 23 April, 2012 Share Posted 23 April, 2012 Just seen this thread again. For Italian lakes you might want to try Lago Maggiore or one of the smaller ones like Lago di Orta. Torino is a lot more compact than Milan and for a quick review of the city and some of the mountain roads why not watch the original The Italian Job again?! Just had a look at the Ferrari museum in Italian but there is a ticket booking page in English: https://www.mioticket.it/galleriaferrari/show.asp - 13 euros but you need to prebook. To be honest I've got no real recommendations on places as when I'm off to the UK, France and Switzerland are just places to cross! I can second Window Cleaner's recommendation of ETAP, usually handy if you're in going places mode. I avoid Formule1 as prefer my own loo and shower. When I travel over in the winter I tend not to pre-book hotels as you can get caught out by the weather but that has resulted in driving slightly longer than I would have wanted, occasionally with lucky results: 18e for a room once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buctootim Posted 23 April, 2012 Share Posted 23 April, 2012 This is handy to know as most of the driving routes I'd made a note of are in the Swiss Alps, and I'm considering a stay in Interlaken. Camped in Chamonix (French Alps, great view of Mont blanc when you wake up) and San Giminiagno (Tuscany, Italy). Can recommend both of those. http://www.campingdesbarrats.com/camping-chamonix-fr/camping-3etoiles-centre.html# Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suewhistle Posted 23 April, 2012 Share Posted 23 April, 2012 Camped in Chamonix (French Alps, great view of Mont blanc when you wake up) and San Giminiagno (Tuscany, Italy). Can recommend both of those. http://www.campingdesbarrats.com/camping-chamonix-fr/camping-3etoiles-centre.html# Or on the other side of Mont Blanc there are some camp sites in Val Veny at 1600m that I've stayed at during the Celtica Festival: a more dramatic setting you couldn't get: http://www.celtica.vda.it/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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