European Road trip..

[Chittychangchang]

This Summer i plan on taking the family on a road trip around Europe.

The plan is still in the early stages.

Ideally we don't need to be in the car for more than two hours a day.

We need to have a hotel booked and car parking at every stop.

The trip will be aprox 3300miles according to googlemaps and 52 hours travelling time (26 days).

We will be starting in Manchester.UK and visiting France. Monaco, Turin, Rome, Venice, Lichtenstein, Bruges and loads of other places on the journey.

I'm looking for advice and tips from you seasoned travellers out there to make the trip go smoothly and reasonably inexpensive.

Cheers

CCC

[ShrewedPunter]

This Summer i plan on taking the family on a road trip around Europe.

The plan is still in the early stages.

Ideally we don't need to be in the car for more than two hours a day.

We need to have a hotel booked and car parking at every stop.

The trip will be aprox 3300miles according to googlemaps and 52 hours travelling time (26 days).

We will be starting in Manchester.UK and visiting France. Monaco, Turin, Rome, Venice, Lichtenstein, Bruges and loads of other places on the journey.

I'm looking for advice and tips from you seasoned travellers out there to make the trip go smoothly and reasonably inexpensive.

Cheers

CCC

Use trigavo to search your hotels.
also use quidco to get a bit of cash back on each booking.


googlemaps is good but i prefer Michelin route planner and maps, traffic news, weather forecast, restaurants and hotel booking for traveling though Europe, especially France. You can choose toll free routes. In France you gotta pay for motorway.

[Chittychangchang]

starting to consider this when you add up the costs of fuel..

Plus kids go free Interrail - Discover Europe with My Interrail from National Rail - My Interrail

[Chittychangchang]

^ Scrapping the interailing idea.

When you take into account the mpg and ferry cost it's about the same.

With a car you have more flexibility and can take more stuff.

Plus you get the added advantage of visiting places of the beaten track and not stuck on some well worn backpacking tourist trail.

[nigelandjan]

Don't go within 40kms of Rome mate ,, stay at a hotel well outside near a rail station , get the train in mate .

Driving in Italy is the worst place in the world I have ever driven , not so much the drivers more the signs ,, or lack of them and poxy little slip roads ,, allow a hell of a lot more time than you think your journey will take

Enjoy it all

[nigelandjan]

Sorry BTW should have added trains in Italy are great !

I bought and printed our tickets at the station myself its easy , cheap as well ! nice trains to .

TIP ,, before you get on the train you MUST find the validation machine on the platform and validate your tickets , otherwise you could well have to pay again

[david44]

There are marked routes in France Bison Futes durin the staggered school vacations which are different in regions,key thing is dont drive during La Retraite last days of August when most of nation is heading mostly North.

French Travel at 176 Picadilly or Syndicate D'Initiative (kind of tourism/better bisiness townhall service) in all town can give free info,condoms sweets for kids coffee and BF maps

Also worth having the peace of mind of Euope wide breakdown cover ,many such firms or via AA etc

\\Black Saturday (France) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bum Voyage

[david44]

You can also save a long drive by taking a ferry to eg Bilbao and slowly traverse thePyrenees.Having driven in Italy its not as bad as Thailand but as others suggest park/stay outside Rome and use cheap easy trains into Termini city centre

Dependig on kids age camping can be great fun they can get ito the whole omad way play o beach while you bbq and sip a cold one,there always lods of other kids and the lux sites in France have chalets bars heated pools lal Butlins at 60-100 euros a night while municipal sites are pennies 1-10 euros
Another suggestion i do in USA is rent a motorhome that is LHD ,howver learning to turn a big Winnebago on the wrong side of a Palma one way street was an evening to relish,a very nice lady cop helped us on our way and no ticket

[buriramboy]

Take a camper van instead of a car, loads more freedom and no need to book hotels, more of an adventure too.

[thaimeme]

Dalmatia coastline....

[pseudolus]

Sounds like a great trip mate. Are you taking the ferry from Hull to Rotterdam? Having done a few of these sorts of things in Europe I tend not to book accommodation until a couple of days before arriving in the town in question; doing this gives you flexibility to stay somewhere you like without having a feeling that you must leave to keep up with the military-esque timetable.

Also agree with Nigel - don't ruin days out to big cities driving in; stay on the outside and get the train in.

[taxexile]

make sure your car complies with all the differing silly rules and regulations required by legislation hungry europe.

the french have some particularly ridiculous requirements.

i believe you need to carry a french certified breathalyser in your car, and sat navs that pre warn of speed cameras are illegal. the french police do target foreign cars and the fines can be heavy and are collected on the spot.

Satnav and speed camera alerts
Since 3 January 2012 French laws have prohibited drivers from carrying any device capable of detecting speed cameras. This includes products or devices able to warn or inform of the location of speed cameras e.g. satnav or gps systems capable of showing speed camera sites as Points of Interest.

The law is primarily aimed at speed camera detectors and sat-navs. It is unlikely that the French police will turn their attention to atlases but there is no guarantee this would be the case.

As well as the ban on warning devices, the French government is installing around 400 new, unsigned, fixed speed cameras as well as taking down signs indicating the location of existing camera sites.

If you have a satnav capable of displaying French camera locations in France then you must at least disable camera alerts. Contact the manufacturer for advice too as a software or database update is likely to be available that will remove camera data for France from the device.

If you have a satnav system built into your car then contact the vehicle manufacturer in the first instance.

spain requires you to carry spare pairs of glasses (if you wear glasses).

the aa or rac can advise you on all this.

[Bettyboo]

Don't miss Canvey Island for a Fish & Chips stop...

[bignote1]

Will it be your own car or a hire car? Hire companies in UK will not allow you to take your car by ferry or shuttle into France. If you have breakdown cover make sure the countries you visit are included...Its only a small premium.

[bignote1]

Tax exile is right In France you will need to carry 2 breathalyser tests (£5 from Amazon), a roadside triangle, a spare set of car light bulbs and high viz vests.

[Chittychangchang]

Take a camper van instead of a car, loads more freedom and no need to book hotels, more of an adventure too.

Looking into that idea at the moment.

Going to buy an old VW while it's winter and the prices are lower then sell it after out trip in August for a profit.

[the dogcatcher]

Might think about using the motorways in France if you take a camper I know they are not free but There's lots of stopping places on them. Nothing there except toilets but free to stop.... don't worry about Police, I go there alot and never seem to see any. Failing that search the Formula one group of French hotels.... usually cheap.

[toslti]

Handy checklist here for requirements for drivers in Europe.....

http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice..._equipment.pdf

[Neo]

Why are you going via Madchester..? And only two hours between stops..?
That'll be three stops just on the M6


Fly to Brussels, visit Bruge. Get a Left Hand Drive car, boot it across France which is mostly very boring and overtake with ease rather than playing roulette with the safety of your family, head toward Toulouse where it starts to get interesting and stopping every 20 minutes is de rigeur to admire the belle vues then out through Carcassonne and along the Med... happy trails