Euro Road Trip Queries

[kbhogalW126]

Right Folks.

Some of you may remember that I mentioned earier on in the year that I'm planning a Euro Road Trip with Mrs B this summer.

My previous question was regarding a full size spare wheel for our CLK.

Anyways, the trip is becoming more of a reality and I've been planning a route!

I've got stuck however.

This is the route so far:

1 Sheffield
2 Hounslow (overnight)
3 Dover
4 Calais
5 Dunkirk (see the beaches and memorials)
6 Bruges
7 Antwerp (stopover)
8 The Hague
9 Amsterdam (2 days)
10 Dusseldorf (1 day)
11 Cologne (1 day)
12 Frankfurt (1 day)
13 Stuttgart (for the MB Museum - this city can't be taken out of the trip!) (1.5 days)
14 Singen
15 Constance
16 Zurich (1.5 days)
17 Milan (1 day)
18 Venice (1 day)
19 Florence (0.5 day)
20 Rome (2 days)
21 Florence (again - drive through)
22 Genoa
23 Turin (1 night)
24 Geneva (1 night)
25 Dijon (1 night)
26 Paris (3 days)
27 Rouen
28 Calais - Dover
29 Hounslow (stop over again)
30 Sheffield
31 Office in Sheffield City Centre (work the next day!)


My problem.

How do I get to Zurich from Stuttgart?
I've chosen a route Stuttgart - Singen - Constance - Zurich.

Has anyone got any advice of a better route from Stuttgart to Zurich?

Maybe something a little bit more interesting than I have chosen?

There will be a lot of driving but I'm sure the CLK can handle about 3200 miles.

It should cost about £400 in diesel (is it cheaper on the Continent?) and maybe about £1500 in hotels.

We are trying to cram as much as we can into about 2 and a half weeks (before we have kids), the idea being that we go and spend more time in places we like over the next few years.

Sorry to bore you all with our holiday plans but if any of you have any suggestions for visiting places on the route it would be greatly appreciated so I can consider them for inclusion!

Also, if any of you know nice, decent, cheap accomodation then links would be appreciated!

Thanks to all of you in advance as this will probably end up being a long thread!

Regards,

KJ

 

[pammy]

Personally I think you're being very ambitious. I've driven round Europe twice taking 3 weeks covering all the countries you are but not going so far into and across Italy. I think you'll find it exhausting and you won't get to see very much at all as you will be on the road for most of it. The most you'll be able to say is that by and large you drove to all these places.

Such a fixed itinerary doesn't allow for any hold ups or deviations.

I would personally set a much looser schedule. Decide what are the must see's on the trip and work around those.

You can save time by getting from Sheffield over to Northern France in a day - easily doable. Look for similar savings in the rest of the trip.

Loads of road side motels over in Europe - and if you're not going in school holidays you should be ok just turning up and booking in on arrival.
hth

 

[Sp!ke]

i agree.

 

[kbhogalW126]

Thanks Pammy,

Good bit of advice.

I can save 3 days and about 1000 miles of driving simply by doing Zurich-Milan-Turin-Geneva (spending 1 night at each).

Keep em coming!

 

[A210AMG]

Hello,

Depending on how 'cheap' you want hotel accomodation,


Campanile hotels all over and quite cheap

http://www.campanile.fr/?l=en


Villages hotels again cheap for stop overs

http://www.villages-hotel.com/index.php?i_sid=&i_lang=44


very cheap (but fine for a stop over)

http://www.hotelformule1.com/formule1/index.html


All are fine for stop overs and cheap.


Having done more road trips across europe than I can remember we have used several of the above.

The Ibis chain are also good (more exspensive but not silly)

I'm off to Annecy in France (nr Geneva) next month and we may come back via Holland as we like it there. Unfortunaely I may use a little bit more fuel than yourself but good fun.


Biggest road trip was 14,000 miles coast to coast back and add a bit in the good old US of A several years ago...awesome !!

Cheers

 

[MBManInKen]

3 Dover
4 Calais
5 Dunkirk (see the beaches and memorials)

Go Directly Dover-Dunkirk. Quicker to get on/off the ferry too. Calais is not exactly a great place, so not missing anything.

6 Bruges
7 Antwerp (stopover)

Brugge (as it is properly called ) is absolutely wonderful. Most beautiful historic city on the continent apart from perhaps Venice. Stay overnight and go drink a "Trippel van de Garre". Don't drink more than 1 or 2 though .

Antwerp is nice too, at least in the centre. You shouldn't ignore Gent though.

10 Dusseldorf (1 day)
11 Cologne (1 day)

I'd go straight to Cologne. The Romano-Germanic museum in Cologne is a must.

18 Venice (1 day)
19 Florence (0.5 day)
20 Rome (2 days)
21 Florence (again - drive through)

You're not doing these cities justice. Venice in 1 day? Florence in half a day? You'll miss so much...

25 Dijon (1 night)

France has so much to offer and you're only doing Dijon and Paris. Why not swap Dijon for Beaune if you're only doing one of them?

26 Paris (3 days)
27 Rouen

If I were you I'd do Paris + Versailles, rather than scheduling a stop in Rouen.

Has anyone got any advice of a better route from Stuttgart to Zurich?

Why Stuttgart? I'd swap Stuttgart for Heidelberg, then to Switzerland via Freiburg (quite nice too).

We are trying to cram as much as we can into about 2 and a half weeks

Reminds me of my student days. Why not do less mileage and spend more relaxed time?

 

[pammy]

I'd strip 18 - 21 out too. Turin's nowt great either.

 

[BTB 500]

Why Stuttgart?

See here:

http://mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=29221

 

[SimonsMerc]

Take the eurotunnel. Much faster crossing (35 minutes and you don't need to leave your car), always available (ferries stop in bad weather), and lots of crossings available if you miss the one you're meant to be on (a friend recently had to wait seven hours for another ferry when he missed his because of traffic on the continent).

-simon

 

[BTB 500]

Yup Eurotunnel every time for us.

 

[timskemp]

Yup Eurotunnel every time for us.

Living in Hull, Hull-Rotterdam is the preferred ferry route - very civilised too.

 

[MBManInKen]

Take the eurotunnel. Much faster crossing (35 minutes and you don't need to leave your car), always available (ferries stop in bad weather), and lots of crossings available if you miss the one you're meant to be on (a friend recently had to wait seven hours for another ferry when he missed his because of traffic on the continent).

Also extremely boring and very expensive. I enjoy the ferries, an occasion for a rest and an ice cream. In the tunnel you see, well, nothing.

Don't know why he had to wait 7 hours, there are ferries much more frequently.

A number of years ago, I got stuck on a train just before the tunnel entrance, some security alert, got stuck there a whole day. I have also had delays on the tunnel because of windy weather (electricity cables moving too much), a bomb alert, a problem with the train (twice), etc. In my experience, the tunnel is not at all more reliable.

It takes quite a storm for the ferry not to sail, that only happened once to me (although on another occasion, I was quite happy to get off it )

 

[MBManInKen]

Living in Hull, Hull-Rotterdam is the preferred ferry route - very civilised too.

Isn't there a connection Hull-Zeebrugge?

G.

 

[pammy]

Isn't there a connection Hull-Zeebrugge?

G.

Yup - and we've done that route a number of times too - given us the full start to get down to the very South West France in a day Perpignan way, as you dock around 8.00am

 

[timskemp]

Isn't there a connection Hull-Zeebrugge?

G.

There is that one too.


Anyone up for a merc convoy, rotterdam - through sweden to the north of finland, back down through helsinki, across to moscow, then home through latvia, lithuania , poland, germany ???

 

[A210AMG]

Hello,


As I do all the driving I actually prefer the Ferry, get to stop and get out walk round, get dome fresh air, 40 winks and then set off again refreshed
Last year drove from Annecy in france to home in Chester including ferry crossing (and waited as very busy due to a peak day) did it in one day 4.30am leave 7pm arrive...a long way (850 miles ish)


cheers

 

[Sp!ke]

Also consider that you can stick your car on a train in many places in mainlad Europe for reasonable money. For instance, get on at dundeleu in Belgium at 9pm, retire to your sleeper cabin and wake refreshed at 8am in Milan... all for less than the cost of fuel and peages. Once you consider wear and tear on the car its cheaper still.

Its a great way of covering distances in a hurry... say on the return leg when you've had all the driving you can handle.

 

[MBManInKen]

dundeleu in Belgium

 

[Sp!ke]

lol... spellings probably wrong and I cant find it on a map either but I've definately done that route. It was only about 100km from Calais IIRC, not far over the Belgium border anyway. Things change fast however and I cant find that route listed.

A few interesting ones here though.. seems to be a new one to Croatia from Northern Germany that I might be tempted by. By the time you've worked out flights and hire car even Greece looks attractive. The journey would be very interesting for sure.

 

[MBManInKen]

lol... spellings probably wrong and I cant find it on a map either but I've definately done that route.

Well, I'm a Belgian but I have never heard from the place you mention .

Apart from ski trains, I'm not sure I have ever seen car trains in Belgium either .