Jaz 350z Posted May 8, 2014 Share Posted May 8, 2014 (edited) My girlfriend, I and the Zed are going on Holiday to Europe in August. I've read around the forum obv and the net in general. I think I have decided on the below route... Coventry > Nice (2) > Col de Turini (1) > Genoa (1) > FLORENCE (6) > Rimini (1) > Ravenna (1) > North Lakes somewhere (2) > North Italy / Switzerland (2) > Coventry (n) is how many nights we are staying in each place. Bold signifies that those stays are purely for driving roads purposes. Caps means florence is a chilling stay, park up, and don't drive for a couple of days. (Emma's request) I welcome any advice of course, but there are some bits of this journey I really would like advice with : 1, Roads / Hotels / Things to do in Col de Turini? 2, Roads / Hotels / Things to do in North Italy / Switzerland (atm, the only plan is to do stelvio - davos - san bernadino, any other nice roads / places?) 3, Any general recommendations for Italy? (literally as far as towns we should stay in... we are open, we just want Italy.) 4, North Lakes, we have done no research yet, we are just staying here to make our way to Austria / Switzerland... Emma has heard Lake Garda is good. 5, Nice, we are spending one day doing nothing, and then the next going to Monaco and returning to Nice... is this wise? should I stay in Monaco? any recommendations? Things to note, Emma doesn't drive.. So I will be doing it all, hence a lot of stops just to be sure, no commutes but those to Central Europe and back are more than 4 hrs. Thanks for reading.. ;s The route : https://goo.gl/maps/gIR3o Edited May 8, 2014 by Jaz 350z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shifty6Speed Posted May 8, 2014 Share Posted May 8, 2014 Hey up Jaz... Have you ever been to Italy or Switzerland driving? If not, pay attention. Whilst Italy is a beautiful country, the difference in the roads between the the border of Northern Italy and Switzerland is phenomenal. I would rather spend the bulk of my time in Switzerland (so many gorgeous routes, only some of which you have covered) due to the fact that 3 miles into Italy, you'll need your support team to come and replace your suspension. Zee Swiss are incredible road engineers and you will thrive driving through the mountain passes, the galleries and over the bridges... Italy, you will have bad arse ache, a poorly car due to their diabolical roads (in the mountain regions) and depending on the route you chose, quite possibly test drivers for Ferrari and/or Lambo trying to kill you on some of Europes more dangerous roads and they are not overly polite about doing so, so don't expect notice of their imminent passing. That's about all i can think of. For me though, if i was to plan a route driving down, i'd go Brittany Ferries (my fave out of the two - P&O) because i love the whole ferry trip, it's part of the holiday for me and gives you chance to rest, breath, sleep whatever depending how far you'll have travelled to get to the ferry, it's a good 4-5 hours for me.... Anyway, route from Portsmouth to Caen, drive south east towards the Alsace region of France and then head south. You will find it gets ever so increasingly beautiful as you venture through the Alsace into the Jura and then seeing the mountains in the distance on a gorgeous sunny day, heading into the Alpes... The motorways are brilliant but equally so are their A roads. In fact most of Frances B roads are better than our A roads!!! So don't be afraid to explore the map a little bit, you might end up very thankful that you didn't just settle for cruise control and a tedious motorway drive! Although it sounds like you're game for a bit of adventure... Then you can pretty much plan any route you like from either France to Italy or Switzerland etc... One place i would like to see some of which isn't too far from Northern Italy is Croatia! There could potentially be a hell of an experience including many of the worlds most jaw dropping roads if you have the time and funds to do it all... Whatever you decide, ENJOY! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RS8055 Posted May 8, 2014 Share Posted May 8, 2014 I live in Luxembourg Jaz. Shifty makes a very good point about the roads in Italy... same goes for some parts of France and all of Belgium. The road surface is horrific!! Switzerland's roads are great, same as Luxembourg (we have more roads that you'd think) - and some nice routes! As for your trip, after you get off the boat/euro tunnel, the drive down through France has some interesting spots on route: one route can take you through/past Paris, and another through Dijon (famous for their mustard). Lyon is not all that great.... but if you modified your route slightly, you could avoid the tolls all the way down through France by going through Belgium (no tolls), into Luxembourg for a cheap fill-up (and I'm there obviously) just next to Lux is Trier (Germany's oldest city - beautiful place), down to Strasbourg, into Switzerland and to Nice. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shifty6Speed Posted May 8, 2014 Share Posted May 8, 2014 Strasbourg is lovely! Well worth a visit if you get chance! Sound bit of info to consider there! Something i've not done yet myself is Belgium and Luxembourg. One for the future 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RS8055 Posted May 8, 2014 Share Posted May 8, 2014 (edited) Taste of Luxembourg... as for driving roads, not a bad example show at around 50 seconds! Edited May 8, 2014 by RS8055 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shifty6Speed Posted May 8, 2014 Share Posted May 8, 2014 Cool vid! Thanks for sharing. Awesome twisties :-D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaz 350z Posted May 9, 2014 Author Share Posted May 9, 2014 Oh damn, firstly, thank you very much for all of your advice. Luxembourg is a definite now... Probably through the route suggested through Belgium and to Germany's oldest town... However, I might aim to do this part of the journey on the way home, and shorten our stay in the north lakes / central italy. I'll speak to Emma tonight and upload an updated route. All of your are legends, thanks! I look forward to more advice ;p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BulletMagnet Posted May 9, 2014 Share Posted May 9, 2014 (edited) I found Italy to be crap on toll charges. Between Switzerland and Nice, I paid close to €70 in tolls.(and the same on the way back) Switzerland, you just buy a sticker for €40 and that is valid for a whole year and the whole country Edited May 9, 2014 by BulletMagnet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattross1313 Posted May 9, 2014 Share Posted May 9, 2014 Alrightly...... We did a VERY similar trip last summer in my Zed and it was amazing. I'm trying to field most of your questions but will forgot some most likely. Col De Turini - great road, not much around it other than a small village at the base of the road, and a small hotel/cafe at the top. We stayed in Monaco the night before and got up silly early to drive the F1 track a few times, and then head up to the Col De Turini on route to Italy. Some nice little places for breakfast in the little village though. Monaco - we stayed in the Novotel, it was around £120 for the night with parking, no brekkie. Which was very reasonable, and a very short walk to the Marina (I could look out to the marina from the balcony too!). In Italy, if you have time I would recommend the Ferrari museum and tour, very cool and reasonably priced. This is in Maranello. Roads in Italy - Near ish to the Ferarri place is Bologna, Heading off to the south East from there is a road called SP65 - definitely recommend a drive up&down this. Its a biker road and was full of sports bikes when we went. Lake Garda - Yes!! Lovely place, we stayed for one night on our way up to the Stelvio Pass. The misses liked it so much we are going back there next month. On route to our over night stop we did a full lap of the lake as the views are incredible, and there are loads of tunnel to keep the car happy. Drop me a PM if you have any questions, as I say, we did near enough the same route recently. Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stutopia Posted May 9, 2014 Share Posted May 9, 2014 Can you fit in Gorges Du Verdon in the Nice/Monaco section? Not done but by all accounts it looks stunning. Also check out: http://www.ultimatedrives.net/top-10-roads/index.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arran Posted May 9, 2014 Share Posted May 9, 2014 You have to put the nurburgring in a slot on your trip, not worth going on a euro trip without going the lick the ring Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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