To drive to italy in one day?

[Whattheuh]

Most of the threads I be seen people plan to do it in a few days,but we don't have that much time and money to stop overnight a lot.we were thinking of leaving very early and hopefully arrive by that evening.anyone done that?

We drove from Calais to Biarritz one Summer - with two small dc (under 5) - and an overnight break en route just outside Bordeaux. It seemed a good idea at the time!

Suffice to say, the trip down was so utterly hellish that I ended up booking flights for the return leg for dc and myself and dh drove our car back alone. In the middle of summer, planning an even longer journey - with queues and traffic and heat and everything booked out - it just isn't fair on children.

I for one really wouldn't contemplate such a long journey with small dc again.

Oh, and one final point - pay no attention to the estimated travel time on Google Maps etc - in the Summer this can easily be doubled.

Please tell me it's not the first weekend of August? Known as 'Black Saturday' in France because basically the whole of the North is on the move South. It's like the m25 on a bank hol Friday but on steroids!

We drove to La Rochelle with our first DS when he was 18 mo, so still having good daytime naps, it was hell!
Seriously, an F1 hotel is about £50 euro for a family room. Find the money, eat baked beans for a week. It's your family's safety that you need to protect

Do it!

Our summer holidays used to consist of my dad driving us to Hungary every year. No issue. He'd pull over and we'd rest. No hotel, just sleeping in the car. I've done it myself, But no kids in tow at the time.

Sounds like a lot of faffing about
If you need to be there super quick then fly, it takes less than 2 hours.

I'd rather have a wet week in Wales in a caravan.

Meh, we drove to the Swiss Alps in one day with a 10 month old, it was fine. I think you should just do it, it will be ok, just have loads of supplies in the car.

I've never driven to the continent but I have driven from the south of England to central Scotland, and back, a fair number of times. Personally I wouldn't contemplate a much longer journey than that in a single day. It is very tiring and the journey times can vary between seven and twelve hours depending on the traffic. You need to assume that your journey will take longer than a route planner suggests.

Also theoretically driving overnight is a good idea but have you done it before op? Could you be certain that you wouldn't be tired and sleepy if driving at 3am? I know I would struggle to stay awake.

I've only got to the end of page 2 so someone else may have suggested this. In the late 80s/early 90s our friends put their car & themselves on a train to Italy in northern France - similar to how they now do the Chunnel - to cut out the driving. Not sure if this still runs but they said at the time it was worth doing, in spite of the cost.

Raving mad- stop in Milan - In August ( driving in Milan is worse than London ...), you will exhausted with the driving...i wouldn't drive from milan to anywhere in August in Italy especially if it is anywhere near a weekend as the roads will be hell. Fly or do something nearer. remember road tolls in Italy if you take autostrade ....

We are driving to the Italian Riviera with a 3 year old this summer. We have planned in 3 days to do this and about the same coming back. A week in Italy and a week travelling, our stops are part of our holiday. The thought of trying to do that in one day is totally inconceivable, I can't even imagine trying to do it one day! I understand having to budget and our holiday is going to cost more than we anticipated because of stops etc but surely your health and safety is more important?

Yabu I'm afraid. We've driven from the south of England to Liguria (northern coast) several times. We take a very early tunnel from Folkestone and drive fast (this was in pre children sports car driving days, but in the last 5-10 years). It's doable in 2 days easily, but 1 would be too much. Even driving mad DH agrees. There are some lovely places to stop as you drive down though. If you cross into Germany you've got the autobahns too, which have no speed limit for long sections.

Beware of tolls. We calculated that tolls, fuel and tunnel crossings combined door to door cost exactly €19 less than flights! Although we'd have needed to hire a car if we'd flown I suppose. Although the overnight stopover probably negated the cost of that.

We do driving holidays to Europe every summer, including Italy. We love the road trip aspect, having our own car, not worrying about how much we take, or bring back. Then build in interesting stops on the way. Last year we managed 2 one week long stays at beach resorts, 2 city breaks and a flying visit to a national park. It would have cost a fortune to have done all those trips separately.

We also live a couple of hours from Calais and once, unplanned, did Biarritz to home in one day. It was exhausting but we did it. I wouldnt want to do it again.

Try a site like viamichellin to estimate costs and actual driving times. I find it more realistic than aa route finder.

Don't under estimate the possibility of heavy traffic at weekends during August. Even if the traffic is flowing the service stations can be packed and that ends up taking more time. We find that theres usually some reason for stopping every 2 to 3 hours, even if its a dash to the toilet.

The other thing to think about is what time can you check in on arrival? You dont want to be outside your accommodation at 10 pm and the propect of having to sleep in the car.

I asume you're going for 2 weeks? How about leaving home straight after work, making it across the channel, drive an hour and stay in a motel. BB hotel are good for family rooms. Most of the cheap chains allow you to self book in so it doesnt matter what tme you arrive. Get up early the next day and drive to somewhere a couple of hours from your destination. We have leaving at the crack of dawn down to a fine art. We make coffee in thermos cups, gather up stuff. Get children up and put them straight in the car. Chuck them a blanket and have pain au chocolate to hand if theyre hungry. We then stop for breakfast a couple of hours in. They love it! And kind of doze for the first couple of hours. We can be in on the road by 6 to half 6 easily and get some traffic free driving done.

The next morning get up later, maybe visit somewhere interesting on the way to your destination, if you're self catering get to large out of town supermarket to stock up. Get to accommodation at the earliest check in time.

Could you possibly take an extra half day or day and start out earlier? Like previous years we will be leaving on thurs after work and using the quieter Friday to travel.

Remember that if you are travelling through France in July or August, about half of the French population will be doing the same thing, which will add considerably to your journey especially if you plan to drive in the day rather than at night.

Avoid Fridays and Saturdays (and depending on whether it's one of the busiest weekends, possibly Sundays too) and make sure you book any stopover accommodation - it would be a nightmare to have your journey extended by heavy traffic only to find no budget rooms available.

Usually the very worst weekend for traffic is the middle weekend of August, and the last weekend of July will be awful too - but all Saturdays between now and September will be busy (I live in France).

I think you are absolutely mad to even attempt this, although my sister and BIL used to regularly drive from Portugal back to the UK in one go, with kids. Think they did a good chunk of the journey overnight though.

One option for the way home is to leave late afternoon or eary evening on your last day at the accommodation, get in 4 or 5 hours driving and use a chain motel. It does seem like a waste of a night but you can have an easy day getting ready, still use all the facilities and stock up on provisions for the journey. Every year many of the Germans, French, Dutch, Polish around us do this. Often useing the site pizzeria, getting the kids into PJs and set off.

Don't do it, think about your backs being in that position for such a long time.

I did Devon to Munich in 1992 and ended up with a bulging disc which is now degenerative disc disease and causes me pain as an ongoing issue despite £££ on chiropractic/osteopathic/physion treatment

Have you considered the cost of petrol? The reduced resale value on your car when it has thousands of excess miles on it.

And as for avoiding a tunnel by 'driving over' - er these are mountains, snow isn't the problem, the mountains are. 100Km on a motorway or through a tunnel is very different to 100Kmgoing up and down a mountain when your speed is limited to 20mph. Fuel is what about £1.05 a litre? A full tank of petrol cost me about £60 and will take me about 220 miles (according to the gauge) so to get to Milan from Calais would be about 3 tanks of petrol, about £200 for the journey 1 way.

Then add the cost of tolls, you do know that yo have to pay to use motorways in France don't you? And if you are tempted to speed - not sure if this is the case but I have heard of people being fined because the times are logged.

It's a long time since I've done the same journey, my mother was scared of flying so my poor dad has driven to Spain and Italy several times (before my mum passed her test).

You only need one traffic jam to add hours on to your journey.

You have young children with you, you will have to stop a few times this will be a journey from hell.

It will be more expensive than flying and just how safe a driver are you after 12+ hours driving on the wrong side of the road?

We did from a town just north east of Paros last year to Edinburgh. We were coming up from the Dordogne, left mid- afternoon the day before and drove for about 7 hours (inc one stop) then at 10pm got to a strange hotel where we saw no-one at all (not even staff and am sure we were the only guests). It was actually fine and cost under £50 for the room. Next morning "we" (DH) drove to a pretty village on the way north and let the kids have cakes from a bakery for breakfast then on to a town 20km west of Calais with a great beach for an hour's play. 6pm ferry and we had a hotel booked somewhere East Mids but in the end we didn't use it as DH (who was doing all the driving) felt ok and the kids had fallen asleep so were oblivious. Make time for road problems though, the motorway was shut north of that decision for maintenance work they were doing at night so we had to do a extensive rural detour which added 1-2 hours on and we got home at stupid o'clock.

Yanbu
If you can share driving. Have a spacious car and dvd player.
we drove to venice may half term with 1 5 8 and 11 year old.
we ve got a people carrier and live in south east. We got late ferry friday night, arriving calais 2am. Children stayed awake until we arrived in france. They slept until lunchtime when we got to gottherd pass and spent some time at summit. We then arrived venice at 7 pm ish.
It was fine. Honestly.
BUT we both are uwed to working shifts and our car is big and comfy to sleep in.

Fwiw i dont worry about depreciation on our car.... its an old diesel bus nd we'll use it till it dies. Yep diesel and tolls cost but nit as much as flights for 6 and people carrier hire in italy for a week.
Plus its an adventure and we got to see switzerland as well as italy.

It's too far and it's dangerous.

We are no wusses when it comes to travelling but this is too far to safely manage in a day. With traffic and stops it won't be 11 hours.

We drove back from the Loire a few years ago - about 4-4.5 hours driving either side of the tunnel. It was a really long day.

Check out B&B hotels - they are so cheap that it's really not worth it.

YABU.

As everyone else is saying, far too far. Even doing it in two days will feel tough with young children.

Take longer over the journey or fly. Avoid driving in France or Italy on Saturdays in August. We had why should have been a 2 hour section take 6.

Last year we drove a couple of hours to the Channel Tunnel then due south through France on all the toll roads. Did an overnight stop in southern France before continuing the journey to Venice via Monaco and the coastal road. Many, many tolls and the road along the coast is narrow and windy (beautiful though). Without kids. We both love driving, but it's not enjoyable if you're doing many hours. Our air conditioning became less effective the hotter it was outside. If possible break your journey up by having some stopovers. There are some amazing places to visit along the way and it can be incorporated as part of the holiday.

We do a European driving holiday most years. You cannot drive through Switzerland without a vignette - cost us around £40 at the border (but does last one year). There are some car trains (we went on one at the Furkka Pass) which saves a lot of time compared to driving over the mountain - we went in June and there was snow at the top but the main issue was that the road wasn't lit so very dangerous to drive in the dark.

We often drive home from the south of France in one day...8-11h - depending on location - to Calais then the crossover then 3-6 hours back home depending on traffic. This year we are taking the 2:30 am ferry which gets in at 5am, and then a straight run through to our campsite. It is a long old day; last time we got caught in M25 mayhem on the way home and it took us as long from Dover to the Midlands as it did from Lyon to Calais. Which was ridiculous!

You infer above that there will be sleep 'for the driver' at a stop off. I don't think either of us could do the drive if the other wasn't tag teaming...we share the drive both ways. Doing it with kids and just one driver is madness, unless you want that driver to end up a quivering wreck at both ends of course.

We will be driving to Italy (and further) in August. We have booked hotels for 3 stops each way and don't drive more than 4-5 hours every day. That way we get enough rest, dc don't freak out, we get to see something on the way.

Planning on getting to each pit stop for a late lunch every day. If we fancy we can have hour long breaks and arrive late afternoon.

Once we get there we'll be on campsites, but for the journey I booked hotels. Luxury, I know.

We always drive on the continent in summer, you need to plan carefully. Switzerland is €40 regardless of how long you are in the country. To avoid queues you can buy the vignette in advance.

We ruled out doing it overnight as we are worried that we aren't used to stay awake at night.we will share driving,even tho DP will probably do the lion share.we are going on a sunday.I'm taking in all advices.checked the Michelin website ,it says 11 and a half hors,about**£250 including trol and tolls if going thru France only.we drove to marsaille once and it was fine,I think it's more or less the same distance.I'm mostly worried about crossing the alps.we have a few days in Milan,then somewhere near by.all going well we should be by the alps by that evening,by that time I hope traffic will be subdued.that is for all the answer,especially appreciate those who have experience of it.and no,I'm not changing destination because mumsnet says so. we wanted to do it for a while,easier with a larger family to have our own car and not worry about Ryanair rules.it's a trial,if it works we ll do it quite often,either straight or taking more time/days,depending on how it goes this time.