To ask if you've ever been on a European road trip, what are your tips?!

[FunnyReally]

Me and H are trying to arrange this as our (long awaited) honeymoon.

We have a rough route planned out avoiding the larger cities and sticking to the smaller towns/villages as much as possible. We are doing France, Belgium, Germany, Prague, Austria, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland and the back to France.

Any tips from anyone who's done this before? We are newbies and trying to research as much as possible!

Very cheap when we were there in June. 😊

Most service stations in Switzerland make you pay for the toilet, but give you a voucher off the same amount at the cafe. So pee before you eat.

CHF40 for the motorway sticker, but perfectly possible to avoid them. Check alpine passes open before you travel.

Take plenty of time in advance to identify the main areas and attractions that you want to visit. Then plan your route to fit in as many of these as you can. Work out travel times, then find different options for your accommodation in the most likely areas for stopping overnight. Make it easy for when you are on the road, e.g.by annotating your road map and having printed out plans.
Check road rules (e. G. If headlights need to be on during the day) , info on tolls etc for all countries.
Get good roadside assistance, you may need it (our clutch went in Croatia!).
Have lots of snacks and also if possible a camp stove and easy meals (e.g super noodles) as sometimes it will take much longer than you expect to get somewhere and it can sometimes be tricky to find a restaurant. Don't expect to be eating in the best restaurants every night, as you probably won't have the time to work out where they are and book a table! But do try to get to a few.
Have a first aid kit with basics, but also with things like rehydration salts, immodium, painkillers, indigestion tablets.
Have fun, I so wish I was doing it again! We went to Istanbul and back on ours and it was amazing!

Also forgot to say, sometimes it is worth going on the motorways to get far, fast. Travelling can be very slow on the back roads. We used the fast roads a lot, then spent a bit of time in our preferred areas to make sure we could see everything we wanted rather than spending hours driving on slower roads.

Don't underestimate the time a border can take. We've spent an hour at the Austria-Germany border, and 45 mins at Germany-Denmark. Just caused by dropping down to one lane or slowing traffic to pull out lorries for checks. Germany- Netherlands has always be fine, and France, Belgium, Luxembourg sort of area.
Fuel cheaper in Germany than Netherlands.

Um, there are no borders in Schengen zone. Even Switzerland was pretty much drive through. Schengen is a marvellous thing

Plan a variety of routes for your various destinations and print them out in case of satnav fail (looking at you DP) or low signal on your mobile (also roaming might not be free for UK phones next year). ViaMichelin is excellent for this, it even tells you the cost if each toll so you can get your change ready in time.

For France and Italy and I think Austria you can now use the same télépéage (called Telepass in Italy) for the motorways, but do check the requirements. Echo a PP to use the mountain passes and national roads for Switzerland, also from Italy to France as with the lack of bridge in Genoa the coastal route is often snarled up.

For petrol we did Switzerland then Lux/Belgium for cheapest, again, for the loos in CH and Germany pee first then get your drink.

For Germany you should do the romantische Strasse, fairy tale castles and twee villages.

If you’re veggie stock up with sandwiches and snacks from a supermarket when in France as I can guarantee the service stations will only have ham, chicken or tuna in their sandwiches and salads. Yes to checking national holidays especially in the smaller, off the beaten track places as everything will be shut.

Don't underestimate the time a border can take

Really? Only time I have ever had to slow down at a border was between Germany and Denmark because Denmark has been checking vehicles. There aren't really supposed to be border checks within the EU.

Echo a PP to use the mountain passes and national roads for Switzerland

We popped into Switzerland last year. Really was trying hard not get onto a motorway by accident!!

Love driving on mainland Europe.

Avoid the A3 through Germany to Orague like the plague. It's just huge lorry after huge lorry in the inside lane, nose to tail all the way, bringing cheap goods from Eastern Europe to Western Europe, and less cheap goods the other way. Very slow going, and not pleasant driving.

*Prague, obvs

The only time we had a slowdown due to lorry checks was near Rotterdam but only due to an accident or something further up. Even then the lorries are usually in the slow lane on continental motorways (or should be unless overtaking). You can avoid fairly easily I would think.

If you want somewhere cheap and simple for a night, I give you Premiere Classe hotels in France.

Usually in an industrial estate. But definitely part of our European road trip holidays for a night's stay.

European car breakdown insurance

Travel insurance

France there is a list of things you need including a breathalyser, high but best, first aid kit, emergency triangle

Driving license

breathalyser

Is that really a thing? Everything I've read says you don't need one for France anymore.

I've done two, five months and two months, and I've just started a two week one.

How are you travelling?

Know where you're sleeping by lunchtime every day. Supermarket car parks aren't very nice.

@Mentounasc apparently you need one but can’t be fined anymore if you don’t have one

My advice is don't miss out Holland (lol) - beautiful country (including beaches), great people, fantastic standard of living.

To clarify on borders .. I know there aren't any which was my surprise at the delays!
Into Austria... On one of the mountain passes, and it was everyone stopping to buy the Vignette at the petrol station.
Austria into Germany... They were wanting lorries in one lane, cars in another. So all the lane changes caused a massive jam.
Germany into Denmark... They only had one lane open, slowed down, and were pulling over random lorries.

Know where you're sleeping by lunchtime every day

Lunchtime....you really wouldn't like travelling with us. We are late afternoon people.

You can buy the Austrian vignettes online at:

www.asfinag.at/toll/vignette/digital-vignette/online-shop/

Unlike Switzerland, you don’t have to pay for a full year. All signage to/from/about Swiss motorways is green, so if you want to avoid motorways just make sure you don’t follow any green signs.

Following with interest as we're hoping to do a driving holiday next year!

You can get the green plaque you need for your car at a car dealer in Germany, should also be available at garages that take the TÜV examinations (equivalent of MOT). It will cost at most seven Euro. You will need your vehicle registration papers, the colour of the plaque (red, yellow or green) will depend on how old your car is, its emissions and whether it is a petrol or diesel.
Most German cities will have restrictions of sorts to prevent old or high emission cars entering during certain times.

The German Autobahn has more and more speed limits, best stick to them as speed cameras can sometimes be moved, some speedlimits can also vary on the time of day and traffic conditions. Also, if you get stuck in a traffic jam on the motorway in Germany you are obliged to form a "rescue path", which means cars in the left lane go to the extreme left of their lane, all other lanes go to the right of their lanes. This enables emergency services and tow trucks to get through. German police are getting really tough on this at the moment.

Several times. Contactless tolls have made life easier (though get a zero % transaction cost currency card!) Germany has no tolls, and (men seem particularly interested in) no speed limits in some places BUT they are super strict where speed limits are imposed. In Austria and other alpine areas they have traffic lights on the motorways to prevent queuing in tunnels. Some countries require you to get a permit to use the motorways in advance, check the Aa for latest advise, it's 4 years since I last did a multi country trip. I take my cool bag ruck sack with plates, cutlery, bread knife, tin opener, corkscrew, plastic cups and picnic blanket etc so you can pick up lunch from a supermarket for an impromptu picnic.

I would add smartphones, sat navs and the internet make life easy - I did my first trip with a stack of lonely planets and a road map! Of late I tend to use Booking.com but I book direct or just knock on doors sometimes.

Finally don't expect people to speak English, it might sound obvious to the seasoned traveller but I have had friends who have come back from similar trips complaining they had issues - I carried the essential information translated into each language eg a room for 2 people with breakfast for 2 nights, though I do speak French and German plus Italian food is a doddle!

Have an amazing time.