Frankfurt to lake Garda camper van road trip with 3 yo and 6m old

[lauranug]

Are we mad?

never done a road trip in a campervan before and never drove in Italy.

any tips? Comments on roads.

will be going in September so hoping less tourist traffic trace

Look up camp sites in advance, have an idea how far you want to travel each day etc. with young kids you don’t want to be searching for somewhere when you’re tired and everyone is hungry.
Roads are fine, bit wind-y over the alps, but we’ve never had an issue with conditions.
Try and stop in Bolzano, it’s amazing and not on everyone’s list.
everyone complains about Italian driving but in the north it’s pretty similar to Germany/Switzerland and nothing eye opening. Just pull over if you’re building up a queue behind you. The AA are very good for breaking down what you need to take with you.
look up the various vignettes and tolls you might need to pay. ViaMichelin is great
for breaking down the costs when planning routes and its timings are pretty accurate.

Thank you that is a great help. I will get looking at those sites now.

We loved the campsite at Thermalbad Wallis in Switzerland. It’s quite tucked away but worth staying for a few nights. It was one of my DC’s favourite places on our holiday - there’s a decent outdoor playground, petting zoo (with a second opening this year), swimming pool, paved and fenced-off area for balance bikes, scooters etc…

Is it an actual campervan as opposed to a Motorhome, will you be ok with it if the weather is very hot or cold? We have a Motorhome and big enough to be stuck in all day as an adult couple. Not sure I would have liked such a confined space with two small children but that is down to your own personality type I think. Are they ok in showers or are you alright just giving them a clean in a bucket? DS used to howl in showers till he was about 2 and hated them.

Our 3 year old is good with a shower. Stuck inside shouldn’t be an issue we have planned to bring waterproofs etc and get out in any weather. Also plenty of rainy day activities for inside planned. We normally camp or has a touring caravan but no looking to hire a motorhome/campervan for this trip.

For the driving remember if someone flashes you it doesn't mean "go ahead, I let you pass", but it means "get out of the way"!

Omg thank you for telling us this I didn’t know that lol

I have friends who bought a big motorhome. It was a mistake as they couldn’t drive on twisty mountain roads and also had difficulty parking… car parks often have barriers (we have a discovery and with a roof box we found parking in some towns very difficult). Just worth thinking about…. I still have nightmares about the Timmlesjoch pass (Austria/italy) from nearly 40!years ago. I drove in a car but the Italian side was terrifying. Maybe it’s had an upgrade!!

I was coming on to say yes it will be amazing. We went all over Europe with ours in the van at those ages! However that was our van and it was
like a second home, both ex-DH and I were comfortable to drive it and even then there were days that tested everyone patience. I’m not sure I would have been keen if it wasn’t our van! I also find driving in Italy stressful compared to the rest of Europe I almost lost my mind in Pisa 😂 We always stayed on campsites I think having showers, a cafe, playground made it much easier. On our longest trip we drove from home through France to Switzerland, Austria to the Black Forest and back.

My kids are all grown up now - I do wonder how much I look back and remember all the wonderful days and forget the monopoly arguments, the days when one had D&V in a confined space with rustic toilet facilities etc

We drove from Rotterdam down to Bolzano a lot when our two were small. Didn’t find the driving in northern Italy anywhere near as stresssful as elsewhere in Italy. The Sud Tirol has some great campsites and facilities for young kids, but if you plan to stop somewhere in that region, choose wisely, as Instagram has made certain places ridiculously busy.