Driving to Italian Lakes/Verona - Switzerland or France?

[BeeInYourBonnet]

We're planning on driving to Italy (Lake Garda) in early August.
Wondering about the pros and cons of Swiss roads compared to French.
Route options are Calais to Geneva to Milan to LG (predominantly French motorways), or Calais to Strasbourg to Basel to Lake Como/Milan to LG (lots of swiss motorways).

The French route is familiar to us in part, having travelled that way to French Alps for skiing, but tolls are costly and we wonder whether a different route may be more interesting.

Any advice on swiss vs French travel/motorways would be great. Speed is of the essence on our journey, but scenic routes are also important.

You need a vignette for Swiss motorways. Which way would you go through to Italy ? The tunnels can get very congested at weekends in both directions with northern Europeans who drive overnight and you may find it comes to a halt while queuing. August 1st is a Swiss holiday and the traditional start of two weeks away.

Bump

French motorways have tolls. German ones don't. We did this a few years ago but we started from Amsterdam rather than Calais. We drove down through NL and Germany, stayed overnight in Basel, then onto LG the following day. In Switzerland, we found there was a long queue to get into the St Gotthard tunnel, so we just went up the mountain pass instead. We hat gorgeous weather on the trip, maybe not so much fun going up and over the pass if it was raining. Swiss roads are good and generally not busy, from memory.

On other trips we deliberately avoided French motorways and used routes through Germany / Luxembourg instead. Depends on whether you have time, and enjoy driving I suppose.

It was probably our best holiday as a family though. DCs were 13 and 16 at the time.

Thanks both. I think the swiss route sounds preferable. We will be travelling the second leg of the route on a Saturday. We've never come across much traffic on French motorways regardless of time of year, but maybe that's the tolls.

Hi you can buy your vignette at the border. It will cost 40chf, needs to be displayed on your front windscreen and it valid for a year. You need it to use the motorway. You will be fined if stopped by the police on a motor way and you don't have one. Also there are quite a few speed cameras on the Swiss road. But I like driving in Switzerland. Roads are well maintained and usually not too busy.