Italy....by car advice please

[Greengardenpixie]

We are planning a trip to Italy by car accross Europe. We are from Scotland and although our main destination is Italy we plan to stop at various locations along the way as part of our holiday. This holiday will be planned for next year. Is it better to book through a travel agent (all the stops) or book directly and plan it all ourselves? Has anyone done this? Any tips advice would be great

We did a couple of years back, from Belgium mind. Whereabouts in Italy are you heading for?

We did 1 night at Oberwesel on the Rhine, 2 nights in Bavaria, 1 night in Valpolicella on the way out in B&B / Inn type places. Then 10 nights in Tuscany. On the way back we stayed 3 nights on Lake Como, 3 in Switzerland near Interlaken, then the final night in Alsace near Colmar.

I looked up the alternative routes on Googlemaps then used Booking.com to search accommodation along the way. It was a fabulous holiday. Switzerland is scorchingly expensive though and you need to buy a 40 euro vignette to drive on their motorways/use the St Gottardo tunnel.

We are going to do similar next year I think but head for the Riviera/Lake Garda.

Hi, yes, we did it a few years ago (pre-DC). Organised it ourselves. It was great.

We camped which was fun and easy to do. Pre-booked some sites and found others as we went along. Our friends were getting married in Malcesine, Lake Garda and we wanted to attend but explore Europe too. I'm not sure what you're planning accommodation-wise but there were many guest houses, small hotels and B&Bs along the route.

Went from York to Dover, ferry to Calais. Then drove through Northern France and into Belgium for our first stop.

Then we did several countries in one morning (as far as I remember, definitely including Luxembourg) and ended up in Germany near Friedrichshafen on the shores of Lake Constance where we stayed for a few days. Great place.

We left over the mountain passes often referred to by Top Gear as the best driving roads in the world - glorious scenery but odd to be wearing shorts and driving through snow. Through Davos and Bormio and dropped down into Northern Italy.

Stayed for a few days on the shores of Garda, met up with friends, had a lovely time at the wedding and then exited south.

Drrove round the bottom of Garda and headed west through Milan and Turin, then into France where we camped in the Ardeche for several nights. Then up country to Epernay and the Champagne region for 2 nights before a bit of a dash for the ferry.

It's only writing it down that makes me realise how much we did!

We got a European sat nav for the trip but DH cocked up the memory card (don't ask) which meant it kept getting lost so we resorted to a big atlas a lot of the time. We booked Belgium and Italy but nowhere else - although we did some research and had an idea of possible sites - and only once (Germany) were turned away as a site was full. Used the internet and various camping books. The Germany tourist board were hugely efficient and helpful, and sent us loads of information and a big campsite guidebook.

You've got to enjoy driving to do as much as we did. The toll roads were quick but we spent a lot of them over the course of the holiday and although we felt we'd had an adventure when we came home, it wasn't as relaxing as two weeks on a beach. We do have some fantastic memories though: totally worth doing and we saw bits of Europe we never would have otherwise.

Good luck!

I would book everything yourself as agents will only book places where they get high commission

We drive to Hungary regularly. What we do is work out how long max we want to drive each day, then book accomadation roughly along the route.

So go to google maps and get the best route to final destination. If you want to do say 5hrs driving max a day or 10 hrs other days, then roughly pin point areas around that distance. You might decide 10hrs driving but a place you want to go is only 9hrs so stop there etc

From Scotland I would do a long drive down to Kent and stop overnight, then head out early for the early ferry crossing, usually the earliest and latest crossings are much cheaper ( and often less busy), and then you will be in France by mid morning ready to have time to drive into Germany. Cologne in Germany is only 4 hrs from Calais for example.

As an idea we usually take 2-3 days to drive to Hungary. Depending on if 1 or 2 drivers and how much time we have. We can get from London to Berlin in one day if needed, but we then take last ferry from Dover, then take turns driving through the night and arrive around lunch time in Berlin. That way we have the afternoon/ eve to go out/ see friends/ places and children can sleep bulk of journey.

Oh and determine where you want to go might make trip longer but more worth it. Ie we should stop in Munich for quickest route to Lake balaton in Hungary ( have holiday house there), but we have family in Berlin so the detour semi on route makes sense as means we can see them more often, route back we usually go quicker route.

Fantastic responses! we are travelling overnight on ferry to arrive at st malo on north west coast early morning then heading south east through France to Geneva. Then on to Interlaken and Furkapass then down to into Italy at Como then on to Ancona on the East Coast. Three kids in tow so cant really wing accomodation wise. Not yet figured out b&b or campibg or both. What have others done with kids (4, 7, 8 years!!)

Yes we did it a few years ago in our campervan. Planned it ourselves and loved every second!

Firstly we planned a route using Google Maps and tried to ensure we never did more than 6ish hours driving in one go. We then searched for campsites or accommodation at each of our chosen destinations, which were all really easy to find.

We started in Staffordshire and our route went like this;

Day 1 - home to Lille (in northern France).
Day 2 - Lille to Basel, Switzerland.
Day 3 - Basel to Venice.
Day 6 - Venice to Rome.
Day 9 - Rome to Sorrento.
Day 12 - Sorrento to Florence.
Day 13 - Florence to Lake Garda.
Day 16 - Lake Garda to Zurich.
Day 17 - Zurich to Calais.
Day 18 - Calais to home.

Yes to what a previous poster said about there being lots of tolls in Italy and you have to buy Swiss equivalent of road tax, but the spectacular drive through Switzerland is worth the price alone. Another driving highlight was the Amalfi coast road stopping at Pompeii on the way. Also yes to getting a European Sat Nav and a large road atlas as well.

Enjoy planning your holiday OP. We had such a wonderful time and are heading to Lake Como in a few weeks time (not driving this time though as our 13 month old wouldn't be too impressed with the journey).

Reebee, we hav3 family in ancona so plan to relax for a full week, maybe longer before heading back. Anymore info? tips advice and pitfalls would be great!! Campsites along the way? invaluable advice so far. thank you!

We have x2 children, but have also done journey with 5 under 5 ( we had nephews living with us 5 months whilst sil was ill).

We always stay in a hotel on route. I just find it more practical. If we arrive late at night we can still check in and order room service if needed, often have pool so they have early morning swim before being cooped up in car, and easier to get family rooms etc. plus everyone has decent sleep/ shower/ etc.. Dinner and breakfast sorted without hunting out supermarkets at wierd times
The thought of driving 10hrs then setting up a tent in rain fills me with horror!

Mine are now 3 and 4 years but we have done since newborn ( as well as hundreds of flights!). They seem to like as we rarely use car at home ( London), and usually fly monthly ( with my work).so makes a change.

We never use DVDs / iPads in car as would make car sick. But have story tapes ( will downloads on iPhone) so have few new ones each time. Ones adults don't mind either ie roald dahl, not kiddy sing along as would drive me nuts!

artandco Did you book before you travelled and if so who did you book with? Was it booking.com or tripadvisor etc?

We did it too! We were heading for Rome but flights had got top expensive. We had booked 4 nights in Rome but the rest we just winged on booking. com the night before.we were worried but actually all our places were great and as we only stayed a night it didn't much matter anyway. A mixture of cheap 2 stars and some 5 star laces that did us a last minute deal price.

Out
Midday euro tunnel to Calais
3 hr drive to Durbury in Belgium. Over night stay.
5 hr drive to Germany to Dachau camp. They had a festival on. Looked around the camp next morning.
2 hr drive to Austria for lunch.
7hr drive down to Florence with a stop. The motorway services was where we found are hotel for the night. An outstanding 5 star hotel overlooking Florence with a stunning outdoor pool. Overnight stay in luxury.
3hr drive to Rome.

Return
5hr drive to Milian. Overnight stay
Looked at Da Vincis Last Supper
Drive through Switerland lunch at utterly fab motorway service.
Arrive in Alsace to eat and have overnight stay
Drive to hotel in Champagne area for wine, fantastic dinner and overnight stay.
2hrs to Calais in morning.

Best holiday ever.

I think you prob need to be more organised if you're taking the DC, ie book in advance. If I was just staying for one night I'd be tempted to go the budget hotel / guesthouse route, I think.

We tried to make the travelling part of the holiday where possible, rather than spending all our driving days slogging down the toll roads for hour after hour.

I'll try to dig out some campsite info for you.

I know someone who is doing this at the moment. A lot of driving but some of it has been cut out by using car trains. There are five if them, so this works out a cost-effective way of going a long distance and staying a night!

The thing is it really doesn't seem a lot of driving when you are doing it. The novelty of crossing over countries in a day was brilliant.
We found roads are easy and free flowing especially compared to the south of England and that was in August.
We did one long day which was seven hours but we still got to look round Dachau , have lunch and a look round a cute town in Austria and be in Florence at 9 pm in time for dinner and a swim.
None of it was stressful, the services are incredible on the motorways and stunning ever changing scenery,
I 'd say pick hotels in quiet towns and villages and on the edge of cities like Milian or Rome.. No point in spoiling the hols navigating busy traffic.

We did this 7 years ago, also starting from Scotland, destination was Lake Garda. We sailed Newcastle-Amsterdam. Tip: Hull-Rotterdam is preferable for several reasons: bigger, more stable ships, and Rotterdam is further south.

First day we drove Amsterdam to Basel and arrived by 6pm. Hotels in the city provide(d) free tram tickets for the family. Would have liked more than one night there, to be honest. The following day we spent time in Einsiedeln, which was for reasons of nostalgia. It's a pretty monastery village south of Zurich, quite touristy in its own right. Loved Switzerland - stunning scenery. DCs were generally happy with the long drive: aged 13 and 16, they both had a digital camera. For Switzerland you buy a 'vignette' at the border (a sticker that proves you've paid your tolls for the whole country - peace of mind).

Instead of driving through the St Gotthard tunnel we drove over the mountain pass - fab scenery! On the way home we took a slightly different route using the S Bernardino pass. (I swear the route was featured on
Top Gear shortly afterwards.)

On the way home we stayed overnight in Ansbach, on the left bank of the Rhein. It was nothing special, just a stop over. We spent 3 nights in Amsterdam before catching the ferry home. If you cross to/from Rotterdam, don't stay in Amsterdam obviously!

We just booked the hotels over the net. Most allow cancellations until the day of travel, and take no payment until you book in on arrival (or if you don't show up). So many sites to choose from now: suggest you start with trivago.

As well as Google maps for planning there is the AA and also Michelin.

Enjoy your trip!

Yes we usually book the hotels on booking.com

Booking.com allows you to book 5 people. Trivaggo only found rooms for two ( might have changed).

How old are yours? I had an 8 year old that loved it. He sat at the front to stop him being sick and did tolls.

Top recommendations from my trip:

Oberwesel Wonderful terrace, lovely food and they gave us the key to the cellar to go wine tasting!

Valpolicella After a great drive though Austria and the Dolomites, this place is not far from Lake Garda but in the vinyards. The restaurant is supposed to be outstanding - but we arrived the day it was closed. They provided a great picnic and wine to our room. Lovely pool.

Lake Como This was the highlight of the trip - absolutely stunning location near to restaurants and the boat stop to Bellagio. Run by a couple with kids - dd had huge fun in the pool with them. I will go back...

Lots of the hotel and other travel sites are on cashback sites, so you can get money back on bookings.

Thanks everyone! Some really great pieces of information. Very interesting about the train. Never knew about that.

We've done it several times to either Garda, Venice or Florence - and never the exact same route twice. We avoid France. Once you've experienced the plumbing on a German campsite France loses its charm!

We take the Hull - Zeebrugge ferry which means we land in Belgium and hit the road quite early after a good breakfast. Cologne is a fairly easy hop from there as is Saarburg or Rudesheim am Rhein and then south through Germany where all the campsites we've stayed at either have a swimming pool of their own or a municipal one nearby.
German, Austrian, Swiss and Italian service stations are great for lunch and we time this quite carefully if it's a long leg of the journey.

We do book sites ahead and plan our route well in advance to include some favourite places and some new ones. Our favourite route south is to head for the east end of Lake Constance, jink east though Austria to Innsbruck then cross the Brenner Pass because the Italian towns after that are just delightful.
We have also gone south through Switzerland and taken a lovely route to Genoa and then hugged the coast to Pisa before heading inland to Florence.

We like the more easterly route coming north which is through the Carpathians via Villach and Salzburg and one year we came home via Vienna and Prague.

As a general rule we try to avoid travelling much on the east-west autostrada in northern Italy which can be absolute hell.

Duh! Obviously the Zeebrugge ferry lands in Belgium.....

What I was getting at is that we find the M1 then the M25 round London and the Dover - Calais crossing really exhausting coming from the north (and a 100 times more tedious coming home again) so we much prefer crossing from Hull, getting off the ferry refreshed in the morning & being in Germany by the afternoon.

We usually drive to France from Ayrshire every year and this year fancied Italy, what's another days drive eh! Generally we drive down to Folkestone if we are getting the train or Dover if it's the ferry and stay in the Holiday Inn or Premier Inn. Easy to book ourselves. But this year we left at 8pm for an early ferry and kept on driving in France before stopping, it was just circumstances making it so long!

Stopped overnight in a Eurocamp where we got a tent for the night for £50, quite near the Swiss border, think it was called Val de Bonnal, it was lovely. Left about 8 the next morning, stocked up on picnic stuff in France and then we had the drive to Tuscany via Switzerland. We stopped at Lake Lucerne for our picnic lunch, gorgeous! Yes it wS a long drive, got to our villa at about half 8 at night. We booked that ourselves through Owners Direct. Didn't travel round as we stayed there for 2 weeks so can't comment on hotels.

On the way back we drive to the South of France which was about 5 or 6 hours and camped in another Eurocamp in Frejus for 2 nights, this was so we could visit Monaco, DH big formula one fan and wanted to drive the circuit . Campsite large and had great swimming pools!

We then drove to Calais and stayed in the Holiday Inn, another long drive but we always make it part if the holiday rather than a chore, stopping for a picnic breakfast to. Our boys aged 6 and 12 are fine , double DVD player is a godsend but also books and toys and food! Got an early ferry and went for breakfast in Folkestone, visited a friend for a few hours and then drove home, loved it. Live having the freedom of your own car, Tuscany is beautiful, we visited Pisa, Siena, and drive up a mountain in the Apuan Alps to visit a cave.

I plan all our journeys using the Michelin route planner, I have always found it accurate re tolls. I work out all the tolls in advance plus a rough estimate of petrol costs. Driving through Switzerland we payed 40 euros for the tax... But no idea why I got 6 Swiss Francs back in return!

Have a great holiday!

Ooh I would love to do this, but don't know if I'd have confidence for the driving (it would be me driving on my own).