Driving to Italy

[hanahsaunt]

We are finally going on our planned road trip to Italy in August. We drive to Arras (1h from Calais) on the Friday and need a route map from Arras arriving at Lake Garda on Monday mid-late afternoon. Where would you stop? 2020 plan had been Baden-Baden and Innsbruck but that was pre-Brexit and my head is spinning with driving rules, vignettes, CO2 emissions, passports etc. and something simpler may be better unless you tell me that actually it's not that complicated. Plan was vaguely enough driving to get there in three days but with time for proper stops in nice villages/towns for lunch and the evening. I need to address both fear of driving up and down mountains (further to nightmare experience 20 years ago) and driving through tunnels (general dislike of tunnels). Whilst the former may be prettier, the latter would probably be less stressful.

Return journey is through Switzerland in a day to Strasbourg, overnight there and onto overnight in Calais before UK drive home.

Plan me a journey :)

We've never driven to Italy before but having a DS with SEN who won't fly or go on a boat means we've done lots of multi-country driving holidays. If this is your first time doing such a long drive I'd keep it simple and go via the most direct route so you have a bit more time to stop off and enjoy the journey there rather than spend more hours in the car.

The most direct route looks to be about 12 hours of driving and misses out Austria which saves you the cost of an Austrian vignette. Arras is a lovely little town, compact and easy to walk around on your first night. I'd also recommend a trip to Vimy Ridge (WW1 site with trenches, tiny museum, memorial and cemeteries) which is nearby. Your second night could be in either Colmar or Eguisheim in France or Freiburg im Breisgau in the Black Forest, about 6 hours away from Arras. I'm visiting all of them this summer and they all look beautiful and relatively compact if you're only there for a few hours. You could stop off at Reims, Nancy or Metz for lunch on the way.

The next morning (Sunday?) I'd drive a couple of hours to Lucerne in Switzerland and spend the day in the old town and around / on the lake. Leave there about 5 or 6pm and drive a couple of hours south and just find the most convenient place to stop. You can then finish the last few hours on the Monday morning.

Tonight's job for me is looking at emissions rules, vignettes, Covid rules etc!!

@TattiePants thank you! We've done quite a lot of assorted driving in France holidays hence venturing further afield but first time is always a bit daunting. Arras selected for the nearby war cemeteries where we have family buried. Freiburg is a great shout and I hadn't really thought about staying in Switzerland so much appreciated. Have a great holiday too!

We are stopping in Luxembourg & Liechtenstein as I've never been to these

This is a rearranged from 2020 holiday for us too. Luxembourg is a good shout @motogirl. Luxembourg City was the first night in our original (2020) trip but we couldn't make it work this time.

If you do stick closer to your original plans then you should cross the German / Austrian border near Fussen. It's a lovely town with great views of Neuschwanstein Castle (well worth a visit). There's also a lovely walk right on the country border with raised bridges where you can walk between countries. Would be ideal if you wanted to stretch your legs during a long drive.

Are you wanting the stops as part of the holiday OP or was it just because the drive is long?

We havent driven abroad before and I would love to learn to do so, and have been looking at where we might go, in the past we have driven to Scotland which was 14 hours overall and we did this in one go because stretching it over 2 days seemed worse, we just swapped over driving every couple of hours.

When we did a similar trip I bought the Vignette for Switzerland online and we went via the San Gottardo tunnel. on way back, we bought a vignette for Austria at a petrol station near the border. No one stopped us though. Colmar and Lake Como would be top picks for me along with your original choices.

Agree with PP about Fussen

@bellac11 I would recommend making it part of the holiday and making sure you have an afternoon & evening or evening and the next morning somewhere so you actually feel like you've seen a bit of the place you've stopped at. We've done France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and Austria so far and they've honestly been some of the best holidays we've had.

The first couple of times we stuck to Northern France or Belgium and Netherlands as it's not too far to drive.

Yes Ive been researching northern France for next year perhaps as a starter.

Theres a couple of advantages, firstly we are right near the tunnel and no where near an airport (well we are but its a good couple of hours), secondly I cannot bear the faff of airports, the queuing, the waiting, the queuing again, never enough seats in places.

Then we would like to take our own bikes ideally so it fits that we should drive.

Definitely part of the holiday hence having essentially three full days to get to Lake Garda.

Sounds great, we only go for a week at a time so that sort of timetabling would have to wait for retirement.

We often drive between the UK and Italy but tend to avoid stopping in Switzerland as it seems more expensive than France. I'd probably stop in Alsace but my geography is not great!

Don't worry about the vignette and driving up/down mountains: you can buy the Austrian vignette in advance online (up to 14 days before you need it) so wouldn't have to think about it anymore once driving. And if you take the route via Innsbruck-Brenner-Bolzano-Verona you would be driving on a motorway, so no narrow mountain roads, but still plenty of nice towns/villages just off the highway (eg. Sterzing/Vipiteno, Brixen/Bressanone, Rovereto). I live in that part of the world, so if you need anything more specific, let me know!

We're currently on our way back from a road trip to Italy from UK. Switzerland is eye-wateringly expensive. 3 nights in Lucerne, hotel price was OK (hotel was 10 miles outside Lucerne, they give you a travel card so you can use the busses free into Lucerne) but OMG food and drink was pricey. Eg, cheapest pizza was 20CHF, about £18.
We stopped over on the Bodensee on the way south, bought our Swiss vignette (37CHF) at a petrol station and used local roads for the 10 miles we were in Austria, to avoid buying one for Austria too (only about £10 for a 10-day one).

Fussen is lovely but it is a major tourist attraction - be prepared for traffic! King Ludwig did not think about the needs of the 21st century tourist when he built a fairytale castle in an alpine village.

It would be a shame to go there and not visit Neuschwanstein - a full days visit but worth it.

We did the drive to Rome and it was brilliant.
Euro tunnel at midday and up to Durbuy in Belgium for dinner. Stayed the night. Drove to Dachau in Germany arrived in the afternoon, they had a beer festival in town that evening (surreal) and we spent the night. Looked round the concentration camp the next day.
Drove off at midday and had lunch in Austria.
Big drive down to Florence arrived at 9pm. Stayed in an amazing hotel
Got to Rome by lunch the next day.

Coming back we drove to Milan and stayed the night. Saw the Last Supper.
Drove to the Alsace stayed a night and then pootled to the coast. Stayed a night in an amazing village because we were a day early.