European roadtrip - advice and experiences please

[FromHereToSomewhere]

Hi has anyone ever done a European roadtrip please? Specifically, thinking UK to France, via Belgium / Germany / Austria / Italy / Switzerland in just over a week. Followed by a week staying in France at the end for a bit of a rest before heading home.

DH thinks it can be done for about 4k all in with accommodation, fuel, food and drink, a few day trips etc. The week in France is covered as we have property there.

I really like the idea of visiting so many places we've never been, and DH is happy with all that driving, but I think it could end up costing way more than that especially as some of those countries are known for being expensive. I also wouldn't want to feel so horribly rushed that we didn't actually get to see anywhere we stayed.

Would be going start of Summer hols, with two young teens. They're pretty good with car travel and like new cultures, food etc.

You want to do all this in a a week? Belgium / Germany / Austria / Italy / Switzerland you wont see anything apart from hotel rooms and the inside of your car.

In a week !! You need the whole 6 weeks to all that properly

I’d do a week in the Netherlands / Belgium - lots of WWI / WWII history if you like that sort of thing.

I think you’d be mad to spend all your time driving to click up half a dozen countries (and I doubt your teens would want to be stuck in the car for that long either).

You won't do all that in a week i'm afraid! We done Germany, Austria & Italy in a week but we flew to/from Munich, staying in Mittenwald for 3 nights, Innsbruck for 2 nights and Merano for 2 nights. So covering a relatively small area. But it still took a week so we could actually experience and enjoy each place.

I think you should head straight to Switzerland and spend a week there before heading to your property. The Jungfrau region is the most beautiful place in Europe imo. Yes it's expensive but you can cut costs using Airbnb instead of hotels, go to a supermarket so you can prep your own breakfast & packed lunches and just eat out in the evenings!

Yes done many - been a while since took the kids (on account of them now being young adults) but I think it's doable if you are careful with your budgets.

Germany is pretty reasonable (except petrol) even with the current exchange rate, and central France is too away from tourist hot spots - always fill up your car at French supermarkets before heading east as they are the best for fuel, or use total energies fuel stations. I'd avoid Switzerland to be honest, it's easy to do so, just stick on German side of the lake, as their motorways require an annual permit, also don't drive on Austrian motorways for the same reason (Germany doesn't charge, France and Italy are tolls for what you use but in France just stick to the N roads and they are free.). I tend to stick to a max of 6 hours driving in a day and then book 2 nights in one place. You'll get brownie points off the kids if some hotels have pools eg holiday inn often has a good family rate.

My tips - booking hotels ahead gets good rates but you can grab same day bargains, always look on google naps for little independent ones that you won't find on booking.com or similar for great places (eg I paid £52 for a room (for 2) including breakfast AND evening meal last year at this little roadside restaurant with rooms in france near Swiss border, even gave us complimentary wine.

Booking b&b usually is your best bet, let the kids really fill up then stop at a supermarket at lunch time and buy bread, cheese etc (I always pack picnic blanket, bread knife, cheese knife, buttering knife, bread board, some plates, forks, tin and bottle opener etc) as well as fuel.

If your car fit them, each having a suitcase worked for me, even at 5 mine would drag theirs in. Don't forget the dirty washing bag in each too. Bring 2 toothpastes if sometimes the kids will have a separate room (forgot myself once they got to the age they didn't always share with us)

I would look at incorporating europa parc into your itinerary, my kids loved it (it was part of Tesco club card scheme then too). I've clocked tens of thousands of miles on road trips with mine, it's a great way to show your kids the world, and since they grew up we go on the motorbike instead.

I've done Italy via Germany etc for a 10 day holiday

we did a 'roadtrip in 2019.

We got the channel tunnel and then drove down into France and stopped I cant remember where. Stayed there overnight in a Formula1, had a wander around the pretty town and dinner.
We then drove over to Switzerland and spent the afternoon there, had fondue, kids got penknives from the Victorinox shop. Then the next morning we did a visit to the CERN laboratory.
We then drove over the top of the alps into Italy stopping for lunch at the top at St Bernards pass, before driving down into the Aosta valley.
We used to live in Villenueve so we spent an hour strolling around had dinner before driving to Milan where we stated overnight.
We then went to a Eurocamp near Venice for the week.
We then drove back via Austria/Germany/Luxembourg/Belgium/France, staying overnight in Germany and stopping at the battle of waterloo.

Could have taken our time a bit more and seen more but the main thing was we were doing it to get to Italy.

That sounds quite similar to the route we were thinking. But if you were doing it to actually see places, sounds like it may be quite rushed

I did a similar trip over nearly six months and it still wasn't long enough !

All 6 countries is very ambitious, unless you like motorways and service stations.

I think to get the most out of your holiday, do Belgium/ Holland a few nights, then down to Lake Constance Germany for a few nights- from there you can easily visit Austria & Switzerland and ditch Italy. Then move on to France for your final destination.

Just be aware going from Belgium to Lake Constance is a good 10+ hour drive.... to give you a perspective of distances you'll be covering!

@anothernamechangeagainsndagain "I'd avoid Switzerland to be honest, it's easy to do so, just stick on German side of the lake, as their motorways require an annual permit, also don't drive on Austrian motorways for the same reason"

An annual toll permit is not needed to drive on Austrian autobahns. An Austrian toll sticker (Vignette) for 10 days costs €11.50 (£10) which in the big picture is peanuts. Buy at any services on the German autobahn south of Munich, or at kiosks at the border.

Petrol on German autobahns is expensive, but turn off the autobahn to either a "Autohof" (which often has a McDonands or KFC and will be clearly signposted) or a filling station just off the autobahn (many SatNavs show these) and save up to 50 cents a litre.

We did that trip from Brussels but over 3 weeks! To be fair we stayed in Tuscany for 10 days in the middle. We stayed in a village on the Rhein, then Fussen in Bavaria, through Austria, then one night in Valpolicella with a late lunch at Bardolino on Lake Garda. On the way back we stayed on Lake Como then Brienz/Interlaken in Switzerland and then a night in Colmar. It was lovely trip but I find long car days really tiring and couldn't imagine doing that trip in 1 week.

We did Germany (2 nights) - Austria (4) - Switzerland (1) - France (7) last year with younger DC. 15 nights away in total including the first on the Harwich to Hook of Holland ferry. I agree with previous posters your itinerary is too ambitious.
Think we spent around £3.5k and that was for 5 of us, so your budget seems plenty generous enough especially if you have free accommodation for part of the time.

We did a road trim last year from the UK. Got the ferry to Spain then drove back through Spain, Andorra, France and Belgium. Took us 10 days and we just booked places to stay as we went using booking.com or airbnb.

All in we spent just under £2k. That included accomodation, fuel, food etc. Really it will depend on what standard of hotels you want to stay in and whether you eat every night in Michelin starred restaurants or just local cafes.

"UK to France, via Belgium / Germany / Austria / Italy / Switzerland in just over a week..."

That's an itinerary that needs at least 2 weeks (3 would be better) if you're going to see anything other than the autobahn and the rear end of the car in front 🙁