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THESE ARE MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCES AND VIEWS AND NOT TO BE TAKEN AS PROFESSIONAL ADVICE.
WHY THIS ROUTE ?
A journey done the way we wanted to do it and way it suited us. Stop & Go when we wanted and able to see the countryside and counting the traveling as part of the holiday.
DAY 1
I was governed by fixed 14:00 hr sailing time via Dover Calais PLO route. I left for the 168 mile ride to Dover early with a break at Thurrock for coffee allowing time to get to Dover early hoping to get an earlier crossing but sailing’s were full so I had to wait and sailed 40 minutes later than booked, at least we had time for a Burger King & coffee, but I do find the ferries somewhat boring now days. It closely follows the suggested route offered by Sat Navs & Autoroute etc. but I had to make up lost time by skipping one of my rest stops in Belgium of which I had three planned together with a fuel stop in Luxembourg (£1.05p lt. unleaded). I had already traveled as far as Ghent but from there on it was all new to me but easy to navigate around even the Brussels Ring Road and we arrived at the pre booked hotel at Yutz 30 mins later than planned at 22:00 and not overtired after 291 miles of driving from Calais which was only 12 miles longer than any recommended toll chargeable route via Reims.
DAY 2
Leaving the Hotel at 08:15 the route I took also followed the motorway around Strasbourg rather than a slightly shorter route offered by sat nav which was non motorway and cut across the Vosges Mountains, this enabled me to keep up my average speed to arrive at the Swiss border half an hour early at 11:35. There is a section of road a few miles after Strasbourg towards Colmar which was badly surfaced but thankfully it was soon passed. The whole section from the hotel to Basle was 204 miles wasn’t extremely exciting but at least I only incurred 2 tolls between Metz & Strasbourg totaling £8.97. Again I chose the A2 direct route across Switzerland for pure higher average speed, not that I didn’t want to take my time but I had to consider getting to the campsite before 20:00. Traffic was stopped and inspected at the Swiss border but only to check that you have a Swiss motorway Vignette (tax) which if you don’t posess you can purchase one there or come off motorway. I had already purchased mine in UK online via the Swiss Center in London for £21. Although deserving more I only took three stops, the first the other side of Basle (for food and drink), at Altdorf for fuel (92p lt. unleaded) and the other side of the St Gotthard Tunnel for rest and photos. The final slog down to Chiasso on the Italian border completed another 190 miles. Up to now its been a pleasure driving, but between Chiasso and Milan one has to get used to a new kind of driver, The Italian. With a limit of 130 km/h they all seem to tailgate and expect you to give way as they join the motorway and swap lanes anyway they want and can. It’s motorway all the way to the campsite 119 miles and had 1 small toll before Milan and 2 more on the A4 Milan - Venice Autostrada a total of about £8 for the three of them (Note: watch out for the closeness of the slip roads to the toll booths it can confuse you). At the Peschiera turn off we just navigated the roundabouts twice to confirm directions and within 10 minutes we were at campsite check in right next to lake at 19:30.
DAY 1 RETURN LEG
After considering various return options we quietly packed the car and had breakfast to leave the camp at 7:00 on the Friday morning with the intent of avoiding traffic jams around Milan which worked pretty well. After a bit of queuing at Chiasso to enter Switzerland then a few miles further up for our first short brake at about 09:35. My previous plans to look at Lugano went out of the window as I stopped for fuel and just kept heading north to play things by ear after crossing the St Gotthard. With the mountain passes I wanted to use still closed by snow I turned of the A2 (Adding on 80 miles) onto the A8 and followed the road to Interlaken via the scenic but low Brunig Pass. Far to many features to write about around here but at Interlaken Ost we hooked a left and caught a glimpse of the Eiger and its famous north wall before we drove up to the stunning village of Lauterbrunnen arriving at 13:30. What can I say the scenery and views were so stunning, we managed a walk around Lauterbrunnen village and take some photos of the valley and high falling waterfalls. Further down at the end of the valley at Stechelburg we watched the cable car rise for the Schilthorn (as seen in the 007 film ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’) plus we could see Wengen on the higher shelf of the valley opposite and went for another walk along the fast flowing Weisse Lütschine river with snow fields of the Monch & Jungfrau mountains towering before us but with much regret time was a factor that got us moving back out the valley. If we had time we could of driven around to Grindlewald to have a closer look at the Eiger but at 16:00 we decided even though we would miss the ferry we wanted to get some more miles closer to home and decided to go for the same hotel in France we stayed at on the way down so we drove around Lake Thun and via Bern to rejoin the A2 to Basle and around Strasbourg to Metz and back to the Ibis Hotel at Yutz by 21:00.
NOTE:- Changing the ferry online the night before was a mistake P&O £99 chose Eurotunnel £89 PS. The ferry times and price was included in the package so tried to avoid rebooking DAY 2 RETURN LEG
Left the Yutz at 07:30 for the easy and journey back to Calais after Fuel top up in Luxembourg, one stop for a rest and drink and another call of nature stop. I had to book a 14:20 train or later to get the cheapest price so arriving in Calais at 11:45 we passed half an hour in McDonalds by Junc 15 of the A16 and decided to pass the remaining 2 hrs at the Eurotunnel terminal but to my suprise we did a self check in and were granted immediate boarding and departed @12:40. Arriving in UK @12:05 we looked forward to an easy 3 hour ride home but were held up by bank holiday traffic,,,,,, But who cared, Car Del Laguna got us there and back.
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