Planning a trip to the north east of Poland
Discussion
Hi all
I have been looking to plan a trip to Poland in August, driving from Staffordshire to almost the 3 borders between Poland, Lithuania and Kaliningrad (Russia)
What is the best site/tool to use to plan this out? I have done some rough Google maps checks and it appears it will take around 22 hours, I will be taking 2 dogs with me that have pet passports etc.
The biggest drive I have done in one go is an 8 hour stint so I think with good planning I could push this to 12 hours with some longer rests meaning I could potentially stop half way, maybe around Hannover and see if I could find a hotel or similar that would take dogs. Does this sound logical?
I am thinking the Chunnel would be the most appropriate to travel over to France on and then deal with the tolls etc as I go, how easy are these to sort, I guess the toll tag for the windscreen is the no brainer? I've never driven on the continent before so slightly concerned about this as well as filling up with fuel, the whole language barrier thing but i imagine that's all fine :P
The car is a Golf GTD Mk7 so it has all the modern bits to switch the lights and swap the KMPH etc so I think I'd be OK on this point, do we need anything special for the dogs other than the obvious worming stuff etc, anything for car insurance, breakdown cover etc? Any recommendations for reading material or other bits and bobs?
Cheers
I have been looking to plan a trip to Poland in August, driving from Staffordshire to almost the 3 borders between Poland, Lithuania and Kaliningrad (Russia)
What is the best site/tool to use to plan this out? I have done some rough Google maps checks and it appears it will take around 22 hours, I will be taking 2 dogs with me that have pet passports etc.
The biggest drive I have done in one go is an 8 hour stint so I think with good planning I could push this to 12 hours with some longer rests meaning I could potentially stop half way, maybe around Hannover and see if I could find a hotel or similar that would take dogs. Does this sound logical?
I am thinking the Chunnel would be the most appropriate to travel over to France on and then deal with the tolls etc as I go, how easy are these to sort, I guess the toll tag for the windscreen is the no brainer? I've never driven on the continent before so slightly concerned about this as well as filling up with fuel, the whole language barrier thing but i imagine that's all fine :P
The car is a Golf GTD Mk7 so it has all the modern bits to switch the lights and swap the KMPH etc so I think I'd be OK on this point, do we need anything special for the dogs other than the obvious worming stuff etc, anything for car insurance, breakdown cover etc? Any recommendations for reading material or other bits and bobs?
Cheers
Edited by Acksaw on Wednesday 17th April 11:40
Looks like most of your travels are within the EU, so from an "admin" point of view you won't haven any problems...apart from Kalingrad.
Do you really need a French Toll Tag? Will you be going back to France after the trip? Only reason being that you'll be charged a yearly admin fee for the tag and an upfront deposit for the tag, refundable when you send it back. Seems a lot of outlay if you never use it again? The issue with the French tolls is the Sterling transaction fees when using your UK debit card but I've been told that using a card like Revolut can get round that.
As for driving, simply think about the miles you can cover in a day before you have to hit a hotel. Last week, I drove up from SE London to Glasgow which was 420 miles and I felt pretty tired with a god awful backache by the time I got to Glasgow. I've done Benidorm to Poitiers in an ST220 back in 2014, I felt pretty fooked and not to mention my right knee ached like hell too, that was over 700 miles. With regards to France, Ibis hotels are a plenty so plan out what miles you think you can do and find/book a stop over. The problem I found with the Benidorm to Poitiers run was that I felt absolutely fooked the next day when I set out for the drive up to Calais, so you can over do it.
With regards to Kalingrad, you should start planning visas and car insurance too. Russia is a different ball game.
EDIT: either way, it sounds like an awesome road trip!
Do you really need a French Toll Tag? Will you be going back to France after the trip? Only reason being that you'll be charged a yearly admin fee for the tag and an upfront deposit for the tag, refundable when you send it back. Seems a lot of outlay if you never use it again? The issue with the French tolls is the Sterling transaction fees when using your UK debit card but I've been told that using a card like Revolut can get round that.
As for driving, simply think about the miles you can cover in a day before you have to hit a hotel. Last week, I drove up from SE London to Glasgow which was 420 miles and I felt pretty tired with a god awful backache by the time I got to Glasgow. I've done Benidorm to Poitiers in an ST220 back in 2014, I felt pretty fooked and not to mention my right knee ached like hell too, that was over 700 miles. With regards to France, Ibis hotels are a plenty so plan out what miles you think you can do and find/book a stop over. The problem I found with the Benidorm to Poitiers run was that I felt absolutely fooked the next day when I set out for the drive up to Calais, so you can over do it.
With regards to Kalingrad, you should start planning visas and car insurance too. Russia is a different ball game.
EDIT: either way, it sounds like an awesome road trip!
Edited by LeMansNut on Saturday 27th April 17:10
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