Alps Road Trip

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Sagbrit

Original Poster:

188 posts

126 months

Wednesday 18th May 2022
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Morning chaps, forgive my ignorance but just wanted to check something with those of you who have recently driven across borders in Europe. Planning an Alps trip for July which will see us cross over quite a few times between France, Switzerland and Italy. Post Brexit, is it still relatively easy to cross over between countries or does having a UK passport now slow things down for us Brits? If it does make things arduous then we may need to change our route so that we flirt less with borders

Also, I've read you can buy passes in advance for each country to just drive through the tolls and not have to pay at each one. Can anyone point me to the best places to acquire these for France, Switzerland and Italy? Thanks ever so much.

vonhosen

40,506 posts

224 months

Wednesday 18th May 2022
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Sagbrit said:
Morning chaps, forgive my ignorance but just wanted to check something with those of you who have recently driven across borders in Europe. Planning an Alps trip for July which will see us cross over quite a few times between France, Switzerland and Italy. Post Brexit, is it still relatively easy to cross over between countries or does having a UK passport now slow things down for us Brits? If it does make things arduous then we may need to change our route so that we flirt less with borders

Also, I've read you can buy passes in advance for each country to just drive through the tolls and not have to pay at each one. Can anyone point me to the best places to acquire these for France, Switzerland and Italy? Thanks ever so much.
The check will happen only entering the Schengen area, not between the country borders within it.

https://www.tolltickets.com/en/

ATM

18,957 posts

226 months

Wednesday 18th May 2022
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I've flown to Amsterdam recently snd yes the brexit thing is a pain as you can't use the scanners and have to see an actual human with your passport. But I don't know how this would translate to a car crossing.

I've driven across into Europe several times prior to Brexit and there is only one queue of cars where you usually just wave your passport at someone and they choose to stop you for a chat or wave you by. I can't imagine how this would have changed with Brexit but I'm only guessing.

I bought the Swiss sticker for the motorway access at the border crossing and this was quite easy.

From what I remember from recent trips most tolls accept contactless cards but yes you do have to queue. I guess if you want to avoid the queues you'll need some form of automatic payment device like the m6toll.

psi310398

9,709 posts

210 months

Wednesday 18th May 2022
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vonhosen said:
The check will happen only entering the Schengen area, not between the country borders within it.
In principle, yes.

But I have often been stopped for checks (car, not van, on UK plates) crossing into Switzerland, coming in from France, Germany and Italy. I have also been stopped by the Italians coming in from Switzerland.

How much of this is post-Brexit fun and games and how much routine, I don’t know. Maybe, I just look shiftysmile.

mr pg

1,986 posts

212 months

Wednesday 18th May 2022
quotequote all
Get an Emovis tag for the French toll roads. Allows you to go through the automatic barriers, avoiding messing about with cash/cards/queues.
You need windscreen stickers for Swiss/Austrian motorways (no tolls). Also require emission stickers in many cities now, and some French areas.

Sagbrit

Original Poster:

188 posts

126 months

Wednesday 18th May 2022
quotequote all
Thanks for all your suggestions chaps, will definitely look to get an Emovis tag