7-day Euro road trip route advice

[57goldtop]

Considering a solo Euro road trip in a few weeks. No real agenda other than driving some good roads, avoiding traffic, a bit of an escape etc.
I'm fine with driving decent distances each day if the rewards as worth it. Still to decide if I'll book hotels in advance or go rouge and just wait and decide each day where I want to head to.

It'll be the overnight ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam (Ijmuiden).
Considering the following:

Spa, Belgium
Reims, France
Baden-Baden, Germany
Stuttgart, Germany
Nürburgring, Germany
Back to Ijmuiden, evening departure, overnight ferry, home.

Was originally planning to head down to the Alps passes, but doubt I'd have enough time in 7 days, and probably still risky with them not being open yet.

Any advice on roads/routes/hotels/beers welcome.

[plenty]

If based in Newcastle I'd be heading to Scotland, personally.

[57goldtop]

plenty said:

If based in Newcastle I'd be heading to Scotland, personally.

I live in Scotland , hence heading to Newcastle for the ferry.

[plenty]

Ah ok

If heading to Amsterdam, head south via the N10 from the Belgium/Lux/Germany border, following the Mosel river to Trier (which is very characterful and historic place to spend a night). The N10 is a fabulous, flowing road and as yet mostly under the radar for most people.

From there, head to the Vosges mountains and the Route des Cretes, albeit this area attracts a lot of cyclists being a Tour de France staple. From there it's a short hop over the border into the Black Forest, albeit this is overrated as a driving destination as there's too much traffic especially in the northern stretches.

The passes around Andermatt, Switzerland (Furka, Susten, Nufenen, Gotthard) are well worth doing and will be the best driving you will find in this area.

South and Southeast France are better still, albeit a bit tight from Scotland in one week.

[omniflow]

My approach is to spend day 1 getting as far into Europe as I can. You should be able to make Austria in about 10 hours. Then you've got a world of choice. Of course, you need the same approach for the journey home.

[dcb]

omniflow said:

My approach is to spend day 1 getting as far into Europe as I can. You should be able to make Austria in about 10 hours. Then you've got a world of choice. Of course, you need the same approach for the journey home.

Austria is an excellent choice. Far far cheaper than Switzerland,
no Swiss Francs to worry about and the mountain passes are similar.

They aren't as obsessed with speeding as the Swiss.

The route there is pretty good too. Ambling along a quiet German autobahn
at 200 kmh feels good to me.

[plenty]

Not a fan of Alpine Austria for driving. The Grossglockner and Timmelsjoch are two of the the very best passes in Europe, but otherwise this part of Austria given its geography has a fairly limited road network, and most of its roads are heavily trafficked and punctuated frequently with towns.

If you're going to venture that far, much better to visit the south and southeast of France where there is so much more choice of good routes and far less traffic.

ETA: Alpine Austria. The eastern part of the country is much better for driving.

Edited by plenty on Saturday 4th May 11:28

[57goldtop]

Thank all, appreciate the suggestions - I'm google map-ing all this out to see what I think I can fit in.
As I'm planning to head away the last week in May, I'm a bit concerned the Austrian passes might still be closed (?) or still a bit too wintery for fun driving.
Anyone been down there at that time of year?

[plenty]

Many of the high passes, including the Swiss passes near Andermatt, won't open until June.

[omniflow]

57goldtop said:

Thank all, appreciate the suggestions - I'm google map-ing all this out to see what I think I can fit in.
As I'm planning to head away the last week in May, I'm a bit concerned the Austrian passes might still be closed (?) or still a bit too wintery for fun driving.
Anyone been down there at that time of year?

Yup - we were there last year. The plan was to drive from Salzburg to Lake Garda over the Grossglockner, spending a night in the hotel at the top of the Grossglockner on the 15th May. The website is very good and the pass kept changing between Open, Open with snowchains and totally closed. The day before we were due to go it was totally closed and the webcam showed the area totally whited out. We had to divert through Austria and spent the spare night in Venice instead.

[57goldtop]

Ah ok. I'll leave all that for this time then. Will probably have another Euro road trip later in the year, so will save the passes until then.
For now I'll stick to northern Germany, Belgium, maybe Lux, as per plenty's advice.
Cheers.

[DeuceDeuce]

This has got me thinking about the wisdom of my trip next week.

I’m heading to Ljubljana via Innsbruck on the way down and Salzburg on the way back. Disappointing to hear from a post above that Austrian roads aren’t the best.

[plenty]

DeuceDeuce said:

This has got me thinking about the wisdom of my trip next week.

I’m heading to Ljubljana via Innsbruck on the way down and Salzburg on the way back. Disappointing to hear from a post above that Austrian roads aren’t the best.

My comments referred specifically to the Alpine regions which aren't nearly the best that Europe has to offer due to traffic, and towns every five minutes. Still very pretty and enjoyable for cruising, but not suitable for pushing on.

Having said that, the Grossglockner is open and is a must-drive on your way down.

On the return leg, I'd suggest staying east of the A10. There's far less traffic here. In fact the area between Graz and Linz has some excellent driving on offer, much better than in the western Alpine regions that most people gravitate to.

[Boleros]

57goldtop said:

Considering a solo Euro road trip in a few weeks.

What are you driving out of interest?

[57goldtop]

Boleros said:

What are you driving out of interest?

McLaren 600LT

[Boleros]

Oooh, nice. If you’ve never done them (and they’re open of course) then the Swiss passes are a must. I did a couple two years ago in my F430 and it was by far and away the best driving experience I’ve ever had. I also did the Black Forest (B600?) from Baden Baden. It was ok but the weather was crap, I did get the impression it would be belting on a summer day. Busy road though, lots of bikers and cyclists.

[dcb]

plenty said:

My comments referred specifically to the Alpine regions which aren't nearly the best that Europe has to offer due to traffic, and towns every five minutes. Still very pretty and enjoyable for cruising, but not suitable for pushing on.

Entire websites (anyone remember alpineroads.com ?) have
been built on doing the Alpine passes.

Thousands of other tourists would appear to agree with me.
I've seen bikers with Norwegian plates there.

plenty said:

Having said that, the Grossglockner is open and is a must-drive on your way down.

Here again, I disagree. Every guidebook will send you there,
and it's an overpriced tourist trap. Might be ok out of season,
but worth avoiding in high summer. The hordes of clueless
sheep drivers rather take the fun out of it.

plenty said:

On the return leg, I'd suggest staying east of the A10. There's far less traffic here. In fact the area between Graz and Linz has some excellent driving on offer, much better than in the western Alpine regions that most people gravitate to.

I can't say I've done any driving that far East.
I usually stick to west of Salzburg - Villach.

At one time, I had done the top ten highest Austrian Alpine passes
and was working my way though the list of 10-20.

I don't really know anyone that drives hundreds of km to get
to lovely Austria then avoids the really big Alpine passes.

Bit like going to the Hofbrauhaus in Munich and having the
fish main course with some white wine, isn't it ?

[Medic-one]

We done Baden-baden, Reims, Stuttgart and the Alps 2 years ago, quite a bit of info about it in here :

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

We spend 16 days, but mainly because we didn't want too long journeys (4 - 5 hour max) and had a quite a few hotel stops for a night or 2 along the way.

If done alone with less stops I'd say it's pretty doable in 7 days.

[57goldtop]

Medic-one said:

We done Baden-baden, Reims, Stuttgart and the Alps 2 years ago, quite a bit of info about it in here :

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

We spend 16 days, but mainly because we didn't want too long journeys (4 - 5 hour max) and had a quite a few hotel stops for a night or 2 along the way.

If done alone with less stops I'd say it's pretty doable in 7 days.

It's partly your fault I'm doing this in the first place
I've read through your road trip post plenty times, and thought I fancy a bit of that! The write up info and pics are great.

I think this time won't go as far as Austria/Switzerland, as I don't want to get all the way there and find the good roads still not ready for fun driving. So I'll save that and should be able to get down there later in the year when I'll have a couple of extra days too.