Driving to Switzerland - any advice ?
Discussion
Agreed, you do require to pay to get a licence to drive on the Swiss motorways. Can't remember how much or whether you could use credit cards at the border to pay for it, wasn't too bad if I remember. We just got it at the border crossing. It lasts for a year I think (like that will be of any use for you on a holiday). When I passed through it was just stuck on the inside of the windshield by the police. I guess the RAC or AA website might have more info about costs.
WARNING : Three years later the sticker was still there - only got rid of it when I had to replace the windshield.
>> Edited by TJMurphy on Thursday 8th August 19:05
WARNING : Three years later the sticker was still there - only got rid of it when I had to replace the windshield.
>> Edited by TJMurphy on Thursday 8th August 19:05
quote:
How long would it take?
From London, going as fast as legally possible, to Lucerne (in a 996)! Shortest route will do, not necessarily the most scenic.
All comments appreciated.
How long do you want it to take ?
Direct route is through France, if you want to spend
all day cruising at 90 mph or so on the toll autoroutes.
Otherwise, Calais, Aachen, Koln, Frankfurt, Karlsruhe,
Basel.
Quite a bit further, but a much faster route.
Swiss Vignette is about twenty quid. This should be
not too much trouble to a Porsche owner.
Don't forget to pull into the slow lane if you drop below
120 mph !
AS one who lives within 1hr of Luzern (and drives this stretch at least once a month) I'd recommend following
ROUTE: through France, via Reims, Metz, cut the corner at Saverne on normal roads (saves 50km round busy, jampacked Strasbourg and you pass Molsheim where Bugatti were built) join new motorway at Molsheim, South to Mulhouse, then east to Neuenburg Germany for the last 30km, pay SFR 40 at border cash only for swiss vignette, then take Motorway for Bern (after Basel) join Bern-Zürich motorway after 50km head EAST, then SOUTH for Luzern. WATCH for fixed electronic highwaymen all around Luzern, especially downhill into Luzern from the north BEFORE you get to the airstrip, after the Petrol-Motorway services, and just after Exit Emmenbrücke(about 5km before Luzern)2 sets!!!!!
Generally DON'T speed OUT of tunnels or in the Böllchen Tunnel between Basel and the Bern-Zürich Autobahn (3.5km long... they blitz you IN the tunnel, long straight and newly done)
MY best (non-PC) time Calais-Basel is 5hrs 45mins on this route......
DO NOT travel through Germany, Aachen-Köln-Karlsruhe all too busy (holiday time)speed limits, jams, road-works and stressful.....and plenty of yellow-plated cheesehead shed-pullers (their route south!)........
enjoy and have fun and glad to have been of help. John
N.B. its worth filling up in Switzerland, nurse it that far as petrol is 35swisscents cheaper tahn Germany or France. Diesel is more expensive!! Diesel cheapest in France, after that Germany. Diesel in Switzerland more expensive than petrol...... German motorway petrol the most expensive in EU, french petrol a little cheaper than germany....
>> Edited by JMGS4 on Friday 9th August 08:09
ROUTE: through France, via Reims, Metz, cut the corner at Saverne on normal roads (saves 50km round busy, jampacked Strasbourg and you pass Molsheim where Bugatti were built) join new motorway at Molsheim, South to Mulhouse, then east to Neuenburg Germany for the last 30km, pay SFR 40 at border cash only for swiss vignette, then take Motorway for Bern (after Basel) join Bern-Zürich motorway after 50km head EAST, then SOUTH for Luzern. WATCH for fixed electronic highwaymen all around Luzern, especially downhill into Luzern from the north BEFORE you get to the airstrip, after the Petrol-Motorway services, and just after Exit Emmenbrücke(about 5km before Luzern)2 sets!!!!!
Generally DON'T speed OUT of tunnels or in the Böllchen Tunnel between Basel and the Bern-Zürich Autobahn (3.5km long... they blitz you IN the tunnel, long straight and newly done)
MY best (non-PC) time Calais-Basel is 5hrs 45mins on this route......
DO NOT travel through Germany, Aachen-Köln-Karlsruhe all too busy (holiday time)speed limits, jams, road-works and stressful.....and plenty of yellow-plated cheesehead shed-pullers (their route south!)........
enjoy and have fun and glad to have been of help. John
N.B. its worth filling up in Switzerland, nurse it that far as petrol is 35swisscents cheaper tahn Germany or France. Diesel is more expensive!! Diesel cheapest in France, after that Germany. Diesel in Switzerland more expensive than petrol...... German motorway petrol the most expensive in EU, french petrol a little cheaper than germany....
>> Edited by JMGS4 on Friday 9th August 08:09
Vignette is 40 SFr at the border. Make sure you get in the correct lane, as the queue to buy one is much shorter than the queue to have an existing one checked! The vignette is valid for one calendar year (Jan-Dec), so no need to pay on return visits until 2003. Oh, and they're a bugger to get off the windscreen 'cos they're designed to disintegrate to prevent thieving (a good idea for our tax discs? Convertible owners feel free to comment...)
Note that Swiss drivers stick pretty rigidly to the speed limits in my experience, including the rule that the limit is 10kph lower in tunnels. The same (Swiss) drivers that you've been in convoy with at 130kmh for hours suddenly blast off as soon as they cross the border out of Swizerland, so I can only assume that the local traffic plods are rather zealous...
Note that Swiss drivers stick pretty rigidly to the speed limits in my experience, including the rule that the limit is 10kph lower in tunnels. The same (Swiss) drivers that you've been in convoy with at 130kmh for hours suddenly blast off as soon as they cross the border out of Swizerland, so I can only assume that the local traffic plods are rather zealous...
quote:
Oh, and they're a bugger to get off the windscreen 'cos they're designed to disintegrate to prevent thieving (a good idea for our tax discs? Convertible owners feel free to comment...)
Very easy to get off if you know how... give one to someone else travelling to CH???
Warm them with a hairdryer, then peel off using a razorblade at a very flat angle along the windscreen......
Change mine regularly from car to car to bike to truck
If you know you're going to go through regularly buy it beforehand (AA; RAC; ADAC should sell them....NOT at the border as they stick it on for you) and then stick it onto VERY thin cling film which then with a steamy breath is easily stuck to the inside of the screen.
BTW don't get into the thrill of things if you're in the middle of (vastly) speeding swiss group of cars when in Switzerland. As a non-swiss you'll get pulled, they wont!!! Usually around 130-140 is OK (120kph limit)
"WATCH for fixed electronic highwaymen all around Luzern, especially downhill into Luzern from the north BEFORE you get to the airstrip, after the Petrol-Motorway services, and just after Exit Emmenbrücke(about 5km before Luzern)2 sets!!!!! "
Oh deary me. I was nipping along that road last month in the Chimaera with a Zafira trying to park in my boot ... and I was doing more than 130kph. Too busy to lose the Zafira for more than 1/2 mile or so which gave him a chance to catch me.
Handy driving a foreign car sometimes isn't it!
;-)
Oh deary me. I was nipping along that road last month in the Chimaera with a Zafira trying to park in my boot ... and I was doing more than 130kph. Too busy to lose the Zafira for more than 1/2 mile or so which gave him a chance to catch me.
Handy driving a foreign car sometimes isn't it!
;-)
I'm off as part of a convoy of 5 vehicles, driving an LDV minibus full of air cadets to Interlaken next Saturday. The route we've chosen is to go from Calais to Saverne, camp there over night (That leg is just short of 400 miles IIRC, about 95% on just two motorways), then next day, down towards Bern, and continue on the motorway to Interlaken (around 180 miles). I'm not 100% sure which side of the country Lucerne is though, so there may be a better route from France.
All the reports i've seen show that the Swiss plod are a bit keen, and the locals know it - exhaust reverb in the right car through all those tunnels must be just a little tempting though!
Interestingly, I think i'm right in saying that you need 'beam benders' for France, but not for switzerland, even though it seems compulsory to have your dipped beam on 24/7 - bizzare!
Enjoy,
Tony & 3000M
www.tvr-3000m.co.uk
All the reports i've seen show that the Swiss plod are a bit keen, and the locals know it - exhaust reverb in the right car through all those tunnels must be just a little tempting though!
Interestingly, I think i'm right in saying that you need 'beam benders' for France, but not for switzerland, even though it seems compulsory to have your dipped beam on 24/7 - bizzare!
Enjoy,
Tony & 3000M
www.tvr-3000m.co.uk
Also, remember to take some cash for the tolls in France - a couple of web sites i've seen reckon we'll need around €55-60 per vehicle, and thats just one way. Does anyone know if the charges for minibuses are more than for cars, in a similar way to the Severn Bridge and Dartford over here?
Tony
Tony
This will give you a route and an approximate time:
[url]www.shellgeostar.com/share/[/url]
you can put in the shortest route or quickest.
Make sure if you go to the St. Gothard pass you take the road up the mountain (not the tunnel)
Road is supposed to be great! (wide, well surfaced and a spectacular veiw)
[url]www.shellgeostar.com/share/[/url]
you can put in the shortest route or quickest.
Make sure if you go to the St. Gothard pass you take the road up the mountain (not the tunnel)
Road is supposed to be great! (wide, well surfaced and a spectacular veiw)
quote:
Make sure if you go to the St. Gothard pass you take the road up the mountain (not the tunnel)
Road is supposed to be great! (wide, well surfaced and a spectacular veiw)
I tried this an got my directions a bit muddled - ended up in the tunnel DOH!
... about a week before the whole thing caught on fire 
Mind you, I don't think the mountain road would be especially appropriate in a fully laden minibus...
Gassing Station | General Gassing [Archive] | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff