driving uk to le marche via austria

09/26/2009 - 13:52

Hello everyone. My partner and I are driving to a small village near Urbino in a couple of weeks. We have decided we don't want to go through Switzerland. Any suggestions for a simple route and stop overs? We expect to take 3 days and may be stay over in France and Austria. Is Eurosatr the best option? Any suggestions for the cheapest cross channel route gratefully accepted too!

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Travel

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If you do decide to drive through Austria dont forget to buy the Carnet , we paid €7.70 for 10 days , Geoff .

We have just driven down - but ended up using the Swiss route for max speed, plus couldn't find any low cost accomodation in Austria. Though the French tolls added up we were able to book a Formule 1 hotel room for 3 people for 32 euro - basic but clean. .... and there was Swiss border control to deal with which is a litle more compicated with a van laden with furniture! Look forward to hearing form the others re reasonably priced places to stay in Austria.As for crossings, we found the cheapest deal for us was LD Ferries Dover-Bolougne at £92 return for van. Undercut P&O etc by a good £50 and Eurotunnel by over £350 [they insisted on treating us as commerical freight].

Thank you for your replies. We are in a car, no freight; I am wondering if going south through France is an option. This is a 'challenge' drive- we are going to stay with a friend for a week in the national park in the middle of nowhere, but first have to get there! We are estimatimg three days drive to get there ( from Midlands) and 3 days back with a week to stay put in Italy. It's an area ( near Urbino) where I'd really like to live in the future, so this is a first try to see logistics of travel etc and look around a bit more.

Hi Jacquie, We always drive down to Le Marche via Austria - love the route, even though it is slightly longer. The quickest we did it was 25 hours from North Yorkshire to Amandola non-stop. The route avoids Switzerland (we had problems at the boarder there once and it took 2 hours to empty the car and re-load it again, even though it was just bits of furniture we were bringing!). We go through France, Belgium, Luxumbourg (fill up with the cheapest fuel we have found anywhere, just off the motorway), Germany, Austria (via the Brenner Pass) then down past Lake Garda - itis a lovely, varied drive and doesn't get too boaring. There are some great hotels just off the Brenner Pass and the Austrian food is just wonderful - we also call in at the supermarket to stock up on supplies of hauswurst and other delicious bits and pieces we don't have here in Le Marche on the way down. Let us know if you want more details of our route. Happy driving!

hi Sarah and Mark; I'd be glad to receive more details of your route and stopovers!

Try norfolk lines for your ferry, dover-dunkirk. route from there is the via luxembougr one, where you can either go via switzerland or further acrosss via austria. would suggest switzerland for a first tripper?and more cost effective too.From the midlands if you are willing to cross early say leave home at 4am, the 8.am crossing will get you to basle and i believe a Etap hotel just past there is on your route.[type in Etap hotels they are one up from a FORMULA 1 hotel no sharing of bathrooms] .Unless sight seeing there is no reason for more than a 1 night stop,2 days travelling usually gets us to the southern end of Italy without speeding. good luck.

I'm going to do the Austrian route one of these times, just to ring the changes, but my one experience of the Brenner Pass was a nightmare. It was some time ago and probably in August but it was an absolute crawl. I guess in October it will be easier, but does anyone have any tips as to what day of the week, time etc to travel to miss the heaviest of the traffic, or can give me some idea of what conditions are likely to be?Terry

We drove to Abbruzzo in august,my husband managed to do the trip in 18hours non stop! (ONLY SHORT BREAKS EVERY 2 HOURS). We have done this trip about 4 times. The michelin reccomended route seems to be the most straight forward but rather expensive on tolls. Got lost on way back because of major roadworks from basel onwards and ended up going via luxemberg and belgium, slightly longer but same fuel consumption AND NO TOLLS, still crossed the channel at calais. The cost of the ferry was £65 return. We are now thinking that next time we will try another route,as there are major road works at St gothard (building another tunnel) and likely to have long queues. Has anyone used the St bernard underpass?

Hi PetriolaI am new to the forum but have an apartment in Collecorvino or will have when it is finished. I have been looking at options for taking over furniture and bulding materials, but I have been told that it takes to long and costs too much. However you seem to have cracked it with shared driving and I would love to know your route.

to beat the traffic,get off the brenner pass b4 the Italian border,and take the normal road.you get some wonderfull views of all that stationary traffic.get back on the m/way after bolzano,when its not so bad

So are you saying it's always bad on the motorway?

Well on the occasssions i have taken that route yes,but normally its been August and saturday.Anyway we like our first cappo as soon as poss, and getting off the m/way at gries[austria] and running into brennero on the B182, means we can fill up at a shell with the cheaper fuel prices [austria side] drive straight into Brennero slowly and grab a cappo a mere 25m on the main drag, as there is a small empty cark pk just after the first bar on your right.......

We live in mid-wales and drove down to Pesaro this year. Journey down we stayed in Folkestone and then an early train. Night in Chamonix and then in Pesaro for 3pm.On the way home we stayed in the dolomites - Val Gardena which is beautiful and then through Austria, Germany, Luxembourg (very cheap petrol) and stayed in Belgium. From there it was about 3 and a half hours back to the Eurotunnel.Helen

We are travelling back to the UK in the next week or so. Usually go via Mont Blanc and France. Fancy doing the Swiss, Luxembourg route, Anyone done this lately!! and problems with road works or the Gothenburg tunnelthanks

We did a similar route a couple of weeks ago and no problems, in fact very quickI guess you have to pick your time to go to avoid rush hours etc but we set off from Alberobello in Puglia at 5pm on a Friday went via Gotthard/Luxembourg/Dunkirk as booked on Norfolk Lines at 4pm on the Saturday. Having two drivers and keeping to the speed limits, we got there at 1pm and caught the 2pm ferry. Going at this time also had the advantage of hitting the tunnels/borders late in the evening so they were very quiet.

We are thinking of visiting friends in Uza, South of France and then driving on to Marche in August. Michelin suggests 1600kms and 15 hours . Apart from "don't do it" does anyone have any experience or suggestions?