10626 Driving to Umbria in August

My husband used to do it in one go and said that coming to Italy via the Channel tunnel was always much easier than going to England, as when he arrived there the motorway was always very busy, even in the early hours and he was by then tired, despite taking a few naps and having a couple of meals. It is the cost that hurts...a few years ago it cost over £1000 return from Umbria to Berkshire. No hotels just for petrol and tolls.

You'll need the bulk of the first week of your holiday to recover from a 'one hop' trip down. I reckon its about 1000 miles from London

Most people would do it with 1 or 2 overnight stops

I'd suggest an earlyish start for an [early] mid morning ferry. [if P&O - pay for the exec lounge and priority loading, and have a rest on the ferry].

Then a drive to the Metz area [I'd go 'up' into Belgium from Calais - it avoids the French motorway tolls and isn't significantly longer] for the first stop] [about 350miles from Calais

The second stop would be in the Bologna area [leaving about 200 - 300 miles to go on the 3rd day]

Yes you could do it in 2 days - but you need to average 500 miles a day, plus the Channel crossing time [lose 1 hr if Chunnel and 2 if ferry], plus the 1 hr lost through time differences, plus meal/fuel breaks.

[Others are bound to disagree with this - but you need to decide for yourselves]

Thanks, interesting about the cost as he thinks it will be better value than flying & car hire but I think petrol is now too dear. Hopefully can talk him out of it! Thanks

Candy

For the journey from London to Umbria in August you need to factor in traffic congestion particulary if you plan to travel on a Friday or Saturday, Italy/Europe goes on holiday on the first Saturday. The main pinch points being Gottard (or any of the Alpine crossings) and the A1 from Milan to Bologna,

We have driven down for the last 12 years at different times of the year and now tend to do the following as the object for us is to get there and have as long as we can on the terrace.

1) Leave at lunchtime Thursday and catch a mid afternoon Eurotunnel to Calais, drive to Reims / Metz. For speed (1 night trip) I tend to swallow the French tolls but as Alan says, Belgium is free, not a great deal longer and diesel in Luxembourg is extremely cheap. Day 1 is 311 miles.

2) Up early, Strasbourg, Freiburg, Basel, Lucerne, Gottard, Milan, Bologna, Cesena, Perugia, Spoleto. Day 2 is 800 miles. This will take 14 - 15 hours, assuming you keep to 130 - 140 km/hr and do not stop frequently.

I do not think 1 day from London including the channel is practicable in August unless you share the driving and accept it will take ~ 20 hours. Fun it will definitely not be.

As you have seen we all have our own ways to our particular spot in Italy, but the most important point is to get there in one piece.

Good luck.

Charlie

I've done the trip between the Channel and central Italy several times. I used to do it in a car towing a caravan, but I've also done it in a van and in a pickup truck.

The drive can be done in one sitting, but it is a long haul and pretty tough even if you have perfect weather and clear roads. It never took me as long as a week to recover from the trip, but it did take a few days and it's not a great way to start a holiday.

I can understand your husband preferring to have your own car to use while you're in Italy. Doing that also means you don't have to worry too much about bringing the minimum you need so that you stick within baggage limits. The £1,000 figure for the trip seems a bit high, since we can do the journey in our diesel-guzzling 4WD pickup for a lot less than that, but obviously your costs will largely depend on what fuel prices are next August, what sort of mileage you get in your car and whether you use French toll roads or routes which are free until you hit the trans-Alpine tunnel and the Autostrada.

People have their own preferences as far as routes from the Channel to Italy; like Sibilini, mine is to use the fast and generally traffic-free French motorways. I'd suggest that you might aim to stop for one night in the Strasbourg area and then hit Umbria late the next day.

As Sibilini has said, traffic in August can be a huge problem and weekends can be particularly dire. On one occasion, the Autostrade were so congested and there were so many accidents that it took me more than 12 hours to just get from our house in Abruzzo to the Italy-Austrian border, a journey that normally could be done in half that time.

One thing which I think would be a very good idea would be for you to get a GPS if you don't already have one. I'm not clear if you've ever been to Italy before, but one thing that takes some getting used to is the road signage here. It's often far from clear and it very frequently requires you to understand where, relative to the place you are at the moment, other major cities are located. In other words, they don't tell you that at the Autostrada toll plaza which slip-road takes you north and which south, instead, the signs indicate the directions for Bari and Ancona. The situation at junctions of minor roads is even worse, since the signs will either mention tiny hamlets a kilometre down the road or big cities 100 km away.

My experience is that a GPS will prevent all sorts of headaches and tensions between a couple driving in Italy. At the worst, if things go very wrong, you can both shout at the stupid gizmo rather than the driver accusing the navigator of being hopeless and the navigator accusing the driver of not listening to directions.

If you should decide to hire a car, you should consider either getting one with a GPS or bringing your own portable one.

Al

It depends how long it takes you to get from London to Belgium whether it's comfortable in one drive. We often do north of Brussels to Perugia in 12 and a half hours...BUT...we always do it on a Sunday, with a very early start, and hope to avoid the only bottleneck which is the Gottardo. ALSO we do it in a car with automatic transmission (amazing how much less stressful this is). AND petrol stops are coupled with coffee and a sandwich and the comfort stop, (max 5 mins). PLUS we have a telepass for the Italian autostrade.

This is done wthout exceeding any speed limits, I promise.

We do Surrey to Puglia in one hop. About 24 hours from the other side of the channel.

We did this in August this year - left on 6pm ferry Saturday evening 23rd and arrived at our property very late Sunday/early Monday.

However, we are travelling to our own property - know exactly what to expect when we get there, can drop straight into bed without having to socialise with anyone.

Timing is essential - particularly for the Gottard tunnel (pass is lovely if you have the time). This August everyone was travelling in the opposite direction to us so we were OK, but the queues in the opposite direction were horrific. If you are travelling at the beginning of August do bear this in mind.

We both love driving and actually prefer the drive to the horrors of getting to Stansted, etc. However, it is not a cheap option - we reckon on about £500 return but we buy cheap ferry tickets in advance and have a frugal diesel car. We travel through Belgium/Luxembourg to Switzerland and don't pay any tolls until Italy apart from the Swiss vignette.

I must admit that for a three week stay it is probably worth it - for much less it is far more marginal. If you can take your time and stay at leisure en route I would say it is worth the extra cost for the hotels. I look forward to retirement when time is no longer of the essence.

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]We drove for the first time this summer - mid July - purely because we wanted to take the dogs. We have worked out it is cheaper for 3+ weeks to drive than fly, taking into consideration flights, fuel, car hire and dogs in kennels. Cost for us this summer (I keep a record) - diesel (Octavia estate) £206 return, tunnel £151, tolls €115, overnights (1 each way) €104, swiss vignette €20 total around £550 for the return trip. Route - Derbyshire to Lunigiana via Strasbourg, mileage 1047 each way. Yes we will do it again - next Easter and summer. We would enjoy travelling at a slower pace with more stops but then that's less time in our Italian hidaway. [/FONT]

We too have driven quite a few times from Warrington to Umbria (1250 miles). We've done the French & the Belgian/Germany/Switzerland routes including July this year. Without exception we've made one night stop (with dog) be it in the Metz area of France or Geneva (South-bound) or Calais (North-bound). There are pros and cons to both but we do prefer to swallow the cost of the Tolls and head across France. Boring as it may be, it's quick and relatively trouble-free. The Belgian-Swiss route took us several hours longer - due to horrific traffic mainly. The trouble with August and trying to do it in one go will be that if you get held up significantly and run out of steam, you may find it very difficult to get into a convenient en-route hotel. We left our booking this summer until quite late and that was difficult enough - we certainly didn't get our first or 2nd choices. I wouldn't have liked to attempt it after a long, long day driving - possibly late at night.

Well,

Firstly it depends on the cost of the flights! I have done it in a van with a mate in 24 hours from Leeds to North Tuscany. This was foot to the floor and eating on the go! We did it again this summer in a car and did a one stop in the South of France. Currently flights are cheap and I would do the flights, as the cost of tolls and how you would feel (not to mention the loss of a day) means that it's my choice unless the cost of the flights are around £250 or more.....

Remember that there are extra costs to consider if you take your own car:

1) European Breakdown cover
2) European Insurance
3) IF your car does break down, YOU have to pay for the parts, and the fitting etc and have no transport while it's being done..

With a hire car you just pick up the phone and get a replacement brum brum :laughs:

Hi! We have driven from Norfolk to Northern Tuscany several times, and we estimate that we spend about £240 return in petrol (Fiat Punto 45mpg) and about £30 each way for the ferry (Speedferries, Dover/Boulogne - highly recommended!). The driving takes approximately 24hrs (via Belgium, France and then Switzerland) and we generally stop for one night (either camping or at the F1 motel at Metz). The only other cost is the Vignette in Switzerland (about £20 as mentioned above). Therefore, for us, compared to flying (maybe £70 each return plus 180 mile round trip and parking at Stansted), driving is the best option as it means we have the car when we reach Italy. However, all that said, the drive is long, but it can also be fun!

With regards to insurance, most insurers include some EU full-cover cover and if yours does not cover you for three weeks you can probably upgrade for a reasonably small cost. Third party only cover is, I understand, compulsory on all EU insurance policies (this is debated in several other threads).

If you do drive, don't forget warning triangle, hi-vis vests (one for each person in France), beam benders, etc.

Fully in agreement re satnav works like a dream and most useful when at the end of a long day you have to find your hotel. Three overnight stops is I think optimal

If driving through France - this site gives details [inc maps] for speed cameras on French roads

[url=http://english.controleradar.org/]Speed cameras in France[/url]

Hope this helps

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