My recent road trip started life as a drive to Switzerland with a stop on the way there and back to avoid a 12 hour drive which then developed into ‘ooh this place is nearby’ and ‘we can day trip there’ and from there… a road trip was born!
I enjoy road trips as it is a great way to experience a lot of countries in a small amount of time and if you develop a penchant for a particular drink or food in one of the countries then there’s nothing stopping you in bringing lots back!
As mentioned before, we planned our trip around visiting Switzerland as it is a place very close to our hearts and we needed a bit of time there to reconnect with it but we also took advantage of how well placed it is! You can be in Germany in less than an hour, France in 1.5 hrs, Austria in 2!
We chose the following route:
The way there:
England – Dunkirk via DFDS ferry (the extra half an hour on the ferry saves you 1 hr of driving and puts you in the best place to visit Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. You also avoid those hefty toll roads in France by driving through Belgium!
Dunkirk to Luxembourg
Again, a strategic stop. Luxembourg is one of those places I really wanted to visit and it was almost half way to our AirBnB in the Black Forest. Also, Luxembourg has really cheap fuel at around 90p a litre in towns and £1 a litre at motorway services so makes for a very handy stop!
Luxembourg to Colmar
Our AirBnB wasn’t available until the Monday so we planned another stop on the way in Colmar as it was one of the places on our wish list and was only 1.5 hrs from the Black Forest. We did need to use the French motorways for this but I think it only cost £13 in tolls.
Colmar to Black Forest
A quick 1.5 hr trip that took us through Freiburg – we could have stopped over on the way but chose not to.
Day trips:
Zürich
Zürich was around 1 hr 25 mins from Löffingen (our town) and was an easy trip down the motorway. If you plan to visit a Swiss city then try and take advantage of the ‘park and ride’ service at SBB stations. For Zürich use Zollikon or Tiefenbrunnen!
Bregenz via Appenzell and Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein was about 2 hrs drive from where we were staying and our journey took us through Appenzell, a historic Swiss town so it was rude not to visit! From there we drove to Vaduz, Liechtenstein and stopped for a few hours and then drove on to Austria (half an hour away) to explore.
The return journey:
Black Forest to Maastricht to Dunkirk
Our longest drive of the trip was 5.5 hrs (which is arguably still short for a road trip) which took us through a lot of the major cities in Germany like Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Cologne and Aachen which would be fun if you had all the time in the world to explore! It was a nice smooth journey on the motorway and went in no time. We chose Maastricht as it was only 2.5 hrs from Dunkirk and meant we could explore another country on our way back!
Now for the practicalities. There were a few extra things we had to obtain before we drove around Europe:
Vignettes
Switzerland and Austria require a motorway vignette. The Swiss vignette lasts Jan-Jan and costs CHF 40 and must be bought upon entry to the country. You can get these at borders and also petrol stations.
Austria offers different periods of vignette, the best for a road trip being the 10 day vignette costing around €9 which again can be bought at petrol stations.
Emission stickers
France have bought in an emission sticker system called ‘Crit’air’ which costs around £5.85 (including postage)
Germany have a similar scheme aka the Umweltplakette which is needed for Berlin, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Hanover, Cologne, Munich and Stuttgart. We didn’t actually need to use it in the end as we didn’t go to Stuttgart as planned but it was good to have it covered. The cheapest way to buy these is from the website of the state you are planning to visit, like Berlin for example. I think the price changes depending on your car.
French motorway kit
When driving in France you need to make sure you carry a first aid kit, high visibility jacket, warning triangle and breathalysers. I believe you can buy the entire kit online or you can make your own.
Headlight stickers
English headlights are obviously set up for driving on the left and not the right so the beam is angled differently. I highly recommend buying them prior to arriving at the ferry/ Eurotunnel port to avoid being ripped off!
Accommodation
We all have different tastes and needs in accommodation but we chose to stay at Ibis budget and Kyriad hotels as they were cheap, had free parking and allowed us to get to the city easily. We managed to get the cost of the hotels down further by using Tesco clubcard points to part-pay the costs. We ended up spending only £9 on our hotel for Luxembourg!
Kyriad Colmar Centre Unterlinden
Other things to consider
- Snacks- bring lots of snacks like sweets for a sugar hit and flapjack bars for longer lasting energy. It helps keep the costs down on the road and also means you’re covered if the nearest motorway services is hours away.
- Toilet roll- if you’ve visited a French ‘Sanef’ motorway toilet you’ll know why this is important
- Hand gel/wipes – to keep you refreshed!
So where next? We plan to try and do a Northern Germany and Scandinavia road trip next summer! We’d love to visit Hamburg, Aarhus, Mälmo, Gothenburg and maybe Oslo!
Check out my YouTube video of the trip here
The Adventures of Kathryn 