Driving

hi all...

I and a friend wanna take a driving holiday in europe sometime around feb next year. We have about 15 days, and would love to drive at a relaxed pace exploring on the way. I guess 200km a day would be okay.

We%26#39;d like to start from wherever and end the drive in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

This is only the beginning of our planning, so we%26#39;re open to all ideas. We haven%26#39;t really thought of countries and places to cover. Please advice where we should start from... which countries to cover... which cities/towns to make stops at...?

Any advie will be of great help.

Thanks a lot...

Will

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Lucky you! I bet I%26#39;m not the only person reading that and starting *my own* fantasy itinerary! However, the first step is really for *you* to decide what you%26#39;re interested in, so that you don%26#39;t end up with a list of museums to visit if you%26#39;d rather be touring vineyards or climbing mountains ;-)

Good guidebooks are Dorling Kindersley (nice pictures) and Michelin green guides (more worthy, but has the merit of giving star ratings to attractions), and these give a good starting point - along with a big map and some distances.

One thing you might like to consider is that if you%26#39;re primarily interested in towns and cities, you could travel by train rather than car - depending on your age and tolerance of discomfort (I%26#39;m thinking overnight stopping trains :-( ), you can get round much of Eastern Europe as well. European students would recommend some time on a beach in Croatia ;-)

Useful websites for mapping are viamichelin.com for roads and http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en for rail timetables across Europe.

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We did a similar trip in 1997. After 5 days in Paris we rented a car and headed out for 2 weeks. Leaving Paris was quite the adventure. Things were calm once in the countryside, though. Our main plan was simply to circumnavigate France.

We stayed in Tours and checked out chateaux in the Loire Valley, spent a couple of days in Bordeaux, left the main roads and went over the Pyrenees and stayed a night in Spain, through Andorra, back into France, stopped at Carcassonne, and stayed in Nîmes to check out the Roman ruins. Then we cruised along the Riviera and stayed a couple of nights in Monte Carlo. So far, none of the drives had been more than 3 hours, slightly longer going over the twisty roads in the Pyrenees.

In Monaco, we were ahead of schedule, so we expanded our scope. We went to Pisa and Venice, then to Zermatt and Lucerne in Switzerland, and finally back to Paris (that a 12 hour drive).

I consider the biggest must-sees of that trip to include driving over the Pyrenees, driving over the Alps, and visiting Venice. Second up: the Loire, Bordeaux, Nîmes, and Monaco. The best way to see the tower in Pisa is to double-park the car, take turns to take the pictures, and get out. The rest of the town is a tourist-trap.

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