StCirq

Wonderful. The Tarmac Trip.

nukesafe

As soon as I saw the OP's post I knew it was a bad trip. One huge block of text.

No paragraphs.

Just like this trip will be, i.e., no pauses to catch your breath, much less see or enjoy anything.

ellenem

Enjoying a leisurely afternoon watching the snow, I decided to do a math puzzle . . .

Listed below are the approximate drive times/distances from maps.google.com along fastest routes for the proposed itinerary. Times listed do not allow for traffic delays, slower scenic routes, city driving to hotels/parking, and time for checking in and out of hotels, which might add 2 hours or more to the travel time for each day of travel.

July 13: arrive Frankfurt; Frankfurt to Tubingen (243 km – 2.5 hours)
July 14: Tubingen to Zurich (200 km – 2.25 hours)
July 15: Zurich, Switzerland to Lichtenstein to Fussen (264 km – 3.25 hours)
July 16: Fussen to Neuschwanstein Castle to Innsbruck (119 km – 2 hours)
July 17: Innsbruck; driving through the Alps
July 18: Innsbruck to Venice (392 km – 4.25 hours)
July 19: Venice
July 20: Venice to Florence (265 km – 3 hours)
July 21: Florence to Rome (283 km – 2.75 hours)
July 22: Rome
July 23: Rome to Pisa (383 km – 3.75 hours)
July 24: Pisa to La Spezia; train to Cinque Terre; La Spezia to Nice (378 km – 4.25 hours)
July 25: Nice to Montpellier (327 km – 3.5 hours)
July 26: Montpellier to Barcelona (343 km – 3.5 hours)
July 27: Barcelona
July 28: Barcelona to Clermont-Ferrand (620 km – 6.25 hours)
July 29: Clermont-Ferrand to Paris (424 km – 4.25 hours)
July 30: Paris
July 31: Paris
August 1: Paris to Brussels to Amsterdam (520 km – 5.5 hours); Fly to London
August 2: London
August 3: London
August 4: Fly back to Amsterdam; Amsterdam to Koblenz to Bingen to Frankfurt (514 km – 5.5 hours)
August 5: Leave Frankfurt at noon

More than 50 hours of driving in the best case scenario
15 hotel changes in 24 days, so one "day" of the trip lost to checking in and out of hotels

You could follow your entire plan and give up the car in Barcelona (at a high fee probably) and then fly to Paris, saving the long drive and wasted travel days. Then do your last stops by train/plane, returning to Frankfurt to fly home. If you have not yet purchased your airline tickets roundtrip to Frankfurt, I'd seriously consider how you could rework this trip to NOT fly in and out of the same city.

If you DO make this trip as you propose, please report back to us how it went. It would be a lesson for us all and greatly appreciated.

azzure

Do about half this itinerary and do it by train. Make it easy on yourself. I personally wouldn't even think about driving in Rome or Paris.

Pegontheroad

I never drive in a major city in Europe. Ever. Ever.

janisj

Take the times ellenem posted and add a LOT to most of them - needed to get into the city centers and find your hotels-which most likely don't have parking. And I assume you are leaving the car parked in Amsterdam while you jaunt over to London and back. What do you propose doing w/ the car while you're gone??

"<B>Am I crazy?!</B>" . . . certifiably insane

emily71

To me, it sounds like a screenplay for a remake of "If It's Tuesday...." I'll be expecting to see it in theaters.

Randy

This person has been wasting everyones time here also: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntre...27886#19427886

porkister

I was just going to give the link to that movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064471/
haha.

Let me tell you, I spent 16 days in Italy doing a crazy tour like this at a much smaller scale (Venice, Verona to Lago di Garda, to Cinque terre, Pisa and Lucca, 5 days Florence and northern Toscana, run to Ravenna to see a relative that didn't even show up, San Marino, Perugia, Assisi and Orvieto, fly out of Rome). I enjoyed it, came back with over 3000 pictures, my son didn't comment because he is 2, but for my wife was way too much. We sprinkled the trip with a car accident and an almost life threatening nut allergy.

This is something that I also did way back when I was a resident in an Easter European country just out of communism and we basically "escaped" for a 17 day tour through Europe (Romania to Portugal and back). The strongest memories are related to sore legs and deriere from so much sitting down in the bus.

So being someone almost as crazy as you are and having somewhat the experience of two similar insane tours but at MUCH smaller scale, I say DON'T DO IT! Not even if this is the last chance you have to see Europe. It's not worth it!

janisj

On the Lonely Planet thread he has gone back to post more details. There are FIVE of them on this hellacious trek. And he seems serious. Read some of his crazy (his word, not mine) reasoning on that thread . . .

janisj

Oh - meant to add. It is sometimes posted here on Fodors that we are a bunch of fuddy duddies and that younger travelers should post on Lonely Planet to get real help. Well - they are being even tougher on him over there than we are - vindication!

Sassafrass

Just read his post on LP. Hard to believe he has found four more people willing to subject themselves to this. Sad, all that money spent and time expended and nothing really seen of Europe.

cigalechanta

Please stop and smell the flowers
you will be rewarded with a rich experience

ziggypop

"life threatening nut allergy."

pretty much sums this thread up, no?

madamtrashheap

So colinj, this
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...best-route.cfm
and this
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...witzerland.cfm
and this
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ontpellier.cfm
are all just pieces of the crazy-jigsaw-puzzle-without-edges trip you're planning? Would have been nice of you to put them all in one place so we could advise rather than little bits and pieces and then discover you're trying to do a tour of the inside of a car.

I get the feeling you're either not looking at to-scale maps, or just like driving without stopping. To echo the others, nutso!

michele_d

We saw half of what you are planning to see in four times the amount of time. I too stopped reading at the 18th. Ughhh.

StCirq

Loved the Lonely Planet comments, especially the one "Oh, so you'll be pulling up right next to the Colosseum, will ya?"

Not crazy. Certifiable.

nukesafe

I'd like to read his thread on LP, but can't find it. Could someone post a link, pleas?

janisj

nukesafe: The link was posted by Randy up on this thread (can't give you the time since it displays different for everyone -- in your own timezone)

Aduchamp1

Whenever I see a topic called, "Am I crazy?" the answer is yes and then I read the text.

By the way, you accidently omitted Lagos (Nigeria, not Portugal) and Tokyo.