Euro road trip – looking for advice please
 

Hi,

We are two blokes in our mid 30’s looking to do a 15 night road trip across Europe. We had initially planned to mainly see big cities (for the nightlife) but is has since occurred to us that we’re no spring chickens anymore so it may be better if we can mix it up with some more picturesque, smaller towns/villages. We’re not massively into day trips, tours, museums, etc. however, we’ve decided it would be good to take in some local culture rather than just spend all fortnight in big cities….

We will be heading out from London and the first night we have decided that we definitely want to stay in Bruges. From there we are open to suggestions, but we do have a vague route in mind, which is to head down to the Mediterranean coastline and then drive west along the coastline ending in Portugal.

Places we are considering as follows…

- Bruges (we are definitely going to stay here on the first night)
- Paris
- Lyon or Geneva
- Monaco
- Marseille or Montpellier
- Barcelona
- Valencia
- Granada
- Seville
- Lagos
- Lisbon (ending here)

As you can see these are mainly big cities…. Can anyone recommend any smaller towns/villages along this route that would be good to see?

Also, can anyone tell me if there are charges for crossing country borders? And if so, how much?

charges for crossing country borders? No.

but if you hire a car in London and drop it off in Portugal it will cost you a shed load of money, you would have to get a quote.

Just a thought, but since your plan is basically city to city why are you not using a train?

I'm not a big fan of trains - would rather drive - even if it costs a lot more.

Well, why do you have an issue with trains, you will travel faster on a train and you will not have the hassle of parking a car?

Generally trains are cleaner, faster and safer than old fashioned cars.

Well I suspect the repatriation charge on a car to the UK will be "a lot more". Can I suggest you at least do the bit to France by train as at least the car in France will have the stearing wheel on the right side for most of the journey.

Smaller towns, loads to suggest, what sort of thing do you like to do, this is something like a 1500 to 2000km route and a little guidance would help separate out the wheat from the chaff.

BTW Lyon is far nicer than Geneva

I actually enjoy driving so driving is part of the appeal of the trip.

"BTW Lyon is far nicer than Geneva".... thanks for this...

We haven't been to any of these places so we're basically just seeking recommendations on which are the nicest. For example, I'm from the north of England and would probably recommend Leeds for having some nice bars and restaurants, and would also recommend both York and Yarm for being scenic and friendly.

Any recommendations for any reason are welcome. A picturesque marina with good seafood as another example.

Ok, so I'm in Leeds

Bruges great idea, the beer is very good
- Paris
can't remember exactly where the motorway goes but you might like Auxerre especially
- Lyon some of the best food in France, if I was going to splurge on Michelin one/two star I' do it here
- Monaco, really! I was there two weeks ago and found it a bit of a dump, Nice is nicer. All along the coast there are places to look at expensive yachts.
- Marseille or Montpellier, never been
head west along the coast of France you pass Nimes, Arles and Avignon each are pretty good visits
- Barcelona and the beaches down the train track
- Valencia, never beed
- Granada
Cordoba and Malaga worth a drop by into the ancient centres
- Seville
- Lagos
- Lisbon (ending here)

I haven't even heard of Nimes or Arles... these are exactly the kind of recommendations I'm looking for... Cheers

Since you like driving, why not rent the car in one corner of France, and drop it in the other? There won't be any drop charges this way .
Yes, look into Homes, Avignon, Arles...Provence.

Not Homes, Nimes...

30 something is no spring chicken?

Zaragoza and Albaraccin/Teruel area are worth a visit

possibly too close to Bruges but Arras is also good, the military intelligence base for the Brits in WW1, the town is honeycombed with tunnels while the two large squares are impressive

At least take the train to Paris and pick up the car there. You will also want to leave the car in the same country unless you don't mind international drop-off charges curling your hair.

Portugal has a very unusual system of electronically-manned toll roads and Portuguese drivers have special equipment mounted on their cars to automatically pay the charges. If you bring a car in from another country you will face a complicated procedure for paying the tolls or else you need to have mapped out a route that keeps you off the toll roads (which can be very hard to do, since the toll road system is extensive and links the major cities). Be sure you understand the system before you enter Portugal.

Amarante, is this different from the electronic systems used in other countries? In France I saw that there are lanes reserved for electronic payments and others for cards or cash. Maybe it is different in Portugal because it is at the end of the continent and not many foreign cars?

Many toll stations do not have any way to pay the toll other than to use the electronic payment system. There is no one at the toll station, and there is no machine to insert a credit card or pay cash.

Portugal developed this system, not because it is at the end of the continent, but because it had draconian austerity programs imposed on it by the European Central Bank after the global financial crises of 2008. It is meant to avoid hiring people who would need salaries, pensions, etc. So the system was automated.

Many foreign cars come into Portugal all the time. It is a popular tiny country for tourists, many of whom drive from UK or other parts of Europe to enjoy. But foreigners don't vote, so politicians don't care if the system doesn't work for them or if they are penalized with big fines for not understanding it.

We love road trips too, but have never done more than 12 stops in 5 weeks. You have 11 stops in 15 nights. That means most places you will only be overnighting.

So pick 4 places that you will actually get to spend a day in. The rest will be only evenings by the time you make your move and get settled in to another hotel.

My personal experience it that it is much nicer to road trip in Spain than in France because in Spain you can drive for hours during the afternoon and not "miss" anything, because so much shuts down during the day, including sights. If you arrive at your destination by 4 or 5 pm, everybody is just starting to come back out again, and there is all the fun of tapas and strolling through the towns. In the morning, if there is anything you want to see in town it will be open.

This works best with smaller places, not big cities, which take longer to appreciate and it is difficult to find someplace central to park your car.

Coming from Bruges, if you really don't want to take the train through France and would rather drive, suggest you skip Paris and instead sort of skirt the coast down, heading generally for Bordeaux, then keep going that way to head into Spain so you enter at San Sebastian area. If you really want to end up in Lisbon, cut across Spain to get their diagonally. If you really want to see Barcelona and Seville, head that way, but I'm not sure you are going to make it all the way. You're likely to run out of time.

It doesn't make much sense to ask for recommendations for specific seafood places or specific anything. You won't be able to plan like that. About the best thing to do is pack a Michelin red guide for every country you think you will be driving through.

You can take the Eurostar to Lille and get the car there. Bruges is only 80km away.

Think about Ghent rather than Bruges. Seemed to me to be more young people there.

Thanks for all the recommendations....

The electronically-manned toll roads in Portugal concern me a bit... I'll have to look into this!