KMacK_ca

It looks like a great route, if we decide to not take the Brenner Pass which is considerably shorter as it goes directly from Innsbruck to Bolzano. Can anyone comment on the scenery from the Brenner Pass? Thanks in advance. I really appreciate people taking the time to answer my questions.

KMacK_ca

I just got back from the motorhome trip from Frankfurt to Italy noted above. In fact, I am sitting in an airport lounge waiting for my connection home!

For anyone who is interested, we drove a number of passes on the trip there and back. Specifically, we drove the Susten, St. Gotthard, Simplon, Furka and Grimsel passes at the end of June. Roads were bare; however, there was still plenty of snow at altitude.

The roads were manageable with a smaller motorhome. Ours was more than a camper van but less than a full-on motorhome. It was a low profile Detleff's that slept 2-3 adults. My husband is a very experienced European driver who also has his tractor license (why I do not know!) so he did the driving. I would not recommend the Susten, Furka or Grimsel passes for inexperienced drivers or someone not familiar with either European/Mountain driving or motorhome driving. These are not roads for beginners. In fact, we were held up for about 2 hours the other day due to an accident caused by an inexperienced international driver not giving a large motorcoach enough room to corner. The St. Gotthards Pass is a highly engineered road which makes for an easier drive. Same thing applies to the Simplon Pass.

Overall, it was a great experience and I highly recommend it to anyone. This is our second European motorhome rental and while clearly not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, I would gladly answer any questions.

Note: You can't take motorhomes of any size into Portofino. We found out the hard way after navigating a crazy road into the village, the police officer at the entrance of the village promptly turned us around, telling us we couldn't stay! Similarly, we didn't drive in either Florence or Venice. We took the train. By the way, we avoided the campground in Florence due to the noise which might be attributable to Calcio Storico.

Also, reference the concerns above regarding insurance: we were fully insured for all countries by the company from whom we rented. There were no concerns regarding going to Italy, as one poster suggested there might be. I suspect there is a difference between the contents of an auto rental policy and that which applies to motorhomes.

priddo

I know this is an old post but it is of great interest to me. I don't know how else to contact KMacK, so hope you see this.
We will be renting a similar RV out of Munich and want to tour Switzerland. People seem to think we are mad and keep pushing train. We are much like you and love the freedom of the RV. Go where you want, when you want, eat at home, etc.
I would love to find out more about the passes, what campsites you liked, how you managed to get into/park in the towns...etc.
I hope you see this post and respond. Cheers. Julie (Australia)

KMacK_ca

Julia:

I hope you get this. We have since completed this trip as well as a two week tour of the Adriatic coastline of italy in RV. Please respond to this post if you are still looking for information.