What is the best route from northern england to the French Alps? The original plan was to drive via the channel tunnel and overnight in northern France somewhere, but it has been suggested the Hull to Rotterdam/Zebrugge ferry might be a better idea, followed by a shlep through Germany and ze autobahns. Anybody done either?

Please factor in that I might be driving alone, so no shift drivers are available!

Done the Hull thing. It’s certainly easier if you get a bed and so cruise to Zebrugge in our case (I think not Rotterdam) as it arrives there at about 8am then fully refreshed it’s about 7 hours drive from there. Pretty pricey though, especially if there is only one of you to share the cost of the car and the cabin.

C

I have done that ferry several times from there. Its more expensive for the ticket though you save quite a bit on fuel and wear and tear of your car. Main thing is you don’t need to pass london or any other mess so less stress and quite easy to gough time. Cumbria Manchester leeds hull is easiest country roads by skipton quite a bit shorter and about15 min longer.

We make this journey quite a lot and have done it both ways. If you are driving by yourself, I think via Hull is the best way and then down through France. You have a fairly short drive to Hull, overnight on the boat and then a full days drive down to Morzine. One of the down sides to this route is the cost of the ferry from Hull, we always travel in the “off seasons” and can get our van on a cross channel ferry(Calais to Dover) for less than 50 euros,which is significantly cheaper than the Hull to Zeebruge route.

If your by yourself then the longer on the ferry the better, however last trip from Cumbria went as follows

Afternoon drive to Dartford (Holiday Inn Express)
9am tunnel breakfast and refuel in France
Drive stopping when either more fuel was needed or the CD changer was round… by yourself you can probably hit Morzine just, if not you can get to about Djon and crash there, take the F1 list.
We were heading to Les Arcs so a bit further and ended up in Moutiere late at night.

For the way home get an early start and book into one of the tunnel hotels.

Motorways all the way and don’t go via Paris

Cheers guys, looks like the ferry is a better option then.

To the guys who have done it: what was your route to Morzine? Especially ChrisEs 7hour job, sounds suspiciously reasonable!

Zebrugge would better but more expensive. Either way, the best route through France is Lille, Reims, Dijon, Bourg en Bresse etc.

If cost was not a factor I would always go via Zebrugge, in the off season there is not much in it once you have factored in fuel. In the high season though it is much more expensive, although if you intend to stay in a hotel somewhere this evens it out a fair bit.

Zeebrugge to morzine is about 20 miles further than Calais to Morzine.

You don’t go through Germany, you just join the normal route a bit further down. The route that ianv said is the best/most direct.

i’ve done hull/zeebrugge and hull/rotterdam, and the rotterdam one is not bad either. you go through belgium and luxembourge before joining the same route down to morzine.

Ferry is more exspensive but you save on fuel/tolls get a decent nights sleep, and it’s like a bonus bit of holiday. Everybody loves having a beer on a boat!!

Lille, Reims, Dijon.

AA routefinder says 550 miles (9.5 hours) but you shold be doing 80+ on all the motorway and it is all motorway to Cluses then 20 miles after that.

C

Excellent. How 80mph+ can you be? Not that its too important, I’m only in a dag-dag grande punto, so not the most aerodynamic thing in the word but should i bother getting the camera updates for the ol’ satnav?