Driving Across Europe – Tips for a first timer

My giffgaff sim works fine in Europe, so I can imagine just getting a giffgaff with a decent amount of data would do you?

My wife does have a giffgaff SIM already, but they cap EU roaming at 5gb – we are going away for 3 weeks in the van, so will be using data a lot for navigating, finding campsites, looking at worthless crap on social media. We did a similar trip last year, and she had gone though data after a couple of weeks.

In France particularly, tailgating is typical, Spain a bit less so IME. Typical quality of driving and driver aggression in those 2 countries as you experience in the UK. Watch when entering and exiting as slip roads are sometimes very short. Big cities as you would expect so avoid if you can.

Passo Spluga

Yup, Splügenpass…

Awesome road!

Via Michelin has a route planner that shows you the road toll prices when comparing routes.

Here are some tips for driving in Italy:

• Honking your horn in urban areas is a big no-no, except in an emergency. Flashing your lights is the preferred way to get someone’s attention. In rural areas, though, using your horn can be a good idea in emergencies or if you’re carrying someone who’s injured.

• Traffic police can issue fines on the spot for breaking the rules, but here’s the interesting part: they can’t collect the entire amount right away for vehicles with foreign plates. Instead, they might only collect a quarter of the maximum fine. No matter what, though, you’ll always get a receipt documenting the infraction.

• If you disagree with a traffic fine and want to contest it, be prepared! You’ll need to put down a deposit of half the maximum fine amount.  This can be done in cash or through a surety (someone who guarantees payment). Refusal to pay the deposit could lead to the police confiscating your vehicle until the fine is settled.

More details available here: https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/travel/country/italy/

Florence is my favorite city in Italy, did you know Florence alone has over 70 museums? So how do you know which ones to visit. I chose to communicate my preferences to a local guide from https://gowithguide.com/Italy/Florence/guides to help me choose the best ones.

We drive to Spain and back each year and have done for about 15 years now.  Most of this already in the list but to put it all in one place –

– https://www.certificat-air.gouv.fr/ You need a crit-air for France – the scheme covers sections of autoroute that run in or around big cities so not easy to avoid without big diversions.  the rollout has been slow but some places are camera enforced, some are effectively honesty (I’ve never seen any evidence of sticker checks) but it arrives in about a week.  Likely other countries too.  check other countries too

– A toll tag in France is a really good idea. https://www.atmb.com still seems to be the cheapest option (use it at least a couple of times a year, 2Euro in the month you use it, nothing the rest of the time, cheapest set up).  But it only does France, and the site is only in French (I navigated it using chrome to translate and Safari to enter my details.  (Can anyone recommend the best/cheapest tags for other countries?)

– Cheap motorway hotels. Prem Classe, B&B, Ibis budget are all very clean and beds are comfortable. Slightly different standards of decor in each. F1 have shared bathrooms.  The others are all ensuite. Breakfast coffee is universally terrible but breakfasts are convenient if you want to get on the move.   Out of town ones are generally quiet and secure (important if you have bikes or stuff in a van) but can have very limited local dining options, in town they sometimes lack parking.

– Fuel. French motorway fuel is (sometimes very) expensive when it’s not easy to divert off to a local supermarket. Is competitive when it is!

– Dont speed. Use cruise control.  (I mean, really, this goes for the UK too) Watch out for limits dropping as autoroutes skirt round towns – there can be quite rapid drops from 130-110-90 as you get close to towns or where there are bends in the road in both Spain and France.  (that’s where both K and I have set off cameras) and the cameras can be set much closer to the change in limit than they usually are in the UK (in the uk if you knock off cruise at the limit change and let the car lose speed you’re normally at the right limit before the camera.  Not in France).   Basically if you start catching other vehicles slow down because nearly everyone normally travels at or close to the limit when it’s free flowing.