Italy/Switzerland/France/somewhere on the way back from Bologna August

Afternoon.

Me, the wife and the boy are off down to Bologna/Maranello for a trip.

On the way down we’re stopping in Annecy for a day or two, then a couple of days around Bologna/Maranello

But we need somewhere for a week on the way back from there and are looking for some ideas please.

I was thinking Belgirate or Varigotti after some searching.

We ideally want quietish, with somewhere nice to eat, somewhere ‘authentic’ rather than full on tourist trap.

Ideally a lake/sea/river sort of location.

I’d ideally myself like somwhere a bit rural/mountainy but that’s more my own preference rather than a requirement.

What ideas do you have then ?

Camping? If so, google Camping du Retourtour in Lamastre (Ardheche, France).

Lovely site, river is two mins away, lovely pizzeria next door, 15min stroll into proper authentic French town with a couple of great restaurants.

Nah,

Hotel/Appartment really mate

None of us really do the camping thing apart from one weekend a year at a racetrack, which funnily enough is a week after we get back from this trip

Keep it Italian with Garda. An Italian/Swiss mix with Luguano. French/Swiss with Jura or Vosges/Alsace – more hills/mountains than lake ?

As it’s the summer you can do mountain passes rather than tunnels and the Eastern Alps crossings are a bit less travelled for Brits that the West, head back North in toll free Germany ? Another STWer was looking at Garmisch and you have the Neuschwanstein (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 🙂 ) Castle there for a pitstop ?

Garda could be a good call yeah.

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/2418330?checkin=07-08-2017&checkout=14-08-2017&guests=3&adults=2&children=1&infants=0&s=npxDUzRm

Nice little place here at first glance.

Lake is big, choices north / south and east / west. There was another thread with suggestions, North Riva, North-ish Malcesine.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/which-best-area-to-stay-in-lake-garda-for-non-biking-holiday

If you haven’t been before then Garda is really nice or perhaps try Lake Como which is absolutely stunning IMO. Plus you can experience the San-Bernadino-Pass and you have Lake Constance when you get to Germany. Lago Maggiore is also worth a look.

Como is certainly way up on the list, isn’t it a bit touristy ?

If staying it Italy i want nice little places for food/drink, with olde worlde type places to watch the world go by….

But then again, we need stuff for our then 9 year old to do ….

Como / Menaggio

Como is a bit more touristy than Garda (which is more about activities) but if you stay out of main towns around Como you could still get away from tourists. I have only been there to do the lakeside towns, lunch, boat trip style tourist central activities. Garda I go for sailing races, ie activity. Given you and your wife’s interest in bikes/cars/roads maybe some mountain passes and roads would be an extra part of the holiday.

OK, so Como/surrounding is winning.

From a perspective of ‘what is there to do?’ what ideas do you have ?

Bit further around the lakes we have this for example in Arona

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/5906349?checkin=07-08-2017&checkout=14-08-2017&guests=3&adults=2&children=1&infants=0&s=TwDbhZHH

Given you and your wife’s interest in bikes/cars/roads maybe some mountain passes and roads would be an extra part of the holiday

We’ll be taking a Mondeo 😉 Don’t worry about us setting any land speed records up and down passes.

How about Road Biking ? Any good options for hiring a bike for the day and hitting a big hill.

Boat trips would be fine and great, how about jet skis ? Do they happen or some restrictions due to noise etc ?

There is mtb rental from serious to simple (eg at bottom of Malcesine cable car) I am sure there will be roadie options too.

how about jet skis

As a sailor I decline to answer that other than to repeat this joke I heard in the US

What’s the difference between a vacuum cleaner and a jet ski ?
A vacuum cleaner dirt bag is on the inside 🙂

MTB would be cool for both me and the lad. That’s in Como itself yeah ?

Lago d’Iseo is a nice quiet alternative to Como, Garda etc. It is very pretty.
Lake Constance/Bodensee is worth looking at

For somewhere half way to the Channel loook at:
– Lac de Gérardmer in the Vosges
– Titisee in the southern Black Forest – a pretty place to chill out for a day or two

Shame you aren’t further south or you could use my place in Italy.
2 bed, sleeps 6+, garage, on hill, only 2 neighbours, 16000 sqmts to chase the lad (and the iWife) about in, Medieval town 10mins away with fort, etc, road and mtb cycle place there and two ski resorts now open a month early as the snow has hit..

Weeksy my comment was for Malcesine Cable Car at Garda.

Lago d’Iseo is a nice quiet alternative to Como, Garda etc. It is very pretty.

I was going to say this.

Thanks to all.

I think looking at the ‘Activities’ around all of the lakes, Garda seems to have the most options for ‘stuff to do’ be that for all of us, or just me and the boy… Several of the appartments have pools for example, paragliding, aquapark, sea world place.. etc.

Me, i’d pick Arona as it seems quieter… but i have to think of the others also.

Hi Weeksy,
Im hoping to get to Morzine for a week again this year around the same time as the ‘STW ride’ in 2016. Im then hoping to travel on to Finale Ligure for a week. Its on the coast. Take your bike.
I can imagine lake Garda is going to be chokka in August.

Livigno?

Trip has now progressed in planning

Day 1. Drive to Folkstone, train to France, drive to Riemes OR, stay over in Folkstone
Day 2. Drive to Annecy
Day 3. Annecy
Day 4. Leave Annecy, drive to Bologna/Maranello
Day 5. Ferrari day and museum, evening drive to Garda
Day 6-12. At Garda
Day 12. Drive Stelvio pass to Konstanz
Day 13. Konstanz to Cochem
Day 14. NurburgRing for a lap or 2/Home

Make sure you go the back way out from Cochem up the hill and over towards the Ring – much better road, switchbacks, less traffic, etc.

Evening all 🙂

Plan has changed a bit in the latter part of trip as Mrs Weeksy doesn’t really want our lad going round the Ring for a trip. Bit too young says she…. Well, i’m not going to change her mind easily, so we’ll go with that… Hey ho.

What that means though is that we now need a plan for the route back from Lake Iseo. (Near Como).

We’ve done the France/Geneva/Annecy/Morzine etc stuff, so we’re thinking more Freiburg, Konstanz, Strasboug. It’s mostly going to be a 4-5 hour drive from the morning of leaving Iseo, so that gets us to them sort of areas in 4-5 hours. So getting to them by early afternoon for a bit lunch, hotel, chill and wander round… but where to go…. It’s then a 6 hour drive on the last day to Calais. Or we also have a 2nd day in the locations we can use to either stay there for another day, or we can head to somewhere kinda between them and Calais where we’ll be returning from the next day.

Thoughts as always appreciated.

Just thought i’d say thanks and put in a quick update now it’s all booked.

Folkstone
Annecy
Bologna
Maranello
Lake Iseo
Chamonix
Troyes
Home…

Some places we’ve got 2 days/night, Lake Iseo we’ve got 8 days…. but overall it’s 17 days of what i’m hoping will be an epic trip 🙂

Thanks again, we used several of your ideas/thoughts guys.