Who's been roadtripping? Talk to me!

Hi all,

As title really. Not talking about a day trip to Alton Towers from London, but several weeks, multi-country (or state), few thousand mile trips (not bike related).

Who’s done one? Where/when? How far did you drive per day, where did you stay (particularly interested in people who stayed in their cars), how long did you spend in each spot, how did you budget it etc etc?

In very early days of planning a 5 week-ish roadtrip with my flat mate (and possibly a couple others), around Europe this summer. Something along the lines of 15 countries, 4000km, 80 hours, so roughly 2 hours driving per day which doesn’t seem unreasonable.

All (well, most) input appreciated 🙂

Duane.

the best road trips I’ve been on didn’t really have a plan…

What was the best roadtrip you’ve been on?

As much as we want to wing it, we need a very rough plan, even if it’s just knowing where and when we will end it so we can book flights home in advance (dumping the car is the current option).

I did San Francisco to Seattle via the Redwoods, back to San Fran, to LA, to Vegas, to Arizona, to Mexico. All in an open top Mustang. Bit of a cliche, but we were in our mid twenties, and didn’t give a monkeys. We didn’t plan any of it. We stayed in small Motels, spent most of our money in Vegas, got busted for speeding on the Freeway, met some nice girls in Bakersfield 🙂 , and loved every minute of it.

We knew when we had to return the car by, so the only planning involved was to get it back on time. The rest we just winged. America is a brilliant country, despite all its faults.

3 weeks in France and Italy last May. Had a purpose to the trip, going to the 24 race at Finale Ligure and then the Transvesubienne but no other real plans.
Bought a ferry ticket, hit the motorway at Calais and then stopped again when I got to the Italian Alps. Just rode around for a week, wherever I felt like, then ended up at Finale for the race. Stayed there a few days after, just riding about, then drove up to La Colmaine for the Trans race. Following that had another week or so along the south coast of France, the area just inland of St. Tropez is very nice, a couple of days in the Gorges du Tarn, very nice and then hit the motorway again back to Calais.
I stayed in my car, had an old MPV with a bed in it and enough space for three bikes next to it. Had a little gas stove and just bought food from supermarkets. Whole trip was done on a budget, 3 weeks including petrol, food, ferry, the whole lot was under £500. Staying in the car was easy, I’m used to it in this country and camping at the roadsides wasn’t really an issue. Language was more of a problem, but I don;t know if that will affect you?
I do one or two week trips in this country fairly regularly, but have people to visit over here, I was completely on my own there. The good thing about going to races was it was really easy to meet people with a common interest, and everyone was lovely.
Done it in Oz too, 3 weeks with a hired van back in 2010. Getting there was much more of an issue than Italy, but once there it was much easier, mainly down to the language, returning in October, a bike trip again though.
The car I stayed in when I took my own was a Hyundai Trajet, this has now been upgraded to a Transit, which I have just finished lining and insulating and am currently furnishing. The only pic of the Hyundai I have to hand is here http://andrewhowett.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/transvesubienne-race.html scroll down to the bottom, it’s not aufully clear but gives you an idea of the bed, storage underneath, bikes by the side. Curtains make a huge difference to how warm it is when sleeping in a car.

Just one overnight stop – in Kamloops on the way from Calgary to Vancouver. Three nights in Vancouver then return trip overnight at Lake Louise. Cheapish hotels in Kamloops and Lake Louise, nice hotel in Vancouver
Great way to see the country.

Didn’t see any bears, moose or wolves 🙁 did see a few eagles and one elk

A few years before that, Bradford to perigeux via Dreux, back via Chartres, overnight stops on both legs. Cheap hotels again, gite near Perigeux

In the last few summers, we’ve done France, Germany and then this year, Poland and Slovakia.

Given the choice, i’d head east again. We camp and scope out places in advance but generally, campsites on the continent are a lot better than here.

Last year we left the UK and camped in West Germany, then East Germany, few days in Zakopane, Poland in thr national park, Slovakia (B&B) for a couple of weeks, Austria and then Cologne and home.

Eastern Europe actually feels like an adventure, plus it’s cheap. With 5 weeks, i’d scope out Romania and Bulgaria.

We aim to do 400 ish miles on day 1 to get into Europe and past the boring stuff. From then on, 200 miles a day (3-4 hours) as European motorways are pretty empty. I think in all this year we did about 3000 miles.
Budget depends on your taste. As a family of 4, we average about £1000 a week all in but obviously your money goes further in Eastern countries.
2 1/2 weeks in France cost us £500 more than 3 weeks for the Slovakian trip.
To give you an idea, 2 large beers, 2 cokes and 2 large and 2 small hot dogs in the main high street in Zakopane, Poland was about £7.
3 course family dinner with drinks and tip about £45.

4,000 miles in 6 weeks starting and finishing in St. Louis. Two fixed stops on the itinery and a rough idea of things to see.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e110/ebygomm/Roadtrip2005.gif%5B/Img%5D

Took a load of drugs and hit the road? Well, yeah, but my memory’s pretty hazy. got abroad, don’t really know how, no money left, do remember spending a lot on booze. I’m sure there great stories to tell, i just don’t know any of them.

I am lucky enough to have done loads of road trips, East to West across the states twice and West to East, South of France to Finland. Around Australia and both Islands of NZ.

The only rule we ever had was that you didnt go back the way you came, just keep pushing on. This led to a very nervy couple of hours in New Mexico 😆

The truth is there are no rules you do what you want. 2 hrs a day seems easy to be honest. Prepare to fall out be dog tired see some really strange stuff and have a lot of fun.

Vehicle breakdowns can be game enders so only carry luggage you can carry easily unless you want to abandon stuff.

Why not drive to Istanbul ??
Easily done at a chilled pace – You`ve got 5 weeks so not massive mileage over that time.
Took me 18 months to get there and back – proper adventure 8)

As Jam Bo said don’t plan it just do it. Get onto the continent then the people you meet will suggest places if you ask and then just go with the flow. Sometimes you’ll want to spend more than a day somewhere, other times its just a stopover to go elsewhere.

Cheers all!

Sounds like not planning it is the way to go. But for now, this is a very initial and very rough “idea” of where we might go – bit ambitious?
http://goo.gl/maps/nV6ed

Would really like to get into North Africa (probably Morocco), but it makes the route pretty tricky, plus gets complicated with ferries.

I think we’re going to try and compile a list of places we want to see/visit, and then just try and get round as many as possible. Quite keen not to just drive between big cities, but go check out some caves/mountains/lakes/beaches etc etc. Will start another thread soon.

Has anyone roadtripped and slept in the vehicle, with more than 1 person? Still trying to decide how many people/what size car to use, as obviously more people reduces petrol, ferry and car-purchase costs, but if we can’t sleep in the vehicle, we would have to spend on hostels (or camp where possible).

And I’m guessing a vehicle which is big enough to sleep 4 people is going to be out of our budget..

Don’t miss out on Montenegro. It’s a great country to drive around. The scenery changes so quickly and the views are mind boggling. Lots to do as well, although i’d stay away from the overdeveloped coast. They’ve also invested a lot in the infrastructure i think so when we went about 3 years ago and a lot of the roads were in the process of being relayed (we had to wait while they painted the lines a couple of times). Very few cars as well so could feel pretty exposed. Bit of a drivers paradise and a good adventure!

Right, so still in very early stages, but how does this look?

http://goo.gl/maps/P036X

For about 30-35 days.

Thinking it might be ambitious, if we did;
2 days South of France
2 days Lichtenstein/Munich
2 days Prague
2 days Vienna/Bratislava
2 days Budapest
2 days Belgrade
5 days Croatia (including music festival)
5 days Italy

That only leave 10-12 days for getting between the places, so about 6 hours driving on each of those days. And that’s assuming we don’t stop between those major points, which of course we’d want to (more keen to see cool beaches/caves/mountains etc rather than big cities to be honest).

(I know the above schedule only spends a short time in each place, but obviously we’re roadtripping, trying to see lots, get a taste of a lot of places, rather than spend ages in one place and get to know it well)

Any thoughts?

I know the best plan isn’t to plan.. but we want to have a rough idea where we might get to so we can try and keep vaguely on track..

7 months in Oz, helped having friends and family to call on and missus had 3 work spells organised to fund it…
Travelling up to 6 hrs in a day as there is nothing worth stopping for at times. 2-4 days in any place depending on what was there.

Spent a week or so in some places too. Get internet sorted out and you can do some very last minute bookings and get some great deals (if you have a backup)

Yeah, looking to get either a European sim card with decent data for my phone, or a travel wifi-router so can use phones and laptop on the go.

I got a couple of weeks in September: Ferry ticket, car, tent, bike, European map and only sunshine on my mind.

Duane… – Member
Right, so still in very early stages, but how does this look?

http://goo.gl/maps/P036X

For about 30-35 days.

Thinking it might be ambitious, if we did;
2 days South of France
2 days Lichtenstein/Munich
2 days Prague
2 days Vienna/Bratislava
2 days Budapest
2 days Belgrade
5 days Croatia (including music festival)
5 days Italy

That only leave 10-12 days for getting between the places, so about 6 hours driving on each of those days. And that’s assuming we don’t stop between those major points, which of course we’d want to (more keen to see cool beaches/caves/mountains etc rather than big cities to be honest).

(I know the above schedule only spends a short time in each place, but obviously we’re roadtripping, trying to see lots, get a taste of a lot of places, rather than spend ages in one place and get to know it well)

Any thoughts?

I know the best plan isn’t to plan.. but we want to have a rough idea where we might get to so we can try and keep vaguely on track..

In that order?

Might be easier if you put the south of France at the end of the list after Croatia and Italy.

Yeah, check out the google maps link.

Doing it with S.France last is pretty similar time wise;
http://goo.gl/maps/KndQq

But means we will be in Croatia earlier than we would like (the festival we might go to is towards the end of the month).

Sounds like a great plan. Quite a lot of time in the car, but good fun. Best thing is to treat it as the best plan you can make with the information you have at the moment, and welcome opportunities to change it as you learn more:

The weather’s rubbish in x place, skip it and go to y; or you’re bored of being in the car, and really want to stop for a few days and chill out, by the sea, place b has an awesome campsite; or you’ve just heard about this thing in this region, change the plan.

Those places will all still be there for years to come, they aren’t gone for ever if you miss one or two this time round.

Have fun!

And organise your car – Plastic boxes are good!

Edit – not really that much time in the car, comparing it to mileage 2 weeks in Switzerland, France and Italy we’re just back from.

I’d say pick a spot to spend a bit longer in. (subject to change, obviously!) A holiday in a holiday.

Thanks mate. Yeah think Croatia/Italy may be our holiday in a holiday (especially if we go to Outlook festival).

How nice is South of France? Skipping Monaco etc and just heading straight into the Alps would save a bit of time/driving, but South of France does look rather good…

I’ve done a couple of ‘driving holidays’
London – Sarajevo in 2001, and London to Morocco in 2009.
Europe is a lot easier now they have the Euro, when we went to Bosnia I had about 6 currencies on the go!

Drove to southern Croatia and back last year in the camper.

Very ace. Had bikes and a rough plan. Needless to say the plan fell apart within days, we avoided some road tolls, got stung for others (and apparently avoided being arrested in Austria), and tackled Roubaix, Zurich and Interlaken rush hours.

Great stuff.

[/url]
Kitz-bound[/url] by NeilCain[/url], on Flickr

Duane… – Member
Right, so still in very early stages, but how does this look?
http://goo.gl/maps/P036X

For about 30-35 days.

Thinking it might be ambitious, if we did;
2 days South of France
2 days Lichtenstein/Munich
2 days Prague
2 days Vienna/Bratislava
2 days Budapest
2 days Belgrade
5 days Croatia (including music festival)
5 days Italy

That only leave 10-12 days for getting between the places, so about 6 hours driving on each of those days. And that’s assuming we don’t stop between those major points, which of course we’d want to (more keen to see cool beaches/caves/mountains etc rather than big cities to be honest).

(I know the above schedule only spends a short time in each place, but obviously we’re roadtripping, trying to see lots, get a taste of a lot of places, rather than spend ages in one place and get to know it well)

Any thoughts?

I know the best plan isn’t to plan.. but we want to have a rough idea where we might get to so we can try and keep vaguely on track..

Our plans revolved around Google Maps, and quickly died. Allow a lot more time for travel, unless you’re paying tolls.

Tolls vary massively country to country, so do your research.

Also, check each country’s requirements – we cut out Italy because we didn’t have a red/white striped board on the bike rack to show we were ‘towing’ (we were also advised that Italian police are not the most honest in the world, and like to stop law-breaking tourists).

Finally, the Croatian coast road is incredibly windy.

3 and a half weeks in the states, flew to S.F. with a motel booked for the first night and a hire car and that was as much as a plan as we had. America is really easy to road trip as there are so many motels. Ended up in a log cabin in Yosemite with bears creeping around outside at night, Rode the Mammoth mountain Kamikaze course and the streets of San fran. Bought our own body weight in Levis and Vans and met a load of extremly friendly fellow riders who showed us some great trails.

Also did the same thing on the east coast of Australia rode loads of amazing skateparks and met the friendliest people I’ve ever come across. One guy even offered us his flat to stop in for a week having only just met us!!! I’ve nevered experienced a bad road trip and even the problems become great stories to tell afterwards. I have no reservation in saying do it, you won’t forget it!!!