Driving holiday

[Richard]

We are considering a 2 week driving holiday next year. (Not all time to be spent in the car I might add) 

Has anyone any ideas, experience, routes, hotels etc for the following:

Thought we might get the ferry to Santander or Bilbao, then move to Biarritz for a couple of days then on to Toulouse, then Nice and then work our way to Lake Geneva. After that not sure where to go but, would be aiming to go back to Hull via Rotterdam.  

Main reason for this holiday is to do something different whilst appreciating some nice driving roads, stunning scenery along with decent food and accomodation if possible.   

Never done anything like this before so any help would be appreciated, likewise open to any suggestions.

Thanks

Richard

[megastu]

Come to Scotland !!

Amazing people.scenery,roads what more can i say !!!

[carpetstu]

Come to Scotland !!

Amazing people.scenery,roads what more can i say !!!

I have been to scotland.. Once.

It was in the Westfield  

And it peed it down  

All those that remember the long way north across the border say I lol  

[Blatman]

You could do worse than revisit the Top Gear episode where they go looking for Europes greatest driving road. They get to Monaco, The Col de Torini and of course, Stelvio. Add the Millau Bridge to the itinerary on the way home through France and you could stop off at Le mans. Race or not it's a pretty good "motorsport" town. Then east a bit to the Nurbirgring and then over the border to Rotterdam and home.

Actually, now I want to do it for myself...

[Richard]

Come to Scotland !!

Amazing people.scenery,roads what more can i say !!!

I have been to scotland.. Once.

It was in the Westfield  

And it peed it down  

All those that remember the long way north across the border say I lol  

Thats what concerns me about Scotland - Been loads of times golfing but the weather can be dreadful..    But you are absolutely right about the scenery. ..    

Had considered Ireland but, the weather is too dodgy over there as well..

Think I will have to take her to (hopefully) a slightly sunnier climate seeing as she has agreed to it  

Thanks for the suggestion though..

[Richard]

You could do worse than revisit the Top Gear episode where they go looking for Europes greatest driving road. They get to Monaco, The Col de Torini and of course, Stelvio. Add the Millau Bridge to the itinerary on the way home through France and you could stop off at Le mans. Race or not it's a pretty good "motorsport" town. Then east a bit to the Nurbirgring and then over the border to Rotterdam and home.

Actually, now I want to do it for myself...

Thanks Blatman... you could be onto something there...  any idea where I can find the details for the drive they did or, where I can view the episode??

Cheers

[Cleggy the Spyder Man]

youtube it  

[Bean]

[Bean]

[Bean]

[Bean]

[DanB]

We are considering a 2 week driving holiday next year. (Not all time to be spent in the car I might add) 

Has anyone any ideas, experience, routes, hotels etc for the following:

Thought we might get the ferry to Santander or Bilbao, then move to Biarritz for a couple of days then on to Toulouse, then Nice and then work our way to Lake Geneva. After that not sure where to go but, would be aiming to go back to Hull via Rotterdam.  

Main reason for this holiday is to do something different whilst appreciating some nice driving roads, stunning scenery along with decent food and accomodation if possible.   

Never done anything like this before so any help would be appreciated, likewise open to any suggestions.

Thanks

Richard

Last year I helped organise the se7ens list 'Long Way to Le Mans' tour.  We started off by sailing to Santander, and the first stop was the Picos de Europa national park, where we stayed in a fantastic hotel run by Parador.  There are some great roads road there - I think I still have a Garmin Mapsource file of our routes if that's any good to you.

We then spent a while playing around in the Pyrennees, before going to Milau and up to Le Mans.

As for Lake Geneva, SWMBO lives in Vevey on the shores of Lake Geneva (next to Montreux) so I know the area quite well.  Again, some fantastic driving roads, particularly on the French and Italian borders and in the skiing areas around Les Diablerets and Leysin.  Including one fantastic road which features a one-way tunnel (traffic going down the hill can only enter the tunnel between o'clock and quarter past, traffic going up the hill can only enter the tunnel between half-past and quarter-to - it's a long, single track, twisty tunnel) and a beautiful sweepy section going through a tank firing range.

If you're looking for places to eat on the northern side of Lake Geneva, I can certainly recommend a few:

Cafe de la Poste in Cully, Charlies in Vevey (great views of the lake), or La Cafe Valsenne also in Vevey (great steaks).

During this year's se7ens list tour we stayed in Besancon and Valence (as well as near Turin) and did some of the roads on the French/Swiss borders.  I can give you a few pointers on some good roads in that area too if that's any good, particularly in the Vosges mountains north-west of Mulhouse if you don't mind heading east from Lake Geneva.

Dan

[Mark Williamson]

Hi Rich, If you take the route from Spain then across to Nice, Cannes & Monaco. You must stop in Carcassonne, fab old town Lisa will love it! The roads around the area are great fun and very quiet  

Mark

[tex]

last year i went on my honeymoon round the alps (albeit cut short) but one of the best places i found was german back roads!! - dead smooth, good places to stop - stunning scenery - reasonable prices all round - really good hospitality which suprised me (with all the german puns etc)

we drove the stevio pass and a few others around the northern parts of italy, switzerland, austria.. i tell ya - that area is a drivers dream - stay off the motorways and go back roads.. fantastic.. i wanna go back again now if i could

[Mark (smokey mow)]

I took  the Westfield to LeMans this year for the first time (went the calais route on ferry) and found driving through france to be a real pleasure.  There's no where near as much trafficand if you keep off the autoroutes and to the back roads there's some great driving roads, and you get to take in some nice villages along the way.