[DRSpeed85]

I'm leaving to Europe this coming July to go on a road trip. Me and my friends start from Dusseldorf where we will rent a car and visit the following cities listed below.

Dusseldorf - Start
Brussels
Paris - 2 days
Dijon
Lyon
Nice - 2 day stay
MonteCarlo
Genoa - 1 night for sleep
Pisa
Assisi
Rome - 2 day stay
Florence - 1 day stay
Venice
Verona
Milan - 3 day stay
Monza
Como
Interlaken - 1 day stay
Zurich
Nurburg(nurburgring)
Frankfurt
Cologne
Dusseldorf - Finish

I included a map here http://img169.imageshack.us/my.php?i...rotrip26oh.jpg

We will be renting a Ford Focus from www.sixt.com and we are estimating fuel costs of 800 euros (max). The trip will be two weeks long and cost about $2000 to cover everything. We have a very flexible schedule since we will mostly stay at friend's houses for a few days in different cities.

The trip was largely inspired by numerous Gumball 3000 events and those Topgear races they have occasionally.

I wanted to see if there are people on this forum who did something like this before. If so, any advice on thing we should avoid or check out on our way?

 

[bahamaman]

I think the itenerary looks outstanding - very well laid out. My only objection would be this. I think most people make the mistake of traveling as if they'll never visit the area again. So, they make these ridiculously ambititious arrangements and it just turns into a blur. You should consider building in some down time just to reduce some stress that naturally occurs in traveling. If there is one thing about Europe, it is that you should build in time just to sit, at an outdoor cafe, having a coffee, or a glass of wine, and let the experience come to you.

So, I would take out some of the places on your itenerary. First place I would cut would be Brussels, unless you just have a strong interest in visiting institutions of the European Union.

I would also eliminate Milan, or at least cut it down by a day or two.

Have a great time!

 

[djbnh]

I'd personally put Vienna and Munich on the itinerary, if you can do it.

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

Stay out of Slovakian youth hostels

 

[Alu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rock&Roll Ninja Stay out of Slovakian youth hostels

Yea, or you'll wind up in an incredibly bad movie presented by one of my favourite moviemakers.

Anywho, why not come and visit lovely Luxembourg. Has some great places to go out in the evening time, and there's a lot of nice things to see.

 

[spaceconvoy]

I edited you itinerary with my own suggestions. I agree with bahamaman that you should stay in fewer places for longer amounts of time. As it is, you're really going at a breakneck pace and it'll seem more like work than fun.

Dusseldorf - Start
Brussels - skip
Paris - 4-5 days
Dijon - quick chateau visit, I assume
Lyon - same as above, can be done in the same day
Nice - 2 day stay
St. Paul de Vence - day trip from Nice
MonteCarlo - night trip from Nice
Pisa - 1 night for sleep & see tower before drive to Rome
Assisi - ?? not sure
Rome - 4-5 day stay
Siena - visit before sleeping in Florence
Florence - 1 day stay
Venice - 1 day stay
Verona - ?? not sure
Milan - skip entirely, unless you like fashion
Monza - ?? not sure
Como - drive by, it's just as pretty from the highway
Lucerne - 1 day stay

Don't have much experience in the Teutonic regions, so that's all the advice I can give. As long as you stay flexible, you'll have a blast.

 

[Todd R]

Hey,
Looks great, can I come?
Never did a tour like that, but I did live in Germany for 3 years.

Nurburg(nurburgring)
You can drive the track for a fee (at least you could when I was there)

Frankfurt
The best looking "Ladies" work near the train station

Cologne
Beautiful place, make sure your camera is working.

Left lane is for passing only! If you get flashed, move over before you get run over.

Don't drink the beer or you'll be spoiled for life.

Eat at the places where the locals do. Avoid tourist traps, the food and prices will be a lot better.

Bring me back something!

 

[stevesurf]

If you are using a digital camera, download it everyday to your notebook PC and burn a CD. Keep the CD in a separate place. If you don't, bring lots of extra memory cards and keep them in diffferent bags. Bring a tripod. If you can't, bring a Bean Bag and fill it with wonderfully aromatic Espresso Beans when you get there. Use the Bean Bag to steady the camera for taking those awesome twilight images.

 

[bahamaman]

Some additional random observations:

1. Definitely leave some time for Cologne, a fabulous city, with lots of art/music/beer/etc.

2. In Florence, eat a meal at La Congrega on via Panicale in the vicinity of the train station. A reasonably priced wine bar and trattoria with carefully prepared, authentic food.

3. Assisi is beautiful. You have never seen a more beautiful shade of green than exists in the hills of Umbria.

 

[CookieFactory]

Cliche as it is, why no Amsterdam?

 

[Lisa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CookieFactory Cliche as it is, why no Amsterdam?

They're driving.

Why all cities? I'd like to see something of the countryside. It's much more fun to watch old french men play jeu de boules on their local town square (If that still happens) then run around Paris frantically just to make sure that you've seen every tourist attraction. I'm not suggesting you skip Paris though.

 

[DRSpeed85]

Thanks for the replies guys. Just got back from a party.

I should have made something clear. I used to live in Milan, Italy for 4 years and I visited most of these places, so we won't take much time sight seeing. My other friend is half Japanese half German and he will be in Dusseldorf at his relative's place to spend the summer. Why not, they have the World Cup in Germany.

We are staying in many of these places to meet old friends, go clubbing or just get some rest. The cities I listed above without a comment are probably where we will stay to rest or drive through. We really wanted to fit Salzburg and Vienna, but we also really wanted to drive through the alps and visit Interlaken which is personally the most beautiful mountain area I've ever been to. Plus we're really looking forward to the southern coast of France. The atmosphere there is incredible all the way down to Rome. The scenery, the food, the wine, cocktail, parties, and women.... Man........ Ideally we'd love to catch a football(soccer) match or a Formula 1 race, but dammit, we can't have everything can we?

The driving will be one of the key things in this trip. We're both petrolheads and we've long been dreaming of such a road trip. My friend is senior year in university and looking for a job, and I, currently sophmore will join the Korean army next summer, so we feel this is our last summer to do this. We both need to work at part-time jobs all summer to finance this.

We're big fans of cars and are quite familiar with what Nurburgring is. Frankly, we don't feel experience enough to tackle such a challenging circuit. This is suppose to be the most demanding circuit in the world right? We have only 2 years of experience driving. Just imagine us giving a try with our rental Focus and misjudge a braking point or breaking something in the car since this is a pretty enduring trip for the car. Besides, with just 100bhp, the car will run out of gears, power, and speed in more than half the track!!! Might as well drive with hazard lights on all the way. I think it's more likely that we will check out the cars there and the people. Hopefully we can hitch a ride. Driving in the Nurburgring remains a real dream. (sigh) I'm quite worried that we won't be able to resist the temptation and get ourselves in deep trouble. Seriously, how many chances do you get to visit the Nurburgring??? I'm not sure how the rental insurance will react to these sort of accidents tho.

I'm really interested in St. Paul de Vence and Siena Spaceconvoy suggested. Can't believe I left out Siena!! BTW I'm visiting Milan because I lived there for 4 years. So many friends I have to catch up with there.

Todd R, Cologne definitely sounds interesting. My other friend will choose the route from Zurich to Dusseldorf as I don't have much experience in Germany. I'm really looking forward to visit Germany and it's Autobahn. Italy has some pretty wild moments on the highway but I'm sure Germany will be more extreme in derestricted areas. Don't worry we'll probably stick with the right most lane!! Man, we could have rented a more powerful car if only the fuel cost isn't so high. A BMW 1 series is only 100 euros more...

BTW, I'm not sure if you guys noticed that there are 3 days missing from the iternery I listed on my first post. These 3 spare days we can allocate to anywhere we want. Provided we sleep in the car obviously.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alu Anywho, why not come and visit lovely Luxembourg. Has some great places to go out in the evening time, and there's a lot of nice things to see.

Yeah I quite want to visit there. I know I couldn't fit it when driving from Dusseldorf to Paris as there aren't major highways directly linking it to Luxembourg. But I think I will be able to fit it in towards the end of the trip driving back up to Dusseldorf from Italy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevesurf If you are using a digital camera, download it everyday to your notebook PC and burn a CD.

Lol. I'm looking into that camera connector for the ipod. Looks like I can use some of my ipod's extra storage. I'll be taking my laptop and external harddrive, so storage space wouldn't be a problem. I'm taking my trusty Cannon A60. A 2 megapixel relic, I know. But this baby travelled with me absolutely everywhere and I'm quite unwilling to replace it. I'll be taking a 30 year old Konica-Minolta SLR camera I inherited from my late grandfather who was quite a photo fan. This camera still takes amazing pictures. The manual settings are beyond my comprehension tho...

Quote:

Originally Posted by bahamaman Some additional random observations: 1. Definitely leave some time for Cologne, a fabulous city, with lots of art/music/beer/etc. 2. In Florence, eat a meal at La Congrega on via Panicale in the vicinity of the train station. A reasonably priced wine bar and trattoria with carefully prepared, authentic food. 3. Assisi is beautiful. You have never seen a more beautiful shade of green than exists in the hills of Umbria.

We have to pass through Cologne anyway, so looks like we'll be there. I'll definitely look into theat Trattoria in Firenze. I spent highschool eating Pasta everyday. I love their food. Assisi is absolutely fantastic. I'm not religious, but the landscape really makes one feel as if some entity made it intentionally. That particular hill Assis sits on feels so special. Once in the town on top of it, it feels as if the town is floating in the air! Those of you not familiar with this small town should definitely check it out in Wikipedia!

 

[stormuk]

Not that comfortable sleeping in a Focus. Also bear in mind fuel prices have suddenly rocketed lately. Europe vs US expect to pay at least double for the fuel.

 

[LFF]

You should definately add Viena. I would also highly recommend at least 1 day in Bratislava and at least 4 days in Rome.

 

[saint.panda]

Sounds like a great trip! Just a couple of suggestions:

Skip Frankfurt. There's not really much to see or to do there save for watching a bit of the banking quarter's skyline and tall buildings with glass fronts (something the US has in abundance). I used to live near Frankfurt for two years.

If you have time, I would add Munich to the tour. Arguably the most beautiful big city in Germany (some say it's Hamburg or Düsseldorf though). Lots of things to do there including the world's biggest technics museum, a very new modern art museum, a great park, and some cultural sites. And most importantly: the Biergarten (beer gardens?) if the weather is good. Nightlife is very good although Cologne, Berlin and Hamburg have better ones. Munich's greatest asset and charme is that its architecture reminds more of a big village, rather than a big city. Not many tall buildings, very green, no industrial buildings in the city. There's also an old concentration camp (Dachau) just outside of Munich. That was the model concentration camp for all of Germany and has a guided tour. Very intense experience and quite recommended. If you go to Munich, send me a pm. I lived there for 10 years and may suggest you places for cheap sleeping, places to hang out, etc.

Eat ice cream in Florence. Best ice-cream I've ever had in my life! There are some internet guides on which ice cream parlours to go for.

Nice, see if you can catch the Nice Jazz Festival. I was there a few years ago around that time and they had lots of great artists including B.B. King.

In Cologne you should try one of the beer brewing sites in downtown where they also serve beer. The most famous ones are "Früh" and probably "Sion". Really good beer (although nothing compared to good Bavarian beer in Munich...).

Zurich, very expensive but has a great flair. You can stroll a bit on the Bahnhofsstrasse (Swiss pendant of the Rodeo drive) starting at central station down towards the Zurich lake. There are some nice cafes, shops, etc. down there. The jazz clubs here are pretty good, too.

And I second the suggestions to extend your time in Rome and maybe skip some of the less important places. Paris may also require more than 2 days. Both are truly amazing cities.