Road trip

[Zebedee]

To celebrate finishing GCSEs we will be undertaking a 9 night road trip. Am I being too ambitious? It will be School holiday time....
Calais - Troyes - Geneva - Annecy - Turin - Genoa - Grasse - Avignon - Carcasson - Limoges - Rostrenen (Brittany). Is it too much driving? Are there nicer bits of N Italy to go to? Any brilliant suggestions. It needs to be 16 year old shopaholic friendly. She can only do so much “Here’s another cathedral/castle”. Also suggestions of any campsites very welcome.

 

[Gazellio]

Sounds good to me.

 

[Amarillo]

To celebrate finishing GCSEs we will be undertaking a 9 night road trip. Am I being too ambitious? It will be School holiday time....
Calais - Troyes - Geneva - Annecy - Turin - Genoa - Grasse - Avignon - Carcasson - Limoges - Rostrenen (Brittany). Is it too much driving? Are there nicer bits of N Italy to go to? Any brilliant suggestions. It needs to be 16 year old shopaholic friendly. She can only do so much “Here’s another cathedral/castle”. Also suggestions of any campsites very welcome.

I would be wanting to stop 2+ nights at each campsite to give a full day to explore; but you can also explore on the way to the next campsite, but that means striking camp early and pitching late.


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[Bill R]

I would be wanting to stop 2+ nights at each campsite to give a full day to explore; but you can also explore on the way to the next campsite, but that means striking camp early and pitching late.


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......and possibly arriving too late for the shopaholic to shop !

 

[leightonjthomas]

......and possibly arriving too late for the shopaholic to shop !

Some great venues but doing that in nine days with a 16-year old in tow sounds like a real ordeal. You’ll be spending most of your time driving, setting up etc. The occasional one-night stopover is fine for us but we need two or three nights to enjoy the surroundings. If you haven’t got any more time I’d reduce the travelling. Good luck.

 

[jts46]

just done a quick tally of travelling. 32 hrs, then you have to factor in shopping, parking in cities and of course campsites.
I have just returned from our house in France (30 mins south of Bergerac). 7hrs drive to Caen for ferry, overnight on ferry then 3.5hrs drive back to Derbyshire.
If it's just shopping why not do Paris, Lyon and Bordeaux

 

[jts46]

Sorry did not include journey from brittany back to calais

 

[Velma's Dad]

I guess it's all going to depend how you like to travel. That distance over 10 days (probably driving say 4 hours a day?) would be about right for us, though maybe slightly on the long side of ideal.

But we tend to pack up and get on the road fairly early each day, drive a couple of hours and plan stops for sightseeing etc en route during middle part of the day, then a couple more hours driving in late afternoon. So every night in a different place.

But that doesn't sound very 16yo-friendly to me.

Other folks - as above - like to spend two or more nights at the same place. So whether that planned itinerary length works for you depends entirely on how you like to roll.

 

[sapto]

Is shopping the main goal and I guess 16 year old budget is thight then why not staying/reducing the distance of travelling and let‘s say shopping in Germany: Stuttgart&Freiburg? Both have also a nice old medival towns and some churches.
Or merge your route with the factory outlets around Central Europe? I just googled it and found a lot around N Italy as well

 

[larrylamb]

Just go as far as Annecy, gorgeous lake and stacks to do. Why rush around.

 

[Verity]

That sounds like too much driving. Definitely need a couple of nights per stopover, otherwise it's just driving, eating and sleeping. Our lad used to travel happily indefinitely as long as he had his media world with him (a hard drive with our entire dvd collection on, and a load of music). He is a bit weird though - are all teenagers like that?!

 

[Kmann]

Drive less … see more. Like my wife explained to me on our first trip "Dear, We are on holiday – not a runaway". True that I wanted to cover too many miles for what reason? So now we go (mostly) slower.

When we want to go longer (and not do whole day stretches), we normally have a rhythm like this: Day 1: Drive / Rest. Day 2: Rest / Drive. Day 3: Drive / Rest. Don't drive more than 4 hours pr. interval. And you feel you still have time to explore what you come by. And you can cover 1.200-1.400 km with only two stops.

 

[GillianC]

Is shopping the main goal and I guess 16 year old budget is thight then why not staying/reducing the distance of travelling and let‘s say shopping in Germany: Stuttgart&Freiburg? Both have also a nice old medival towns and some churches.
Or merge your route with the factory outlets around Central Europe? I just googled it and found a lot around N Italy as well

Great idea. Italian shopping outlets means a happy 16 year old!!!! Would make me happy too

 

[sapto]

Great idea. Italian shopping outlets means a happy 16 year old!!!! Would make me happy too

Not just you
I am curious to hear where @Zebedee is going in the end

 

[Zebedee]

On previous road trips we have tended to breakfast, leave campsite go sightseeing , travel over lunchtime (quieter roads, hottest part of day so benefitting from air con) sightseeing, get to camp site, eat, swim, sleep, repeat. Went down French coast into Spain last time. Only reason to go back so soon is that she is going to a week long house party in Dorset but also wants a few days at our house in Brittany. I will remain in France at the house for another 10 days.

 

[Zebedee]

There are reasons for the places we have chosen. I went on a long trip with a boyfriend once and she wants to see some of the places I have spoken about. I also had an exchange trip in Annecy and Samoens and would like to re-visit as it is lovely. Grasse to call in on the ex- husband who is her Godfather! Shopping at Troyes as it is one if the best factory outlets I understand.

Should we come back up via Limoges or go to Toulouse or go back up via that massive road bridge beginning with M?

 

[Mervyn kennedy]

Hi thee just a few weeks back from France and Germany toured the vw audi porsche and Mercedes museum and finished in the Nurburgring covered 3600km in 5 days .