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My First ‘Proper’ Road Trip

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idej_z4
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My First ‘Proper’ Road Trip

Post by idej_z4 » Mon Sep 17, 2018 9:51 pm

Its taken years of persuasion and countless beach holidays in the carribean, but I’ve finally convinced the Mrs to let our main holiday this year be a proper road trip in Europe...sort of (I’ve had to compromise a tad to get the deal done).

We leave on 29th Sept, and while I know this post is a little early, I’m just so excited I wanted to share my plans / routes and see if anyone has any thoughts on potential detours or stop offs.

So, the trip, we drive from Halifax to London and a quick stop off at my families in Worcester Park. Next day we’re up early and on to the ferry from Dover to Calais and then the fun can begin!

From Calais we’re driving down to Circuit De Reims. Still looking for a good stop off for some lunch and a bit of site seeing.

We then spend a couple of days in Reims site seeing, doing the Champagne thing and relaxing.

We’re then driving down to Larringes...it’s a monster drive so still looking for somewhere to stop off. I would have liked to have gone via the Black Forrest and into Switzerland for the stopover but time didn’t allow it.

The next day we hit the Alps following ‘The Route De Grand Alps’ loads of driving on this day with a stopover in Chamonix near Mont Blanc.

The next day is my birthday and I’ll be driving over the alps, again picking up ‘The Route De Grand Alps’ and swinging over to the Ardeche where we’re staying with friends for 4 nights.

While we’re there we’re heading over to Marseille and then to a vineyard that we’ve also wanted to see. The wine they produce is called OTT and it changed the way my wife thought about wine (prior to that she never enjoyed it). The other two days we’re in the Ardeche will be eating, drinking, walking and relaxing. I would have like to gone along the south coast for a day of driving but I’m still working on convincing the Mrs!

We leave the Ardeche and head north to Beaune (the home of Burgundy wine) for another wine tour and a meal at a classic French restaurant. Any thoughts on stop offs on the way up greatly appreciated.

2 nights in Beaune and we head to Bruge on a epic drive in terms of length. We’ve booked a luxury AirBNB in Bruge for chilling for 5 nights (another compromise) before we head back to the UK.

I plan to post pics and updates on this thread of my travels and most importantly the Z. For now though, as it would be rude not to, a quick pic of the Z in question taking me on my first proper road trip:
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Last edited by idej_z4 on Tue Sep 18, 2018 10:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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mr wilks
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My First ‘Proper’ Road Trip

Post by mr wilks » Mon Sep 17, 2018 9:58 pm

Sounds great Dan , France is huge & easy to spend long times driving dull autoroutes so my advice is don't spend all your time getting from A to B , just enjoy being wherever you are . The Alps themselves will blow you away , its a massive landscape when compared to what the Uk has to offer
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My First ‘Proper’ Road Trip

Post by MrPT » Mon Sep 17, 2018 10:00 pm

Sounds great! Some great drives in the Vercors if you fancy a cheeky early morning detour.
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My First ‘Proper’ Road Trip

Post by idej_z4 » Mon Sep 17, 2018 10:02 pm

mr wilks wrote: Mon Sep 17, 2018 9:58 pm Sounds great Dan , France is huge & easy to spend long times driving dull autoroutes so my advice is don't spend all your time getting from A to B , just enjoy being wherever you are . The Alps themselves will blow you away , its a massive landscape when compared to what the Uk has to offer
That’s what I’m hoping to do. Just use the autoroutes when necessary. :thumbsup:

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My First ‘Proper’ Road Trip

Post by idej_z4 » Mon Sep 17, 2018 10:03 pm

MrPT wrote: Mon Sep 17, 2018 10:00 pm Sounds great! Some great drives in the Vercors if you fancy a cheeky early morning detour.
Will look into it - thanks!!! :D

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Post by john-e89 » Mon Sep 17, 2018 10:06 pm

Would you like to borrow my roadster to make it the ‘proper’ road trip you’re title suggests..... :wink:

Have a good hol, sounds a great route. :thumbsup: :driving:
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My First ‘Proper’ Road Trip

Post by Jembo » Mon Sep 17, 2018 10:07 pm

Check to see if you need a Crit’air https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motori ... ch-cities/

Am wondering, because you must register your V5 details, that this could be a cheeky way of catching UK speeders as now they’ll have your address

The boat takes ages... so be prepared for the misses to go ‘shopping’
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My First ‘Proper’ Road Trip

Post by idej_z4 » Mon Sep 17, 2018 10:12 pm

john-e89 wrote: Mon Sep 17, 2018 10:06 pm Would you like to borrow my roadster to make it the ‘proper’ road trip you’re title suggests..... :wink:

Have a good hol, sounds a great route. :thumbsup: :driving:
I was wondering how long it would take for someone to say that - thanks for getting it done early!

TBH, it is the first time I’ve thought to myself, I’d quite like a roasdster for this...but then I remembered how bloody good I’ll look doing it in a coupe. :evil:

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My First ‘Proper’ Road Trip

Post by idej_z4 » Mon Sep 17, 2018 10:15 pm

Jembo wrote: Mon Sep 17, 2018 10:07 pm Check to see if you need a Crit’air https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motori ... ch-cities/

Am wondering, because you must register your V5 details, that this could be a cheeky way of catching UK speeders as now they’ll have your address

The boat takes ages... so be prepared for the misses to go ‘shopping’
I think we’ll be okay...just, but thanks for sending the link. :thumbsup:

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My First ‘Proper’ Road Trip

Post by buzyg » Mon Sep 17, 2018 10:22 pm

Sounds like an amazing trip is in the planning. Be sure to remember to take loads of lovely pics. :wink:
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My First ‘Proper’ Road Trip

Post by Marlon » Mon Sep 17, 2018 10:24 pm

Well done Dan. Post up pics as you go :driving: :thumbsup:
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My First ‘Proper’ Road Trip

Post by Mr Tidy » Mon Sep 17, 2018 10:31 pm

That sounds like a great trip OP, even if you did have to make a compromise or two!

Not too long to wait now - have a great time. :thumbsup:
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My First ‘Proper’ Road Trip

Post by idej_z4 » Mon Sep 17, 2018 10:59 pm

Marlon wrote: Mon Sep 17, 2018 10:24 pm Well done Dan. Post up pics as you go :driving: :thumbsup:
Of course!!!

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Post by ph001 » Tue Sep 18, 2018 9:54 am

Just come back from similar except we did 9 countries all the way to Hungary and back. We only had 2 weeks so was a bit too much driving and not enough chilling...and we had a 5yr old in tow so had to do it in a Renault Espace ! :cry:

I've previously done lots of the mountain passes in a S54 Z3M but one I never did was the Susten pass and OMG!!! If you have to choose one alpine pass to do....MAKE IT THIS ONE! Just incredible and puts all the other ones to shame imho. Definitely forget Stelvio etc.

Also, have you looked at the Euro tunnel instead of the ferry. Was half the price for us and only takes 20mins (once you have finished messing around with all the customs / car park queuing etc).
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Post by philbo909 » Tue Sep 18, 2018 10:16 am

The alps are great to drive. Lake Castellane is very nice-
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