Alps trip? (with report)

andyd12

Hi all.
My friend and I are renting a car in south Germany and are going to travel through Austria, lichtenstein, maybe Italy and Switzerland across the alps,finishing in Zurich, for 5 days in august.

We hope to camp along the way, has anyone experience of the same?

Should we be pre booking campsites for along the way or would it be OK just working along day to day? We will have minimal camping equipment just a small tent or two!!
Any tips or advice is very welcome, thanks

andyd12

andyd12 wrote: »

Hi all.
My friend and I are renting a car in south Germany and are going to travel through Austria, lichtenstein, maybe Italy and Switzerland across the alps,finishing in Zurich, for 5 days in august.

We hope to camp along the way, has anyone experience of the same?

Should we be pre booking campsites for along the way or would it be OK just working along day to day? We will have minimal camping equipment just a small tent or two!!
Any tips or advice is very welcome, thanks

Bumpity bump

kindalen

Make sure and budget for tolls and vignettes fuel etc. The below site is a useful tool for route planning.

www.viamichelin.ie

Also make sure your rental company are ok with taking car to others countries. Does your rental include additional drivers?

Bet of luck.

andyd12

kindalen wrote: »

Make sure and budget for tolls and vignettes fuel etc. The below site is a useful tool for route planning.

www.viamichelin.ie

Also make sure your rental company are ok with taking car to others countries. Does your rental include additional drivers?

Bet of luck.

Cool thank you.

I am not too worried about the tolls and stuff.

Yes i assume the rental company know i will be crossing borders if i am driving form Germany to Switzerland:)

andyd12

I am guessing its not a trip many Irish do??:pac:

VG31

andyd12 wrote: »

I am guessing its not a trip many Irish do??:pac:

Probably not. I was in South West Germany for two weeks a while ago and we didn't encounter a single Irish person from when we left the airport.

Try the TripAdvisor forums; either one of the country forums or the Alps forum: https://www.tripadvisor.ie/ShowForum-g2324478-i31629-The_Alps.html

Ardennes1944

I havent done such a trip together but I have driven around Zurich and down to Italy many times.

The only thing I would advise is...avoid the Gotthard Tunnel at all costs if you are not going super early in the AM or late in PM, otherwise you will be sitting there for up to 2 hours easily.

You need a vignette for Switzerland as said, these can be bought at the borders. You also need one for Austria.

For driving in Switzerland, most people actually know how to use the motorway, but dont be tempted to do any speeding, it WILL be expensive. Watch yourself in tunnels especially. A car crash in a tunnel is very serious here.

Enjoy the trip though, its a beautiful part of Europe.

munchkin_utd

have you a price already for what it'll cost to rent in Germany and drop in Switzerland ? Often cross border one ways can cost 100s if not 1000s of a surcharge.
So near the german border you might be lucky with only a small enough surcharge, but its worth looking into .
As for camping, with a tent, if youve a small tent then its much easier as you can be squeezed in somewhere. We did our annual holidays camping in south germany last year and found it very hard to get a place. Ended up at a place in Lechbruck (near Füssen, Neuschwanstein castle, Wiess church, the alps) which has acres of space and almost guaranteed spaces for tents.
If you rented a camper van then it'd make it much easier as many council car parks in towns allow campervans to overnight, often for free.

SteelyDanJalapeno

5 days doesn't seem very long for this?

alchemist33

Did something similar nearly twenty years ago except we drove from Dublin. In those days we just showed up at camp sites and they always had space (Geneva, Salzburg, Prague, Lucerne, Florence). It was great.

andyd12

munchkin_utd wrote: »

have you a price already for what it'll cost to rent in Germany and drop in Switzerland ? Often cross border one ways can cost 100s if not 1000s of a surcharge.
So near the german border you might be lucky with only a small enough surcharge, but its worth looking into .
As for camping, with a tent, if youve a small tent then its much easier as you can be squeezed in somewhere. We did our annual holidays camping in south germany last year and found it very hard to get a place. Ended up at a place in Lechbruck (near Füssen, Neuschwanstein castle, Wiess church, the alps) which has acres of space and almost guaranteed spaces for tents.
If you rented a camper van then it'd make it much easier as many council car parks in towns allow campervans to overnight, often for free.

It's costing us around 330 for the car from early Monday to late Friday. Which is prettygood between 2 I think.

Thanks for the tips on the camping:)

andyd12

TiltedBrain wrote: »

5 days doesn't seem very long for this?

Agreed it's not very long, but it is not a very long trip. Max probably being 700-800 kms which is do-able over a few days especially if we do one or 2 days of longer journeys

SteelyDanJalapeno

andyd12 wrote: »

Agreed it's not very long, but it is not a very long trip. Max probably being 700-800 kms which is do-able over a few days especially if we do one or 2 days of longer journeys

Ah I assumed it was longer without checking, a few early mornings and you'll be fine. But you would want to double the drive time to include sight stops, rests and food.

Ardennes1944

Last time my mother visited we drove from Basel to Munich and then onto Salzburg and there to innsbruck, theres some amazing alpine roads around there, especially around Berchtesgaden national park

andyd12

Ardennes1944 wrote: »

Last time my mother visited we drove from Basel to Munich and then onto Salzburg and there to innsbruck, theres some amazing alpine roads around there, especially around Berchtesgaden national park

Thanks buddy. Yes I am hoping for some nice aline roads:cool:
I was snowboarding in the tyrol valley in January so interested to see it in the summer

munchkin_utd

andyd12 wrote: »

It's costing us around 330 for the car from early Monday to late Friday. Which is prettygood between 2 I think.

Thanks for the tips on the camping:)

for a one way with drop off in Switzerland that would be a sensational price. The cheapest I am seeing is double that, so I'd recheck that you really can drop it in Switzerland and also whether theres funny terms and conditions on the deal.

I was once doing a one way rental with enterprise in Ireland which looked cheap, and in the small print the separate €100 drop off fee (or whatever it was) to be paid to the depot was mentioned !

But yea, theres some class alpine roads for driving. From Berchtesgaden to Traunstein the long way is brill, and even the main "German alpine road" isnt too windy but has great views.
South of Innsbruck towards the brenner pass is lovely but a quite busy road during the day.

andyd12

Survived the trip anyway, it was a blast. Such an awesome part of the world.

Just a few things for anyone doing similar.

Vignette is needed for both Austria and Switzerland. 8euro for a week in austria, 40 for switzerland:rolleyes::pac: but it covers lichtenstein and it cant be bought for a week or month etc, it covers a full year.

The driving is super easy. Austria felt small driving across it and covered the ground we wanted to cover quickly. Austria felt alot quieter than germany with much less bars and restaurants in towns, shops etc, just a little bit boring in some towns. We were wondering where everyone was ha.Great cheap beer though:D

Silvrettta pass in austria was spectacular, cost 15 euro to travel it but was totally worth it. Just a pity I had to drive it in a Skoda Rapid:cool::o:pac:

Bavarian germany is extremely nice and as you would imagine with the lederhosen wearing men and traditional houses.
Nuremberg, where we started is an incredibly nice city, not too big. Great beer:D

Lichtenstein was quite busy, we just passed through, stopped in Vaduz. Has the expensive swiss feel to it, like everything costs parking, to use toilets etc etc.

Weather turned when we reached switzerland so stayed the last night in zurich, ditched the camping and returned the car a day early. Incredibly expensive place but also very beautiful, people are very stylish and respectable. Cool place if you won the Euro millions:D:cool: Beer is poor here though and hella expensive:eek::D

Great trip overall, pity the weather turned but def a place of the world i will be back:cool::)

johnexplo

I don't  experience  this type trip 

andyd12

johnexplo wrote: »

I don't  experience  this type trip 

Excellent response

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

CelticRambler

andyd12 wrote: »

I am guessing its not a trip many Irish do??:pac:

Have only just seen this thread - didn't notice it at the time because ... I was in England, earning some money to pay for a trip to Germany/Austria/Switzerland/Liechtenstein and not checking boards.ie very much back in July! :cool:

Judging by the date of your follow-up post, and your comments about the weather, I must have crossed paths with you as I drove north to south across Switzerland in August.

But I think you're right - Irish people don't seem to drive through this part of the world very often. Shame really, as we have "connections" to a lot of it (our monks founded or developed most of the major towns), and Red Hugh's donkey took a tumble down a Swiss ravine and lost his fortune when he was running from the English.

Oh, and if you were impressed by what you saw on that route, try going further south (into Italy via the St. Bernard Pass (not tunnel)) next time!