Driving to Austria - Any Tips?

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Fri 30 Jan 2004 14:37
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - nickd01
Hi,
I decided to save money and drive to Austria this year for my snowboarding holiday. The missus and I are catching the train to Calais with the car on a Friday night, plan on driving a few hours, stay overnight somewhere cheap, and then onto Austria in the morning.
Problem is, it's a looong drive! I think I underestimated the distance and time...The longest drive I've ever done is about 500Km's in the Australia outback and there were no navigational issues there!
So, does anyone have any tips on driving this distance on the continent? Anything that makes long drives that bit less stressful? How about navigating over there? Are there any areas or roads to avoid?
As you can see, I'm keen for any tips to make my life easier!
Thanks

Nick
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Fri 30 Jan 2004 15:32
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - Aprilia
I think you have seriously underestimated the time needed, unless you plan on driving absolutely continuously.

I would drive down toward Strasbourg and cross over into the Schwartzwald ('Black Forest') region of SW Germany then across in the general direction of Munich and then down toward the Austrian Alps (I assume you're headed for the Innsbruck/Seefeld sort of area??).

No real navigation issues provided you have a map! Obviously stick to autobahn/autoroute - it will be hard to get lost. Not driven in France that much in recent years - but a lot in Germany & Austria. I find the driving much easier and less srtessful than UK, less congestion for a start.


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Fri 30 Jan 2004 15:38
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - John Basnett
It's quite an easy drive in all fairness. We have done it 4 or 5 times now. From here in the Midlands to the Tyrol region it's about 850 miles. We do it in one go usually. It takes about 9 - 10 hours. Will be doing it again in a couple of weeks time.
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Fri 30 Jan 2004 15:46
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - nickd01
Yes, we're actually off to Ischgl. I was hoping about 9 - 10 hours but it suddenly seemed a long way! I wasn't going to do it in one go, but, you never know.
We arrive in Calais about 8pm so were going to drive until midnight or so and then hopefully stop somehere for a breather. We were recomended to avoid the French toll roads and go around Brussels; it's a bit cheaper and just a good a drive apparently. Do you have any route recomendations?
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Fri 30 Jan 2004 15:50
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - John Basnett
Yeah, we always go through Brussels and then down through Germany. Went through france the first time but it was a longer distance in total. We drove to Andorra last year, that is a long drive!
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Fri 30 Jan 2004 15:55
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - matt35 {P}
Nick,
I have not looked for a while but think you can get a detailed route map from Shell/Michelin etc on the internet - even gives you hotel info from memory.

Matt35.
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Fri 30 Jan 2004 15:55
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - Andrew-T
We drove to Switz several times in the late 80s/early 90s, but via Zeebrugge. Then cross Belgium AQAP, overnight in Luxembourg (fill up there - lots cheaper (may not be now?)), straight down to Basle.

My personal choice is not to pay the French to use their péages but stick to N-roads - they are mostly straight anyway, towns aren't that frequent, and you see a lot more.

If you aim to do it in one shot, a good deal will be in darkness and you will arrive kn*ck*red. Also means that you will have to attend to the dip on your headlights.
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Fri 30 Jan 2004 16:01
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - nickd01
You're right, apparently missing the French toll roads saves approx £40 each way; not insignificant when the driving idea was to save money!
How do you all "prepare" for a long drive? Any ideas to make it as bareable as possible?
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Sat 31 Jan 2004 19:40
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - malteser
Don't forget your lederhosen and your hat with a silly feather!
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Fri 30 Jan 2004 15:57
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - barney100
You could get a route from the AA or any of the other map sites on the net. France has the ''Formula''type hotels which are pretty basic but cheap and convenient and also bookable in advance.
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Fri 30 Jan 2004 16:36
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - MB
take snow chains if you are going up into the mountains
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Fri 30 Jan 2004 16:41
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - T Lucas
Intrested to know how that long drive saves money when there are soo many low cost airlines,i'm flying to Geneva on half term weekend for £100 p/person return,i could not get near that by driving.
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Fri 30 Jan 2004 17:04
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - Jazzmag
Hi Nick,

I drive ever year to the depths of the Czech Republic in my ancient Pug 309 D, to see family - a journey just under 1,000 miles. Have done it every year for the past 5 years. I must admit it does seem a bit scary at first when you count the number of countries you have to drive through!

But the wife and I really enjoy the drive now. The secret is just to chill out and take in the view as much as you can, whilst keeping an eye out for land speed record attempts - normally in Germany on the autobahn.

We get the Dover ferry on a 9.30pm crossing (cheapest rate) and drive through France and Belgium. It's good to get through the Belgium ring road at around 2.00am in the morning when the traffic is as light as its ever going to get. We then bung up the tent in a convenient service station (they're so much better for camping than the UK, where you'd quickly get done for illegal camping or some such cr*p).

Grab about 6 hours sleep, shower at the service station, breakfast on hot fresh croissants, then drive for the rest of the day, stopping ever 3 - 4 hours. Door to door it takes us around 20 hours (inc the camping!). We arrive surprisingly fresh & relaxed, late afternoon.

Of course by driving you have you're own car, so no hire charges etc.

My worst experience was developing a leak in my radiator. Had to crawl the last hundred or so miles. But I bought a new one in the Czech Repulic for £25 and fitted it in the shops car park. Way cheaper than UK prices !

Go for it - you'll enjoy it.

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Fri 30 Jan 2004 17:08
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - Insect
I've done this twice now. The best piece of advice I can give is to avoid travelling on the motorways around Munich during daylight hours at the weekend. It is jam-packed with German skiers. We time our run to arrive on Saturday morning at about 4am!
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Fri 30 Jan 2004 17:10
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - nickd01
As there is two of us, going over the half term week we found flying and car hire very expensive.
By driving, we avoid the flight ticket, "ski handling fees" and car hire costs.
From memory, I think the tunnel ticket was somewhere around £150. So, £75 each on the tunnel, and I guess about £50 - £70 each on petrol. This worked out cheaper than the flying option.
Starting to maybe regret it now, it's a looong way!
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Fri 30 Jan 2004 18:44
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - Andrew-T
TL - from here I would certainly agree about getting to Geneva - 15 mins to Liverpool A/port, then Easyjet direct. Not very convenient for Austria though.
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Fri 30 Jan 2004 17:03
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - Mike H
We've done the trip over 20 times now, summer and winter. I agree with most of the comments, but one point that hasn't been made is that too optimistic driving times can be seriously put out by bad weather, especially at this time of the year - even in the very hot summer, we missed our ferry due to torrential rain in eastern France, even though I thought I'd allowed plenty of time.

I would also dispute the advice to use french N-roads - I reckon we lost a good couple of hours by doing it this year, getting stuck behind lorries and the frequent small villages is the problem.

From Calais, across to Strasbourg/Saarbrucken/drop down towards Stuttgart/Ulm/Munich, thence take motorway towards Salzburg and drop down the Inn valley towards Innsbruck. We take two days over the trip.

Snow chains are not only recommended but mandatory in the winter in Austria.

I can suggest small places to stop if you are interested.
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Fri 30 Jan 2004 17:13
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - nickd01
Mike,

Any tips on stopping would be appreciated.

We were hoping to make Brussles on the first "leg", catch some sleep somewhere cheap and then on from there early morning to arrive (hopefully!) in the early afternoon.

However, this was based on advice of avoiding the French toll roads.
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Fri 30 Jan 2004 19:16
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - T Lucas
Still think you are being optomistic with costs,overnight stays,eats on the way,Euro insurance&breakdown cover,tolls,and of course pence per mile in your own car.But if you want to do it for the thrill and experience that is a good thing,i just don't think it will be as cheap as you think.
Just drive safely and enjoy the experince.
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Fri 30 Jan 2004 20:34
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - Aprilia
Agree with TLucas. I think you may be underestimating costs and times.
I would not fancy doing it in one go. If I go on holiday I like things to be as stress free as possible and not too tiring.
You need to factor in all the fuel, food, insurances etc. - plus you need to remember that you are 'losing' at least two days of your holiday through travel - and possibly feeling very rough the second day.

I have had to drive to Munich and back for work a few times and found it too exhausting to do in one go. I now only fly-drive, or take the DFDS Harwich-Cuxhaven ferry if going to northern Germany.

You could fly to Munich on EasyJet, Ryanair or similar and hire a car there. I think a Mondeo would be about £250 for a week all-in with holidayautos.co.uk Then its an easy hour or two down to Austria.
I think Ryanair also fly direct to Graz, Linz, maybe Klagenfurt too?
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Fri 30 Jan 2004 21:36
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - Armitage Shanks{P}
Ryanair fly to Salzburg now, car hire can be cheap if you shop around. Ryanair's own link to car hire (with Hertz) is cheaper than booking with Hertz yourself which I found suprising! If you take your own car to Austria and use the autobahns don't forget to buy the relevant 'toll' sticker for your windscreen. Have a good holiday however you travel!
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Fri 30 Jan 2004 22:09
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - Andrew-T
A-S - don't forget to factor in the 50p wheelchair surcharge.
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Sat 31 Jan 2004 00:38
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - PhilW
"From here in the Midlands to the Tyrol region it's about 850 miles. We do it in one go usually. It takes about 9 - 10 hours."
No chance - averaging 85-95 mph?? (and including a channel crossing???)
Personal views
1. Don't use N roads in N France - there are hundreds of towns & villages to go through all the way from Calais to Strasbourg especially in the Nord and beyond Metz they certainly ain't straight!.
2. Road from Strasbourg to Stuttgart via Black forest and Freudenstadt also a no - no. Very steep in places with multiple hairpins. Very picturesque but you want speed. Also likely to need snowchains at the moment - not conducive to a fast journey.
3. Use the motorways. I reckon French ones are much better than Belgian with much better services and much quieter - worth extra cost?
4. The autobahn from Stuttgart to Munich can be very busy with a combination of very fast cars, very slow trucks (especially on inclines up and down). Long 2 lane stretches also.
5. Allow plenty of time! Better to arrive safe than not at all!
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Sat 31 Jan 2004 00:43
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - PhilW
P.S. Went by coach once a couple of years ago from Midlands to Zell am Zee (South of Salzburg) two drivers, virtually non- stop, motorway all the way, only very short stops every 4 hours (except one spell of 8 hours with a stop for driver change only) and it took 25 hours. And they did not drive slowly!Wouldn't do it again!
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Sat 31 Jan 2004 09:30
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - T Lucas
If you can average 65MPH you are doing very well,on a trip like that the average speed will be a lot nearer to 50MPH which i know sounds daft,but how fast can you go thru/round towns and what speed up a mountain,it soon brings that 140MPH autobahn sprint down.
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Sat 31 Jan 2004 10:56
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - No Do$h
I'm off for the annual skiing trip in the alps in a couple of weeks. I would recommend you look for an Etap or Formule 1 for cheap but clean overnight stays. You can find them at www.accorhotels.com/

As for making the trip as comfortably as possible, make sure you don't just stop for fuel and loo. Make a point of taking a brisk walk around the service area for 5 minutes or so and try to do a few stretches. Avoid slugging back sugary drinks as you will get an initial sugar rush, then your system will bomb 45 minutes later.

Get your other half to share the driving, even if it's only the UK leg. Every little helps.

Go to www.viamichelin.com for detailed route guides and expected times of arrival, all printable.

Most importantly, have fun and don't forget that you can load up with cheap beer on the return!
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Mon 2 Feb 2004 13:24
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - Mike H
Sorry didn't get back sooner, busy weekend with no access to computer.

Last time we went (end December this year) we stopped at Reims overnighgt (2 hours from Calais, and only 2 mins off the motorway). Then the next days drive to Austria (Wildschoenau, off the Inn valley from Worgl) was relatively easy but it was a Sunday heading in to Austria - everyone else was going the other way. We stayed at the Holiday Inn in Reims but that was £78 for the three of us inc. breakfast - although there are plenty of other hotels there like the cheapo Formula 1s/Campaniles etc. It's just far enought to get a good head start the next day.

Our preference is for small bed & breakfast places but they wouldn't be too keen on middle of the night arrivals, whereas its not a problem with proper hotels.

The other advice is not to try & skimp too much on the sleep - you really do need to concentrate on the german autobahns if driving at speed. Its better to get there safely than cheaply!
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Sun 22 Jan 2006 22:58
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - clare.h
I am doing this same trip at the Feb half term. I have arranged a stop at a Novotel hotel just outside Brussels(Accorhotels.com)for 60euro per night for a family of 3 in 1 room, breakfast is 14euro and free for kids under 16. It is on the motorway route at Lueven and having used this chain of hotels before they are a good standard for a very reasonable price. I would agree that the trip round Munich is dreadful and would suggest the route via Nurnberg A3 rather than Stuttgart as the hold ups are generally much less. I have lived in Germany for several years and have regularly done the trip south as a result and this has always been the better option. I now use the A3 via Frankfurt and Nurnberg out of preference to Ulm/Stuttgart. My usual route is Brussels/Koln/Koblenz then A48 towards the A3 to Nurnberg and A9 to Munich.Follow signs for the airport to go the right way found the ring road and pick up the A8 towards Saltzburg. From then on it will depend on which part of the Tirol you want. Snow chains are essential once you get into the resort areas and police have been known to turn people back if they don't have them fitted. Also don't forget the Motorway tax for Austria as the police are very hot at picking up those who think they can get away with it for just a short distance espessially at this peak time. Other than that have a great trip and safe driving.
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Sat 31 Jan 2004 16:01
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - Bagpuss
I live in Munich - we've had a lot of snow fall in Southern Germany over the last couple of weeks and the subsequent plummeting temperatures have turned lots of the roads into ice rinks.

Over here people have winter tyres on their cars, without them you'll find a lot of roads extremely difficult to drive on as roads are sparingly gritted.

The Autobahn between Stuttgart and Munich is speed restricted to 120kh/h during the day and the weather conditions there can be rather unpredictable in the Winter, allow lots of time.

On Fridays and Saturdays the routes south of Munich into Austria turn into car parks as every one heads off to ski for the weekend (and Sunday night in the opposite direction obviously). I sometimes use the train.

To be allowed to use the Autobahns in Austria you have to buy a little "Maut" sticker from a petrol station, without this on your car you've a good chance of getting stopped and paying a hefty fine. Additionally, some of the Alpine routes in northern Austria are toll roads. I got stuck at a toll booth once as I'd run out of currency and my British credit card wouldn't work with the Austrian card reader. However the drive through the Northern Alps is one of my favourites, it is very spectacular.

Oh and don't forget the snow chains once you're off the beaten track.


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Mon 2 Feb 2004 16:02
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - John24
If you head for the Swiss border before crossing into Austria you'll land a Swiss motorway tax disc costing 27.5 Euros for a 2 hour trip through to Austria, plus the Austrian motorway toll.
I've done this trip half a dozen times in the last three years and always opted for Belgian, German and Austrian motorways. A map doesn't always reflect a true picture of a trip. One major piece of advice , if you're new to Continental driving - on German motorways watch out for the car overtaking you at 100/110 mph, very disconcerting when you're used to 70/80 mph traffic. However you go, have a safe and happy trip.
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Wed 4 Feb 2004 16:54
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - nickd01
Thanks all for your advice; all taken on board. I guess, I'm doing it a little for the experience as well as attempting to save money. Maybe we wont, but at least we'll try!
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Wed 4 Feb 2004 16:58
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - borasport20
Nick - let us know which way you go and how it was when you get back

Haven't driven there since 1994 - (leave Wigan on Weds afternoon, in bar in Zell-am-Ziller before thurs teatime) but will hopefully be doing it again this summer


just 'cos I know what I'm saying doesn't mean I know what I'm talking about

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Wed 4 Feb 2004 17:11
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - Mapmaker
France v Belgium

Belgian motorways are pretty busy if free - Belgium is more crowded even than the UK. If you're going through Belgium overnight, then you'll be fine.

French motorway v French N roads

Pay up, and enjoy mile upon mile of traffic free travelling. N roads are great and fairly traffic free, but you'll go through every village centre, and you'll find cobbles in some of them which will awaken the non-driver! If it's night time, then you'll not see anything anyway.
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Wed 4 Feb 2004 17:13
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - Mapmaker
Hotels.

Cheapest are Formule 1; Premiere class and similar chains. A very basic pre-fabricated box with plastic bathroom (some do not have private bathrooms). Beds are firm & comfortable though, and the cost is pretty minimal.

Logis de France will give you decent home cooking very reasonably, with rather more charm than the above hotels, not much more expensively.
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Wed 4 Feb 2004 22:57
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - PhilW
"Cheapest are Formule 1; Premiere class and similar chains"

And slightly upmarket (en suite, bar and restaurant - decent meal for about a tenner) there is Ibis which have conveniently situated hotels in Stuttgart, Ulm, Augsburg, Munchen, as well as France and Germany. Usually £30 to £40 ish per room
www.ibishotel.com/ibis/gb/cartographie/allemagne.s...l
www.ibishotel.com/ibis/gb/cartographie/belgique.sh...l
www.ibishotel.com/ibis/gb/cartographie/france_ne.s...l

B&B also good,(en-suite) cheaper (£25) and they do a good breakfast with bacon and scrambled egg as well as the "continental"
www.hotel-bb.com/index.phtml?NumLangue=2
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Wed 4 Feb 2004 22:59
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - PhilW
"as well as France and Germany"
should read "as well as France and Belgium"
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Wed 7 Apr 2004 22:22
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - borasport20
I think we can now assume NickD01 is not now going to come back to us.

We are now driving to the Tyrol in june. We have an outbound ferry booked for thursday night and accomodation in austria on saturday night, so we are looking for somew interesting recommendations for an overnight stay in S Germany on the friday night, and again on the way back - any recommendations anyone ?


just 'cos I know what I'm saying doesn't mean I know what I'm talking about

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Thu 8 Apr 2004 00:35
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - patpending
hi borasport, I live in SW Germany so don't often actually stay in the hotels, you won't have too much time to look round wherever it is but here some ideas:

big historical cities - Nuremberg, Munich

gorgeous medieval towns - Rothenburg ob der Tauber (very touristy but great), Dinkelsbuehl, Feuchtwangen (a detour off the A7 but worth it)

near the Alps: Fuessen

countryside/ other: see what www.hrs.de has to offer, June is perhaps the best time of year for Germany!

pat
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Thu 8 Apr 2004 10:09
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - borasport20
as i'm driving, I plan on missing munich ! - have bad memories of trying to follow somebody across the city, not knowing where we were going in the rush hour, and even worse memories of trying to get from the Tyrol to munich, along with the whole population of southern germany, the weekend after the millenium !
just 'cos I know what I'm saying doesn't mean I know what I'm talking about

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Thu 8 Apr 2004 14:18
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - patpending
OK borasport, if you aren't driving near munich (and most of the routes to Austria pass round munich on the ring motorway) I can only assume you are heading into Austria either round Bregenz or Füssen. Füssen is a lovely place with the fantastic Neuschwanstein castle to see...if you have time...

anyway, I suggest you pick a spot and see what hrs.de has to offer around it.

pat

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Thu 8 Apr 2004 14:22
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - patpending
oh yes, and do be prepared for traffic delays into Austria on a Friday in June whichever way you go! that's if the locals have stopped blocking the Austrian transit autobahns by then :)

pat
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Thu 8 Apr 2004 15:13
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - CM
Be careful driving in Belgium and France. The police are rigorously enforcing the speed limits. I believe that they pull you over for going above 136kmh in a 130kmh autoroute section.
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Thu 8 Apr 2004 16:53
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - borasport20
pat - thanks for that. We might yet end up going round Munich ring road - that is not too bad, but a long time ago I was a driver of one of 3 minibuses, and the 'leader of the pack' who had all the petrol money, all the ferry tickets, and thought route planning consisted of telling the other drivers 'just follow me' took a wrong turn and lead us through the centre on a friday teatime - not an experience i want to repeat (*)

Another time we went there was a plan to go to Neuschwanstein, but it was one of those weekends when every german heads for the Apls and every gastarbeiter heads home and the traffic jam lasts for three days. A hot day in july was not the best time to be stuck in one of these jams in a p100 pickup truck with no air-con !

We might look at somewhere rural on the way down and Neuschwanstein on the way back

regards
Mike

just 'cos I know what I'm saying doesn't mean I know what I'm talking about

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Thu 8 Apr 2004 16:54
p.s. - borasport20
(*) learned a lesson after that -every van had to have its own cash and tickets, and a fixed meeting place for the night


just 'cos I know what I'm saying doesn't mean I know what I'm talking about

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Thu 8 Apr 2004 17:14
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - John24
Done this trip half a dozen times in the past four years. Usually take the E41 and E45 through Germany. Have found the best plan is to slip off the autobahn about 5 pm and search through the nearest villages. Always been able to find a small hotel or gasthof, comfortable and inexpensive. Last time was in Wiesentheid, between Wurzburg and Nurnberg, choice of several gasthofs, beautiful food and accommodation, only a couple of miles from the slip road, but you'll find the same in almost all the villages next to the slip roads. Enjoy your trip.
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Thu 8 Apr 2004 18:09
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - patpending
john24, this not being Belgium the E numbers on the roads are as widely understood as the E numbers on tins of food ;) - is that the A3 route past Frankfurt and Würzburg to Nuremberg then the A9 south to Munich? agree that area of Bavaria has jewel after jewel of "undiscovered" villages in addition to the mediaeval towns I mentioned, just have to be a little bit lucky 1. to find somewhere in peak season 2. to find it's reasonably priced and 3. to find it's reasonably appointed. I would certainly do that if I had lots of time, and certainly when travelling in East Germany.

borasport, that's a nightmare story, I once was waiting at Dover with five friends for another two cars containing the non-refundable, non-exchangeable tickets right up until the very minute the ferry closed for boarding. I did once meet someone near Passau (NE Bavaria) who had got lost looking for Lindau (SW Bavaria) and who didn't want to use any motorways...! you may find you will have to take jams in your stride heading south at the beginning of a summer weekend. Going through Munich could be better than round (or in particular better than via Würzburg, commonly 20km jams there)..

pat
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Thu 8 Apr 2004 20:29
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - John24
Right on the button, patpending, I've got used to using 'E' nos. navigating my way across Europe since I retired. I usually set off early May and early September, always midweek, and always start looking for an overnight stop between 4/5 p.m. Been lucky so far, both with traffic jams and with accommodation. Following up your remarks re. Passau/Lindau, I once drove down through France and as we neared the Swiss border I said to my wife " South to Italy or East to Austria?" "Definitely Austria, I've always wanted to see Vienna." When we were approaching Bregenz she said "Can we take a trip on a gondola?
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Thu 8 Apr 2004 23:08
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - patpending
thanks for that John, in Belgium of course they use the E numbers first, but that means a) in a small country one of the key roads is the 411 and b)if the E road numbers change so do the motorways! I still have problems that what was the E5 is now the E40...(and my map of E numbers still shows the E5)...

great gondola story, bet you wish you had gone to Vegas, the gondolas have motors there (!)...
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Wed 14 Apr 2004 14:46
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - borasport20
ferry booked, accomodation booked....


any recommendations for the best road atlas of europe at the moment - looked at a spiral bound AA one in halfords at lunchtime and wasn't too impressed


just 'cos I know what I'm saying doesn't mean I know what I'm talking about

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Thu 15 Apr 2004 15:37
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - John24
I've carried 'Philips Multiscale Europe 2001' since, well, 2001
and found it useful but I also carry foldout maps of the countries I intend passing through, as the detail is sometimes better. The Philips scale is 12 miles to the inch.
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Thu 15 Apr 2004 15:56
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - No Do$h
Maps? Maps? Get yourself an iPAQ with satnav. You know you want to.....

Alternatively, if you have a Nokia 6600, £249 will get you the Wayfarer GPS package. Looks interesting......
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Thu 15 Apr 2004 16:16
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - terryb
Or even Microsoft Autoroute 2004 with a decent laptop. You can get down to streetplan level for cities.

The only thing I know about Austrian traffic law is that a red line around a lamp-post means the light goes out at midnight :o)
Terry

"Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand"
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Mon 28 Jun 2004 10:27
Driving to Austria - Any Tips? - Mike H
Done this trip half a dozen times in the past four
years. Usually take the E41 and E45 through Germany. Have found
the best plan is to slip off the autobahn about 5
pm and search through the nearest villages. Always been able to
find a small hotel or gasthof, comfortable and inexpensive. Last time
was in Wiesentheid, between Wurzburg and Nurnberg, choice of several gasthofs,
beautiful food and accommodation, only a couple of miles from the
slip road, but you'll find the same in almost all the
villages next to the slip roads. Enjoy your trip.

>>

Go a couple of miles up the road into Prichsenstadt - cobbled streets etc, very picturesque. Try the zum Storch (on the right as you go towards the arch) or Alte Schmiede (through the arch by the fountain). Both just under £50 (b&b for 3 people in one room).
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Sun 27 Jun 2004 17:37
Just back - borasport20
and ready to sleep for a week !

anybody heading off in that direction and thinking of crossing the german/austria border over the Fern pass - check with the motoring organisations, as when we crossed on friday am (25/6/04) there were resurfacing works ongoing and signs suggesting it would actually be closed at some point


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Sun 27 Jun 2004 19:22
Tips - eurocourier
A very pretty alternative route which avoids Munich is to head for Kempten, then take the Fernpass into Austria from there. It is a spectalular drive, with many stopping places from which to admire the views. This also avoids having to pay the Swiss 'vignette' (road tax), and is one of the most satisfying roads in Austria. It is important to buy the vignettes in either Austria or Switzerland: I spend a lot of time in that part of europe, and have been pulled twice in Austria in the last month. The police will take an extremely dim view if you forgotten to buy your vignette. Last year a company I know of was fined £2000 for this offence. The tax can be bought in service areas just prior to the borders. The cheapest in Austria lasts for 10 days, you must buy two of these for a 14 day stay therefore - and stick both to your windscreen for them to be valid (this is explained on the back of the vignette itself). Interesting how neither of these countries road taxes are anything like ours eh?! You won't need snowchains at the moment. You are obliged to carry them during winter months, but are not obliged to use them if you don't want to!
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