Please apply these pointers to car, motorbike or van travel as the principles and the motorways are of course exactly the same. Since I moved to Roma many moons ago (by Honda CBR1000) I have generally preferred to visit Europe by road instead of flying perhaps because I worked many years in Export Sales so I really had enough air travel thank you.
Since I purchased my first Vito van in 1999, a red 3.0 V6 auto, I started to transport my bikes and other bikes too. The red van was brilliant but quite heavy on fuel so I recently sold her on and purchased a more recent Vito with the 2.2, 4 cylinder diesel engine and importantly the auto gearbox with 7 speeds (instead of 5 in the old one).
With this new van at 120 kph she runs at only 2,000rpm and thus consumes very little fuel for a van so I now travel between Italy and the UK several times a year. Recently one of my nephews asked me for some pointers so let me summarise my experience as follows…..
a. The key to any long road trip is thorough preparation of both the driver and the vehicle. So always take plenty of time to checkover the vehicle several days in advance, ensure she is fully serviced and check tyres oil and water levels plus lights etc.
b. I always carry some equipment that I hope not to need on the journey so I have a metal jerry can with 10 litres of diesel, a small tool kit, a trolley jack, a socket set plus a battery jump starter, mine is Topdon. I also carry a 5 Litre bag of AdBlu just in case, horrible stuff, my van can cover more than 3,000 km before I need to refill the AdBlu tank.
c. Route planning. This is perhaps the most important factor to consider. I used to book hotels in advance whereas recently I prefer to make no advance bookings to remain more flexible. I plan my route on ViaMichelin so I know the total distance and then consider a stop perhaps halfway. Of course if I travel during the peak summer season then a hotel booking is sensible.
d. From experience I use the Brit Hotel chain in France and the Ibis chain too as both are reasonably priced and always clean. They both have hotels all over France and Ibis all over Europe. In Calais I love Hotel de la Plage so a night and a meal there looking out over the ferry port is always great, ready for an early departure the next morning.
e. A Telepass device or app is an excellent idea, here is one provider https://tolltickets.com/en/products/western-europe/. These enable you to travel through the motorway booths without stopping and the toll is taken from your bank or credit card. Another provider is https://www.bipandgo.com/en/. I have a European Telepass which covers Italy, France, Spain and Portugal but it seems that this cannot be purchased in the UK, crazy!!
f. Always drive gently! My usual cruising speed is 120 kph on cruise control which ensures good mileage and a relaxed drive. Fill up off the motorway network whenever possible and walk around the van or car or bike every time you stop just to keep an eye on things.
Well thats it for now and I truly hope that this may be useful for your next journey!!!
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