We have been planning a longer Europe road trip for the end of the summer this year. We will be driving from Stockholm, Sweden, down in Europe, to end up in Provence – through a lot of countries along the way. Approx 7500 km both ways. Now we can show you the mapped route at least.
As you can see on the map picture, on the way down in Europe following countries are involved: Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France. On the way back home it will be through France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, France (yes, again!) Germany, Denmark, Sweden.
From the beginning we thought that we should drive down pretty much right down to France and then when passing the French border, go west along the whole west coast of France. It turned out to become over 1000 kilometers longer way than to take the way right down… So we skipped that idea – for this time.
The route is not that strange, except for that ‘finger’ pointing into Innsbruck, Austria and back again. We have a tour back into France again there, just because we wanted to visit some special places and forgot to add them in our first plans. From the beginning we also did consider going up through Hungary, Slovakia, Poland as mentioned before.
An important thing to be aware of when making a road trip through Europe is fuel cost, which is different in different countries, so it do matter where you fill up your tank. We’ve counted that if our car consumes gas in the way it use to do, we end up with at least 7500 SEK (€842 or $1101) in fuel cost – of course it will increase for every detour we make… and they might be many!
It’s now we’re very grateful that our new car is very petrol economical, only 0,60 liters per 10 km (and will become even more economical when the engine it’s not so raw any longer).
Also the many toll fees can be rather expensive at some roads, so we plan to avoid most of the toll-roads when possible. The tolls really can become considerably expensive altogether (hundreds of Euro!). We have not counted in the toll fees in our costs yet.
Besides that: how fun is it to drive on motorways all the time and not really see anything of the places you passes along the way? No thanks!
We will stay away from home for almost a month, not being on the roads all the time, but pretty much. We will tell you more soon in another post, so stay tuned!
Considering we will be away for a month before that too (at our summer island) with only one day at home before we leave for the Europe trip, it means 2 months away from home this summer…
©Lifecruiser Love Europe Travel
Earlier post about Lifecruiser Europe Trip 2012:
Planning our Europe trip 2012
Routes and stays booked for our Europe trip 2012
I love that we can SEE it all on the map…the route, that is.
It wouldn’t hurt if you also bring along a spare tire for you might need it. It’s a great idea that you decided to steer clear of the toll-roads for it’s quite costly, moreover driving on motorways I think would be much more exciting.
It’s a great idea that you decided to steer clear of the toll-roads for it’s quite costly, moreover driving on motorways I think would be much more exciting.