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Hi sweetrunninggir

Wife and travelled into Italy this year with our long twin axle van.  We took the route recommended by Rostrevor, he helped us a LOT last year in suggesting this route.  We went Dover to Dunkerque - brand new boat and very cheap arriving at 6.00am  We then slept in the for a couple of hours in a aire (services) near Lisle, we had been delayed on the way down and not had a night at a campsite near Dover as originally planned.

We then made excellent time on the suggested autoroute through France, Belgium, Luxembourg and back into France.  We got to south of Nancy by late evening and stayed, free, in another aire surrounded by friendly European lorry drivers.  Lots of people worry about staying in aires but we've been doing it for years without problems.  It means that we can drive until we run out of energy and then stop without having to looking for a campsite or bothering to unhitch and hitch up again.

The next day we travelled on over the Col de Boussang.  It was a lovely scenic route and NOT very steep as gradients were acheived by long hairpins - our 4x4 coped easily.  The N66 is, obviously, slower than the autoroutes but it made a pleasant break from autoroute driving and was a good single-carriageway road. 

We then stayed for a few days at Camping de Acascias in Cernay.  This was a pleasant site in this lovely little French town and interestingly next a stork reservation.  The site was large with lots of room and a very friendly and helpful warden and wife.

We then drove on through France and into Switzerland at Basle..  I was surprised to hear of the queues for vignette.  We just drove in and parked up the carpark while buying the vignettes in the office with a credit card and that was on a the last Friday in July!!  A bit pricey but c'est la vie, the autoroute up to that point had been free.  I would, however, REPEAT THE WARNING, about entering Switzerland from Germany rather than France.  We missed that warning in our route planning and wished we hadn't.  Basle was horrendous with lots of road works and diversions.  What was particularly worrying was that some of the diversions split the traffic into cars and HGV/Coaches.  With our long outfit we were not sure which route to take.  We mainly opted for the car route and got through okay although there were several narrow bits and scary contraflows through tunnels.  We are hoping to go to Italy by this route again next year and we will DEFINITELY be going via Germany and avoidling Basle City centre!!

The route through Switzerland is stunningly beautiful with super motorway.  Hard to concentrate on driving because of the lovely views.  The route does include some tunnels - I don't particularly like tunnels but survived.  We didn't stop in Switzerland on this occasion.  If you fancy doing so I would really recommend the area near Interlaken, we stayed at Brienz a few years back and had a superb holiday.  There a couple of campsites at Brienz which are smaller and quieter than the busier ones in Interlaken itself.  We had a pitch RIGHT ON the lakeside of the Brienzersee - but I digress.

We travelled from Cernay and right through Switzerland in a day.  We arrived at the southern side of Switzerland on a Friday evening.  We had not intended to arrive then but had been delayed in Cernay by a damaged tyre.  The queues for the San Gotthard Pass were pretty awful so we opted for the pass.  It wasn't too bad. Lots of long hairpins, a long flat stretch on top and then a very long descent again using lots of hairpin bends.  On the descent I used engine braking on our autobox Monterey and by the far side the engine was really cool - I was worried that there was something wrong as the temp guage was so LOW.  We tried sleeping in the services immmediately after the pass but it was very busy and noisy and so we drove on into Italy in the dark and snatched a few hours sleep on way down at another services.  We then drove on to our first booked site at Camping La Riva on Lake Como but that's another story.  After a couple of weeks at La Riva We then went down to Camping Cavallino on the Jesolo Peninsula, booked en-route the day before, and stayed there for another couple of glorious weeks.  We alternated between days on the adjacent beach on the Adriatic and trips into nearby Venice.

On the way home we varied the route only a little.  We went through the Gotthard Tunnel.  I set the mileometer to zero, put my new favourite CD - Johny Cash's "My Mother's Hymnbook"  on the CD, said a  prayer and gritted my teeth.  I counted off the miles on the mileometer - it was 11 to the other side and again survived. 

On the way home we did not go via the Col de Boussang but drove further north on the motorway before turning west before repeating our route through Luxembourg and Belgium.  Unfortunately we never made Dunkerque under our own steam as the car broked down BIG TIME just in Belguim.  After a week's enforced stay at Camping Chenefleur in Belguim, very pleasant site in other circumstances, we came home by hire car and the car and caravan followed MUCH LATER on a car transporter but that's another story.

We hope to be back in Italy next by roughly the same route, better route around Basle.

Hope this helps - my advice GO FOR IT.

Tim

Hi Rostrevor, to avoid any confusion aren't both ends of the tunnel in Switzerland?

Phil.

Hi sweetrunninggir

Rostrevor has answered most of your questions - I got my route from him last year!!

A few extra points to add - the N66 over the Col de Boussang is well engineered single carraigeway.  It is not narrow and we saw several lorries.  The hairpins are long and mainly straight apart from the curves at the "end" of each hairpin, even those are reasonable.  Not really scarey at all.

The N66 is near to the "Wine Road" a scenic tour of this wine growing region and may be of interest if you are a wine buff.  The towns en-route are interesting and full of character.  From Cernay we drove the Route de Cretes (Crest route) which follows the top of the ridge which overlooks the Rhine and into Germany.  This road was built for military purposes, ie, to supply the many French military outposts which held this commanding position during conflicts with Germany.

We took the Gotthard Pass rather than tunnel for 2 reasons, as already mentioned:

(1)  I don't really like tunnels

(2)  The queues were exceptionally bad on the way down.  We arrived at the northern end of the tunnel about teatime on a Friday evening in early August. Most of Europe seemed to be travelling on that route at that time.  We had not intended to go at such a peak time but we were delayed in Cernay.  When I did my final checks before leaving on the preceeding Wednesday I found a split in one of the 'van tyre walls and had to change it. We then had to wait 2 days for a replacement spare as I did not fancy towing over, or under the Alps, without a spare wheel.  This pushed our journey through onto the Friday and as we were already late for our booking at Camping La Riva in Italy I did not feel able to delay any further for fear of loosing the place.

The motorways in Switzerland are very good, although one does have to buy the expensive vignettes to use them,  as already stated.  They do tend to have quite a lot of tunnels although most are pretty short.

If you are planning to stay in Switzerland I would strongly recommend the Bernese Oberland around Interlaken.  We stayed at a tiny campsite right on the lakeside in the village of Brienz - much quieter than the Interlaken sites.  We had a super time and bought boat, train and cable tickets which enabled us to roam the area on these including the spectacular trip on the mountain railway to the top of Jungfrau Joch.

if your are heading for Lake Geneva the Gotthard route is a bit to the west but you can branch west at south of Basle and follow the motorway.  I went that way years ago but others are better able to advise.

Regarding the spiritual aspect of towing it is good to "meet" another Christian on this website - a first for me.  My wife and I love caravanning and enjoying God's wonderful creation close-up.  His care has certainly sustained on our towing adventures. 

This year is certainly a case in point.  Our breakdown on the way was big-time.  The car gearbox failed just north of Luxembourg.  After a failed attempt to "repair" it by a local garage that our breakdown company had the car taken too we broke down again, after waiting a week, only 10 miles up the motorway!!  We then had to get a hire car home and the 'van and 4x4 followed 6 weeks later on a car transporter.  The car cost £2100 for a new gearbox and the caravan was damaged to the tune of £1200 whilst being transported home.  The Breakdown company has just agreed to pay for the repair of the 'van after elongated "discussions" which ended with me threatening court action.  The cost of the car repairs is still in dispute so I can't name and shame at the moment.  We were particularly grateful for God's care as we waited twice in the dark and rain on the motorway hard shoulder.after both breakdowns.  We were left for over 2 hours in both cases - so long that by the time they arrived the car battery no longer had enough juice to power the caravan lights and, on the second occasion, a passing vehicle wandered onto the the hardshoulder and smashed our warning triangle to smithereens.

Still praise the Lord we are home in one piece and looking forward to a return journey to Italy.  Hopefully Rome and further south next year. 

Don't hesitate to post again if I can help further.  We are relative newcomers to the Switzerland/italy route.

Happy 'vanning and God Bless

Tim