Calais to Milan
Hello all,
I am venturing to Italy this time and wonder does anyone have any experience of the route from Calais down to Milan or nearabouts.
i am heading to Milan to drop my husband at his sister’s so I can go off and have a break down in Tuscany.
i have to admit, I will be hoofing it a bit so need your expertise in selecting stops, not too far off the beaten track, to be able to get there in good time.
i am getting a Vignette (when the site starts working) so know I am going through Switzerland.
all suggestions welcome
thanks all xx
Comments
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Simple and fastest route is Calais, Reims, Metz, Strasbourg, Basel, St. Gottard, Lugano and into Italy. Have done it many times but where you stop depends on when you start! We stop near Reims (Guignicourt) first night (three hours from Calais) then Obernai in Alsace. Following day will get you through Switzerland into Italy but it sounds like you will be going faster than that.
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Hi AB,
I would second the HG route above, like him have done it many times and off again to Garda in June. From Strasbourg I cross into Germany and take the A5 to Basel, I think that is quicker than going via Colmar. I would avoid the Belgium routes that go via Luxembourg to avoid tolls, they are very busy and very slow.There is a decent municipal site in Metz, right on the river, see www.Metz.fr But if you are in a hurry you might want to use MH Aires. Not Autoroute Picnic Aires, they’re not safe.
We love Italy, last September we split a month between Tuscany and Garda. Can’t wait to get back... enjoy.
BillC
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There's an aire just outside the entrance to the campsite at Metz. Is the Belgium/Luxembourg route that much slower? Not IMHO and it saves on tolls and fuel costs.
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Camping Gottardo, just south of the St Gottard tunnel is an excellent (and not too expensive) site before crossing the border into Italy. Once you cross the border the sites on the Italian side tend to be very busy depending on the time of the year you go. I second CY’s comment re the Belgium route. In the past I was a confirmed Reims/Metz route person but for the last two years we’ve taken the Belgium route. Now that the road surfaced have improved its significantly cheaper and not that much slower. I recommend you get the Campercontact app and use that to find sites on route. We rarely plan sites in advance and usually find one on the app about 30 minutes before we stop.
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I did the same route as Hitch, the French tolls came to about £87.00 one way. I returned via Germany. I can’t help with overnight stops as I just drove all the way except for a couple of stops for catnaps plus refuelling and comfort breaks
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You don't say when you are travelling but if early June you will find that the Germans have a holiday then and flock to the Italian Lakes. Plenty of sites in Tuscany, a beautiful area. ACSI may be useful if travelling out of peak season.
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Why not consider taking the Frejus tunnel through the Alpes, down to Turin and then along to Milan. We've set off from Camping Des Grands Cols at St Jean de Maurienne and made Lake Garda by early afternoon on this route. It's motorway all the way from Calais via Reims, Villefranche ,St Exupery, Chambery > Albertville. The turn-off for the tunnel and St Jean are clearly signposted.
It would be expensive but quick. Note that motorway signs in France are blue, but green in italy. We nearly took the b road to Milan from the Torino 'tangentziale' making that mistake!
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Hi CY,
We used the toll free routes down to Namur for years towing a caravan, but that was 15+ years ago. Last September we tried it again thinking all was going to be fine, but it wasn’t. I’m an experienced driver having covered most of Western Europe continuously over the past 43 years and I am not making this up and I do try to avoid tolls whenever I can. That road from Dunkirk to Namur, via Mons, was diabolical. It was solid with two continuous lanes of HGVs. That route is very industrial and I guess like our M5 up to the West Midlands, the HGV traffic has grown exponentially. I was off on holiday and don’t need that for the sake of £45 worth of tolls and good Aires to stop for a break. But everyone has their own view and each to his own. I’m just telling it as it was. That’s what this forum is for and I do respect your view. By the way, when did you last go that way?
BillC
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It was last year. I took the E40/ E25 looping round Brussels and Liege. Depending on the time of day, skirting Brussels can clog up a bit but otherwise a good fast route. Time it right and you could do the Belgian GP at Spa.
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We have used the Lille - Mons - Charleroi - Namur route a number of times to visit family near Frankfurt. Not the most attractive route and busy but we have never been badly held up and the surface is now ok. Used the Brussels ring road once - never again! Moreover, there is a small very basic site at Binche, just west of Charleroi, suitable for an overnight stop and within an afternoons drive from Calais (civilised driving time for us oldies). My satnav also tries to send me up to Brussels, I ignore it!
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Hi CY,
I don’t think we are talking about the same route. The route you use is further North than mine. I pass Lille, Mons and Namur and this route is around 20 miles shorter than yours. I have driven to Maastricht several times in recent years and never been happy to get so close to Brussels or its ring road, not to mention the potholes!
BillC
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Unfortunately we didn’t have much luck with sites just over the Italian border. We always used to stop near Bellinzona but the site there, although very good, is hellishly expensive.
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..... the site is Camping Al Censo.
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Hi all,
One site near Bellinzona to avoid, in my opinion, is Camping Riarena in Cugnasco. We booked it in advance for an o/n stop early last September. We left the A2 motorway near Bellinzona at around 5pm and followed the recommended directions, but this coincided with a huge Alpine rain and hail storm. We also got into a tea time traffic jam and only moved 1km in 90 minutes. There was a huge bottleneck in Cadenazzo. The recommended route goes via the airport which seemed a long way around and seemed to be the source of the jam.
When we arrived at the site, just before 7pm, we were given a pitch at the furthest point away from reception. Bearing in mind that the site was on an steep hill and the roads were like rivers and the allocated pitch was tiny and no good for us, we just could not get on it. We passed loads of empty pitches whilst driving across the site. I walked back to reception in the pouring rain but got no joy, the manager was working in the restaurant and didn’t care. So I helped myself to a large empty pitch which by now was a mud bath. On trying to hook up to the electrics I realised they used a dedicated adaptor which are only supplied by the reception, but they had ran out of them so we were on battery and gas for the night. On leaving the next morning there was an argument because I refused to pay for the electricity. Next morning we realised that the site was mostly populated by German long term’ers and was a bit like a gipsy camp. We won’t be going there again...
BillC
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Swiss EHU sockets are not unusual and require an adapter which sites generally provide. The site I mentioned I think is around 60 SF per night which is ridiculous although we have used it several times. Switzerland is an extremely expensive country (except for fuel and one or two other things). Sites can be very poor and expensive so it is a good idea to research overnight stops which elsewhere we never do.
If you stop on the motorway for coffee and cake you can say goodby to £15 if you are not careful.
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