German Motorways - service areas
We are going to Croatia in the summer thru Holland Germany Austria and Slovenia. We have travelled a lot in France and love the autoroutes with the frequent service areas (aires) both the picnic type ones as well as the fully serviced ones.
So just trying to find out if the German ones have frequent service areas like France or are they more in tune with UK ones i.e. one every 100 miles or so and then only fully serviced with little or no provision for MH or caravans?
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I think that probably the French system is the Gold Standard by which all others are judged. They don't seem to be as frequently spaced in Germany compared to France but perhaps more so that in the UK, especially in terms of parking areas rather than full service stations. Some are just parking areas immediately alongside the autobahn. The main ones are quite large. One word of caution if you are travelling at the weekend or on bank holidays. Because of the restriction on heavy goods vehicle movements on those days it can be difficult to find parking spaces for the likes of caravans and motorhomes. Oneputt mentioned the Auto Hof's which are off motorway service areas which serve both the autobahn and local roads. Apparently if you need to fill up with fuel these can be a bit cheaper. If you are going across country on ordinary roads we have found in some area laybys are few and far between.
David
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Makes you laugh when you get these gantry signs saying "Tiredness kills, take a break".
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Hi Michael T,
All the above are very accurate and you will find the standards are far higher than in the UK. Just make sure you have some change (most places charge 50 cents to use the facilities which is normally redeemable if you purchase something)
We found the further you get from the UK, the better the roads and facilities are, Germany and Austria in particular.
Cant answer for Croatia, as we only drove for a shortish distance before turning off to catch our ferry and we found Slovenia very similar to UK.
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We have travelled extensively on Autobahns in German and Austria. The German Service Area's we have used have been better than UK and France. But like all European Countries with the no Lorries allowed to travel on Weekends all are very busy. Austria we think, has the excellent Motorway service areas the best being Landzeit photos below of the Tauern Alm Services on A10 between Salzburg and Villach, Main route to Slovenia. Situated just before the Tauern Tunnel. The other group is Rosenberger excellent too.
ASFINAG, the Organisation that covers all Autobahns, Tunnels and Vignettes in Austria also has many Rest Area's with Services . You can download an App for this on Apple and Android called "Unterwegs" tells you where theses Services are and gives you all Autobahn Information plus Tunnels and Vignettes. You can see road conditions on 600 Live Web Cams situated all along their Autobahn System.
DianneT
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Yes agree with all that has been said, German pit stops excellent. If you venture as far as Italy then you will find that the service areas there tend to be cramped - a little like their sites! Heading for Croatia in June so will try to remember to comment on return.
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Thanks Dianne for that info about the Asfinag app, just installing it now ready for our trip through Austria in May. Hope you & John are well. Regards, Roy
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