Euro 2010.

[Ripped Barbarian]

No, not football or anything.

Me and 2 friends are going to do a road trip around europe starting march 29 this year and lasting for approx 2 months

We have decided to take an anti clockwise route, down through portsmouth to le havre then down through france>italy>greece>bulgaria>romania>hungary>austr ia>czech>poland>germany>netherlands>belgium>back through france to england via dover.

We're basically out to enjoy ourselves, enjoy the culture, activities, having a laugh etc none of us are particularly 'ladish' but the usual going out places eating and drinking europe and picking up local birds etc will certainly be happening.
There's no strict time limit on being in different countries apart from in france we are going to be in a chateu in the alps that a friend is a chef at, this is near the start of april.
Other than that we are taking it as it comes, if we like somewhere we'll stay another day etc.

We've all got a few £K to burn, although i can imagine we're going to need to budget reasonably tightly to last the trip, we'll be having a mixture of stealth camping, staying in hostels/hotels (where we'll have proper showers etc twice a week or whatever) a lot of the money will simply go on fuel, food/drink and places to stay.

I'm just wondering:

Has anyone here done anythng like this?
Anyone who's been in europe, where do you recommend visting and why?

And we're still considering the vehicle to use:
I currently own a volvo V70, whilst it'd be great for the trip in some ways it's on 192k and the head gasket has a very mild failure (not lost a significant amount of water or oil in 1,000 miles driving) i'm dubious it'd complete the 8,000 mile (or so) trip....for £650 it's been a good car so far!

We are thinking of taking a principle of putting a few grand into something more decent, bigger and more fun.
We were thinking land rover defender 110 tdi, we've seen on for £2,995 with 88k that'd be suitable, thirstier than the volvo but a lot more practical (has a roof cage).

Other ideas are big japanese 4x4's (hilux surfs, land cruisers, nissan patrol or one of those mistubishi lethiathan like things)
Anyone have any ideas on a good vehicle?

[beN123]

According to the recent Top Gear episode Land Rover is the best one to go for not Japanese but along the same lines.

[Ripped Barbarian]

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According to the recent Top Gear episode Land Rover is the best one to go for

What happened?

[beN123]

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What happened?

Basically they went on a so many mile journey (cant remember, was around 1000) to Bolivia through the jungle and rought mountain ranges, the other 2 which were both Japanese if I remember were a Suzuki and a Toyota, which both broke down often where as the Land Rover ploughed on.

Being Top Gear its not really an accurate source, but both Jeremy and Hammond own Land Rovers and swear by them.

[ABZ]

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Has anyone here done anythng like this?
Anyone who's been in europe, where do you recommend visting and why?

My brother did a trip in his gap year doing Europe with hiss best mate. They came back with some amazing stories and places they really liked. - i will try and get a list of the "must go to" places.

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staying in hostels/hotels

He has a list of all of the hostels he stayed at as logged their trip and i remember him talking a lot about one in germany they really enjoyed.

He is coming down from Uni next w/e so i will ask him for you.

Should be an amazing trip! so jealous :P

[stronglikewood]

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I'm just wondering:

Has anyone here done anythng like this?
Anyone who's been in europe, where do you recommend visting and why?

I was in Poland for some time and I'd give Warsaw a miss as it is just a huge mass of spread out concrete, but would definately recommend to you Krakow. From there you've got the actual city to see which looks amazing with the main square and Wawel castle. You would have a good base from where to see Auschwitz and the Zakopane Mountains which make great day trips if those things sound of interest.

[JohnW]

Avoid the defender like the plague - or at the very least take one for a test drive first, to say they are agricultural is an understatement. They're underpowered, slow, noisy, prone to breaking down and mega thirsty - you'll be lucky to see 25mpg out of the diesel. That said they do have a charm to them - but if your not driving over tough stuff then avoid - anything that even resembles tarmac is not tough.

You'll get a much better, more modern car with a discovery although you'll still have the MPG problem unless you get LPG conversion - which will be good in most of Europe as its cheap - and it'll be 7 sensible seats.

Hilux surf would be my personal choice though - it just wont break down - ever.

Phone your insurance co. too you'll need a European extension, and probably best to get all of you covered to drive.

Places to go - personally I'd avoid the capitals, driving round them is a nightmare and they are hugely expensive. I'd definitely spend a fair amount of time in rural Italy, esp round lake Garda and Como outstanding natural beauty, plenty of well kitted up campsites - Gibraltar is definitely worth a visit. Corsica is supposed to be fantastic too.

[JohnW]

Oh - and the other top tip - if your buying a car specifically for the trip - get a left hand drive and sell it somewhere in Europe, you'll get back more than you paid for it, spend a couple of weeks in an all inclusive hotel and you can fly home rather than face a demoralising potentially multiple thousand mile drive home to blighty.

In fact it might be worth spending some of you budget on the car and plan to sell it in Greece - and then rent some mopeds at each island and use the ferry to get around.

[daffy]

If you make it to Vienna, Austria, you might consider going to Bratislava in Slovakia, it's only an hour's drive from there. I used to get the bus from Vienna airport to Bratislava coach station, so I can verify the timing as accurate.

Prague is a lovely city, and it's worth visiting the tourist bits, including the palace at the top of the hill, old town square and st wenceslas square. Just be sure to keep your wallets in your front pockets - pickpocteing is a problem in the tourist areas. If you walk in any direction for 10 minutes away from old town square, you'll find prices for food much more reasonable than in old town square. Around there, everything is the same price as you would pay in the UK, and it's not very nice either.

If you make it to Stuttgart, you've got a Mercedes museum there, and a Porsche one too. There was a club we went to on Thursday night called 'The Zap', as they had a live band there comprised of session players. Some of these guys would have toured with well known names, so the quality of the performance was always good. Tuesday nights we used to go to a Mexican (sorry, cannot remember the name, although I do remember it was in the same area as The Zap), where they did great food, but also had live music there too. Towards the end of the night, once everyone had stopped eating, everyone would dance on the tables.

In Belgium, I'd visit Brugge, it's very picturesque. In Brussels, there's the obvious tourist sites, like Le Grand Place, which are worth a visit. If you're out for a drink, I always used to go to O'Reillys opposite The Bourse (Belgian stock exchange), and if you want something to eat, there is a great Thai place on the side street that runs from the corner on which O'Reilly's is located. It's called Phat Thai, or alternatively, if you walk past Phat Thai, on the corner there is an Indian restaurant that I enjoyed. Just be careful when driving in Belgium, they are the worst drivers I've enver encountered! You need to be weary of a law they have over there where if you are coming from the right, you have the right of way, unless otherwise specified with road signs. This led to daft situations where people who were already on a roundabout had to give way to someone who wanted to come on to it.

In Amsterdam, I enjoyed visiting 2e Tuindwarsstraat, there's some great bars there and on one of the corners, there's a fantastic Italian takeaway. I had the salami pizza there, and it was one of the best pizzas I'd had in ages. Cafe de Tuin found on this street is a great place for a drink or two.

[Luffers]

I'd recommend something from the VAG stable that has the 1.9TDI 130 bhp engine.

This engine is widely regarded as the best through out the range and as one VW technician put it to me is "bulletproof"

I have a Passat estate with this engine, it gets over 50mpg on a run, is quick and roomy, it has covered 142,000 miles and has not needed any parts other than servicing.

As for places to go I would also recommend lake Garda and como in northern Italy, beautiful country. Whilst at Como we went up a 1400 metre mountain in a cable car which was huge as it carried mountain bikers also! I was desperate to have a go as you could hire MTB's but the GF was not into it and would not sit around waiting for me She's so selfish