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Looking at heading down in Aug. Last year there were two of us but this year it will just be me so looking to cut costs a bit. The tolls last year were fairly hefty!
Toll from Calais approx 9 or 9.5hrs
Non toll = 12.5hr - that's with no traffic etc
Has anyone actually done this and was it ok or a complete nightmare and not worth the savings. I could mix and match toll with free roads. I recall there was a very long toll road from Reims (I think) to xxxx which was €35ish - but that was about 3.5 hrs of driving. Maybe include that and skip the rest??
Also - what is the best route option for Toll Free - Belgium, Lux, France or straight down France?
why cant France be like Germany!
why cant France be like Germany!
I'm sure someone tried once...
complete nightmare and not worth the savings
This, well it depends on your pain threshold. Whilst the tolls are expensive and save time, they also save fuel because you're travelling at a steady rate, pretty much in a straight line.
Use ViaMichelin, they can offer some great hybrid routes that, I've just mapped with with the economic setting and they give a toll free option. They estimate a cost of €90 each way (Calais to Borg) based on my car. Which is pretty cheap, it's pretty much half the cost of using the Toll Roads, but it takes 15.5 hours, almost twice as long. That's in good traffic, the tolls roads rarely have problems, the A-road are more likely to be jammed up.
At least they now have an App, I think it has a sat-nav feature so you're not map reading a couple of dozen directions tired.
Dover for me is a 4 hour drive, add 2 for the crossing and with the driving and you're looking at a 24 hour shift with stops. I personally couldn't do that, I can drive Home to the Alps in a single shifton the tolls road, if I have to, but it really is the edge of my endurance if I want to make sure we arrive alive. I'd have to stop for a night, wiping out any savings.
It's probably a bit late now, but for solo trips, it was probably cheaper to fly.
12.5hrs (plus stops and delays) would be a shitter of a way to start a holiday. What sort of time would you end up arriving?
Another 3+ hrs each way could also be a chunk of extra fuel, so would the saving really be worth it?
I travel back and forth through France quite regularly and my advice would be to check the cost of each individual toll road you are using. Not all tolls are created equally. Some are very low cost and will save you a lot of time and fuel. Others can seem really expensive when there are good alternatives that can be used.
I have done it without tolls a couple of times. But then I took my time and wild camped on the way down to make the journey more enjoyable. Basically drive over Belgium to Luxembourg, then south to Nancy and on the Besascon, over the Jura to Geneva, straight through the city centre, and then out on the French motorway. Short bit of toll (8 euros) to Annecy, then over the lake to Albertville and up the valley to Bourg. The hardest part is avoiding accidentally finding yourself on a Swiss motorway without the toll sticker on the screen 🙂
969 km and about 9 hours by toll road according to Google
1037 km and about 12.25 hours by my route
More or less this route
https://goo.gl/maps/MxKjPJ1SG7sS2dFM8
accidentally finding yourself on a Swiss motorway without the toll sticker on the screen
This, once had to pay the 'toll' (ransom, I don't consider 5 minutes of motorway use to be worth the money, but I wasn't prepared to argue the toss with a guy with an automatic weapon in hand) got my change in Swiss Francs from Euros, so essentially all useless to me, 5 minutes later I was back on a French toll. Essentially just a stupid* tourist tax.
Yep, my fault for trusting the SatNav to pick a sensible route and not one that strayed into Swiss land!
how much hassle do you like? speed limit is now 50mph on normal roads , it will take a long time , the old N roads spiral out from Paris centre so as soon as you get within 150 miles of Paris you are hopping the N roads , Sat Nav will send you on every town/city bypass some of these are very round the houses and can take an age - not trying to dissuade you but it will likely cost you an overnight stop and exhaust you .
+ do not travel on Saturdays in August without checking https://www.bison-fute.gouv.fr/index,langen.html
seems to be a NO for the free roads then! Some useful links there. I will do some research.
Flying is still an option but I was thinking of doing a week on a guided holiday and then a week of touring around the other areas so a car is needed.
Maybe a two week trip to Spain on a MTB holiday instead. It would almost work out the same cost wise.
I've done it once. Once was enough. If I was to do it again then I would keep off the toll roads in the northern half of France and get back on around dijon
I've done it Dover to Chamonix once thru the night and as above it was hard work and I've never had the desire to repeat.