The BIG one - 2020 Pan Euro Tour

The UK is pretty congested…. why not try across the water….?

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Re: The BIG one - 2020 Pan Euro Tour

Post by pbmr2 »

gavsdavs wrote: 14/09/17 19:00 I did a "two ball" rally which was 1200 miles and 8 countries over 7 days and it was hard work. You're in the car 6-7 hours and and not hanging around and it's a mad dash rather than a fun drive..

20 days of hotels and B&Bs is going to add up a bit, I can live with the fuel/ferry/toll costs :)
A little more chilled would be nice, going to need to find a co-driver as 20 days of doing all the driving is going to be hard work :shocked:

1200 miles in 7 days at 7 hours a day, that's like 24mph? Was it lots of back roads and stopping for fuel, food, sights etc?

Where I lived in France was about 750miles and that was just a 12hour trip door to door with the train crossing. Though apart from the last hour it's all motorway.


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Re: The BIG one - 2020 Pan Euro Tour

Post by gavsdavs »

pbmr2 wrote: 14/09/17 20:49 1200 miles in 7 days at 7 hours a day, that's like 24mph? Was it lots of back roads and stopping for fuel, food, sights etc?
It was
London to Dover to St Omer - easy enough.
St Omer to SaarBrucken
Saarbrucken to Innsbruck
Innsbruck to Lake Como
Lake Como to Monaco then Nice
Nice to Dunkirk and then London

So 6 days and more like 2000 miles, with Nice to London in 1 day being the hard one, 3.5 tanks of fuel in a day.

If you haven't done one of these kind of trips before you shouldn't underestimate how much fuss and faff it is getting a group of cars and it's occupants to cover just 300 miles a day. People want to stop for toilets, coffee, photographs, etc. It's not as easy as storming down an autobahn at 100+ for 3 hours straight. If you are not on an autoroute, your average speed drops to 40 odd mph.
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Re: The BIG one - 2020 Pan Euro Tour

Post by shinny »

gavsdavs wrote: 16/09/17 12:55...with Nice to London in 1 day being the hard one, 3.5 tanks of fuel in a day.
Yup, I winced when I read that. Huge driving day, that :shocked:
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Re: The BIG one - 2020 Pan Euro Tour

Post by pbmr2 »

Ah so 66% more distance than 1200, makes more sense. Used to live 2 hours north of Nice, know the area well :D
Nice to Calais is 1200+km. 11/12 hours straight plus fuel and rest stops. Used to do the opposite direction as a kid, think how the parents coped with 3 kids :laughing

Been on 3 big Euro tours, last one was:
London - Calais - Amasterdam.
Amsterdam - Cologne (then deported back to Belgium, another story)
Belgium (border) - Prague
Prague - Vienna
Vienna - Milan
Milan - Lyon
Lyon - Dover

On the big tours it's a bit different as the only meeting point is the end of the day, how each car deals with that is up to them.
For a club run it does indeed become more complicated if everyone wants to stay as a single group. You're bang on with the complications, no amount of planning is going to account for the artist's eye for a photo or the leaky bum from yesterdays roadside food stop.
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Re: The BIG one - 2020 Pan Euro Tour

Post by gavsdavs »

shinny wrote: 16/09/17 13:57
gavsdavs wrote: 16/09/17 12:55...with Nice to London in 1 day being the hard one, 3.5 tanks of fuel in a day.
Yup, I winced when I read that. Huge driving day, that :shocked:
Yeah that wasn't fun. 5am rise, 6pm leave, fuel every 250/300 miles because you're doing high speed, an hours delay at the traffic jam in Lyon. No real breaks aside from fuel and fresh coffee.

Got to Dunkirk an hour later than i should have - took a wrong turn and on something like a 7pm ferry. Got a bit of sleep on the ferry but it didn't help a huge amount.
Off the ferry at Dover at about 9pm and back to london around 2 hours later.

Tinnitus, couldn't sleep, etc, not to be repeated.

It's always tough to decide whether to do A roads and enjoy the drive a bit more and cover a lot less ground, or have to bomb up the autoroutes and not really enjoy driving except that the roads on the continent are so much better than ours.
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Re: The BIG one - 2020 Pan Euro Tour

Post by BALDYMONSTER »

Definately interested.

Something like this has been on my bucket list for two decades.

Timing is perfect as I reckon it will take that long to get my 2 how I want it to be.

Good chance Mrs BALDYMONSTER will be up for this as well as she is a real road trip fan.
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Re: The BIG one - 2020 Pan Euro Tour

Post by Peterx5452 »

Love it, always wanted to drive in norway :th:
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Re: The BIG one - 2020 Pan Euro Tour

Post by TonyleFrog »

pbmr2 wrote: 16/09/17 14:57 For a club run it does indeed become more complicated if everyone wants to stay as a single group. You're bang on with the complications, no amount of planning is going to account for the artist's eye for a photo or the leaky bum from yesterdays roadside food stop.
With a group the only challenge is whether the main focus will be on the driving or photo ops and touristy stuff. Combining them is not impossible but the daily mileage that is achievable will take a big hit and you'll have to plan overnight accommodation accordingly.

With the emphasis on driving, 250-300 miles a day is not a problem. I've been doing such distances on sections of the club's annual Highland Drive every year (bar 2011) starting in 2009.

In fact the biggest leg for me is always the trek to reach the start! Next year it will be 460 miles to Perth. That's quite enough to be going on with. An early departure and a break of at least a hour for lunch. I have no wish be either quick (in the non-biblical sense) or dead... ;)
gavsdavs wrote: 16/09/17 12:55...with Nice to London in 1 day being the hard one, 3.5 tanks of fuel in a day.

Yeah that wasn't fun. 5am rise, 6pm leave, fuel every 250/300 miles because you're doing high speed, an hours delay at the traffic jam in Lyon. No real breaks aside from fuel and fresh coffee.

Got to Dunkirk an hour later than i should have - took a wrong turn and on something like a 7pm ferry. Got a bit of sleep on the ferry but it didn't help a huge amount.
Off the ferry at Dover at about 9pm and back to london around 2 hours later.

Tinnitus, couldn't sleep, etc, not to be repeated.

It's always tough to decide whether to do A roads and enjoy the drive a bit more and cover a lot less ground, or have to bomb up the autoroutes and not really enjoy driving except that the roads on the continent are so much better than ours.
I agree. Such mega distances in one go are debilitating. I once drove back from the north west Highlands* to Kent (well in excess of 600 miles) stopping only for fuel and a snack en route. I was in convoy with Michael (mr2big) which helped but I was completely cream crackered when I got home. In fact Michael decided that he was in no fit state to make it all the way to the coast. He got some sleep in his car at Lakeside Services just before the Dartford Crossing.

Never again. :rolleyes:

* Most people who have never been don't understand that it's over 200 miles to reach the Erksine bridge over the Clyde with nary a motorway or dual carriageway in sight until the final 10 miles.
Peterx5452 wrote: 12/12/17 0:19 Love it, always wanted to drive in norway :th:
Getting there (or back) this surely has to be the route. :) - https://goo.gl/maps/77khK6zUf7x
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Re: The BIG one - 2020 Pan Euro Tour

Post by Ripley »

Such a wealth of knowledge Tony. Good post 👍
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Re: The BIG one - 2020 Pan Euro Tour

Post by pbmr2 »

Doing my frequent drive to the highest town in Europe this weekend, 750 miles in one hit bar fuel stops and a spot of lunch. It's all motorway apart from the first 10 miles and the last 2 hours. Heavy snow this year might add a lot to the end. I really don't mind the drive, in fact prefer it to flying.
In the dry, without snow issues, the drive door to door is only 12 hours without going mental at all. That balance of covering distance and saving fuel. With a 2nd driver it really is an easy day of driving.
There is no time for picture stops or sight seeing at all. The odd toilet stop and walk about for 10 mins. Did it in the '2 last year which was super easy and comfy.

300 miles in a day sounds nice, easy amount and no need for a second driver to allow for rest.
Like Tony says, planning a route with 'doable' days like that and the odd mega day to cover the bigger hops would allow for food stops, pictures and sights as well as the driving. Might be best to have driving days and sights days (still covering some distance).

Which ever it turns out to be, I'll vote for big distances but not be put out if it's lots of shorter days.
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Re: The BIG one - 2020 Pan Euro Tour

Post by TonyleFrog »

pbmr2 wrote: 14/12/17 20:10 I really don't mind the drive, in fact prefer it to flying.
Too right. Airports are a monumental PITA. With all the faff it entails.

The security processing/checks conducted by humourless uniformed staff.
Baggage check in (unless you're travelling light) and the wait to retrieve it the other end.
(Assuming it doesn't end up at a completely different destination from where you're going).
Airport parking* (except if you take a taxi or public transport: see above re travelling light).
The only way to fly is to pilot your own private aircraft. :)

* And never EVER use one of those meet and greet companies. I knew this guy from static car meets and my gut feeling told me from the beginning that there was something not quite 'right' about him. When I found out what he did for a living my suspicions deepened. He used to turn up in different expensive/exotic machinery which I reckoned were customers' cars which had been 'borrowed' for the day.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/o ... 00676.html
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ca ... le-9556496
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pbmr2 wrote: 14/12/17 20:10 In the dry, without snow issues, the drive door to door is only 12 hours without going mental at all. That balance of covering distance and saving fuel. With a 2nd driver it really is an easy day of driving.
There is no time for picture stops or sight seeing at all. The odd toilet stop and walk about for 10 mins. Did it in the '2 last year which was super easy and comfy.

300 miles in a day sounds nice, easy amount and no need for a second driver to allow for rest.
Like Tony says, planning a route with 'doable' days like that and the odd mega day to cover the bigger hops would allow for food stops, pictures and sights as well as the driving. Might be best to have driving days and sights days (still covering some distance).

Which ever it turns out to be, I'll vote for big distances but not be put out if it's lots of shorter days.
A co-pilot obviously makes a massive difference. If going solo, 4 hours is the maximum stint I would ever consider attempting (preferably less), irrespective of mileage, with a minimum 30 minute break period. Most people don't realise how their concentration level/reaction time drops over that time span because the drop off is so gradual. The 'boiling frog' syndrome.

It's only if you undertake before and after evaluation tests that you can properly observe the results. I saw some data from one once some years ago and it was an eye opener. I don't remember the actual figures (absolute and percentages) but it was scary stuff.
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Re: The BIG one - 2020 Pan Euro Tour

Post by pbmr2 »

yep, felt dead a few times and had to stop to rest or even sleep a couple of times. poor preparation is a killer. Made the mistake of only 2 hours sleep and a single driver for one trip.. That ended up parked in an aire for 3 hours of sleep not too far into the journey.
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Re: The BIG one - 2020 Pan Euro Tour

Post by Tallboy »

Im going to assume people are still interested in this i know i am! judging by comments so far we will be aiming either north or south(i'd prefer north) i think we should look at settling on a route to try and nail costs(ish)?

Im 40 in 2020 so id like to make this as special as possible, lots of site seeing!!
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Re: The BIG one - 2020 Pan Euro Tour

Post by TonyleFrog »

Tallboy wrote: 16/05/18 20:53 lots of site seeing!!
Are you planning to go dogging or have you acquired a construction fetish having undertaken you own design and build?

The word I think you were looking for is sight... ;)
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