Overland to Greece

[jacaldo]

Hi, hope this is the right forum, we are looking to travel to lefkada by car in 2010. Does any one have experience of this trip? mainly costs and ferries. Normally we fly out for 3 weeks but this time I would sacrifice 3 days either side for the travelling and treat it as part of the holiday. Apologies in advance if this is a well worn subject. Thanks

 

[vyv_cox]

Hi, hope this is the right forum, we are looking to travel to lefkada by car in 2010. Does any one have experience of this trip? mainly costs and ferries. Normally we fly out for 3 weeks but this time I would sacrifice 3 days either side for the travelling and treat it as part of the holiday. Apologies in advance if this is a well worn subject. Thanks

Not by car but by camper van, past two seasons. 2008 went via Luxembourg, Strasbourg, Switzerland, Italy to Ancona. Ferry to Igoumenitsa. Return the same route. 2009 went Germany, Austria, Brenner Pass, also to Ancona - Igoumenitsa. Impossible to advise re costs as the vehicles are so different.

Travelling by motorway is largely dull, with excellent scenery around the Alps. We have taken five days each way for detours and stops but could easily do it faster. If I only had three weeks total there is no way I would drive it.

 

[tennisgirl1]

Last year we (two adults in medium sized estate car) left Dover at about midday one Friday in August and drove to the Reims area for an overnight in a cheap hotel chain.

Second day Reims to Luzern in Switzerland (moderately priced hotel) in about 5 hours - you can go down either side of the Rhine and into Switzerland at Basel. (Don't forget you need a Swiss Vignette for your car which pays for all the tunnels in Switzerland. It lasts until Dec 31 so you can use it on the way back.)

Third day Luzern - via Milan - to the town of Forli (expensive hotel but very booked up in this area in summer) about 100 miles from Ancona.

Fourth day, drive to Ancona and overnight ferry about 1400 from Ancona to Igoumenitsa. Expensive but very comfortable.

Fifth day arrive Igoumenitsa about 0600 and drive to Preveza/Levkas in about an hour and a half. Breakfast on boat.

All ferries and hotels booked in advance. Total cost return round the £1000 mark. Definitely cheaper by air. The motorways are good, if a bit tedious. You need to do some planning - we started out on a Friday at Dover so that most of our motorway driving was Saturday and Sunday. However Monday morning on the trip down to Ancona the motorway was very busy.

We enjoyed the trip and took some long lunch stops off the motorway. You could probably do more driving per day but we wanted to allow for bad driving conditions.

 

[DaiB]

To Preveza

Hi, we have done that journey three times and twice we spent 3 nights on the way, last night being on the ferry. Now we use four days so it's a bit more relaxed with less boring motorway hours per day.
We stop off first night as far into France a we can get after an early Norfolk line crossing.Next night around Palma area, and last night on the ferry.
First time we went down to Bari and across but the ferry is a bit ropey so now we use Superfast from Ancona.
I would recommend www.viamare.com a London based outfit for arranging your tickets, we have used them twice and the price was the same as booking on line, but a lot quicker and easier, especially when it came to changing return dates.
Next time we will use five or six days and do less motorway/toll roads and really make it part of the holiday.
Do your sums well as the tolls add quite quickly, as you go east fill up with fuel after the borders as each country on the way the fuel price drops a bit.(2007)
We have booked ahead on the internet places to stop over, (my wife likes that) and also just taken pot luck on route,(bit more exciting)
Be careful off the toll roads in France, the "red" roads are just like motorways and I got caught, along with a stream of other tourists, for a 120euro speeding ticket. Mind you I was well over the limit and they were quite nice about it while taking the cash!!
You will need to have a reflective jacket thing now for France, about 10 quid on the ferry.
The round trip works out quite expensive, 1000 quid depending on the car/stopovers.
Good thing is being to take all your stuff down to the boat.

 

[DownWest]

About the reflective jacket, keep it in the car, not in the boot. It must be within reach if you get out an a motorway.

I used the Bari ferry some years ago, it was rough then. We slept on deck and woke up to find ourselves covered in smuts from the exaust.
A

 

[nimbusgb]

Done it about 6 times in the past couple of years.

24 hours UK South East to Venice, 24 hours Venice to Igonomitsa on the ferry. 1.5 hours to Levkas by road. Further down onto Levkas island takes longer ( another couple of hours to vasiliki ). Done right you only need to catch a few hours sleep in an hotel / motel / the car on one night, sleeping very comfortably in a cabin and slipping into holiday mode on the ferry on the second night on the way down.

All in anywhere from about £800 return depending on the type of cabin on the ferries, your vehicle mileage, route used ( tolls in France and Swiss tax ) etc. Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy is the cheapest in tolls with the first occuring in Italy.

Going via Ancona or anywhere further down the Italian coast is 6 of one 1/2 dozen of the other. Longer on the road and fuel useage only shorter ferry trip if you drive all the way down to Bari.

Driving round the west side of the Adriatic is a big undertaking. Dad's done it in a camper but too long a trip for my liking.


For UK ferry tickets I look at AFerry.co.uk for Greek ferries I use http://www.greekferries.gr/ Grrek ferries only need bookings at the high season periods.

 

[Tranona]

Did it in 2008 (to Corfu)

Out, midnight ferry from Dover Dunkirk. Autoroute through Brussels, Alscace, into Switzerland at Basel, St Gotthard Pass. Overnight at motel just before Italian border. Round Milan in the rush hour (and rain!) then Autoroute to Brindisi in one go. Hotel there ready for ferry next morning. Corfu by next evening. All single handed. Not to be repeated but feasible with two sharing driving.

Return much more sensible with stops near Pescara, at Modena for the Ferrari factory and museum, in Switzerland, then Mulhouse for the National museum (drunk on Bugattis) Molsheim (Bugattis again), Reims for the cathedral and the old GP circuit then Dunkirk. Stayed in a mixture of cheap motels and a couple of swisher places.

Total round trip costs about £1000 - helped by Diesel doing 50+ mpg cruising.

Would I do it again? Not if I had only 3 weeks, but yes, planning to do it with a clear 3 weeks in the middle and going via Venice and a different slow return route through France - but you have to treat it as holiday not just travel.

 

[jacaldo]

Thanks for all the advice, We may be able to squeeze another couple of days either side to allow us more time on the boat. This is a trip I have wanted to take for some time now, after 10 years of flying into Preveza on ever decreasing seat sizes and with all the (neccessary) security it would be nice to do it under our own steam.

 

[Bluesbreaker]

Overland to greece.

Have done this trip many times and used various routes.The departure time of the Greek
ferry ,will determine your number of overnight stops.To avoid many road tolls, travel on
the roads in Belgium (none whatsoever) LUXEMBOURG (cheapest petrol/diesel in europe)
Germany .Switzland ,as previosly mentioned you will need to pay 30 euros approx for a, one off annual road tax.Once you are in Italy it is virtualy unavoidable topay road tolls,this year i paid 20 euros from Milan to Venice.On my return i only stop for one night as i tend to book a ferry that arrives at 7/8am.Anyway it can be a great trip if you plan right.