Driving to the Alps - Our Tips & Advice | The Snowboard Asylum

[Music] hey everybody jeremy from the snowboard asylum here well i think finally winter is on the horizon and it's time to start getting excited about going snowboarding if you're anything like us after a summer of lockdowns and covered restrictions the thought of getting back out into the mountains uh is like really appealing um however i think we can safely say that winter 2021 is going to be a very different animal to winters that have gone in the past now if you're in the process of thinking about what you're going to do for your holidays this year and where you're going to go and how you're going to get there i'd say now is the time to really kind of give some thoughts to changing how you get out to the mountains so um what we've really decided to do this year is just put together a video for people that have never really thought about driving out to the alps um i guess this winter it is probably the wind to really make that call and think about getting out there in your car um there's so many advantages to driving out to the mountains those are only just cost but they're also really being in charge of your own destiny and at this moment that's kind of a really important thing to think about um let's kind of just really talk about the cost of driving out because i suspect that puts puts a lot of people off but the reality is once you've crossed the channel uh it is relatively inexpensive if you work out how much flights are and then you put in all the extras on top of that um that's not cheap at all so you know you've got your flight costs you've got parking costs you've got luggage costs you've got equipment costs um you've now got seating allocation costs as well and when you add all those together it's pretty pricely especially if you're going over in a family group of four or so now the big advantage of doing it in your car uh once you've got your ferry crossings uh your fuel costs and your um tolls if you need to go those routes that's really your only cost and generally they didn't come anywhere near the price of flying the beauty of having your own car as well out in the mountains is it gives you options and it's those options that really can make a difference between having a good holiday and having a great holiday you're not stuck in one resort there's so many times especially in a lot of the valleys in the alps where you can get such massive snow variations between resorts that are pretty close um if you're of the unfortunate look that you hit the resort that has no snow and you're on a package tour and you've flown in and um caught a transfer bus uh you're not really going to have much choice to get out of that resort if you've got your car you can drive down the next valley and have a great day snowboarding and we've got a really good example of that once when we were in my hoffen so we we ended up in meyerhoff and on a bank holiday went to the lift station and it was absolutely heaving um it was like 45 minutes just to get the chair lift up to the top of the mountain so basically what we did we turned around and hoofed it down to a little resort a bit further down the valley surprisingly we got there there was three cars in the car park we ended up having one of the best powder days that we've ever had there's a little bit of a video that will follow this just to kind of show you uh we couldn't have accessed that if we didn't have a vehicle um having a vehicle also gives you options in terms of having you stay there if you're on a package and you're leaving early in the morning it could snow overnight and you have to catch that bus at 6 00 am whereas if you drive in you can do you can delay your departure have a great day on the snow uh which could potentially be one of your best riding days ever um so you've got options with driving now the thing is a lot of people are put off thinking it's complex and difficult to do so we decided to put a video together that's just kind of going to run through all the things you need to be wary of when you're driving out of the alps so we'll take a look at what you need for your vehicle we'll take a look at the documents that you're going to need and we'll also show you routes that you can take to both austria and the french alps we're not going to do italy or switzerland um just because i kind of not got that much experience of driving to those two areas but um a lot of the routes that you're gonna take to austria and to france um are the same routes that you would go to to switzerland so hopefully if you're going to those destinations you'll be able to take something out of this as well so um i guess it's not going to be the most exciting of videos so if you're watching this for entertainment reasons you're probably going to be a little bit disappointed and you'll give give us a thumbs down in the comments section but hopefully if you are planning making that journey it's gonna give you some ideas hopefully ease any worries that you have about it and show just how simple and easy it is to drive to the alps so in this first part of the video uh what i'm going to do is just kind of run through some of the things that you're going to require to travel across continental europe kind of some of the documents that you're going to need some of the paperwork and also what the legal requirements are for journeys across europe as well so um the first thing to kind of mention on this uh i'm recording this in september so um not really sure what's gonna happen with our participation in the eu but uh as things look uh it's not looking promising so i'm just gonna really kind of do this as though that we're gonna have a hard brexit because that is gonna kind of make some changes to the documentation that you need so really the first thing that you're gonna need if you're planning off uh planning on traveling across europe uh this is really post um post the 31st of december so this is kind of running into january 2021 is that you are gonna need an insurance green card uh you can pick one of those up from your insurance company just let them know that you can be traveling across europe and they will send you a green card you need to have the actual original document with you uh has to be on green paper as well or it's invalid you can't take a photocopy of it so first things first just make sure you've got your your green card so that your vehicle's insurance the next thing you're gonna need uh post is one of these which is an international driving license these are super easy to get all you need to do is go to your local post office uh it obviously needs to be a larger post office you need a passport photo and your original driving license they're super cheap they're about five pound fifty uh it lasts uh three years so um you're gonna get some use out of it as well um you're gonna need this to drive across europe okay what you're also gonna need as well uh is you're gonna want a copy of your v5 in the car you're gonna want your insurance certificate as well um and you need those just for kind of proof of ownership and to prove that the car is insured as well other than the green card right so um that's kind of the main documentation that you're gonna need i would also recommend to get european breakdown cover as well um i've broken down a couple of times in europe i did one breakdown with no cover and a breakdown with cover um it was chuck and cheese it's definitely worth having um you can probably upgrade your insurances that you get with credit cards and so on and so forth to cover that a little bit extra cost or you can purchase it direct from the aar ac but i would say it's definitely worth having that that cover right so for your vehicle there are some uh things that you're gonna need to put in there uh just to bring your car up to standards for european travel um you can buy those things as a kit from halfords or you can buy them separate um online or via a local motor space shop but i'm just going to kind of run through them to them what you need so uh first and foremost a warning triangle every country in europe you need one of those so make sure you've got one of those secondly you're gonna need reflective jackets reflective jackets need to be for every passenger in the car and they need to be kept in the cabin not in the boot so you need that um what you also need is a headlamp beam adjuster uh you can pick them up from alfred's they just stick on the on the headlights of your car that's super easy to do um you're gonna need replacement bulbs not lauren every country in europe but definitely worthwhile having um you're also gonna need a gb sticker as well so if you don't have a gb uh number plate make sure you've got a gb sticker and that especially after uh the 31st of december as well i'm pretty sure that the the police in central europe will be pretty much on it so just make sure you've kind of got that um first aid kit as well uh again not lawyer in a lot of countries but definitely worth having um just a good first aid kit from halfords that fits in the car will do the job perfectly as well now what i always recommend as well especially if you get into the mountains snow chains um or all the likes of uh personally i don't use snow chains i use auto socks um these really just slip over the wheel and they have so much grip you will be surprised these have got me out of a lot of sticky situations over the years uh so really really worth the investment um i kind of keep these in the vehicle all the time i have used them in the uk a couple of times as well they're not like snow chains all you do is you just tuck one side on roll the wheel and just tuck it in as you go on it takes a few minutes to put on they are a legal requirement in a lot of mountainous regions you won't be allowed to drive up a lot of mountain roads in france and in austria if you don't have them so i would really recommend getting a set of those like i say i would go for blankets over chains chains are a bit of a nightmare to put on especially if it's snowing blowing a gale and you haven't done it before um it's a bit of a pain where these are again super easy to do now if you're kind of going to france and germany uh there is legislation in france in germany now that you need a mission stickers if you're going into some of the bigger cities uh if you're just passing through you generally don't need them so uh it's not something to be overly concerned about however if you are going to make some excursions to to cities uh you can pick them up they're pretty easy to get you can uh just google it online just google it and it'll come up so let me see where the addresses you need to go for uh for germany if you go to berlin dot d e uh there is a section on there that allows you to order the sticker for germany uh for france uh you just go on to the french government website and you can order from there as well they're not expensive the german one is six euros uh the french one is four euros fifty so uh it's super easy to get hold of right now the one thing that really is worth talking about if you're gonna travel across europe is tires um in france snow tires or all weather tyres aren't a legal requirement but when you get into the mountain regions it's recommended that you have chains or tire blankets however austria and germany a little bit different germany requires in winter that you have all-weather tyres or winter tyres where austria requires a winter tires full stop which is kind of pretty obvious being as it's a mountainous region if you've not had winter tires before it does make a pretty big difference to how your car drives um i kind of generally use winter tires in winter in the uk and kind of find out that i do get a lot better grip in icy and snowy conditions i'm kind of up to scotland quite a lot as well so driving in snow fair bit when there is snow and it does make a huge difference now if you're driving across europe and you get caught on the snowstorm it's pretty frightening driving down a german autobahn with summer tires uh in freezing conditions and heavy snow um i'd say it's worth investing in a set of winter tires they don't cost a fortune if you if you go to a lot of the bigger online tire retailers uh you can pick up a set of winter tires at a a very good price um and i'd say it does make a difference uh but just watch out for that make sure you have got the right tires if you're doing that journey so that's really it in terms of the things you're going to need for the journey just a little bit of preparation you can go on to either the rac website or the aaa website and they're going to have like checklists of what you need to have in your vehicle um just go through that it's not a massive amount of stuff and like i say you can pick them up as kits that that give you everything that you need so that's really that bit uh the next part of the video we're gonna look at is we're gonna start to kind of bring in some maps and kind of just show you the different routes to take to to get to the mountains really so on this next part of the video what we're going to do is start getting down to planning the route and looking at the alternatives for getting out to the mountains uh the first thing we're gonna do is really just concentrate on getting across the channel first of all this is a relatively short section um we're going to switch to the computer just to kind of give you a little bit more info off the websites but it's not that complicated you've only got two means of getting across the channel nowadays um it's 2020 so the hovercraft doesn't exist anymore so you really only got the the ferry or the tunnel as your options of crossing the channel um as you'll see from this first section um there are some little tricks that you can play uh by mixing and matching but we'll kind of go to the video now and uh you'll get an idea of what i'm talking about so let's jump straight into the computer and take a look at some of the ways you can cross the channel now as i said in the intro i personally really like to mix and match my crossings uh between the tunnel and the ferry and the reason i do that is it just kind of gives me some options in terms of travel um and i'll run through the kind of options you have for tickets um on the computer screen between the tunnel and the ferry uh and it will just give you a better understanding of why i do that so generally on my outbound journeys i always tend to go the tunnel and the reason i do that is just because i've had like a short journey at the front of it and i just want to get across the channel as quick as i can and kind of get on my way um you're generally gonna save probably about an hour or so by using the tunnel over the ferry and at certain times of day that hour can be critical uh it means that you can just get past some population centers in the morning before rush hour and that's going to save you a fair amount of time but to be honest with you if you prefer one way or the other it doesn't really matter you can go tunnel both ways you can go ferry both ways that's fine but um there are some real distinct advantages um and fine lines financial advantages for doing a mix and match on it so uh let's kind of jump into the like the tunnel website first of all and just kind of go through ticket options uh on that outbound journey there really aren't that much differences in pricing between uh the tunnel and the ferry so um as i said i just like to get this out of the way and done so if you're traveling at a relatively reasonable time you're really going to be between about 100 pounds and 90 odd pounds so you can see there uh to get across uh the channel if you're doing an overnighter it's probably worthwhile picking up one of those lower prices at 76 pounds um that's really kind of the going rate for cross channel uh right now the real downside of the tunnel on the return journey though is i i really like that flexibility when i'm out in the mountain because there's nothing worse than going on a package dealer and you're catching a bus at six o'clock and at four o'clock on friday evening it starts to dump and you're driving home on one of the best powder days of the year uh having your own vehicle out in the resort is gonna give you flexibility uh if that scenario happens you can just have a day on the hill and just change your journey to to drive home at night um so for me that's why i always like flexibility on the return journey now the real downside with booking a a flexible return on the tunnel is it's expensive uh as you can see here the price jumps up from 92 pound for the standard crossing but it jumps up to 229 pounds for a return uh with flexibility whereas if you then switch to the ferry um option fully flexi fare is coming in at 129. uh yeah the dates are a little bit different here and the only reason i've done that is because the ferries won't let you book in uh as far ahead as january when i'm recording this video so i kind of went as late as i could but this this pricing really doesn't change that much between december and january anyway so it's going to be you know roughly kind of the same but as you can see here booking a fully flexi uh you're going to save a hundred pounds coming back on the ferry and and personally after i've done a long blast through europe it is quite nice to kind of get on a ferry sit down have something to eat and have a little bit of a rest so um not only does it save 100 pounds but i i kind of personally prefer it because it just kind of sets you up and relaxes you a little bit more for that final leg home so uh when you're booking your crossings don't be afraid to mix and match with tunnel and ferry because uh it's gonna save you it's gonna save you a lot of money um but it's also going to give you a lot more convenience uh to adjust your holiday when you're away um so that that's really kind of the fairies it's kind of pretty simple booking those uh the only thing you're gonna remember is um by the time your trip comes around we're probably going to be out of the eu so you're probably going to have to fill in a passenger form before you go away you have to do that now on the tunnel but you don't generally do it on ferries but i suspect that will probably change between now and when the season kicks in so um yeah like i said don't be afraid to mix and match these crossings so now we've got the fairies book we need to really start to think about looking at different routes to get out to the mountains um the way we've done this next section and again it's kind of reverting back to the video so you can actually kind of see the roots in real time when we talk about them um uh the first section is really going to be aimed towards driving to austria um that section has like three separate sections because you've got three very distinctive routes if you want to drive out to austria um and the reason i've done three routes is it kind of really depends how you want to do this journey i know over the years uh i've changed how i do that journey i remember years ago back when we were in our 20s we would just roll up to the ferry at seven o'clock at night get straight over and really just kind of blast it through the night to get to the resort for first lift the following day um kind of into my 30s and 40s that kind of changed somewhat and was really based around getting the ferry at six o'clock in the morning and doing the drive through the day uh now i'm in my fifties it's changed again and i like to kind of get to the ferry uh kind of midday um just do like a nice leisurely drive through the first part of the journey stay somewhere nice overnight get something to eat and then do the final leg of the journey the following day and get to the resort for uh midday and get an afternoon's riding in so there are variations how you can do this journey so when we do this first route it's based around um getting there quickly having a more scenic route or having a more kind of leisurely route is probably the easiest way to describe it i hope it makes sense when you kind of look through them uh so once we've done austria we're then going to um really kind of look at routes to france now france is a lot simpler than um getting to austria because in reality there's only one real route that you can use there you can use the a-roads but as i say in the video i've not really got that much experience of doing that roux i've done it once and it seemed to take a long time so i kind of never did it again but it's a pretty straightforward run down to france in fact the reality is it's it's the easiest journey of them all so if you holiday in france um it really doesn't take long to drive to the mountains at all as you'll see when we do the video presentation so uh i hope you get something from this little bit it's a bit kind of long-winded especially on some of the journeys because they are a little bit complicated in places but hopefully we'll make it pretty easy to understand the roots and the way to go so we'll we'll see on the other side of this video section okay so let's dive straight into the different routes that we can use to get to austria so the first we're going to look at is the route that i call the top route now on this route i've just started it at calais and i finished it at rosenheim just south of munich and the reason i finished it at rosenheim is that's where the motorway splits depending on which part of the alps you're gonna go uh you can carry straight on to head you towards the salzburg side of the alps or you turn right down to head towards the innsbruck side to be honest with you i suspect most of you will probably take that right fork because that's where kind of the majority of the more well-known results are but i'll kind of run through that in a little bit more detail when i get to the end um okay so this route um i like to use this route as the the route that i take if i want to get the journey out the way quickly uh if i'm doing it all in one single day or i'm doing an overnighter this is generally the route that i'll take and the reason i do that is because this is the route that drops you into germany a lot earlier on in the journey so um the big advantage that has is that once you hit that german motorway network a lot of that motorway network has no speed limits so uh you can make up a lot of time in a very quickly on that route so if you're kind of doing this overnight when the roads are empty uh it's a really good way to cover a lot of distance in a relatively short time so what i'm going to do i'm going to zoom in on this route and just kind of talk you through pretty much the signage that you're looking for to give you the right direction and just kind of give you the heads up for any kind of areas that you just need to be a little bit weary of in the journey so let's kind of start at calais so you're really just going to come off the ferry terminals or the tunnel and you're gonna drop straight on the a16 and you're gonna head towards dunkirk now this is a free to use motorway so there are no tolls on this um to be honest with you there are no tolls all the way on this journey until you get to austria where you need a vignette but again i'll kind of talk about that a little bit more detail when we get to austria so follow the signs for dunkirk if you're on the dover to dunkirk ferry again you're just going to come off the ferry terminal and again you're going to get on the a16 the only difference being is you're going to follow the signs for austend um now once you've got to dunkirk again you're going to follow the signs for ostend as well so uh once you're kind of just north of dunkirk that's when you pass into belgium so as you can see from calais to dunkirk you're like half an hour or so before you're into belgium once you've crossed into belgium this journey is really simple because all you're doing is just following the signs for brussels and it's one road it's just the e40 that takes you all the way through to brussels now brussels is just the area that you just want to be a little bit wary of first off um i always try to hit brussels pre-seven o'clock um and the reason i do that is as you can see that the outer motorway network runs very close to the city center so if you hit this at rush hour it can get a little bit busy i always find if i'm kind of coming around this area like between 6 30 and 7 it's pretty deserted and it's a straight um straightforward run through so really all you're doing is you're just coming down the e40 and then you're gonna pick up the e19 uh and follow the signposts for the e40 again so uh it's pretty straightforward uh when you're on this e 19 again if you just look for the signposts for the age uh it's going to take you directly there back onto the e40 there are a couple of intersections on here but they're pretty straightforward if you're just watching for that signage so make sure you just awake and you're looking for that liege signage okay so once you clear brussels e40 all the way down to the age this again is a relatively empty stretch of road uh you shouldn't really encounter that much traffic when you get here uh okay then when we get to the age uh there has been motorway works here for a while um i'm pretty sure they're clear now but when you kind of come towards the age you really then want to be following the signposts for akan um it's clearly signpost so you can't really go wrong anywhere on that first part of the journey now it's when you get into akan this is where you cross into the german border so you're now then starting to access the german motorway network um there was roadworks for a good few years on this section here so a lot of this now is brand new motorway so it's very easy to make up a lot of time so from akan you're then following the signposts to kerpin uh kerpin a bit of information is the home of michael schumacher um then from kerpin you then follow into cologne and then you're gonna bypass bond and at this point you want to be looking for signposts for frankfurt it's very clearly marked now a lot of this section down here is also speed limit free so uh you can make up a lot of time in this section here i will say though just watch out for the areas that do have speed restrictions on them and make sure that you are dear to the speed restrictions um they are pleased quite heavily and german police are quite scary so uh really try not to get kind of pulled over so just stick to the rules uh when you're running through there okay so this motorway is now then going to take you uh past frankfurt now although you're running through a relatively big population center here this never overly gets that gets that busy so uh it's normally a pretty um straightforward clear run through there and then the same through these sections as well so from frankfurt you're just aiming for verzeberg and then from wurzburg to nuremberg again i've never kind of really run into that much congestion on any of these sections from nuremberg then you're going down to englishdot and then from englishdot to munich now in terms of the whole journey this is probably the place you just need to be the most aware of um and that's really down to what time you hit it munich ring road can get very very busy so you really want to aim at kind of getting through this probably by about 4 p.m in the afternoon if you hit it about 4 p.m you should have a relatively straightforward run around the city ring road if you hit it any later you might start to drop into traffic especially in this section can get very heavy so really just watch your timings and just aim to be kind of hit in there before 4 pm if you can when you're on this um bypass network here you really want to just be looking for signs for innsbruck and salzburg it's signposted very clearly so you shouldn't make mistakes however there are a few weird intersections on this so uh you can make a few errors but um if you do don't worry because the road network around munich is pretty straightforward all that's going to happen is you're going to come off on one of these intersections and you're going to end up on either the outer or the inner ring road if you do again just try and pick up those signs for salzburg innsbruck and you'll just kind of sail right the way through and you might also get to see a little bit of munich so um don't panic too much if you do go wrong there because like i say it is signposted pretty well from that point right once you clear a munich it is a pretty straightforward run down to that change point now if you look at this the the map here takes you off to rosenheim we're not going up there that that's just there for information it's this point here where the motorway divides um so if you're kind of heading towards more the salzburg side of the alps you're just going to stay on this same motorway and that's just going to run to salzburg and it's going to give you access to all that those resorts on the other side of salzburg now if you're heading down towards the innsbruck side you're just going to hit a right-hand filter here and you're just going to hit this emote away it signposts so clearly that you can't really make any errors here i suspect most of you will probably be heading down this right fork because that's where the bulk of the resorts are around austria as you can see from here you've got outback you've got seoul you've got elmau you've got zlamzy you've got um maya hoffen you've got finkenberg you've got hint talks um you've got stubby there's so many resorts around this section so i suspect most of you gonna peel off onto this section here right the one bit of thing you need to know about austrian motorways is that you need a vignette to use austrian motorways if you don't have one you will be fined there are automatic vignette readers everywhere on the motorway network in austria so make sure you pick one up a vignette you buy for seven days or 14 days or any length of time after that they're not expensive i think they're about 10 to 12 euros for seven days so there really is no excuse for not having one um if you don't get one as i say it's a pretty hefty fine now you pick those vignettes up from service stations uh once you're past munich uh they'll have like a little sign that has like an austrian logo uh with two red kind of motorway signs that's uh the vignette sign uh what i would recommend there's a few services around this section of motorway after munich i'd say stop early and pick one up um you just get them from the petrol kiosk uh they'll have a big sign there saying that they do them and i'd say generally if you're there for a week get a seven day vignette uh what i would avoid um is the services of ershenberg uh you might get lured into this services by the sign of a site of a mcdonald's but that services gets very busy so if you're trying to do a bit of social distancing that ain't going to happen in ersenberg services you can also pick them up there are um there is a petrol station down on the innsbruck side just before the border um it's actually literally right on the border that never gets overly busy so you can pick one up from there if you're going down on the salzburg side again there's a few services on that route that you can pick up uh pick up from there as well so um yeah they're pretty easy to get hold of right for this whole journey uh there are plenty of petrol stations so fueling up shouldn't be an issue on this journey what i will say to you though if you want to go to toilet especially in germany germany you're going to have to pay for the pleasure so just make sure you've got plenty of euro coins uh with you for the journey or it ain't gonna happen so uh that is uh the top journey um like i say if you want to get this out the way quickly you want to do it overnight uh without a stay this is probably the route to go because you can you know you can make up time and cover long distances in a relatively short period so the next one we're going to look at is the middle route so the middle route uh now this route for me is my personal favorite it's it's the rule that i've done most over the past 35 years um it has some distinct advantages over both the top and the bottom roots and the main one of those is it's just a little bit more scenic now when you've done these journeys so many times just sitting on a german autobahn or a french autoroute um gets a little bit tedious um now the middle route just really does take you through some of the most beautiful scenery in europe so um i i just kind of prefer it for that reason mainly timing wise overall it doesn't actually take that much longer than going um the other routes but um it it it's just a little bit more complicated in terms of the journey because you're kind of changing motorways a little bit more so um the route just is a bit more complex but if you're giving yourself a little bit more time for this journey uh i highly recommend going this route just because it is so scenic there are also some other pretty big advantages on this route uh the main one of those is that you actually get to go through luxembourg uh why that's important because things are very cheap in luxembourg they have a different tax regime to the rest of europe so uh if you want to fuel up your vehicle it's going to cost you a fraction of what it would cost uh going a lot of the other routes and in terms of the saving the saving is that substantial that it actually is sometimes worthwhile to kind of just detour through luxembourg to take advantage of that you can also buy other luxury goods and other stuff as well while you're there and pretty much all the service stations in luxembourg have that facility they have like big shops uh because a lot of people take advantage of that so that is a consideration that's definitely worth looking at when you're planning routes now the kind of one downside about this route is that it does take you through some areas that you can get caught up in some hefty traffic and that again is primarily around luxembourg so again it's just one of those things the same with like the top roots is just be aware of what kind of times you're going to hit luxembourg because you don't want to get caught up in traffic um i estimate it's probably about five and a bit hours from calais to to well probably less than that four and a half hours to to luxembourg from cali so when you when you're planning your journey just bear that in mind you don't want to be hit in there at rush hour now as with the other journeys i'm just going to run you through uh the route and just kind of talk you through the areas that that you're aiming for just to make the journey simple as with the top route this is this route is toll-free until you get to austria as well so you're not going to have to fork out road tolls um like i said if you want to kind of make a little bit more of a journey split it over a couple of days this is really a nice route to do just because it does take you through some interesting scenery so uh let's kick off with the start so uh pretty much the same as with the top route when you come off the ferry or the tunnel at calais or um at dunkirk you're just gonna pick up the a16 however on this journey when you get to dunkirk you are gonna come off the a16 and you're gonna follow the signposts for lil um this is a pretty short bit of journey uh i would say try to avoid hitting lil at morning rush hour uh because it does get a little bit busy to be honest with you i've been through there a few times at rush hour and it doesn't come to a standstill the traffic does move so it's not that crucial as it would be say here in brussels it doesn't get that busy but you know if you want a clear easy journey just um just be wary of that uh what i will say when you get to lille uh there is a kind of couple of um a couple of motorway changes when you get there so just be wary of that as you drive through the center of lille you want to be following the motorway signs to torn a so that's t-o-u-r-n-i-n-n-a-i torn a so if you pick up the signs for tourne you're gonna come through the middle of lil relatively easily um now so once you've just kind of followed that through and come out of lille uh follow the signs of tourney and then you are looking to pick up the signs for mons m-o-n-s this is all a pretty straightforward road um road quality is all right through there it just kind of um you just need to be have your eyes open because it's kind of a few changes on there especially as you come um from tourney onto mons you kind of go over an elevated section there is a really weird dip in that road that can catch you out so just watch your speed and just be aware of that section there it seems a little strange thing to talk about but you know when you drive in a van full of snowboards it does book you quite hard and can catch you out if you're not aware of it so you're then going to run through all the middle of mons and when you're in mons you are then looking to pick up the signs for charleroi um this is where this journey starts to get quite nice in terms of like scenery so uh you're gonna bypass charleroi on the e42 or the e420 um and head towards namur so n a m u are when you get to namur you're then going to pick up the e411 and that's going to take you down towards luxembourg now the beauty of this is it's very scenic as this passes through uh the ardennes forest so this is a really nice part of the journey um it's motorway it's quick it's um you're gonna kind of cover a lot of distance quite quickly on this and then you're going to hit luxembourg um this is where it kind of gets a little bit complex in luxembourg so just kind of have your wits about you um the easiest way to describe your journey in here is if you follow the signs for bettenberg uh you can't really go wrong on this uh i would say here as well there's a lot of petrol stations so make sure you fill up here uh in fact i would say for this whole journey don't fill up between uh calais and luxembourg if you don't have to uh fuel is considerably cheaper here so it's worth saving that and topping up when you get to luxembourg okay so once you've kind of got to bettenberg you are then picking up the signs for cesar louis s-a-r-l-o-u-i-s and that's a pretty straightforward road it takes you up and through the hills so you're then aiming for zar louie you're then from zarluey aiming for zarbrucken from zarbrucken you're then going to follow the motivators of i broken and then from zveybrooken you're going to follow the motorway to permasons right this sounds all really kind of complicated but it's not all these places are signposted really clearly so uh you it's very difficult to go wrong on this right from zveybrooken you are then heading to permasons right now this is a little bit that you just want to be a bit wary of because your satellite if you've proved this into if you put this into a sat nav to get to to austria the sat nav will send you in a weird way here generally what a sat nav will try and do is we'll try and send you all the way up here to kaiser shlouten and then across to manheim which is probably a hundred miles out of the way really because all you need to do when you get to permasense is just come down this road to landau now this is an a road and it actually takes you through us through some of the most dramatic scenery that there is in europe this is like very forested with big sandstone towers with monasteries on the top of the towers uh it is very scenic uh what i will say is if you're gonna split this journey in half and this is the area to stay at around between per masons and landau we always kind of stay round about villegasvison there's a really good restaurant state bar hotel there called the hotel restaurant steakhouse brunehoff and that's in villegasvisin you're generally looking about 120 pounds for a family room for there it does pretty good food and it really is almost dead central in this journey so it's probably going to take you about five and five and a half hours to get there from calais so if you are looking to split the journey up this is a really good place to do that okay so once you've got to will gods and you're then heading towards landau uh so basically this whole section here is the the a road and like i say it's super scenic uh it actually takes you down to the whole mosul valley so there's a whole load of wine production around here okay once you get to landau you're then following the signs to cole's room uh again this is a pretty straightforward a super quick bit of motorway um it's all very clear from cole's room you are then picking up the motorway to forzheim then from four time you're heading to stuttgart so again this you're now on the super fast german autobahn here uh so as with that top route a lot of this section has no speed limits so you can cover a lot of distance in a relatively quick time now as with all the major population centers just watch traffic around stuttgart it can get very very busy around that area so um just be aware of what time you're gonna hit stuttgart okay from stuttgart it's a pretty straightforward blast down to munich uh it's all signposted really well as well what i will say here and i'm going to come back this once we've kind of gone past some unit depending whereabouts in austria you're going you can come off at home and that's going to take you to um a different side of the austrian alps um but i'll kind of run through the stand a bit and then we'll kind of come through come back to this so um from um as i say you're just kind of running straight through to munich now as with the uh the top route uh munich is the area that you want to just be a little bit wary of traffic can get very bad around munich especially at rush hours so i would say if you can just try and avoid hitting this at rush hour because uh it might slow your journey down quite considerably um once you've got past uh munich and then as with the top route you back onto the same motorway down to rosenheim where you've got the split between the salzburg and the innsbruck side um as with this section here again once you've come out of munich think about stopping to pick up your vignette for austrian roads it's really important that you get a vignette if you're using austrian motorways there is a big fine if you get caught without a vignette so really prioritize stopping and getting that so once you've got your vignette you're going to run all the way down to where the motorway splits and that is basically just at rosenheim i don't know why this gap's not filling in because it is a actually a link if i zoom closer you'll see it okay so at this split here if you're kind of heading to those resorts on the salzburg side of austria you're just going to carry straight on down the motorway past lake keemstay towards salzburg however for most of kind of the more well-known results in austria you are going to fork onto the uh right down the 93 and that's going to head you towards innsbruck it signs super clearly you can't go wrong now once you've done there this is then going to give you access to pretty much some of the most famous austrian ski resorts um as you can see you've got the zillital valley you've got you know pretty much all the main uh tyrol ski resorts are in this area here so i would suspect the majority of you are gonna come down this section here um also just watch your speed limits in austria it's not like germany that's open they are really kind of heavily enforced especially on this section here as well because uh there's a lot of anti-pollution speed limits in force in this area so let's just jump back to this turn off at all if you're heading out to the olberg side of austria so resorts like sent anton lek zur solden obergergel canatol you really don't want to be heading down to munich that's just going to add a whole load onto your journey so if you're heading to those resorts uh when you kind of head towards um after stuttgart you really want to be looking to coming off the motorway there uh it's pretty well signed posted for kempton so just keep your eyes open for that so um basically the motorway is going to take you right through the middle of um um it traffic generally runs pretty free through there so uh it's never really that much of an issue and then you're gonna just stay on the autobahn all the way through to kempton uh that's a pretty fast stretch of road so you can kind of cover that journey pretty quickly however when you get to kempton that motorway is then going to stop and turn into an a road now without a doubt this really is one of the most scenic routes through the alps so although it's maybe a little bit of a grind because you're on a road it's worth it purely and simply just because the view is so good so when you've come to kempton you want to be then following the signs for the fern pass and that sign posted pretty much very clearly from kempton but the reality is it's just one road anyway so uh from kempton you want to be going over the fern pass it's probably going to take you about an hour or so to um get from kempton and get over the pass so it takes a little bit of time so just be prepared for that now although the firm passes in a road um it is it is pretty alright in terms of uh the amount of traffic that flows through there and the type of road so you're not going over a pass that's uh in the middle of nowhere and fully exposed uh it is actually a major a through fair so uh they do kind of keep that pass pretty clear uh and you know pretty much snow free if if that allows so don't fret too much about having to go over there it's not like going over some back like back road pass uh in the french alps this is like a major route uh with a lot of commercial traffic going through it so it is kept clear so once you've gone over the firm past you were then aiming towards a little town called imps so imst and when you get to ims that's pretty much where you pick up uh the the motorway again and and that's just going to deliver you to whichever resort you want to go to uh you're just going to turn off the a12 um either towards the olberg region or or off down into the more wild spits region of austria where you're going to get the results like solden and so on and so forth so um it is quite a scenic route to do uh on this route as well the easiest place to pick up your um vignette is when the road runs down from the fern pass when you get to the bottom of the firm pass on the austrian side there is a big petal straight petrol station on the right hand side you can stop there that's a really good place to pick up your vignette it's never overly that busy as well so you're gonna be able to keep your distance as well so um those two routes really kind of finish off um the middle route so let's move to the bottom root so let's jump straight into this bottom root um now the bottom root has one real distinct advantage over both the middle root and the top root however it also has one real big disadvantage over those two roots as well so uh let's kind of talk about what the advantages are uh the advantage for this roux is it's always very quiet um every time i do this route i'm actually blown away by just how few cars you see on it it really is that quiet and what that means is that it's a relatively stress-free journey no matter what time of day you do it at you know yes you're going to hit a couple of population centers at reims and mets but the but the road never gets that busy through those sections so um you really don't have to worry too much about hitting traffic on this route i'm saying that but you might run into some but but generally every time i've done it it's always a relatively straightforward drive through um but that's also the big disadvantage for this route as well uh it's a quiet drive because it's payage for 50 of the journey so you are gonna have to pay to use these roads um that's going to come in at between about 50 and 60 euros to get you to strasbourg where you pick up the german motorway network um so just be prepared for that uh it's worth getting an emo this tag if you're going this route because it just means that you're gonna blast through those toll booths a lot quicker and a lot smoother uh and to be honest especially around reams those toll booths were the only place you're gonna probably hit a little bit of traffic um with the imovis tag you can just bypass that traffic and go straight through uh the tag gates uh and it just makes the whole journey a lot easier and a lot quicker um now although you're actually gonna pay for using the motorways on here if you're splitting this journey into two um and you're looking at staying around about half distance you can pick up accommodation a lot cheaper than going the other routes so what you're saving in that accommodation is probably more than going to offset the costs or the cost savings that you'll kind of make going the other routes so that's worth considering there is also another kind of alternative route that that blends the two routes but i'll come to that at the end so you can see and that route is really good if you do want to save a fair bit of money uh so just running through um the bottom route first let's kind of go into a little bit more detail so uh you're gonna come in at calais now the beauty of this journey here is the a26 runs straight out the ferry port so uh you're straight onto the road that you need to be so you're gonna come out of the the ferry terminal and you're just gonna follow the signs for reams uh it's well signed posted and you can't really miss it now the first part of this journey is toll-free so uh you need not worry about that you're gonna hit the first peyage gate just a little bit south of calais and then really from that payage it is a straightforward drive all the way through to reams uh you're probably looking like two three well three hours probably to reims i will say though it is mind-numbingly boring this section of road here it just runs you through um industrial farmland of france and there's not a lot to see it's pretty flat uh as i say it's mind-numbingly boring when you get to reams it it is a little bit better so uh there is nothing to do on this section here just just aim for reams very little to look at very little to worry about because as i say it's relatively quiet uh when you come into reams uh you're just gonna hit the bypass around here and you're looking for signs that are gonna take you to uh troyers and to mets uh you're not heading to troyers but that's the motorway you want to take out of reams um again as you hit reams you're going to come to the end of the payoff so you've got a few miles of non-pears around here and then just as you come out of reams you're going to pick up the page again um so like i said you're going to follow the signs for troyers and mets so basically you just want to get out of there and once you're on this a4 you are just aiming solidly for mets uh you're gonna go past the exit for troyes uh ignore that um and just head towards mess as you can see here this is where the the road divides uh you're gonna take the a26 if you head into the southern french albs but you're gonna stay on the a4 around here um and he's gonna follow that a4 really all the way to strasbourg it does actually get quite a bit more scenic around this area here um so that's worth looking at um if you are wanting to stay overnight and split the journey into two uh this is kind of the region you want to be looking at uh really from mets to strasbourg uh there's a lot of hotel choices here uh probably your best place to look on this is if you go to the all.accord.com hotel website um and you type in severn it's just gonna give you a lot of hotels in this area and you're really looking for between 40 and 120 euros a night so you can have it super cheap but if you want to do it a little bit nicer there are also a few options there now the beauty of staying in this area here is that it's just a straight five hour drive uh from strasbourg so if you want to get on the slopes in the afternoon if you do an early morning start you can get that last bit of the journey out of the way and and really be on the slopes for midday one o'clock um so it is quite a good place to to look at staying okay so we're kind of going to come through here and then we get to strasbourg i'm going to zoom in on this because um there's just a little bit of an issue here this is kind of sending you down here on the map but i think it's just because this junction is closed um on this live map feed here but what you're generally going to do you're going to come on to the a4 and then there's like a junction here that's going to take you on to the a35 you know you don't have to do this double back down and stuff like that but you're going to come off here and then you go on to the a35 and you're just going to sit on this for a few miles and it's probably about 10 miles at maximum um and then you're going to be looking for the sign posts for um if it's heim and bardem barden uh you're going to come off this auto route and then you're into an a road and that a road is just going to cross over the rhine uh you go over a big kind of dam at this point here uh you're going to go through everson time and then you're going to pick up the motorway again so you're now in germany so the rhine is the is the border between france and germany so then you're gonna pick up this motorway uh the five that is then gonna take you to forsheim and to stuttgart so really what's happening here this is just dropping you back onto that german autobahn that you hit in the middle route um i'd say once you're past this section here you're then into um into that d restricted autobahn so you really can cover some distance and get some miles here uh what i will say and you can see this on the live feed if you're doing that early morning start just be a little bit wary of traffic around stuttgart as you can see here on this live feed it is starting to back up a little bit here um this is this is with an early money stop probably the only place you're going to really encounter any traffic if you're kind of trying to get to the the slopes for midday so uh just be a little bit wary of that then as you come down you're following the road from stuttgart and you're just really heading to munich you can also do that turn off uh um if you want to head out to the olberg region but we'll kind of carry on as normal so you're just going to follow this motorway all the way down to munich and again as the same warning as i gave you before just be a little bit wary of what time you hit munich this is this is always a really busy section of motorway um but traffic flows all right through the day it's when you hit this area at rush hour then it becomes really problematic so try to avoid hitting this area after 4 p.m because it will grind to a hole and like i said in the other videos here if you do make any errors at this section don't worry if you just go into the middle of munich there's plenty of ring roads here you're just going to follow the signs for innsbruck and salzburg and it's just going to drop you back onto the motorway so as you come around the ring road at munich again look for those signs for innsbruck and salzburg and it's going to take you to the right point um as you then come out of munich again look for um that stop to pick up your vignette for the austrian motorway network right then we also get to rosenheim same thing applies you can go straight on towards the salzburg region or you hook a right take yourself down to innsbruck um most people as i said on the other videos are going to end up down here so that that really is that bottom root it it's probably the simplest of all the routes to do because it's just a a real straightforward drive so really all you're looking for on this on signage is you're going to go from calais follow the signposts for reams then you're going to aim for troyers and mets once you're south of reams back onto the auto route follow the sign post from mets then from mets to strasbourg and then you're going to transfer from the a4 onto the a35 and you're going to follow the sign to kohl's route once you're on that a35 you're gonna come off our on the signposts for bardem barden and ibsen and then you're really just gonna follow the signpost to stuttgart and munich uh it is a really really simple route and almost impossible to get lost okay so as i said at the beginning of this uh section for the bottom route there is another way of doing this if you want to save a little bit of money and that's just really blending the two roots together so what you would do on that route is you would do the first part of the middle root so you're just going to follow this like [Music] lil tornay mons charleroi no nemours and down to luxembourg all this route is for free so uh you're not gonna have to pay to use these roads you can then fuel up in luxembourg and save a little bit of money and then from luxembourg you can then aim towards mets and once you're at mets that is then going to drop you back onto that um french pay arch system but you've kind of pretty much lost all this section here so you're only on this short section of page so um you know that's not going to cost a great deal of money it's probably going to be about 20 euros but what that's also then going to give you is give you access to all these lower priced hotels that um sit around this area here so once you've taken into account your your fuel saving by fueling up at luxembourg and the costs for overnight accommodation in this area uh it's probably gonna be really really cost effective to do it this way if you're after saving a little bit of money uh like i said uh the big advantage of this whole route is that it's quiet through this section here so if you're not bothered about um spending a little bit more money this is probably the route to go because it is the easiest and the stressful route so um that's really all the key routes to drive from calais to um austria uh pretty much all of those you're gonna do in under 12 hours um this journey if it takes longer than 12 hours it's been a long journey you can do it in in nine um you can do it even less if you've got a fast car and you're driving at night but if you really aim for about 10 hours from calais to the resort uh you're really not going to be that far off um unless you hit any bad traffic or come across any accidents on route um so that's uh that's the routes to austria um they're not stressful they're all pretty easy and straightforward do a little bit of prep before you go uh we're going to pop these um roots online for you as well so you can actually uh use those to plan your journey as well and that's it so on the next video we're going to take a look at um how you drive to the french alps um so that's the austrian routes thank you very much so that's the austrian section out of the way now in this next section we're going to concentrate a little bit more on accessing the french alps now as i'll talk about in the video this this section is a lot shorter than the austrian section um and that's really down to the fact that for me personally there's only really one way to get to uh the french alps there is there is a route that uses a roads uh i'm not really going to talk about that that much because i don't really have that much experience of it um i tried it once about 20 odd years ago and it took me ages so um i've never really kind of gone that route again so as i said i'll talk about a little bit more in the in the kind of map video now there is one thing i will say for france um if you're driving through france it really is worthwhile investing in one of these uh this is an emojis tag and what this does is just gives you access to the toll booths um without having to stop and kind of put money in them or put your card in you just go through a tag gate on the tollbooth and and this will automatically register uh that you've been through it and will uh open the uh barrier for you um it's gonna save you a heck of a lot of time uh you don't need to stop and to be honest with you when you get on those french pages they're so quiet and so empty that the only places where you're going to get caught up in traffic is at the toll booths and what you'll generally find with the imovies tag the tag only gates are a lot quieter so the chances are you're probably just going to go straight through those gates without stopping cost wise i think it's when i got this it was a five pound no it's a ten pound payment initially uh and then every time you use this it charges you five uh five euros at the beginning of the month so if you if you go in january it will charge you a one-off payment of five euros and then it will charge you the toll booth payments if you don't use it in march doesn't charge you if you don't use it until next february won't charge you so it only charges you at the start of the month when you use it um it's definitely worth having it makes the journey so much easier so that's out of the way so let's now kind of switch to the map video uh and i'll just kind of talk you through the route to be honest with you it's very simple uh and it is very quick to get the alps from uh from calais so if you're kind of in the south of the country this is a journey that you can get out of the way very very quickly so i hope it's useful for you okay what we're going to do now is just take a look at routes out to the french alps um primarily on this route i'm really just going to focus on on the main payout room and the reason being um i've not really got that much experience of of taking the a1 route i did it once many years ago and it took me forever i think it took about 17 hours so um i kind of never ventured that way again so um i i've not really got the experience to kind of give you any information on that route um if if you're doing this journey overnight it it's probably going to be a lot quicker as you can see on the signposts they're saying eight hours nine minutes again seven hours forty seven but uh bear in mind a lot of that route is not as kind of empty and clear as the page so um by all means use that route uh going to save you a stack of cash if you do because you're only on a little bit of payouts there as well so um yeah to use that i'd say but i've not kind of got the experience to talk about that much so really i'm just going to run you through the page route because that's that's the route i always use when i kind of go to the french alps so cost wise for the page it's it's going to come in at about 75 euros from calais um out to the alps so it's not cheap but it is very quick and it is very easy in a stress-free journey so uh generally what you're gonna do is you're gonna come out of calais uh and literally within about four or five miles you're gonna pick up on the page now as i mentioned earlier in the in the video it's definitely worthwhile getting a tag if you are gonna use the page for any length of time it saves you a lot of time it means you can't not constantly stopping and kind of hanging out the window you can just drive straight through the page booms and it uh automatically registers your payments so definitely worth getting one of those so like i say pretty much straight out of calais you're on to the payage and it's really a straight road um pretty much all the way from the tunnel so all the way from the ferry um to reems so that's basically where you're heading so uh calais just follow the signposts for reams and it's gonna get you there um this section of the journey is really boring um as i mentioned on the austrian video uh this is just really running through industrial farmland so there's not a great deal to see once you're south of reams it does get a little bit more pleasant so just zooming into reams um the auto route just really bypasses it you've got a couple of changes that you may need to make on this but it's all really well signed posted uh when you get to reams just follow the signposts for troyers um and that'll get you past really quickly and really easily uh traffic congestion is never really that much of an issue around reams i i've kind of been through there in rush hour and never really encountered that much traffic um so the only place i've ever really come across traffic here as was in the summer once um and that was just a queue for the page um and that's where the tag comes in into uh into play because you you don't have to kill with a lot of that traffic you can just aim straight for the the tag only barrier and that's just going to get you through quite quickly so uh pretty straightforward drive around reams um and then once you're there you're just going to follow the signposts for troyers um and then it's just really again a simple straightforward route down to troy's you just have to fork off a little bit here so just make sure you don't miss your exit um because this side's gonna go head off towards mets so just make sure you stay in the right lane to follow towards troyers um you're generally talking about five five hours really from calais to troy's um maybe a little bit less if the route is clear if you're looking for a place to stay over um this is really where i recommend um there's a few formula ones very close to the motorway if you want to do something cheap um if you want to do something a little bit more special and a little bit nicer go into troyers there's lots of great hotels in that town um i will say though make sure you visit troyas because it is a very special place i've been staying there for a long time and never ventured into the town center i always kind of thought it was just a bit of an outlet town because there's just lots of uh shop outlets and then a few years back i just kind of thought let's go and find something to eat into the center and it really is a very very special place indeed it is beautiful medieval town so um if you're going to stay over anywhere on this journey stay over in troyers and pay a visit to the city centre it's well worthwhile it's very special so uh when you've come out troyers um you're really just then heading uh the motorway down to dijon um this is a really nice pleasant part of auto route uh it's very quick uh and it's very um very relaxing really it's quite a nice bit of journey right when you get to dijon you will then start to pick up the signs for geneva um so really just take that top fork onto the a39 and that's uh gonna start to run you into uh into the alps really so that's kind of where things start to pick up and it gets a little bit higher just kind of south of borg borgen burress um again all you're really doing on this part of the journey is following the signposts for geneva it's so well signposted that um you can't really go wrong um okay so then when you get to geneva this is where the road forks so if you're heading out towards uh chamonix and to that part of the alps you're just gonna stay on this road um onto the a40 it's signposted to chamonix so uh you can't really go wrong um from this section here this is where you're gonna access uh the likes of like mauzine leger avorias um and all those kind of roads as you can see here they're all sitting in this kind of section of the alps you can carry on down here that's going to take you to chamonix and you're pretty much going to run motorway all the way into chamonix city center pretty much if you're heading towards um team valdez air les arcs borg summaries you're gonna fork off here and follow the road down to anisee um and then from anisee you're just gonna head to chambray uh and then you're gonna access up into there so you'll pretty much follow the signs from chambray to albeville and then really just kind of look for mootier and borg san maurice um this bit of journey takes a little bit of time it's it's it's a good couple of hours from honesty to um box and maurice so just kind of bear that in mind in terms of your timing um but it's well signed posted it's autoroute all of the way uh pretty much up to mootyay so it's a quick and an easy journey really um and that's it francis is really simple i remember the first time i did it um after years of driving to austria just how quick it seemed to take to to get there so um of all the journeys this is probably the least stressful so um don't don't be afraid to get in the car and do it um and and that's really it really in terms of looking at the map there and i kind of hope both france and austria have just shown how how simple and easy it is to do those journeys yeah it's a long time in the car but it is it's a really simple journey uh it's super simple if you split it in half as well and it just makes the whole thing a lot more pleasant so i hope these maps have kind of just kind of um put your mind at rest and kind of giving you an idea that it is something that is worthwhile to do so that's um that's this video really done i hope you found it useful uh to be honest with you you may have other routes that you take or you know if you've done this journey a fair bit there's certain points and and routes that you go that don't tie up with with my roots um i've really just made this uh based on my experiences of doing this journey over the 35 years so i hope there's some tips that you've you've picked up from there that will really just um hey help you if you're used to it but if you've not done this journey before just to put your mind at ease that it really is super simple um i i would generally always prefer driving out to the outstanding flying um i'm used to that journey now and it really kind of it's simple so i hope it's helped if you've liked this video um please like it please subscribe to our channel as well um i'm also going to do a few more of these videos we're going to do one based around scottish resorts i'm going to head up next week to all the scottish ski resorts yeah it's springtime so there's going to be no snow there but we're just going to talk about the routes how to get there places to stay in and around those scottish ski areas and just give you a little overview of the lift systems there and what you can expect from scotty snowboarding so we'll see you on the next videos you

Channel: The Snowboard Asylum

Views: 1,659

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: C_Oz0RmBtrw

Length: 80min 15sec (4815 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 21 2020