dunkerque - venice

[Patneve]

Hi
We are planning to go to Venice in May. I see from my route planner that in Switzerland we will go through the two longest tunnels in Europe. One at 6mls long and the other 10+ mls. Im OK ish with this, but friends in the other van are quite worried. Now i can see if i re route through Austria, there will not be too much difference in cost. Can anyone that has been to Venice, give me some advice. Thanks in advance.

 

[emmerson]

We were in Switzerland last year. I'm claustrophobic, so we avoided as many tunnels a possible, but one en route from Basle to Bern was horrific. It actually made me physically sick, and as you cannot stop, this was not pleasant!
In my opinion, if you have any doubts, find an alternative route. We did on return, and the new route on the old road was wonderful.

 

[DianneT]

We always go through Belgium, Germany to Innsbruck and then across the Brenner Motorway to Lake Garda and then off to Venice or Tuscany.
Cheaper by far than going through Switzerland as you need a vingettes one for Car one for Caravan cost around £50. Going the way we go you just pay small fee for vingette in Austria, the Brenner and Italian Motorway. It you want some good sites to stop en route look on my website as in my signature below. Hope this helps.

 

[JonnyG]

Hi
We are planning to go to Venice in May. I see from my route planner that in Switzerland we will go through the two longest tunnels in Europe. One at 6mls long and the other 10+ mls. Im OK ish with this, but friends in the other van are quite worried. Now i can see if i re route through Austria, there will not be too much difference in cost. Can anyone that has been to Venice, give me some advice. Thanks in advance.

Indeed you are right there is not much difference in actual cost, but there is in time taken. there are various routes that take in France Belgium Germany Austria or Belgium Luxembourg Germany Austria ect ect, these routes are between 75 and 120 miles longer than the route going through Switzerland.
Whilst the Swis vignette will be £50, using the other routes entail two Austrian 10 day vignettes if you are going for more than 10 days two Brenner pass tolls there and back, which are around 8 euros each each way, then there is the extra fuel 4 gallons each way assuming you do 25/30 mpg, so just the extra fuel adds up to £40 add £30 for the tolls and its actually the dearer, longer slower route, but if you do not like the thought of the long tunnels, then this is your choice.
have a good trip.........

 

[DianneT]

It really depends if you are in a hurry and how long your trip is for. We tend to stop somewhere every 200 miles for 1 to 4 days to explore the area. It is amazing how many interesting places you learn about and visit making for a very varied holiday.

 

[DavidKlyne]

Hi
We are planning to go to Venice in May. I see from my route planner that in Switzerland we will go through the two longest tunnels in Europe. One at 6mls long and the other 10+ mls. Im OK ish with this, but friends in the other van are quite worried. Now i can see if i re route through Austria, there will not be too much difference in cost. Can anyone that has been to Venice, give me some advice. Thanks in advance.

Last year we went to Italy to Venice and the three major lakes. I am also not keen on long tunnels but we decided to use the Tunnel de Frejus which is 8 miles long. As it happened it was not as bad as I thought it would be and the only thing that would put me off using it in he future would be the cost

If we had been going direct to Venice, rather than touring the Lakes first of all I think we would have gone via Austria using the Fern and Brenner passes. That was the way we came back. Going through Switzerland is a more direct but you do need the vignettes as has been pointed out. I suspect that in terms of costs its a bit swings and roundabouts because you won't be driving as many miles which will offset the cost of the vignettes.
David

 

[Patneve]

thanks all, for your help

 

[BigTim]

Hi Pat

Like you and your friend I am not too keen on tunnels either but I have got more used to them over the years. I have been through the St Gotthard Tunnel, c10 miles, twice, once each way. I put a favourite CD on the player and count off the kilometres. The first time we travelled to Italy, including Venice, a delay with a puncture meant that we arrived at the northern entrance to the tunnel at teatime on the last Friday in July. The tunnel queues were pretty horrendous so we decided to try the St Gotthard Pass instead. At that time we had a twin axle Avondale Landranger towed by a Vauxhall Monterey (Isuzu Trooper).
The pass road, which is a turning off the road to the tunnel entrance was a well-surfaced road. It climbed by a series long, not too steep, hairpins to a flat plateau stretch before descending again by further hairpins. Our outfit coped with the Pass with relative ease the engine temperature guage never rose above its normal position - in fact on the descent it showed cooler than usual!! I would unreservedly recommend the St Gotthard Pass as an alternative to the Tunnel. On the way home from Italy the following year our car broke down and had to be relayed home. CC's Red Pennant provided us with a hire tow car but as this was a bit underpowered we decided to travel home via the Brenner Motorway. Again that route was, also, a good one which I would recommend.
On the other hand I would nowsay that the tunnels are not so bad. This year we travelled into Slovenia via the Karwanken Tunnel, another very long one, and there were a number of other, albeit shorter, tunnels in Austria. The Swiss, Austrian and Italian road builders are, understandably, very fond of tunnels and it is hard to avoid them completely as they occur quite frequently on the motorways of those countries.
I hope this helps.

 

[BigTim]

Hi Pat

Like you and your friend I am not too keen on tunnels either but I have got more used to them over the years. I have been through the St Gotthard Tunnel, c10 miles, twice, once each way. I put a favourite CD on the player and count off the kilometres. The first time we travelled to Italy, including Venice, a delay with a puncture meant that we arrived at the northern entrance to the tunnel at teatime on the last Friday in July. The tunnel queues were pretty horrendous so we decided to try the St Gotthard Pass instead. At that time we had a twin axle Avondale Landranger towed by a Vauxhall Monterey (Isuzu Trooper).
The pass road, which is a turning off the road to the tunnel entrance was a well-surfaced road. It climbed by a series long, not too steep, hairpins to a flat plateau stretch before descending again by further hairpins. Our outfit coped with the Pass with relative ease the engine temperature guage never rose above its normal position - in fact on the descent it showed cooler than usual!! I would unreservedly recommend the St Gotthard Pass as an alternative to the Tunnel. On the way home from Italy the following year our car broke down and had to be relayed home. CC's Red Pennant provided us with a hire tow car but as this was a bit underpowered we decided to travel home via the Brenner Motorway. Again that route was, also, a good one which I would recommend.
On the other hand I would nowsay that the tunnels are not so bad. This year we travelled into Slovenia via the Karwanken Tunnel, another very long one, and there were a number of other, albeit shorter, tunnels in Austria. The Swiss, Austrian and Italian road builders are, understandably, very fond of tunnels and it is hard to avoid them completely as they occur quite frequently on the motorways of those countries.
I hope this helps.

 

[Patneve]

Thanks Tim, big help
Regards Pat

 

[Woody3]

For the OP, don't be too concerned about the mountain tunnels.
If you are thinking Blackwall, Mersey, or Dartford, forget it. These tunnels are high, wide, well lit, and surprisingly straight and flat. They are four lanes (some six lanes) wide but do not have a central reservation - which makes it easy to get vehicles in the event of a breakdown or accident. When we went through the Mont Blance tunnel in June a few years ago. there was much less traffic than I had expected.

 

[Woody3]

For the OP, don't be too concerned about the mountain tunnels.
If you are thinking Blackwall, Mersey, or Dartford, forget it. These tunnels are high, wide, well lit, and surprisingly straight and flat. They are four lanes (some six lanes) wide but do not have a central reservation - which makes it easy to get vehicles in the event of a breakdown or accident. When we went through the Mont Blance tunnel in June a few years ago. there was much less traffic than I had expected.

 

[JonnyG]

The longer tunnels which include the likes of Mont Blanc and San gartard [switz] are 7 and 10 miles long, and are single carriageway,off the top of my head cannot think of a decent long tunnel in the region in question that has more than 2 lanes in each direction, and indeed most of the long ones I can thing of are all single carriageway, although some shorter ones are indeed dual, and to see anything with more than daul lanes, you need to use the shorter ones in built up city areas like basle zurich lucerne ect ect.