apologies for the long post
Some thoughts on your route.
i see the hull-rotterdam (not zeebrugge) mentioned above. this is a really good option for those in the north. the early arrival lets you make good progress for that day. they offer a priority boarding and disembarkation (£10 each). the disembarkation is well worth it. sometimes you can be an hour or two getting out the terminal.
From here i would head towards germany, then you need to decide how to get through switzerland. i have only ever headed towards dusseldorf-mannheim-karlsruhe entering switzerland at basel. the only problem this way is San gottardo tunnel. In summer months it is almost always very busy, unless you can get through early or late in the day. The route above posted by Kolza might be worth investigating.
If you go through san gottardo it brings you out near Milan which isn’t to much of a deviation to Turin.
If the tunnel is very busy, the route over the top is nice, but chances are you won’t see much because of the clouds. I’m always surprised how un-spectacular driving through switzerland is.
If your are taking the eurotunnel. i would head to wards dunkirk immediately then avoid brussles but there is a big plus in going through luxembourg. very cheap petrol here and worth filling. even the motorway petrol stations are cheap. once back into france here around thionville, the motorways are free all the way to mulhouse (except one section near strasbourg) i’d skip this anyway by going towards nancy and then Colmar. it does take you off a section of motorway but its a little known route with a new tunnel through the hills.
some pros and cons of other routes.
If you want to go through france, which is probably the obvious way toward Turin, you would either be heading all the way to nice or geneva and through the mon-blanc tunnel, be aware that min-blanc is as busy as san gottardo and cost €34 each way, if i remember correctly. towards the south of france the tolls become really expensive.
All Autstrada in Italy have tolls, unike france there probably isn’t many alternative toll free routes.
the swiss vignette was €40 last year and lasts a whole year. the autostrada are toll free.
if any of you are particularly flush and don’t like long drives, there is a train that runs from 1hr drive from amsterdam to alessandria (1hr south of milan) you can take your car on and you get a cabin. its a brilliant service, but not cheap. look at
www.railsavers.co.uk.
If you’re looking for some nice mountain routes, i’m also a biker and on a lot of the motorbike forums there are many people who do tours through europe and they are always looking to avoid motorways.
Just as well I'm not coming along too, what with my migraines!
