Strasbourg to Austria

A snowHead

Hi snowheads

I'm planning my first ever drive to Austria this half term. I'd appreciate your views on the route via France beyond Strasbourg please. We are heading for Hochzeiger which is near Arzal im Pitztal exit from the A12.

There will be 8 of us in the car, including 4 drivers so we are planning to drive through the night. We will leave Calais at around 00:00 on the Thursday night/Friday morning before half term (14-15 Feb). We are after the easiest smoothest route and are happy to pay tolls. Having studied many threads on here I'm favouring going via France. (I found this thread to be a helpful summary: https://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?t=140800&highlight=drive+austria&start=40&sid=666ad32dc1d96d6a53585e125061071f )

The route seems simple as far as Strasbourg, but then I'm not sure which way to go. Here are the options:
1. This forum and ViaMichelin have suggested going via Karlsruhe and Fernpass:
From Strasbourg head north east to Karlsruhe. Join the motorway and head south through Stuttgart, Ulm, Memmingen and then into Austria over the Fernpass. 1030km of which 943km on motorways. Appears as quickest route on viaMichelin.

2. ViaMichelin has also suggested going via Switzerland:
Cross country from Strasbourg to motorway at Rottweil, then south to Konstanz. Briefly in to Switzerland, along the south side of the lake. Into Austria and join the A14/E60 south of Bregenz. 996km of which 869km on motorways.
Could also drive along the north of the Lake avoiding Switzerland but taking the tunnel at Bregenz.

3. This forum has also suggested going via Karlsruhe and Bregenz:
From Strasbourg head north east to Karlsruhe. Join the motorway and head south through Stuttgart, Ulm, Memmingen, and then in to Austria via tunnel at Bregenz.

Which of these do you suggest (or indeed something else) given when I'm travelling and that I'm after an easy life?

Cheers,

M.

PS the car is ready for winter as for reasons best known to themselves the dealer delivered it on michelin alpin tyres. snowHead

A snowHead

Welcome to sH snowHead

Google comes up with some odd routes, but maybe it's cos it's the western end of Austria.
1 or 3, either/or, depends on snow. If it's dumping, go via Bregenz and pay the extra €10 toll for the Arlberg tunnel.
2 means a Swiss toll sticker as well as the Austrian one (and the French tolls and the extra €10 for Arlberg). Don't go via north side of the lake, unless you want a scenic break from the Autobahn monotony, or are if the timing meant doing an overnight stay somewhere like Friedrichshafen, Lindau or Bregenz. But I do recommend a visit there if you ever go that way in summer Smile

At Ulm, my preference is not to take the shortcut thru the city, which all the SatNavs will suggest. Just stay on A8 and then on to A7.
Saturday am on the Arlberg Schnellstrasse can be a bit stop-start, because the autobahn gets routed in to a 1 lane road for a bit. Never done that on a Friday, but my guess is it's not so bad.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I would strongly suggest going via Luxembourg rather than Strassbourg. Added advantage of no tolls and cheap fuel at around the halfway point in Luxembourg.
The problem with Strassbourg is you either head back north to Karlsruhe or follow an awkward route across the Black Forest to get to Bregenz. If you prefer motorway driving as much as possible go via Kaiserlauten after Luxembourg. There is a quicker route via Pirmasens and Lindau which has a section of dual carriageway plus single carriageway through various tunnels in a national park, this is not sign posted very well (because of the national park) but is a major route. Maybe it shows up on navis (I dont use them). After Karlsruhe obvious route via Stuttgart / Ulm / Memmingen. I would advise against the Fernpass. It is single carriage way (often winding) from Füssen to the Inntal, it gets very busy on weekends (especially Saturdays with trucks) and occasionally does get blocked by snow. Much better via Bregenz and Arlberg tunnel but there can be a delay at Bludenz

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Sue would have been all over this... snowHead

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@meeper, nothing to add, but welcome to Snowheads.

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@queenie pretty please, I agree - I have found many of Sue's words of wisdom over the past weeks as I have been reading up on this. If I were more confident I think we would use Sue's preferred route through Belgium/Lux etc. RIP Sue.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

The Luxembourg route certainly makes sense for further east in Austria, for sure.

Although in reality, there are so many options, and there's little in it between them, and everyone has their favourites and those they reckon are carnage (but thru the night, the roads will be empty, unless there's another snowmageddon). Every time I go, I pick an option literally as I'm about to leave the door, half the time change my mind if the SatNav shows traffic, and more often than not come back a different way just because I feel like it.

After all it is free

I would just follow Google at the moment you get there. It *should* be reasonably intelligent.

@meeper, Welcome, we have a place in Saalbach, this is how we work it, Friday leave around 5pm wish, Eurotunnel, then head to Charleroi, over night, early start, down through Luxembourg and Germany, for planning I use Google maps and for satnav Waze, if there is an issue it reroutes you. as has been said you save on the tolls in France, through Strasbourg is a nice place to stop if you want to see the city.

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@andy, +1. I doubt we travel UK-D/A as frequently as you do but for the twice a year trips we do make, we rarely take the same route or stick to a pre-planned one. Usually very happy to follow the TomTom guidance (apart from through Ulm). It's mostly done well at avoiding major traffic jams and gridlock on the way between Amsterdam and Tirol.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

@Inboard, a few times per year Frankfurt to Calais/Rotterdam/IJmuiden (and onwards to various locations in UK), and a few times per year Frankfurt to Innsbruck/Bregenz/Dolomites/Neuchatel. But I never do the full ferry/tunnel to Alps in one trip. Good luck to those that do, cos I'm bored at about 6 hours just before getting home, and that's only half way to the Alps.
It's like "how many different ways are there to get to the diagonally opposite corner of a grid?" - everyone will have their own preference.

snow reports

Thanks for all of the advice and opinion, it's great to be welcomed to the forum so enthusiastically.

I'll plan for France, Strasbourg, Stuttgart and Fernpass and then as @andy points out there are many options so be prepared to change in response to the conditions.

28 sleeps and counting....

You know it makes sense.

@meeper, we'll be doing similar on our way to Ischgl, but overnighting near Metz on the Friday. Having done the Fern Pass a couple of years ago, I would avoid, but we got there late afternoon and crawled over the pass and pretty much all the way to Landeck. Also the pass can be closed in snowy conditions, so it may be better to plan another route.

You can now buy the Austrian vignettes online here - https://shop.asfinag.at/en/

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

If you do buy the Austrian vignette online, do it well in advance, because they don't permit purchase within the EU stipulated period where the consumer is allowed to cancel.

I just pick up a sticky one at the autobahn services on the A7 (if going that way), or A8 between Munich and Rosenheim (if going that way). I think you can get one at the services at the Bregenz border/tunnel, or the petrol station opposite MaccyD's in Lindau 1 junction earlier. Only takes 1 minute (plus a pit stop to stretch the legs).

There are places that post the sticker, but why pay more, when you can get it from the official outlets for the correct price?

A snowHead

...edited for typos...

We cross in the tunnel around 6am on a Friday, travel via Lille, Mons and Namur, refuel in Luxembourg, cross via Pirmasens to Landau, and stop overnight at Rosenheim near the Austrian border having used the A8 all the way from Karlsruhe. We typically make it past Munich before 5pm, and aim to have dinner at our hotel before 7, then an early (8am) start in the morning and skiing in Hinterglemm by 11 Happy

On occasions, we've gone straight through Munich, or left the A99 at Feldkirchen or Haar to travel cross-country to Wasserburg and then down to Rosenheim to avoid jams on the ring road and/or the A8, which is scenic (in daylight) and traffic-free.

We've previously used the Aachen route, gone via Frankfurt (with 2 hours in a static queue), via Nuremburg, via Wurzburg and down to Ulm (in a blizzard with 10cm of snow on the roads), but we're now settled on the Luxembourg route. From home, I can get to Luxembourg on a full tank and refill when I have ~30 miles of fuel left, which gets me to the Austrian border at Kufstein to fill up cheaper than in Germany, which covers me until we leave Austria again when we top-off the tank to get us back to Luxembourg, which gets us home. £80 fill at home, €65 in Luxembourg, two at ~€75 in Austria, another €65 in Luxembourg.

A snowHead

@andy, just select the "I am a business" option, the vignette is potentially valid immediately (businesses not covered by the consumer protection legislation) but buying at a petrol station (lots in Germany sell them) is quick and easy.

@ousekjarr, definitely the quickest, cheapest and easiest route. You can divert via Aying and Feldkirchen if the A8 is blocked, you end up at either Bad Aibling or Rosenheim, the first bit off the A99 at Hohenbrunn can be a bit tricky to navigate.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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I usually end up going through Pirmasens - much better now the roadworks are finished,. It was there that I first learned the word "Umleitung". If satnav says go another way, then I do

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@RobinS, there are speed cameras on most tunnels, and on many of the roads on that route. It helps to stick to the speed limits, or use something like Waze which warns of them in advance, though the legalities of this vary. I have a nice German photo of my wife driving as well...

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The OP mentioned the FernPass, whenever we have gone that way there has always been a solid slow moving queue of traffic for miles over the pass. Seems a lack of joined up thinking, Germany has built a flash new fast motorway that leads to the Austrian border, bringing loads of traffic, that filters on to miles of slow winding single carriageway in Austria. We won't go that way any more.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

For traffic issues, it all depends on time of day anyway.
OP is going overnight, so all the usual potential places where traffic occurs mostly won't be there. (Karlsruhe rush hour, Pforzheim on the skinny autobahn that goes down and up the hills, Fernpass, the 30km of roadworks between Stuttgart and Augsburg, Munich ring... none of those should apply). Arlberg Schnellstrasse may be an issue if driving thru the night and getting there at the same time as the usual Saturday am ski traffic.

Help!!

Strasbourg to Austria

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