 Poster: A snowHead
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Wurzburg on way down in Germany. Should only take 4 hours or so from there to Saalbach
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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so I've got a similar dilemma for driving on February half term to Austria with 2 children (11 and 5).
tunnel to Calais and arriving French time @ 3pm.
last year we drove to rauris, via Belgium (Brussels slow but ok) then Frankfurt (stayed overnight in an airport hotel so very functional). onto Nuremberg - Munich (nightmare and want to avoid this time) and down into Austria.
way back took the E52 via Augsburg and then the E43 and stayed overnight at Rothenberg Ob der Tauber (amazing place) then upto Wurzburg and onto Belgium.
a longer but nicer route with no traffic.
this time we are travelling the same time arriving 3pm in Calais their time.
not wanting to repeat my outward journey, do I go via the way I came back last year or go via Reims, Metz, (overnight near Baden Baden) then Stuttgart, Kempten E43 and down to Innsbruck, down to Italy on the E66 into Sillian and south east Austria .
any assistance is very appreciated.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@TonyB76, welcome to sH 
There are newer threads than this that will have more up to date info.
Think the current line of thinking is that Calais-Belgium-Luxembourg then a bit cross country Pirmasens-Karlsruhe, then A8 to Munich is best.
My experience is the Brussels is not so bad (again, only 15-20mins round the ring on a working day rush hour), but the bit from Bruges-Brussels can be slow (was 90km/h for me the whole way the other day, with the classic Belgian tailgaters). Not sure which way people do Belgium since it doesn't help me on my journey, but I assume Lille-Namur-Luxembourg. Zero tolls that way, and chance for cheaper fuel.
Munich depends on time of day more than anything.
Frankfurt-Nuremburg-Munich was perfectly fine for me last year, as was Calais-Brussels-Frankfurt the other day (but there are roadworks at Aachen and Cologne).
If my last trip in summer is anything to go by, then avoid Koblenz-Mannheim.
Off to Austria this weekend, so can't comment on Karlsruhe-Austria current situation yet.
oh and reading thru some of those ancient posts... it's now 50¢ for pee in Belgium (automated turnstile), and 70¢ in Germany, but both you get a 50¢ voucher to spend in the cafeteria.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I think most has been covered but I also did this last Feb half term so I thought I'd add my tuppence worth. Firstly, winter tryes are mandatory in Austria, you shouldn't be in the mountains on summer tyres at all. We left Herts on the Friday evening after school and got to the Belgium/German Border about 10 pm. Cheap hotel then off at about 7am. I seem to remember spending the whole afternoon around Munich and we finally got to Bad Gastein around 10pm. Horrible day. On the way back we left at 6.30 am and even though I'd booked a hotel in Alsace we drove straight through and got to Calais around 10pm and straight onto a Shuttle. Home by midnight. Would do it again but take a map of germany this time. I think we did Calais, Brussels, Aachen, Frankfurt, Nurnburg, Munich, and east into Austria. Good luck with it. I'd try to get past Munich on the Friday.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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hi sorry been travelling so not able to get on.
didn't realise the date of this post until I signed up, so will look at other later posts.
I'll be travelling from herts also, and plan to get to Frankfurt by 9pm. As my wife doesn't like to drive abroad, I have no choice but to stop, but will this time get on the road by 6am and so get past Munich ASAP. I left Frankfurt last year at 10.30am, which was way too late and suffered.
on winter tyres, yes have these and invested in a cracking set, along with Thule summit snow chains, which I have to say we're brilliant, especially when a large dumping of snow hit the car park at the ski left.
so it looks like my outbound route was pretty ok, I just need to be on the road earlier come Frankfurt, and forget the route through France.
any other suggestions are greatly appreciated.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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TonyB76, the route you took (via Frankfurt then Würzburg, Nürnberg, etc) is a nightmare for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the sheer volume of traffic attempting or having to use it.
As andy has said, the southern Belgium route is a better option, avoiding the Brussels, Liège Aachen route. From Lille, head towards Tournai then follow the signs to Charleroi, then Mons and Namur. At Namur, head south-east to Luxembourg where you will be able to top up (even on the motorway) with the cheapest fuel in western Europe. From Luxembourg, head towards Saarbrücken where you pick up the A8. The section of non-motorway between Pirmasens and Landau in der Pfalz is relatively pain-free even in bad weather if you have the right tyres. It is relatively fast duel carriageway most of its length now and problem free according to friends who used it at Christmas to come out from the UK. They had to avoid it on the way home as they did not have winter tyres though and used the longer but safer (for them) motorway route.
From Landau head to Karlsruhe where you return to the A8.
Your current plan to leave Frankfurt at 6am will get you to A9 in time to join the rest of the stop go! Sorry, but most of the Dutch and other Northern German and Scandinavian travellers will travel through the night, the traffic could be stop-go in certain sections all through the night. Where the A3 joins the A9 near Nürnberg means that you are joined by many from north-east Germany and points east of that (Polish, Baltic states, etc). The A9 from Nürnberg to Munich was quite literally stop and go these past 2 weekends with all the guests I had to meet using it and taking as much as twice as long to arrive in the resort. Bad weather did not help either. A group of Germans took 14 hours to get from just north of Frankfurt the Saturday before last.
I live about an hour east of Munich and will need to travel to Flachau to clean apartments that morning. I will leave my home at 06.00am in order to be at the apartments by 08.00am (if I'm lucky). Even midweek last week, it took me over 2 hours to drive the 134kms between my home and the holiday flats; normally it is barely 70 minutes max.
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@ Sammerberg Sue, thank you so much for your detailed response. I will definitely use it for my journey, given your explanation of all and sundry from Northern Europe are coming down my previous route.
I will need to stop on route for the night , say 6 hours from Calais, any suggestions on locations will be also greatly appreciated.
Thanks
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6 hours will probably be about Karlsruhe - Pforzheim area. I don't know any specific places to stay since they're too close to home for me. accorhotels and hotelbb should have something (at least in Karlsruhe or Stuttgart)
depends how far you want to push before stopping (personally, I'd prefer to get as far as possible before stopping).
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Thanks for coming back to me so quickly. Will try and get as far as I can.
With the route do I go past Ulm down to Innsbruck missing out Munich altogether?
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I've never done that cross country route Ulm-Füssen-Innsbruck, so can't comment. I always go via Munich, but then I'm almost always doing Munich at 10pm. Sometimes I'll go the scenic way via Bregenz, but it's longer, and there's a pricey extra toll tunnel.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@TonyB76, I've only stayed overnight going towards the Channel I'm afraid when I've left after work. I get as far as Merzig and usually stay at the Schwemlinger Hof
Luxemburger Straße 58, 66663 Merzig. But I'm not sure if the reception is open after 21.00 as it is a typical German Gasthof. Whether you can make it or not is up to your driving style and the road conditions on the day. A quick check from Google maps has it at 4.5 hours right now, including traffic, going the route I described to you earlier. This would put you at least 7 hours from the Austrian border near Salzburg, you don't say exactly where you are heading in Austria.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Thanks both for the further info.
6 hours driving fast..ish from Calais so guesstimate my stop off.
Regarding my destination, so i'm skiing at a small resort called Sillian S/E Austria, staying at A-9913 Abfaltersbach 1 in an apartment.
Looking at Google Maps, its marginally quicker going via Munich, though it looks like there are roadworks on the E52 to Munich, so may well just go via Ulm onto the E532 via Innsbruck. Good idea?
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E52 = A8 ?
no longterm roadworks showing for me, which is rare (I'm going that way this weekend or next, so can check)
only some closed service areas (seen quite a few now across both Belgium and Germany that are being totally demolished and rebuilt)
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You know it makes sense.
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Sorry yes the E52 is the A8.
With the roadworks, i have it on google maps starting mainly around Burgau on for 20km approx going east. Not sure how bad it is?
Given that and where i am going, do think it is wise to go via Innsbruck or are the roads hard going?
thanks again for your comments
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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@TonyB76, the only long term ones are at Mercklingen where the road divides to go up over the escarpement of the Swabian Alb (Drakenstein-9 not usually a problems and going via the A7 after that seems pointless as you will end up in the usual chaos at the end near Füssen.
I know Sillian but only from summer as it is a favourite paragliding area.
After Munich how do you get to the Lienz area? do you go over the Brenner and then in from Italy or via Mattrei in Osttirol? There are alternative routes for both that could possibly save you some headaches as well as tolls.
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Poster: A snowHead
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There certainly was a 20km (might have been 2x 10km) set of roadworks somewhere in the vicinty of Ulm, but none seem to be showing on my usual roadwork checkers. Will see when I drive the road for real.
Last time I drove that way it was 20km at 80km/h instead of 20km at 120km/h. So wasn't an issue for me, other than the depressing nature of 20km of narrow lanes and claustrophobia.
But there is so much of that road that's gradually being updated that most of the time there will be some roadworks somewhere.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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gonna have to create a wiki FAQ for this
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Found my notes on this trip done last year at half term week:
Left home (nr Hemel Hempstead, Herts) at 1330. Got 1606 train. Arrived hotel in wurselen 2130. Weather atrocious. Left 0700 traffic round Nurnberg and Munich v bad all the way to innsbruck turn off. Got to Bad Gastein around 1930
Left Bad Gastein at 0700. Got to calais 2100. Not many stops. Traffic ok. Went round south of munich. Route salzburg munich stuttgart cologne brussels calais. Could have been quicker maybe but were heading to hagenau where I'd booked a hotel until changing mind west of stuttgart. We were making good time so decided to sky the stopover and head straight for Calais.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Found my notes on this trip done last year at half term week:
Left home (nr Hemel Hempstead, Herts) at 1330. Got 1606 train. Arrived hotel in wurselen 2130. Weather atrocious. Left 0700 traffic round Nurnberg and Munich v bad all the way to innsbruck turn off. Got to Bad Gastein around 1930
Left Bad Gastein at 0700. Got to calais 2100. Not many stops. Traffic ok. Went round south of munich. Route salzburg munich stuttgart cologne brussels calais. Could have been quicker maybe but were heading to hagenau where I'd booked a hotel until changing mind west of stuttgart. We were making good time so decided to sky the stopover and head straight for Calais.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@TonyB76,
If you could drive about 7 hours or so from Calais, this hotel is right by the motorway and well placed for the different routes to Austria. We've stayed there twice now, it's clean, warm and modern with secure parking.
http://www.iq-hotels.de/00.html
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Good luck with it. I'm without a second driver this year (just me and the kids) so am flying into Munich on Saturday morning. Hopefully I'll have the hire car into Austria before all you lot start clogging things up.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Thanks! wife doesn't like driving in Europe....so just me, like last year, with a hard drive full of music and lucosade..... hope i don't get in your way on the roads, I'll be the one with the roof box half hanging off and a wife and two children completely oblivious to what's going on!
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@Dirty Gibson, dream on, the motorway will start clogging up tomorrow from midday onwards when Bavarian schools are let out. Tomorrow evening's rush hour will be fun - not for those who are simply trying to get home from work.
Luckily the weather looks good for a transfer day (dry and sunny later on), so any hold-ups will be caused by idiots driving too close together while knackered (e.g. Dutch and Scandinavian drivers who have driven through the night). My advice is to keep to the inside lane as much as possible especially on the 2-lane sections. I shall be on the road at 06:00 to beat the traffic but there are no guarantees, I got caught in a rolling jam on the A10 a couple of weeks back before the big weeks began, making the journey about 45 minutes longer than usual. I live an hour east of Munich so at least have a head start on the Müncheners taking off for a day's skiing in the Ski Welt or Zillertal! 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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We have done this a couple of times and love it and are off again in 3 weeks. No tolls and a chance to drive on the Autobahn, plus having the car rammed with kit and food and with you in resort for driving to different stations. Austria seems so good for the kids to learn to ski. A genuine way to have a ski holiday on a low budget with kids. First time was to Ellmau at Christmas - overnight drive from Dunkirk, via Koln / Stuttgart which was a bit tough and quite hard to navigate with matchsticks in your eyes as the sat nav kept recommending different routes. Second time to Alpbach at Easter, we stopped in Dover for an early ferry then Stuttgart making it a where you seem to be able to get good accomo fairly cheap - always an issue for us as we have 3 kids so rooms for 5 are rare. That time we used the Brussels / Luxemourg / Primasens / A8 route both ways and that seemed to work really well, although again watch the sat nav routing. You need to share the driving. But 2 nights is a pain as it feels like you are travelling for ever. The return leg to Cardiff took us about 17 hours using the chunnel at midnight which was so quiet and easy. This time we leave Cardiff at 11am, ferry at 4, then will drive through the night to arrive in resort at 8am if all goes well. Fingers crossed a stiff coffee and straight onto the slopes for a 7 day week. Fuel is cheaper off the autoroute. We hit a massive piece of wood on the fast lane in Belgium about 3am which damaged a tyre (still drivable luckily), that could happen anywhere but I guess the risk does increase when you are tired and in the middle of the night so drive safe and diet coke up! I haven't experienced driving in ice or snow in any of this, but have M&S marked all season tyres (which I understand are legal) and will carry chains. Also keen to get a set of winter wheels and tyres for future trips like the locals do! Have a great time and happy to answer any questions.
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FAQ
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