 Poster: A snowHead
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Could someone give me some advice regarding the car journey home from Zell am See on a Saturday change over day.
When we drove to the resort last Saturday, we witnessed serious trafic jams with thousands of cars queuing for mile upon mile to head North via Munich. This was down purley to the volume of trafic.
We need to get to Dussledorf for the Saturday night and would like to know if anyone has any tips to reduce the travel time be it early/late set off times or alternative routes.
Locals are quoting it can take 4 hours to get off the mountains alone.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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rdsalcoj, I've never known it that bad, other than it can be bad where Salzburg direction traffic meets up with Innsbruck direction traffic. Leave early - Many Germans will ski the morning or whole day before setting off.
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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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I fear the autobahn will be just as bad this weekend. Indeed, the school winter breaks in Holland and two German states finish then, so that doesn't promise well. I haven't really any suggestions for improving the situation, except the obvious one of starting early. Good luck!
P.S. Let us know how you get on.
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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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rdsalcoj, welcome to Snowheads,  Hope you're having a good holiday!
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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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If it were me I'd probably set off at around 4:00 am - 5:00 am on Sat and pick up breakfast enroute once I got past Munich. If you make good time you could consider stopping off in Germany (e.g. go swimming at local baths).
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Last Saturday we had exceptional snowfall and even as a local (I live at 800m above the Inntal A93/A8 junction) I did not bother to leave the house. It was just as bad if not worse on Mon/Tuesday and now it has started snowing heavily here again. Setting off early is always a good option. Your first hurdle is getting on to the Austrian motorways from Zell am See then getting past Salzburg. There is a regular hold up between Anger and Neukirchen for some reason on the A8 just after the Austrian border at Walserberg, and again often one between Grabenstätt and Bernau ie along the south side of Chiemsee.
As Espri says, all the world and their Grandmothers, plus the Dutch (  ) are on holiday as of today - so a huge amount of traffic going south from this afternoon onwards - bottlenecks from Frankfurt (A3) to Würzburg then A9 Nürnburg to Munich and then the A99 going from Munich North to Munich South (Munich's answer the the M25!). The killer section is often the Irschenberg, a steepish hill between Bad Aibling and Weyern on the A8 (i.e after the joining up of the A93 Inntal Autobahn, but if you are on the road before the lorries you should not have a problem. Tirol prevents any transit of HGVs during the night, so from about 6:30 onwards there tend to be convoys of them heading towards Munich. Don't wimp out on the Irschenberg and enter the right-hand lane as you could be stuck and unable to pull out. The locals give no mercy there, believe me, I drive it every day to and from work! Keep a steady 100kmh or so in the middle or faster in the left if you can, it is polite to pull over to let much faster cars through which is why most of them flash you. It's not as rude as a lot of people think, unless they are right up your @rse then I tend to drop my speed to annoy them on the climb up and politely pull over shortly before the active speed camera on the downside (direction Munich) - I just love seeing that camera flash the rude so-and-sos!  It's in the traffic control system on the downside immediately after the exit/entrance to the Service area by the way. The next bad section of the A8 is the section from Holzkirchen to Brunntal (Munich South interchange) on changeover days, but you should not have too many problems early in the day going in a northerly direction. They open up a 4th lane if the traffic is really heavy and lorries are restricted to the inside lane.
I've just checked the traffic news on a couple of web sites I use to plan my drives and there are no big hold ups anywhere from here to Düsseldorf at the moment.
Good luck with the run north.
Sue 
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Hi
Last week was normal for this week of the year, and tommorow it will be just as bad because it is Fasching week. It is snowing now and is forecast to snow till Tuesday so it will be a hard and long drive.
Last Sat our guests took around 7 hours from Stuttgart airport, 8 hours from Karlsruhe and even 6 from Munich . Needless to say 2 lots of guests have gone already today, and another lot are going after they come in from Skiing. When you drive from Zell, you might consider turning left at the Interspar roundabout in Saalfelden and going via Leogang Hochfilzen, Fieberbrunn, St Johann to get on the motorway at Kufstein. That way you do leave a lot of the Zell/ Kaprun etc traffic going to Salzburg as they go straight at this roundabout on to Lofer.
There is not much in it really but that is the way I would go. The Hochfilzen route is high so if it continues snowing you would have to be sure you have winter tyres.
Either way be prepared for long journey , so take some food etc to keep you going. 
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The traffic jam around and through Munich has been on-going for a number of years, say 3 to 4 years, and doesn't change much if you drive through in the summer.
All you can do is sticking to the ring road and don't get inside the city. The rest of the journey should be jam free but the industrial heartland beyond Koln to Stuttagrt may not be fast moving.
The road condition from Zell am See to the motorway has been adequately advised by other SH. The motorway section from Austria to Munich can be bad in case of heavy snow. We in the past find it advantageous to leave the night before and paid an overnight accommodation so that our travelling schedule is not affected by the traffic between Austrian border to Munich.
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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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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I just took an hour to drive from Kufstein to my home (25km) on the Autobahn - the snowploughs were out in force but the amount of drifting snow plus the traffic were causing big headaches. They have salted and cleared any particularly steep sections but are letting the snow settle on most flat sections. This trip usually takes me 20 minutes at the most by the way. The car is now safely wrapped up and will not move until I have to dig it out on Sunday ready for the trip into Munich on Monday - work spoils so much skiing time! Driving in with everyone else Monday morning is likely to be a bundle of laughs - not!
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All you can do is sticking to the ring road and don't get inside the city.
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Actually that is wrong - at the weekend it is often faster to cut through the city to get passed the A9 junction and straight on to the A8 to Stuttgart. It is well signposted and follows the Inner Ring road, called the Mittler Ring(B2R). Make sure you follow the road round to the south at the moment as long term roadworks on the eastern section can cause problems. But that will soon be the other way round, when the finish the tunnel under Richard-Strauss-Strasse. That's when they start digging up the southern route (signposted Garmisch, Lindau from the Munich South interchange)
The A99 (Munich's answer to the M25) was living up to it's reputation today and was a creeping traffic jam in both directions this evening
With all this heavy snow, unless you have good winter tyres and snow chains I would strongly advise staying on the main arterial routes as they are priority 1 and constantly cleared. I once dropped off the A10 Salzburg to Werfen section thinking I'd be clever using the old main road over Pass Leug to avoid the standing traffic - egg on my face as I had to put the chains on and still turn round and rejoin the motorway due to the pass being closed because the avalanche risk. Tonight several Austrian-German crossing are closed for the same reason, including the ones around Bad Reichenhall (B305), Schleching to Marquetstein (B307) - all popular cut-outs if the B178 (St Johann-in-Tirol/Kitz/Going/ Scheffau/Kufstein road is overly busy which it will be tomorrow.
Good luck - once you are passed Munich and either on your way up towards Nürnberg or Stuttgart, you will not have to worry about the snow too much - just half of Scandinavia and the Netherlands all heading north. The other othe halves will be heading south of course
Sue
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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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| Samerberg Sue wrote: |
at the weekend it is often faster to cut through the city to get passed the A9 junction and straight on to the A8 to Stuttgart. It is well signposted and follows the Inner Ring road, called the Mittlerer Ring(B2R). Make sure you follow the road round to the south ... (signposted Garmisch, Lindau from the Munich South interchange)
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If you do try this route, when the München Süd junction opens out to five lanes, you want to be in the middle lane. Then follow the Lindau PKW (PKW = Personenkraftwagen = car) signs round the Mittlerer Ring Süd (don't be confused by Lindau LKW signs which will direct you the other way round the A99 - LKW = Lastkraftwagen = lorry). Turn off the Mittlerer Ring onto the A96 Lindau autobahn and then after a few miles cut across to the north, probably most easily nowadays using the southern/western section of the A99, till you reach the A8 autobahn to Stuttgart (I expect that the A8 Stuttgart will be signposted from the Mittlerer Ring).
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espri, they are using another van these days all over this area - it caught me in Kirchdorf driving over to Neubeuren a few weeks ago but before they raised the fines TG! It is a darker coloured Merc - Vito or something similar, colour was dark blue I think.
The Samerberg Rest area camera is easy to avoid as the limit along that whole corner is 100kph and you get plenty of warning from the fast guys ahead of you in the left-hand lane when they slam on the brakes, usually too late! I match the lorries because they talk to each other, giving warnings about the speed traps as well as the HGV Customs checkers who are usually on the lookout between Rosenheim and the Rest Area after the Bad Aibling turn-off.
rdsalcoj, I hope you made it through our region before it snarled up - the A8 and the A99 are even worse this weekend than last weekend. In the southerly direction (Munich-Salzburg) there is currently a traffic jam stretching from the southern Munich junction to the A93 (Inntal Autobahn). The autobahn A93 (the link into the Tirol is solid to Kufstein, where most turn off and take to the ordinary roads to save paying for the motorway (it only costs 7.5 Euros for 10 days and is worth it). In Austria the motorways are extremely busy - the A10 (Salzburg-Graz/Villach) is blocked in several places and all the alternative routes require you to have snow chains on. And nearly all the alternative border crossing are closed because of avalanche danger. The Arlberg area and the are around Lake Constance (Bodensee) is even worse
Sue
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You know it makes sense.
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The journey took us 9 hours not including the breaks. We took advice to leave Zell either before 5.30 AM or after 15.00 PM. We chose the early option but were hindered more to the snowfall and getting stuck behind the snow ploughs which were operating both on the motorways and joining roads.
The road conditions were fairly bad with the settling snow which resulted in us driving at slower speeds for obvious reasons.
My sat nav gets updates which constantly recaluates the route due to travel conditions ahead. It advised us to get on the the beginning of the A8 near Salzburg and then took us off the A8 at Rosehelm directting us on an single lane road which ran parallel to the A8 up until Munich.
We kept moving all the time but it was a hard drive.
We had friends though who left Zell at 7.00 AM and the journey time was just a little longer.
Thanks for all the help posted
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