 Poster: A snowHead
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Calling all continental snowheads and anyone else who has driven this general route recently?
I drive out this weekend disembarking at Rotterdam on Saturday morning.
When I first planned this all the route planners took me east through Holland then south to Frankfurt, east to Nuremberg then south again to Munich and Austria.
Ran them again tonight and everyone now takes me right down to Karlsruhe then Stuttgart to Munich.
Anyone have any advice or thoughts on why this has changed, or should I ignore them and just let the satnav take me the best route on the day?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Use Google map. Click Rotterdam, then "Get Directions" and fill the second box with Zell am See. Google Map is as good as Tom Tom or MS Autoroute, both which I have used extensively.
The two routes aren't much different. I often go down in one and return by the other. The Frankfurt Nuremberg route is a bit faster. The Stuggart-Karlsrule is a bit boring as the roads are a bit twisty and seem narrower at places.
You should cross into Germany from Holland via Arnhem. The route is 636 miles and motorway all the way from Rotterdam to outside Zell am See. The last 47 miles is single carriageway No 306, 178 and 311. Remember to stay sharp at the end of the journey when you are most likely tired and there could be quite a bit of snow on the minor roads. My guess is the journey after Munich will be dark so be prepared.
Munich has been a bottleneck but my colleague told me the road improvement has virtually completed and you should have not much traffic jams to worry about. He works in UK but returned to his home town Munich for Christmas and New Year. I shall drive down the same route in mid Jan as I am going to Ski Amade. My journey starts at Amsterdam.
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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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saikee, many thanks again for your advice. Frankfurt- Nuremberg is my preferred option but I'll wait and see as the forecast looks like falling snow for almost the whole route which may make it too big a task for a one day run on my own?
The route planners all take me over the German border just north of Nijmegen? is the more northernly route, crossing at Arnhem a better bet?
Appreciate the dangers of the last leg, especially as it will be dark and probably snowing. I have driven it a few times in hire cars from Munich so at least it is the one bit of road I am more familiar with.
Where are you going in mid Jan?
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Not been the Frankfurt-Nuremburg way, but my neighbour reckons that way is better to get to Munich from here (15min S. of Frankfurt)
If you go the Frankfurt-Stuttgart way, then I recommend taking A6 to Heilbronn then A81 to Stuttgart, rather than Karlsruhe-Pforzheim. Looks slightly longer but all roadworks have gone now and it's a clear run, whereas Pforzheim is hilly 2 lane, no hard shoulder and lots of getting stuck behind trucks or people overtaking trucks at 1mph faster than the trucks.
On the Rotterdam-Frankfurt leg, there's roadworks in Holland (I think it was Eindhoven?) where it says to ignore the satnav! Do so, and just follow the road signs until the satnav shuts up and starts working again. That's the way I go from Europoort, but for Hoek van Holland I used to just take A20-A12 to Arnhem then A3 to Frankfurt (E25-E35), but expect there to be horrendous jams @ Rotterdam if it's a working day/rush hour.
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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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Cheers Andy, I take it there is a satnav glitch hereabouts then? should I not use it until I am past this ?
Google maps is taking me east from Rotterdam on the A15/E31 then south on the A50 and back onto the E31/A73 actually crossing the border to join the A57 near Goch and then on to Duisburg and Koln to Frankfurt?
Hopefully as its Saturday the traffic will not be too bad, at least on the first part through Holland?
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We've got a lot of snow right now in NL and DE will be far, far worse. Don't forget it's law to have winter tyres to drive in Germany in the winter.
andy, the roadworks around Eindhoven are mostly done now - they've been putting in a big ring-system around Eindhoven and it's pretty good - plus he's travelling saturday not friday rush-hour!
robboj, that part of NL is quite "traffic dense" and who knows what it'll be like on Saturday - unfortunately no guarantee. I came 25km on a Dutch motorway this morning and I was pootling along at what I felt was a safe 90kph - the road was busier than normal I think for 7am although it is first day back at work. Plenty of german cars whizzing past at 150kph as is their norm!  The road from Koln to Frankfurt can be very "wind-swept" so beware you might have shocking conditions there... but I suppose when you drive to a ski resort thems the breaks!
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I prefer Utrecht/Arnhem route to going through Eindhoven/Venlo. Generally the southern part of Holland has more traffic than in the East.
Holland is always the busiest part of the journey. The traffic thins out before Arnhem and the first part of Germany, before hiting the industrial heartland Dusiburg/Dussedorf/Essen, is usually deserted.
I seldom run into traffic jams even in the industrial heartland. The road south of Koln to Franfurt is always jam free in my experience as there are two autobahns running parallel to the River Rhine. Frankfurt has never been busy in my experience even if one drive into the city both in winter and summer but I guess the office starting and closing time may be a different scene. The roads between Franfurt and Munich are not known to have jams.
The roads between Munich and Innsbruck/Salzburg are in a league of their own but that depends on the time and the snow condition.
As far as I am aware the traffic on the autobahns can keep the snow away but the traffic can be affected if it is snowing continuously for several hours. Again the worst experience I had is the road south of Munich. In one trip we even left the autobahn and drove into the country roads to get to Munich.
I am going to Flachau which is part of the Ski Amade in Salzburg area. It is a collection of resorts rather than one large linked area and has some nice places like Schladming and Zauchensee. It is convenient for me as a step stone to ski Italian Dolomitis the second week.
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I should say that there have been roadworks on the autobahn between Aachen and Koln for as long as I can remember... but it doesn't usually slow down so much.
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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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Alexandra, Thanks for your help on routes, car is fully equipped and then some.
saikee, I've a feeling that the Munich to Zell leg is going to be the tricky bit, thankfully as i said above I have driven it before a few times albeit snow and darkness were not a feature of those trips.
I've been to Flachau, hope you enjoy, say hello to Hermann if you see him 
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robboj, Last Saturday, due to snow and heavy traffic in both directions there were 100kms of traffic jams between Munich-South (Brunntal interchange) and the border at Salzburg and obviously includes all the traffic heading to and from the Inntal (A93 Keifersfelden to Rosenheim). It was mainly stop-go but was in general horrendous. We locals do not use the autobahn to move from place to place on Saturdays during the ski season. It finally cleared and was running OK by about 20:00
If your Sat-Nav offers you an alternative route it might be worth looking at it. This Saturday will be bad again but the next 3 should be OK-ish if the snow holds off or does not cause major headaches on the roads. Do not bother to use the alternative offered using the Rosenheimer Landstrasse (i.e north of the A8 axis) it clogs up big time and is a really annoying stretch of road. If it really is bad, then head south of the A8 and follow the roads along the foot of the mountains as far as you can. These are more interesting, less frequently used by tourists, but are important links for locals so kept free of snow and ice.
For up to date info on traffic in the Netherlands and Belgium as well as Germany you can use this web site, which if you join (it is free) gives you info about the speed cameras as well as fairly accurate updates - http://www.verkehrsinfo.de
For detailed info in English on the situation in Bavaria this web site is the Bavarian Police's traffic info site: http://www.bayerninfo.de/vib/verkehr;jsessionid=616014287E39900F1F82D5F48AE06F2A
This is a link to the traffic info in Austria, but it is only in German I'm afraid: http://oe3.orf.at/verkehr/ - click on "Verkehrskarte Online" and then on "Verkehrskarte öffnen" and you will get a pop-up map with the trouble spots highlighted.
Hope this helps! The trouble is that all the traffic to central and eastern Austria as well as northern Italy (Südtirol) travels through and around Munich - it will always be a bottle-neck one way or another. There are huge numbers of Dutch, Danish, Belgium and Scandinavians who drive to the resorts as well as the Germans. I find the Dutch the most frightening drivers to be honest along with the Austrians cutting the corner from Innsbruck and Salzburg - they even call my neck of the woods "the German Corner" and give traffic updates as if it were part of their own system.
Good luck and I hope you have an easy ride
Sue 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Samerberg Sue, very many thanks for such comprehensive advice. Ah the joys of the Deutscher ecker in winter!
As I am alone and will have to have a couple of longish rest stops I reckoned on hitting Munich around 7pm so hopefully will miss the very worst. Plan to leave A8 at Siegsdorf then cut through Inzell to Lofer. Weather does not look good though?
I'll have my laptop so hopefully will be able to pick up some info from these websites at my previous stop which is planned for just south of Nuremberg
If i take the route you suggest to avoid problems what junction would you leave the A8 at?
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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, Thanks again, you've got mail
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FAQ
I live in the mountains above the Achenmühle exit.
