To be honest I would go Calais - reims then Head to Basel then down towards Milan and across to Bergamo, I would not use Motorways at all and therefore No Tunnels, My better half will NEVER go through a tunnel and this is the way we go sometimes, it is about 730 miles in Total.
You only have to pay the Vignette in Switzerland if you travel on Motorways so No Motorways either not only that it is only about 180 miles From Swiss border to Italian border so you would not pay anything at all.
I have never been asked for vignette if not traveling on Motorways or staying in Switzerland
You only have to pay the Vignette in Switzerland if you travel on Motorways so No Motorways either not only that it is only about 180 miles From Swiss border to Italian border so you would not pay anything at all.
There is a thread about Swiss tolls somewhere and I seem to think that you still have to pay even if you are not using the motorway. I will try to find the thread later.
They WILL try and get you to pay but if you state you are traveling on NON Motor-ways you definitely DO NOT pay, I have been going that way for over 20 years and know that you do not, The Vignette is a Motorway Tax, See Here.
Hello all, I have been advise about this route by a few posters.
I think that although you can use Swiz non motorway roads without a vignette, we did try it a couple of years back, and you seem to nearly always get fed on to a motorway for a short piece at least, which you could take a risk with, but to get across the alps would take a long time.
But I also think I may be wrong that it you are over 3500kg you have to buy a pass on entering switzerland, not sure if that is just for motorways, or just a tax on larger vehicles entering, but You are charged daily for when you are in Switzerland so I think it not just motorways. But if you are passing through then it only counts the days you are travelling through.
Sorry if not clearly written, just got up and yet to have a cup of tea.
Pat
Yes you are correct about the weight, It is a HGV Tax and it is per day, That was why I said it is only 180 miles from going into Switzerland to going out again and is 1 day which if I remember correctly is about 5 swiss francs.
I dont agree about always being fed onto Motorways as we have always gone quite easily without touching them and the roads were very good indeed and the roads over the Alps are excellent and don't cause any problems and the views are fantastic, We did and still do use Sat Nav and instruct "No Motorways" on it.
There are routes across Switzerland that do not entail Huge mountains etc, I initially went across with an American Eagle which was a 38 footer and we had a trailer on the back which made it to 48 foot with no problems at all this was my first Motorhome in about 1995 but before that I was travelling across as a "tugger" I had a 26 foot caravan and pulled it with a Toyota Land Cruiser which made the total length 40 foot I never had a problem so this shows the roads are good and easy.
But of course there were other places where we had tight squeezes (Very Tight).
I then had a Hymer B774 28 foot and went that way with No probs, Now down to a 26 footer and still no probs.
My better half will not travel on Motorways or do Tunnels since we had a bad accident a number of years ago but that is another story, I still kick myself for that and blame myself cos it was my fault and just through being stupid and trying to be clever, But as I said that is another story.
Hi Pat.
Now that about the minimum charge is interesting cos I have never had that to pay, I am wondering if this may be a fiddle or something on the main routes.
We usually look for a small village or town on the border crossing as we think they are more human, we have even had them just wave us through with no problems and on another occasion we got a young cocky lad with an officer who went through everything and every time he caught our eye he raised his eyebrows as though to say Sorry.
On another occasion the chap asked us if we would make them a cup of tea (Which we did) and we had a very enjoyable hour with them.
I think in all the times we have been through that way we have only been charged about four times, and I think the max we paid was 20 CHF as we were staying at Lake Geneva for a couple of days.
Hi Mate.
Now I am going to be totally honest here and admit that "I Don't Know" we always just put our final destinations into the Sat Nav and go where it takes us, The number of times that we are asked " Did you go Via ???" and so on and I have to say, "I Don't Know".
We certainly have travelled via Feldkirch in fact we did that route last year, We have also gone via Lindau and down to the Voralberg we have done passes But we have NEVER done Tunnels, We have gone over Brenner and down into Bolzano, The roads are fine and no problem at all, There is a way around or over every tunnel, and we have done them.
Just to enlighten when I say Tunnel I mean the multiple K ones ie Brenner Mont Blanc and so on, Obviousley there are shorter tunnels that need to be travelled through.
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