France to Venice
 

Starting to plan a trip from Parris to Venice in late July. Any thought on the route? I will have a time frame of about 2 or 3 days to make the ride. Have to meet family in Venice so why not ride instead of flying. What about places to stay along the way?https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...6ce08f3d9a.jpg

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That is a very do-able route, and would be enjoyable. I suggest you allow an absolute minimum of 3 days to do that route. 5 days would be much better (it would make the whole ride much more enjoyable).

If you are tight on time, and only have 2 or 3 days to make the trip, I suggest that you route Paris - Lyon - Milan - Venice. That is 100% autoroute, and not at all as pleasant or scenic a route, but it will get you there in 2 or 3 days without undue stress.

As for places to stay, you can find what suits you along the way - just use an app such as Booking.com or TripAdvisor.com to see what is in the neighborhood when the time comes to settle in for the night.

Michael

I'd normally suggest a route that would take you further south through France using the back roads and then across the Lombardy plain from Turin but if you're heading south from Paris in late July you'll be doing it along with most of the other 'juillettists' so those roads could well be clogged/ hotels full etc. Going east first and then south - close to the route you've outlined - is probably a better bet at that time of year. Avoid Switzerland and stay off the autoroutes / autobahns.

Re hotels en route - it's so easy these days. Pick a day destination about 300 miles from Paris, look it up in any of the on line booking sites - Hotels.com, Trip Advisor etc as Michael suggested - and take your pick. Book the next one in the evening /morning before you leave the previous hotel. Just make sure they have free cancellation in case you change your mind. We do that throughout the EU every year and it works ok.
In France, if you just want an overnight stop and nothing cultural, you could use the Ibis chain. They're everywhere and generally ok as long as you're happy with a view over a trading estate. There's some of them in Germany and Italy but not as many.

This is going to be a bit of a heresy on this site ;) but I'd suggest that if this is not part of a longer moto-focused trip, and you just want a nice scenic way to get to Venice for a holiday, you might do better taking a train.

Here's a good trip report for Paris-Milan, and for Venice you'd have even more time in the mountains:

And if they ever get round to finishing the Lyon - Turin 'TGV' tunnel upgrade it might even be a quick way of getting there :rofl:

Actually, there are worse ways of getting there than the train. You could do it in a day for around €100 - and no problems leaving the bike anywhere near Venice .... :thumbdown:

Thanks for all the comments. Most definitely gonna ride the bike if I get a chance. While the train maybe easier I think the bike will be a better experience. Not sure how I'm going to do the return yet, most likely the toll roads.

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Looking at the map route, I’d personally include Switzerland in the route. It’s personally one of my favourite places to visit on the bike. If you head through Switzerland to Milan and then across, you’ll also pass by lake Como. Even if you only stay over night, it would be a lovely stop.

I'd go for increased Alps (France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, with optional Leichtenstein) and decreased everything else. With two days this probably won't work; with three it will, given long summer daylight. With four or five, heaven.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

For 3 days it should be a pretty nice trip. I would make 1st day a boring autoroute/autobahn riding to get asap as close to Austrian border as you can. You can then spend days 2&3 playing around Austria, south-east corner of Switzerland and northern Italy before arriving to Venice. I would actually spend more time (even 1 full day) in Austria as I feel like their mountain roads/passes are the best in all the Alps for motorcycling.
I was living in Switzeland for almost 3 years and I think its overrated for motorcycling. Very expensive, slow, packed with traffic, and especially in July the north-south route to Italy will be totally congested. Couple that with it being illegal for bikes to filter in traffic and pretty steep fines for that and you can see why maybe its not that much fun. The south-east corner near Val Mustair is not as crowded though.
Enjoy the trip!

I would ride through the Black Forrest from North to South doing most of it on the B500 then I would head east along the Northern edge of Lake Konstanz and head across to Garmisch Parten, Bertchesgaden and Obersalzberg then cross over in to Austria around there and head towards Salzberg, this area of Bavaria does it for me all the time

Wayne