Zoltrix

I'll be on a biz trip in Geneva and wife wants to see Nice real bad.
I'm thinking of renting the car in geneva and driving to Nice through
Turin, Italy. How are the roads in France/Italy? I'll bring my
laptop with gps/Autoroute so I won't be getting TOO lost but just
wondering.

Autoroute says the trip is 5hrs. We plan on going in December. No
snow I hope?

What do you guys think?

Sascha

    > Autoroute says the trip is 5hrs. We plan on going in December. No
    > snow I hope?

No snow if you take the
*La route du soleil*
going south the River Rhone Delta
down to southern France, even in December.

Emilia

Zoltrix <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

    > I'll be on a biz trip in Geneva and wife wants to see Nice real bad.
    > I'm thinking of renting the car in geneva and driving to Nice through
    > Turin, Italy. How are the roads in France/Italy? I'll bring my
    > laptop with gps/Autoroute so I won't be getting TOO lost but just
    > wondering.
    >
    > Autoroute says the trip is 5hrs. We plan on going in December. No
    > snow I hope?
    >
    > What do you guys think?


This drive is perfectly easy. I don't think you have to go through Turin
though. It's faster if you go around Turin. Once you get down towards
Genoa, it gets a bit tricky in that you go in & out of tunnels which can
be a annoying if the sun is bright. Also, people drive that route very
fast. If you are nervous driver you should go around via Grenoble and
avoid Italy altogether. It will only cost you 1/2 hour more.

But, why are you driving? You can fly direct on Easyjet, one hour flight,
for low prices if you book early: currently 10CHF to and 16CHF return for
a trip I booked for 10 Dec returning 15 December. It will cost you less
than the car rental.

Zoltrix

On 22 Sep 2004 02:21:20 +0200, Emilia <emilia@(spam-so-)easy.com>
wrote:

    >Zoltrix <[email protected]> wrote in
    >news:[email protected] :
    >> I'll be on a biz trip in Geneva and wife wants to see Nice real bad.
    >> I'm thinking of renting the car in geneva and driving to Nice through
    >> Turin, Italy. How are the roads in France/Italy? I'll bring my
    >> laptop with gps/Autoroute so I won't be getting TOO lost but just
    >> wondering.
    >>
    >> Autoroute says the trip is 5hrs. We plan on going in December. No
    >> snow I hope?
    >>
    >> What do you guys think?
    >This drive is perfectly easy. I don't think you have to go through Turin
    >though. It's faster if you go around Turin. Once you get down towards
    >Genoa, it gets a bit tricky in that you go in & out of tunnels which can
    >be a annoying if the sun is bright. Also, people drive that route very
    >fast. If you are nervous driver you should go around via Grenoble and
    >avoid Italy altogether. It will only cost you 1/2 hour more.
    >But, why are you driving? You can fly direct on Easyjet, one hour flight,
    >for low prices if you book early: currently 10CHF to and 16CHF return for
    >a trip I booked for 10 Dec returning 15 December. It will cost you less
    >than the car rental.

Woa!!!!!!!

10 CHF?!?!? Is that for real?? I can't believe those prices, I just
checked them myself. How can it be so cheap? What do they fly?
Soviet turbo props powered by hamsters? I mean, for crying out loud..
It costs me that much to go to brooklyn-manhattan roundtrip.

Alec

"Zoltrix" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > On 22 Sep 2004 02:21:20 +0200, Emilia <emilia@(spam-so-)easy.com>
    > wrote:
    >>Zoltrix <[email protected]> wrote in
    >>news:[email protected] m:
    >>> I'll be on a biz trip in Geneva and wife wants to see Nice real bad.
    >>> I'm thinking of renting the car in geneva and driving to Nice through
    >>> Turin, Italy. How are the roads in France/Italy? I'll bring my
    >>> laptop with gps/Autoroute so I won't be getting TOO lost but just
    >>> wondering.
    >>> Autoroute says the trip is 5hrs. We plan on going in December. No
    >>> snow I hope?
    >>> What do you guys think?
    >>This drive is perfectly easy. I don't think you have to go through Turin
    >>though. It's faster if you go around Turin. Once you get down towards
    >>Genoa, it gets a bit tricky in that you go in & out of tunnels which can
    >>be a annoying if the sun is bright. Also, people drive that route very
    >>fast. If you are nervous driver you should go around via Grenoble and
    >>avoid Italy altogether. It will only cost you 1/2 hour more.
    >>But, why are you driving? You can fly direct on Easyjet, one hour flight,
    >>for low prices if you book early: currently 10CHF to and 16CHF return for
    >>a trip I booked for 10 Dec returning 15 December. It will cost you less
    >>than the car rental.
    > Woa!!!!!!!
    > 10 CHF?!?!? Is that for real?? I can't believe those prices, I just
    > checked them myself. How can it be so cheap? What do they fly?
    > Soviet turbo props powered by hamsters? I mean, for crying out loud..
    > It costs me that much to go to brooklyn-manhattan roundtrip.
Plus tax and charges, which will come to perhaps 30 SFr per flight sector.
Still a good price though. Their business model is sell off-peak fares cheap
but charge top dollar for last-minute and popular flights.

Alec

Dave Smith

Zoltrix wrote:

    > I'll be on a biz trip in Geneva and wife wants to see Nice real bad.
    > I'm thinking of renting the car in geneva and driving to Nice through
    > Turin, Italy. How are the roads in France/Italy? I'll bring my
    > laptop with gps/Autoroute so I won't be getting TOO lost but just
    > wondering.
    > Autoroute says the trip is 5hrs. We plan on going in December. No
    > snow I hope?
    > What do you guys think?

Most of the roads over there are better than your roads at home. I am
sure that it will be a scenic drive, but don't count on there being no
snow in Switzerland in December. It is in the middle of the Alps.

Tim Challenger

    >> We plan on going in December.
    >> No snow I hope?

Hahahahahahahaa!

You'll be driving through some of the highest Alpine mountains and best
extreme-skiing area of Europe in the middle of Winter.

--
Tim C.

nitram

On Wed, 22 Sep 2004 01:05:12 +0200, "sascha" <[email protected]> wrote:

    >> Autoroute says the trip is 5hrs. We plan on going in December. No
    >> snow I hope?
    >No snow if you take the
    >*La route du soleil*
    >going south the River Rhone Delta
    >down to southern France, even in December.

rarely snow, but maybe floods? :-)

Sascha

    > rarely snow, but maybe floods? :-)

Yeah possibly, but he asked for snow;-)

nitram

On Wed, 22 Sep 2004 14:22:59 +0200, "sascha" <[email protected]> wrote:

    >> rarely snow, but maybe floods? :-)
    >Yeah possibly, but he asked for snow;-)

and I avoided mentioning pestilence and the occasional plague of
frogs. :-)

Sascha

    > No snow if you take the
    > *La route du soleil*
    > going south the River Rhone Delta
    > down to southern France, even in December.

Or be a man and take the *La route Napoleon*
http://www.riviera.fr/routenap.htm
You'll sure remember that one:-)

Emilia

Zoltrix <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

    > On 22 Sep 2004 02:21:20 +0200, Emilia <emilia@(spam-so-)easy.com>
    > wrote:
    >
    >>Zoltrix <[email protected]> wrote in
    >>news:[email protected] m:
    >>> I'll be on a biz trip in Geneva and wife wants to see Nice real bad.
    >>> I'm thinking of renting the car in geneva and driving to Nice
    >>> through Turin, Italy. How are the roads in France/Italy? I'll
    >>> bring my laptop with gps/Autoroute so I won't be getting TOO lost
    >>> but just wondering.
    >>>
    >>> Autoroute says the trip is 5hrs. We plan on going in December. No
    >>> snow I hope?
    >>>
    >>> What do you guys think?
    >>This drive is perfectly easy. I don't think you have to go through
    >>Turin though. It's faster if you go around Turin. Once you get down
    >>towards Genoa, it gets a bit tricky in that you go in & out of tunnels
    >>which can be a annoying if the sun is bright. Also, people drive that
    >>route very fast. If you are nervous driver you should go around via
    >>Grenoble and avoid Italy altogether. It will only cost you 1/2 hour
    >>more.
    >>But, why are you driving? You can fly direct on Easyjet, one hour
    >>flight, for low prices if you book early: currently 10CHF to and 16CHF
    >>return for a trip I booked for 10 Dec returning 15 December. It will
    >>cost you less than the car rental.
    >
    > Woa!!!!!!!
    >
    > 10 CHF?!?!? Is that for real?? I can't believe those prices, I just
    > checked them myself. How can it be so cheap? What do they fly?
    > Soviet turbo props powered by hamsters? I mean, for crying out loud..
    > It costs me that much to go to brooklyn-manhattan roundtrip.


They fly new 737s. You have to book early or the prices will go up
conciderable. It will be more than that as you may pay another 20-30
francs for fees. But 60-70CHF per person round trip is still better than
the price & hastle of the rental & the 5 hour drive.

This route (GVA-Nice) is quite often very cheap, not so many people
traveling that route. GVA-BCN can get quite expensive as that route is
very popular.

But book now! is my only advice to you. ;o)

Otherwise, if you still want to drive, I would recommend you go via
Grenoble rather than through Italy especially if you are not used to
twisty, narrow, steep roads & very high bridges combined with very fast &
aggressive Italian drivers with big cars. I drive Lausanne to Italy quite
often and will do this drive twice in October (it's worse as I don't get
the luxury of going through the Mont Blanc tunnel!). But I have to admit
it is not my favorite thing to do! We are traveling to Italy rather
France. If I were going to Nice from Lausanne, I'd definately try to
avoid Italy.

Zoltrix

    >Otherwise, if you still want to drive, I would recommend you go via
    >Grenoble rather than through Italy especially if you are not used to
    >twisty, narrow, steep roads & very high bridges combined with very fast &
    >aggressive Italian drivers with big cars. I drive Lausanne to Italy quite
    >often and will do this drive twice in October (it's worse as I don't get
    >the luxury of going through the Mont Blanc tunnel!). But I have to admit
    >it is not my favorite thing to do! We are traveling to Italy rather
    >France. If I were going to Nice from Lausanne, I'd definately try to
    >avoid Italy.

No, you're right, there's no reason to go thru Turin but i thought
it'd be a cool thing to do. Is there anything to see in Turin? The
shortest route is a 5'4" drive thru Genoa but 5'15" if thru Turin. If
I go thru Grenoble, then its 6hrs. It's considerably longer, you see.

That said, after learning about easyjet (thank you, btw!) I'm not
sure i wanna drive anymore. It's just the road takes u thru
France/Italy countryside and I thought it'd be a nice way to see that.
Am I wrong?

I thought I'd drive for a few hrs, stop, get some food/pics, look
around and keep going. I'm after a scenic drive, after all.

I don't particularly care for crazy Italians driving like maniacs on
twisty roads (especially if there's snow!!) You're saying adding an
extra hr is worth avoiding Italy??

nitram

On Wed, 22 Sep 2004 15:14:56 GMT, Zoltrix <[email protected]> wrote:

    >>Otherwise, if you still want to drive, I would recommend you go via
    >>Grenoble rather than through Italy especially if you are not used to
    >>twisty, narrow, steep roads & very high bridges combined with very fast &
    >>aggressive Italian drivers with big cars. I drive Lausanne to Italy quite
    >>often and will do this drive twice in October (it's worse as I don't get
    >>the luxury of going through the Mont Blanc tunnel!). But I have to admit
    >>it is not my favorite thing to do! We are traveling to Italy rather
    >>France. If I were going to Nice from Lausanne, I'd definately try to
    >>avoid Italy.
    >No, you're right, there's no reason to go thru Turin but i thought
    >it'd be a cool thing to do. Is there anything to see in Turin?

The Turin shroud - rarely
The Museum of Egyptology for lovers of mummified cats etc.
A lot of good restaurants
The river where the "Italian Job" was made
30 minutes NE the monastery where the Name of the Rose was made
and more good restaurants :-)

Zoltrix

    >The Turin shroud - rarely
    >The Museum of Egyptology for lovers of mummified cats etc.
    >A lot of good restaurants
    >The river where the "Italian Job" was made
    >30 minutes NE the monastery where the Name of the Rose was made
    >and more good restaurants :-)

basically, 1 fake, lots of cats, a river and restaurants.. hmm....

alright, sounds like Turin is a waste of time.. (I'm not what you'd
call a gourmand..)