Ok do just decided were going to drive out to arillas in 2 weeks time ..... soo confused as so many routes to choose from and clearly not much time to make a decision ...... HELP. If anyone has any tips please let me know we can take about 3 /4 days to get there or less ... any advise would be great xx
Sara's just made the trip. Maybe she can provide her route over.
All I know, as I have been told a few times, is try not to go through Albania.
(Alledgedly they have the habit of charging a "Toll" for just about every road)
Negg
We done it many times. Try searching the Agni.gr site as there are many threads on this subject. There is one running at the moment
http://www.agnitravel.com/holiday-forum/best-place-to-stay-overnight-driving-to-corfu_topic1373.html?SID=7516755ab963f3e9dcea4a895f5354521527778
My advice at this time of the year is to book the ferry ahead as it's peak season. Any questions, please ask.
I would have to look up the road numbers but if you look on Google maps we took this route ...
Channel Tunnel to Gent, Belgium where we stayed the night.
Next day we passed Brussels, Spa, Landau, Pforzhein, Ulm, Innsbruck - over the Bremmer Pass & stayed in Trento [northern Italy]
Next day onto Modena, Ancona & down to the port at Bari. [road no E45]
We left Herefordshire on Thursday afternoon & arrived in Corfu on Sunday morning after catching the Superfast Ferry from Bari which takes 9 hours.
We had 2 night stops but I would definitely recommend 3 stops. Gary drove solidly for 10 - 12 hours each day & we only just caught our ferry. There were many roadworks, accidents & the weather conditions were horrendous until we passed the Alps. At one stage our Sat Nav was telling us that we weren't going to make it but Gary put his foot down & thankfully we did - just.
I think we paid about 60 - 70 euros in tolls throughout Italy.
If weather conditions had been good, if we'd allowed more time with an extra stop & if we didn't have a cat & dog travelling with us!! it would have been a lovely journey. The views are spectacular.
Good advice from BBB. We pre booked the Euro tunnel & the ferry. Depending where you sail from, I would suggest you book a cabin. None were available when we booked our ferry so we booked the aircraft style seats. Absolute waste of money. They were uncomfortable & neither of us got any sleep. Fortunately, the crossing from Bari is reasonably short.
Message me if you have any questions. I don't mind.
Sara.x
Hi
Thanks for your help , ok so after the last week of sleepless nights trying to plan a route as there are soo many options I think we are there well sort of we know what ferry we are getting from dover and from Brindisi but where we stop inbetween who knows !!!! were going to just go for it and see where we fancy enroute !
I have taken your advice and we are going to do 3 stop overs makes sence to take our time rather than have to drive under pressure as this is the first time we have drove out to Arillas and want to enjoy it as this will have to be our form of travel from now on and dont want it to be stresfull as I cant imagine not going to our little bit of paradise !!
Its going to be strange driving , I have been flying out to Arillas for the last 27 years and am used to having a lovely caraf of wine with my favourite stuffed tomatoes the same day ... I know Its going to be me saying "are we nearly there yet " lol
Have listened to your advice on the seat situation and decided to go for deck only , not bothered about a cabin I'll be too excited to sleep .
Oh well best go start packing only 5 more sleeps :-)
Sounds very intriguing! 27 years eh! flippin eck! I read that your daughter is working with Sharon at the Marina pool is that right? tell us your story!! :-)
Interesting route, Sara. We have done a similar route but only as far as Venice. We love driving through Germany and Austria. Hope you're settling in well and maybe bump into you soon!
Brave people who don't book a cabin! We take the easy way, always have a cabin and only drive for 4-5 hours a day. We still end up exhausted and love relaxing on the ship. It's like a mini cruise from Venice. Next trip back we are thinking of driving to Patras with a stopover en route and spending 2 nights on the ferry (same price on all routes)
Good luck The Walkers. Look forward to hearing all about it.
Ok so now I am a bit worried about the cabin situation !!!!!
we are leaving early Sunday morning dover to dunkirk and getting the ferry from Brindisi on Wednesday night at 9pm so have 4 full days to get there , we do have a route in mind but just going to go with it and stop when we fancy , we are goung through belgium luxembourg switzerland then down through Italy , according to google maps about 20 hours which would be around 5 hours a day but Im sure that wont be the case !!
We have considered sailing from Venice or Ancona but our son is in a wheelchair and Im not sure what the cabins would be like on the ships so we decided to go straight for Brindisi , he is ok his wheelchair is a electric all singing and dancing chair that lays him down flat so he will sleep anywhere , we are good old fashioned campers so used to roughing it lol
I guess its going to be a case of do it and see , if its too far and too tiring then next year we can look at a different plan ..... I will keep you updated as to how it goes
Hi Jo
Yeah 27 years sounds mad ..... my story is boring really I first went in July 1985 when is was 15 with my mum n dad and obviously fell in love with the place I should post some picis on here of Arillas back then as it was soo different to how it is now , Costa on the beach was just a little shack that was allways full of Americans playing card games and darts !!
There was a disco then called Disco La Playa it was just down from where the coconut is on the right hand side , some good nights where had in there
Anyway I have been back every year since and soo has my mum , unfortunately we lost my dad who loved Arillas but over the years I have obviously got married and had children who have naturally been coming all there life , my Chloe has been going for 18 years well 19 if you include the year I was out there looking like a beach whale lol and this year she has gone out for 3 months to help sharon at the pool and of course she is loving every minute of it. Over the years my sisters and there children who now have there own children have come to Arillas and they still all come when they can.
So as I said boring really as just been coming back year after year , seen lots of changes and met some lovely people ..... if I remember did you renew your vows on the beach a couple of years ago if it was you then I was there then watching with Old George at the Marina and I must say I did shead a tear when you gave your husband a gift ! If it wasnt you then you must have a double lol
Wow, how could you possibly call that boring?! Sounds fascinating and I'm sure lots of people would love to see some of those early pics. And yes it was me on the beach and we were all sobbing like loonies so you weren't alone!! Haha xx
Do you know Alan then who has been going for a similar amount of time? He did our photo's that day. Infact you may well spot yourself if you serach the post on 'tell us your story'! Small world eh. A lovely lovely tale of your Arillas love affair xx
No need to be worried about the cabin situation. The Bari crossing was only 9 hours long [although that was on the Superfast ferry] & I'm guessing that from Brindisi it's about the same. As it's a night crossing the time will fly by once you've had a look around & maybe had a meal. Just find some comfy seats to crash out on if you can.
Whichever route you choose to take, I'm sure you will enjoy. If you choose to drive over the Bremmer Pass, time it so that it's during the day. It was dark when we were driving over & the driving conditions were terrible. I was shaking once we reached our accommodation. It was so scary - heavy rain, roadworks & VERY narrow lanes, no cat's eyes & no road lighting.
BBB - I'm sure sailing from Venice is the easiest route but I didn't really want to spend around 28 hours on a ferry with a cat & dog!! & a cabin on that route would be a must.
We're settling in well thank you. Hope to meet you soon. Could be tricky because I don't know what you look like but I know where your house is, so I'll stop & say "hello" when we're passing.
Loved reading the rest of this post & your non-boring story. I'll look out for Chloe.
Have a safe & wonderful journey.
Sara.x
I so agree with Sara - I loved reading your story, and meeting your charming daughter Chloe and our little chat at the Pool Bar. A real credit to you.
Phil
Hi all
Ok so thanks to all of you for your advise we left last Saturday and arrived in Arillas on Tuesday morning and the journey was surprisingly great , the roads are fantastic even in Italy !!! our route was through Belgium , France , Switzerland ( which was stunning) and Italy no toll roads until the Swiss boarder where we had to buy a Vignette pass for around 40 Euros and then a few tolls in Italy on the Autostrada around 70 Euros
We booked our dover ferry friday night and caught the 10am Saturday Dover to Dunkirk crossing , still no hotel rooms booked for on the way but hey ho who cares when you have google !!! drove approx 350 miles took about 6 hours through Belgium to a place called Molsheim in France/Germany arriving at our hotel that we had booked on route around 7 pm had a bite to eat and a good nights kip .
Left early Sunday at 9am as wanted to hit the road as today was going to be a long drive 620 miles !!!! booked the Italy to Corfu ferry this morning and our room for tonight so new where we were heading :-) should have arrived at our second nights hotel after around 10 hours of driving but started to realise at around 11 hours of driving that we seemed to have gone too far !!!!! someone got the postcode round the wrong way on the sat nav !! anyway decided to carry on for another hour while frantically trying to find a room as now 9 pm and dark ... thankfully good old google didnt let us down and we stayed in a lovely 5* spa hotel ... much to Steves disgust as it was twice the price of the nice cheapy that he had drove past 2 hours ago still next time he will make sure he imputs the right post code lol
The good thing is it meant that on Monday we only had 4 hours to drive to get to Brindisi for the ferry which didnt leave until 9pm so had a lay in and a lazy morning in the spa hotel and poodled down to the ferry arriving there around half 4 as needed to be there 3 hours before .. must say the ferry was lets say interesting especially with a wheelchair user with us , I doubled checked with them that the lift was big enough to take Ronnies chair which yes it was but they failed to tell us there was 10 steps to go up to get to it !!! cant say I was surprised been visiting Corfu for the last 27 years and fully expected something like this but good news is we found a way round it with the extremely helpfull Greek crew
So arrrived in Corfu Tuesday morning around half 5 and made it Arillas by half 6 just as the sun was rising :-)
So in a nutshell I would def say to anyone if your thinking of doing it just do it , we didnt plan at all just done it as we went and we were absolutely fine ... one thing I will say though no one warned us about the dead bugs on the windscreen .. my advise pack glasscleaner
Anyway Arillas has been lovely all week , the weather great beach stunning sea like a bath and of course the company brilliant .
Still got another week left before we do the journey back home :-)
Wow! Sounds like an amazing adventure! Definitely on our bucket list for one day!!
What a great adventure, thanks for sharing it with us all.
Enjoy the rest of your holiday and have a safe journey home, hope to meet you some time in the future.
Val x
Enjoyed reading your story, enjoy the rest of you holiday.
Hope we bump into you next week. Mary
Well done, The Walkers! Don't forget you can use your Swiss Vignette until 31st January 2013. We use the buckets and squeegies at the petrol pumps everytime we fill up and sometimes you get it done for you. Enjoy your holiday and if you haven't booked your return ferry, try the Corfu to Venice Anek route. It's very relaxing and takes you almost halfway home.