Three Inspirational Road Trips To Make In Europe

You don’t need to travel to a far-flung country to experience adventure when Europe offers plenty of wonderful destinations closer to home. Taking a road trip across the continent is a lovely way to explore its beautiful countryside and towns in more depth, and distances between destinations tend to be fairly short, giving you more time to actually see them.

Road-tripping can also help keep travel costs down, particularly in pricey Western Europe, as you’re free to choose your own itinerary. Just make sure you take out car rental excess insurance before you head off, so you don’t get landed with a surprise bill should anything happen to your car. 

Here are some road-trip routes across Europe to inspire your own continental grand tour.

Northern Italy and Switzerland

The proximity of Northern Italy’s major attractions means you can see the Duomo of Milan, Juliet’s balcony in Verona and the romantic canals of Venice in just a few days. Other nearby highlights include the Prosecco region and Lakes Garda and Como. Continue your trip across the border into the Swiss Alps, where hiking fans can scale the peak of San Salvatore for jaw-dropping views over Lake Lugano, and intrepid motorists can take in the hair-raising twists and turns of the Swiss Alpine roads that lead to the scenic village of Grindelwald.

The South of France

The wine country around Bordeaux is an excellent place to begin a road trip through southern France. Don’t miss the picturesque medieval village of Saint-Émilion, home to some of the best wine-tasting in the area. Stop over in Toulouse on your way to Carcassonne, an impressive walled town where you can stroll around the city walls and cycle along the banks of the Canal du Midi. 

In the south east, the winding coastal roads of the glamorous Côte d’Azur between St Tropez and Nice lend themselves perfectly to scenic driving, with everything from sophisticated beach bars to quaint fishing villages to discover.

The Netherlands

Many towns in The Netherlands are within an easy drive of one another, making it the ideal country to explore by car. Trendy Rotterdam is a great base for day trips to the art museums of The Hague, the student town of Leiden and the traditional windmills of Kinderdijk, while the famous tulip fields of Haarlem are only half an hour from Amsterdam.

If you prefer to head north, a car ferry runs to the island of Texel, a traditional Dutch holiday destination, where you can spot seals and hundreds of bird species among the sandy dunes.

Before You Go

A road trip is a great way to keep costs down while travelling. One of our top-money saving tips is to take out car rental excess insurancebefore you go, to cover any unexpected extra costs that you might not have planned for. Road trips are all about adventure, but you still want to keep money worries to a minimum, so taking out car rental excess insurance is a sensible idea.

Then, once all the planning is done, you’re free to hit the open road! There’s nothing like waking up to new, beautiful European scenery every day to re-energise and inspire you. 

Author Plate

Sam Walker is a specialist insurance expert at LowerHire, a company that offers low-cost single trip and annual multi-trip car rental excess insurance policies. Travellers can rest easy knowing they will be fully protected against any hidden hire car costs and look forward to a stress-free rental experience.