Calais to Italian Lakes. How long?
 

Title kind of covers my question. This will be in the cage by the way as the wife wants to take the family there next Easter. Route suggestions avoiding tolls would be good too!:thumbup1:

Last year I did it in an evening + 1 day. I think we got off the ferry about 8pm, rode a couple hours (Reims I think?), then set off the next day a bit after noon for about a 500 mile slog to Lake Como. Got there early evening, obviously with breaks for food, petrol stops etc. etc.

On a bike, I would never do that again if I could avoid it, but we had to pick a piece of the trip to cover some ground fast, and that was it.

Can't help you on the tolls bit, we were covering ground, so took wherever the GPS told us:)

If you are in a car, obviously a lot quicker is possible as you can get away with fewer stops for fuel etc. You could probably do it in a very long day if you got off the ferry early enough. On a bike I personally wouldn't even try to go that far though, must be 650 miles at least.

Took us two days in a car to Cannobio on Lake Maggiore some years ago. Our kids were primary school age at the time and fought each other all the way. :thumbdown:

Fabulous area and loads to do but really narrow winding roads around the lake. Took about half a day to do the last 50 miles to the campsite we were staying at. The lake is fed from mountain streams so beware if you're thinking of swimming as the water is freezing!!

We went through Luxembourg and the German autobahns to Basel to avoid the French tolls and then slogged through Switzerland. Probably not the best route.