Does anyone have any tips? I will be driving down next Thursday to Folkestone and getting the 7:45pm Eurotunnel, making a stop at some point along the road, possibly in Ghent, and then driving through the next morning to Efteling, a theme park somewhere near Eindhoven.
I see I will have to pay about £5 for the French tolls to get to the border. Are there any tolls in Belgium or Holland? Are there any funny rules that I have to comply with? I understand the GB stickers are now optional, but how about headlight adjusters, etc.
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www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/overseas/general_adv...B
www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/overseas/compulsory_...l
There were no tolls on French motorways going towards Belgium/Holland when I drove to Bruges last September.
Edited by Armitage Shanks {p} on 13/03/2008 at 21:36
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The A18 from Calais to the Belgian border is toll-free and there are no tolls in Holland or Belgium except for some tunnels on the north side of the Ring round Antwerp, which you are unlikely to need to use.
You should be able to do Calais to Eindhoven in three hours outside rush hour. I'd suggest stopping and going to Bruges (Brugge), rather than Gent, which is an industrial city.
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Make your stop at Ghent and put off arrival at the theme park. Ghent cathedral contains one of the world's great works of art - the altarpiece by Van Eyck 'The Adoration of the Sacred Lamb'.
Even if you know nothing about art, religion or much else it's worth a look.
Cultural plea over...
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Make your stop at Ghent and put off arrival at the theme park. Ghent cathedral contains one of the world's great works of art - the altarpiece by Van Eyck 'The Adoration of the Sacred Lamb'. Even if you know nothing about art religion or much else it's worth a look. Cultural plea over...
Looks like a good stop.
Hotels in Ghent seem a bit cheaper than Bruges, the Marriot looks nice: www.marriottghent.com/photo_gallery/
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I do this trip often and it's toll free all the way the (Autoroute A16 is free) basically about 3 hours essentially its A16/E40 then A10/E40 to Gent at gent the motorway splits take the signed A14/E17 to Antwerp through the Kennedy tunnel A13/E34 then after a few miles A21/E34
As your going to Efteling can I recomend the safari park at beeksebergen which near by as well.
You have to have either europlates or display a gb sticker, cruise control is banned in Belgium
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That's a bit of a generalisation Paul, I think. It's only banned on congested motorways and is clearly signed - it's not a blanket ban across all of Belgium.
As to Efteling we went there about twenty years ago and I have nightmares about those darned talking trees to this day. Somehow it's worse when an oak tree opens its eyes and giggles at you in Dutch.
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I've driven a fair bit in Holland and find Dutch motorists, like the Dutch in general actually to be polite, friendly and unintimidating. The driving standard is good, as are the roads.
The only obscure rule I am aware of is if you have a collision with a cyclist. Apparently, the law is weighted very heavily in favour of cyclists, and the assumption is that it's your fault unless you can prove otherwise. That's what I was told by a Dutch colleague anyway.
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You can get a ferry from Harwich to the Hook of Holland. Takes about 8 hours, I believe.
Up until a couple of years ago they used to run a high-speed ferry which did it in about 3 1/2 hours. Unfortunately this has now stopped running; they reconned it wasn't cost effective.
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Harwich to Hook £228 for a car and 2 adults, 8 hour crossing and if you go overnight cabins are compulsory and extra. A bit too pricey in my view.
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Would agree, I always use the tunnel as well - Ghent central is nearly as nice as Brugges and less touristy! Would agree the the timings - at that time the roads should be pretty clear and its a nice straight run....
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From £20 on Norfolk line is probably the best value the tunnel is quite expensive.
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Harwich to Hook £228 for a car and 2 adults 8 hour crossing and if you go overnight cabins are compulsory and extra. A bit too pricey in my view.
It is very expensive. Two cabins required for 2 adults + 1 child. The timing is not great either. 7 hour crossing, minus time to get to sleep, being woken up in the morning, etc., spells a pretty unpleasant time. Not to mention that Hook of Holland is not very convenient for Eindhoven, nor is Surrey for Harwich.
As it turns out, the Eurotunnel is the best option. Their highest one-way fare is £145, but the ferries (Norfolkline, P&O, Seafrance) operate demand-based pricing with Easter Thursday-evening fares at £120-£170. Ramsgate-Ostend is cheap with fixed prices (£36 for a two-day return), but only three sailings per day, and a longer crossing, so not really suitable. Speed ferries are dirt cheap, but sold-out quickly.
So one-way on the Eurotunnel (£145), a nice short crossing, and the £85 we save versus the overnight ferry pays for a proper night's sleep in a nice 4-star hotel, rather than a cramped ferry cabin.
Coming back on the Norfolkline from Dunkirk, £50 one-way.
Incidentally, does anyone know if the boozemarts will be open on Easter Monday or if they open shorter hours?
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"That's a bit of a generalisation Paul I think. It's only banned on congested motorways is clearly signed - it's not a blanket ban across all of Belgium."
...........The Majority of this guys route is "banned" hence why I pointed this out also there are cases where the motorist has been driving with it on and get pulled by the police even though the area isn't signed - essentially doing you for "driving without due care and attention but the belgium version - the fine is 800 euro's including court fees!! not nice.....
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So how does Plod Belgique know you are using cruise control? How does he even suspect it? It doesn't sound like a very necessary rule and it doesn't seem to me to be detectable/enforceable
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They;ve had some huge crashes in Belgium in recent times - some in some really bad weather condtions - it's a total overreaction by them because the two biggest were in gof and freezing rain !! but at the time it was a national outcry.
In answer to your question how do they know well what happens is if they witness anyone brake at less than two miles (or so it seems ) they pull you over if you have CC fitted basically your done for -it's for you to prove otherwise in other word guilty to provern innocent
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"Brake at 2 miles" from what? Brake at more than 2 miles might make sense; I still don't see how plod can know or prove that any car driving along is using cruise control. Please help me!
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First time I used Eurotunnel I was going to Germany - i.e. travelling east and I had got it into my brain that it was "come out of Eurotunnel and turn left".
I hadn't realised that the train had gone under the road and when leaving Eurotunnel I was initially driving north.
Thankfully there was no traffic on the roundabout as I circulated a couple of times getting my brain to work it out.
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Have just returned.
Not entirely enjoyable trip - the Thursday night saw a 7:15pm (per Tomtom) arrival time turn into a 9:45pm arrival thanks to the worst traffic I've ever seen on M25. Diversion off the M25 via Westerham proved disasterous due to plod deciding to divert half the traffic one way out of the town centre, and the other half the other, rejoining the same road a couple of miles later. Of course this involved people stopping to ask what was going on, and the effect of the diversion,and far more delay than simply allowing the traffic to continue as it was.
Eurotunnel very much recommended OTOH, having arrived at 9:45 (our booked train was for 7:45pm), they put us on the 10:45pm train, expressing sympathy for our delay, and apologising that the 10:20 train was full. The journey was over almost before it began, and it was easy to get off the train.
The return leg on Norfolklines from Dunkirk took 2 hours, plus an earlier checkin, slightly seasick-inducing although disembarking was really not too bad. Would recommend Eurotunnel in preference for shorter nicer journey, and much greater flexibility.
Motorways on the continent had a disturbing lack of cats-eyes and even no lighting, plus far more lorries it seemed. The Belgian motorways were actually pot-holed, which is not all that impressive. Returning to the UK to see gritters in operation was reassuring in comparison.
One thing that was slightly disconcerting was the absence of speeding traffic across the motorway from Holland to Belgium.
Compared to England, the presence of BMWs trying to get personal with my boot were notable by their absence, and drivers appeared to overtake only to pass lorries, before dutifully returning to the right-hand lane (no chance of this on the M25).
I am slightly concerned now that I may have missed something on the speeding front.
Do they have hidden cameras? Average speed cameras? Are foreign drivers at risk of receiving a letter in the post for doing say 145kph in the 120kph on the Belgian roads?
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Thanks for the feedback! I am with you on the Tunnel - quick and a really easy check-in, compared with the Gestapo at the airports. Be glad you weren't in Holland today for this:-
By 7 am several Dutch highways had already been closed down entirely or partially following accidents caused by the snow. By 8 am the total length of traffic jams amounted to 760 kilometres -almost seven times the daily average.
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Thanks for the feedback! I am with you on the Tunnel - quick and a really easy check-in compared with the Gestapo at the airports. >>
Yes, tunnel every time for us too.
Once we we actually played football in the carriage, with staff watching (we were the last vehicle in the high roof carriage).
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How was the traffic today?
The headline piece on the NOS dutch news tonight was the record breaking traffic jam today. 888kms (552 miles) of traffic jams on the motorways, the last of which finally cleared at 7:30 pm local time. This was the worst since 1999. Return to work from the Easter break + 4cm of snow = hundreds of accidents. Talking heads on the news saying, "this [nonsense] wouldn't happen in Germany!" Sounds just like us Brits.
Edited to add: SNAP, AS!
Also, flunky, did you know the Gatso is a Dutch invention.
Edited by Billy Whizz on 25/03/2008 at 22:10
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I was just going to add something like your last sentence....makes you wonder whether we're actually that bad !
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They actually had a guy on the news from the dutch Met Office who was asked, "why [the b.h.] wasn't there a severe weather warning put out?" He answered, "er, 4cm of snow is not severe weather." He had a look on his face which said to me "do you want me to hold your hand when you cross the street, as well?"
Hilarious.
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