Hello, we are planning a trip from Amsterdam to Switzerland ending in Italy. Is this a feasible idea for a nine day holiday? Also planning to drive through Switzerland and northern Italy. Looking for suggestions for scenic routes from Amsterdam to Switzerland, (keen to drive); and then from there on to Stelvio Pass to Italy... advice, suggestions and travel times appreciated and welcome. Thanks!
Posted by
Green Bay
20358 posts
Get a Swiss vignette for your car at the Swiss border to drive through Switzerland.
ViaMichelin will give you estimates of drive times.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33161 posts
Do you mean you have 9 days for the drive from Amsterdam to Switzerland or that you want to make that drive in a day?
Posted by
Edmonds, WA 🌨 ☂
11412 posts
Making a one way trip with a rental car will in all probability be very expensive with the one way drop off fee. ( if its even allowed)
Is this a feasible idea for a nine day holiday?
With the probability of a one way drop fee of $1000+, not really
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33161 posts
your own car or a hire car?
what time of year?
how many is "we"?
Posted by
OP
4 posts
Thanks Sam, will look into that.
Posted by
OP
4 posts
We have nine days for the whole trip, a family of six people... it will be a hire car. We’ve done this before, but the other way round... from Vienna to Amsterdam... that was a two week holiday. This time round we’d love to go through Belgium and then down toward Switzerland and Italy after. So scoping for the best scenic routes and not the motorways. Thanks Nigel.
Posted by
OP
4 posts
Hi Joe, as I mentioned we’ve done this before... just wondering if there are other routes possible other than the usual motorways and big cities... thanks
Posted by
Sunriver
1321 posts
I have only ever rented a car one-way and always using Auto Europe and I have never ever seen $1000 one way drop off fee. Heck sometimes my one-way rentals have been cheaper than if we had chosen a roundtrip rental. Not sure where Joe rents from if he's seeing $1000 one-way rental drop-off fee.
Posted by
Seattle, WA
16763 posts
One-way drop fees generally apply when one tKes the car from one country to another.
Within one country ( Italy, for example), oneway rentals generally do not incur a drop fee. Indeed in our experience they never do.
But once we paid an extra $500 to take a car from Norway to Copenhagen and drop it there.
Posted by
Basel, Switzerland
8889 posts
just wondering if there are other routes possible other than the usual motorways
In Switzerland yes. If you are travelling in Summer, instead of taking the Gotthard tunnel through the Alps go "over the top" via the passes.
Option 1; Grimsel Pass + Nufenen Pass
Option 2: Gotthard Pass
Look up these names in Google images and in YouTube.
For routes and travel times use https://www.viamichelin.com/ then add 25% as the times quoted assume no stopping.
A Swiss Autobahn Vignette costs CHF 40 and can be bought at all border posts.