How To do a Road Trip Across Europe

We traveled from Poland to Italy 🇮🇹. This is the exact route we took.

We started our journey from Warsaw, slept for a few hours in Berlin, and went through Liechtenstein, Austria, Switzerland, and finally Italy.

Here are the key takeaways from the trip.

You must always have a first aid kit, a small fire extinguisher 🧯, a reflecting warning triangle ⚠️, and at least the digital car papers. If you are caught by police or border security without any of these in your car, you could be fined.

We rented a 2022 Audi A6 and somewhere in Switzerland the car started showing on the screen - 'I will only go 340 km more, fill more AdBlue'. To our confusion, we started googling what is AdBlue. We reached Bergamo, Italy and I typed on google maps 'AdBlue' and reached a gas station, asked the shop attendant if he has this liquid and he said yes, and was kind enough to even fill it for us in the car. Apparently, right next to the fuel filler inlet, there is another inlet to fill it. It's a fluid that is used in certain diesel vehicles to reduce harmful emissions, specifically nitrogen oxides (NOx).

After driving for about 7 hours from Berlin, we wanted to sleep in a cheap place. Since we carry tents ⛺️ around with us all the time (super cheap if you buy from Decathlon), we decided to google places to set up the camp. Then we came across a place called Park-Camping-Lindau. This place had an amazing camping experience, super clean showers + toilets, a huge kitchen with all accessories and it cost only 5 Euros per night.

For 5 Euros per night, this was the biggest bargain I had ever since I moved to Europe. I highly recommend you to go camping.

Do not just type destination and press 'go' on a multiple-country trip. This way you will end up on highways and encounter lots of tolls and the journey would be a little short but more expensive. Additionally, you will have to buy expensive car stickers from the last gas station in a country while entering a new country.

Instead, type your destination, go to more options, and choose 'Avoid Tolls' and 'Avoid Highways' if you want to see the real beauty of Europe. These roads will be free and will take you to your destination through cities, villages, mountains, and lakes. Highways are boring.

In the end, I would conclude that you cannot just set up a tent anywhere. I'd advise you to check camping places and stay the night there because they have lots of facilities you would need. For eg WiFi, Restaurants, Showers, Toilets and you get to meet very cool and interesting people who have been on the road for months.

That's all from me this week.

© 2023 Kunal Dutt.