We're driving from Kent to Rome, how can we make our road trip really memorable?

As a child in the late 60's and early 70's my parents drove us every summer to Italy. We started in London and went via Dover on the ferry. The vehicle was a converted ford transit van, by today's standards it was dangerous (no seat belts) and not very luxurious. But it was great fun. There were two bench seats which converted into a double bed. A table in between, a sink with running water and a two ring gas stove, as well as fittings for a further two small beds. There were four children and we spent about 3 weeks in the summer making this trip. We took a large tent but the van was fitted in such a way so we could all sleep inside at a pinch.

Our destination varied, from Venice, Tuscany, Rome or Sorrento but Italy was always the goal. My mother spent weeks before hand planning the trip, saving money, buying tinned food to supplement the spending money. She worked out a different route every year, trying to show us different parts of Europe. The places I remember are the castles of Germany such as Neuschwanstein, Paris and Bruges, the Rhone glacier in the Alps, Dachau concentration camp, Innsbruck, the Alps and the different passes we took, Lucerne and a park which explained how glaciers formed landscapes. Some water gardens somewhere in Germany. On different trips we visited many different countries including Belgium, Holland, Germany Austria Switzerland, Yugoslavia (as it was then) Luxembourg, Monaco and of course Italy. I have never forgotten these holidays or the amazing addition it gave me to my education. My parents were not particularly well off, but they were adventurous and I have so many funny stories and memories of these trips. I will always be eternally grateful to my parents for their work and daring in completing these mini adventures in a time when spaghetti Bolognese was almost an unknown dish and Yugoslavia a country on the edge of the unknown for the average Brit.

My advice is to stop off at many places, investigate the local countryside, the local cuisine and some famous tourist stops. Make sure you take some time away from motorways. Buy some excellent maps, they always got us out of traffic jams and we often discovered something extra by taking the back roads. Don’t rush and enjoy the experience.

Yep I have! Some must see destinations include Champagne (do one of those tours under the winery and try some really good champagne), Burgundy (the best food and wine I've ever tasted), go out of your way a bit and visit the Millau bridge - it's the tallest vehicle bridge in the world and is absolutely spectacular. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millau_bridge

Then go to Aix en provence or any other cute Provence town because it's so gorgeous around there, Cannes for a bit of moviestar glamour, then down to Cinque Terre in Italy because it's the most beautiful area in the world. From there I'd go inland to Parma (amazing ham and the best spaghetti) then travel to Umbria instead of Tuscany because it's just as cute minus the tourists. Then I'd head further south to Abbruzzo then into Lazio where Rome is.

Amazing trip, that's a variant of what I did but it includes all my favourite places.

Well the best thing that can be done while driving is going off road, as in not taking the main roads thru the countrys.

You should try and get to some of the little villages and towns and get a feel for the places, there are the places that are the touriset traps but its going thru the wine vallys, the long winding roads of the alps , the sunny beaches and coastline of the Med, and hey, who can resist a day trip to monte carlo, just to take your car along the famous track with regaulr monte traffic, and im sure after 10 minuets there that u will be thinging ' why the hell did we come here, to look at yaths ? '

But since your driving, and you might chose to go thru the Netherlands, Belguim, Germany and then onto Italy , A would reccomend the F1 tracks of old, even if you can see to letting your car rip around the Spa f1 track.

Venice is a wonderful cliché, more romantic, more lovely and more astonishing than you may expect. Irrespective of exactly how many photographs or films you could have seen, it's however a jaw-dropping knowledge seeing Venice's canals and palaces for the very first time and that you would do with the help of this website hotelbye . Certainly Venice's best-known church and one of the most simply acknowledged in the world is St. Mark's Basilica (Basilica di San Marco). That basilica was originally the Doge's personal chapel, designed with Byzantine artwork gifts that are the main booty brought back by Venetian boats following the fall of Constantinople. The gold-backed mosaic photographs over the doorways on the façade only trace at the mosaic beauty inside, wherever 4,240 square yards of silver mosaics protect the walls. So, the St. Mark`s Basilica is really a place worth visited.

I've done some driving around Europe for pleasure.

I'd be tempted to take some detours.

Calais to the Nurburgring for a few tourists laps. The roads around there are great as well. Go south through Germany on an autobahn and see how quickly you can eat up miles when there's no speed limit.

If you're going this summer, you could stop off at the Frankfurt motor show - which is huge.

Porsche has a new museum in Stuttgart.

Driving further south you hit the mountains which are huge fun.

I suppose then you could head for dinner at Montana on a little industrial estate in Maranello. It's sort of like the executive canteen for Ferrari and the food is great.

Next stop Rome.

edit: I forgot to ask whether you needed a co-pilot!

RE:

We're driving from Kent to Rome, how can we make our road trip really memorable?

We're researching a road trip from the UK to Rome, via the Chunnel.

We want to know if you've done this trip. What were your highlights? If you could share advice what would be your top suggestions?

What are your recommended stop off-points, must-see places – or even ones to...

I've looked at some of the previous responses to your question, and there are some great ones, some utterly boring ones, some funny ones, and a few that are just inane.

However, I simply can't resist adding my tuppence-worth: in order to make the trip memorable try driving on the left for the whole trip!

Sorry....

Hi. Very interesting question.

When I was 14 or 15, I travelled with my mum, dad and sister from London to Amsterdam by car and ferry, and because we went on the motorways it was boring, even if a lot faster. I'd have loved them to go off road, but this was a half term trip so time was of the essence, any time since then has been by plane from Heathrow airport.

Now that we have the fast rail link from London to Paris, I'd like to do that...

Many correspondents gave interesting answers about taking the country roads and look at the kinds of stuff that you just don't manage to do on a normal trip because there's basically no time under normal circumstances. Lonely Planet-style guides to the alternative destinations, written by people who have done them. Stop in the local towns and villages and sample the local cuisine, as suggested by other answers here. Respondent gibb343 and his 1-7; presuming you have all the multimedia gubbins* with you, following tip 4 allows you time to edit your content and post all your blog content: diary entries, pictures and videos .

If there's ONE main tip I can suggest here, so that you can be understood is have someone (at least one) person in your team who speaks the languages for all of the European countries that you plan to travel through. On the continental mainland outside the bigger towns and villages, less people speak English.

On the subject of ~English~ here, remember that when starting from the south east of England, we drive on the left and steer on the right, where as Europe has got it all slightly wrong, but use a left hand drive car because that will only be a little odd until you get through the channel tunnel and into northern France.

The people with tales to tell about driving down in transit vans or long holidays with their family - far more interesting than my experience - and with all this information at your fingertips available from everywhere on the web (you have a large search engine service so can easily find this stuff) and the SN pages will have more tales than the answers here... The respondent (Amit) who said watch the "Top Gear" challenge... very funny, thumbs up, you made me laugh out very loud! thanks for that. Other honourable mentions go to Muranda, Sabrina, Angela and Tamart.

Interesting as this idea is, it makes me think that your idea will get the anti-car environmentalists all flustered up with this suggestion, and that will probably be funny in itself!

You mentioned in your question "if you've always wanted to drive from the UK to Rome, tell us why. What makes this road trip appealing to you?" so how can one apply to join you for any part of this trip?

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Do it the Gumball 3000 way - by advertising and publicising the trip before the day arrives. Then driving very fast and very loud cars, and host wild parties at ridiculously expensive hotels along the way (with scantily clad whores...erm sorry..I mean women). Then speed and flout every concievable road rules that you can think of (and don't forget to record it all on your video camera and post it on YouTube).

After your driving licence is taken away from you and you are jailed and banned from driving for a while, you will never forget that trip in a hurry. Ever.

Some car choices to take on the trip:

Porsche Carrera GT with AWE straight pipes - £325,000

Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 - £197,000

Pagani Zonda F Clubsport - £500,000

Ferrari F430 Scuderia - £172,000

Enjoy the trip while it lasts, because it's gonna be a short one.

I drove in Europe for ten years. In my view if you consider the following there's a 90% chance of you being OK and that is really memorable! Drive safely. Respect other road users whatever their Nationality and their sometimes pathetic and dangerous driving. Never retaliate.Arrive alive at your chosen destination with everyone you started off with and return home in the same condition.