Road Tour - Europe - Planning

One of the main thing we had planned to do whenever we get the chance is to do a driving trip across Europe (Western Europe) with the kids. So, with summer approaching, we decided to do it this year instead of later as experiences have taught us that sometimes, postponing means not doing at all. However, we only realised quite late (mid of July) that we only have early August to do the trip as Ramadhan is approaching and will begins in the 3rd week of August.

Our scramble to plan for the trip started earnestly by 3rd week of July (very late and something we would not recommend) and after charting out our major destinations, we started to plan the driving days and distances. We finally settled for 10-days trip covering Paris, Chamonix, Lauterbrunnen, Innsbruck and Amsterdam as our major destinations. The only place we wanted to visit in Germany is Munich but looking at the map, it was quite out of the way. We finally settled on just passing through Germany but with a stop in Frankfurt on our way from Innsbruck to Amsterdam. But of course, plans are made to be changed as we shall see later.

All the hotel bookings were made in advance via the internet. We also booked our return journey on EuroTunnel in advance based on our intended itinerary.

Some tools we had used are;

• www.rac.co.uk - for driving distance and general directions on the map
• www.booking.com - for finding hotels - highly recommended for searching for family rooms as it provide options to search by 'Family Room'
• www.accorhotels.com - another hotel booking site
• www.venere.com - another hotel booking site
• www.theaa.com - for driving tips in Europe
• www.eurotunnel.com - for crossing the channel
• various personal blogs found from googling in search of halal food in the destination cities - we found these to be more useful than zabiha.

The next item to plan for is food. We decided to split our meals between self-prepared and eating out generally 50:50 - mainly due to combinations of availability of halal food in the destinations, cost, convenience and of course choices. We ended up with a luggage bag full of instant noodles, baked beans, canned sardines, sausages, eggs, a loaf of eggs, croissants, crepes, biscuits, sweets and asam (for the long drives), instant coffee, orange juice, cereals and some bottled water. We also added in there disposable cutleries, food containers, a frying pan, a small pot and an electric kettle. Generally, some of the accommodations are apartments with kitchenette and most of the hotels don't have coffee making facility.

We also purchased a big road atlas of Europe, a "GB" sticker for the car, a reflective vest which is compulsory in France and a car beam reflector to avoid glaring opposite direction vehicles when driving at night. All these are available from AA or RAC. Apart from that we also packed a torchlight, first-aid kit and basic repair tools. Of course the most important item during the trip that we highly recommend is a Sat-Nav with updated European map. We have that in our Garmin unit that we bought in Malaysia.

We checked the car to be in good condition, made sure we have insurance coverage for Europe (check with your insurer) and ensured we have vehicle breakdown coverage in the continent - AA or RAC are good options.

Finally, tried to stay healthy, packed some medicines, vitamins and minyak angin, and most importantly, lots of du'a to Allah SWT that our trip will be safe, smooth and beneficial to us and the kids.