Route planning for travel in Russia and Europe by car. All travel planning services on one page Route planners for europe

This note discusses general questions and principles of drawing up and planning a route travel by car across Russia and Europe.

That is, practical examples of planning (drawing up) routes for long-distance trips are given here: general principles of building a route, what length of stages to choose, how to determine where rest will be needed, what factors should be taken into account when planning a trip, and other issues.

If you are not the first time planning a long trip, and you are more interested in calculating the fuel consumption and cost of the route when traveling to Europe by car, then I recommend you go to the note on the link below:

For those who are planning a long trip for the first time, I recommend that you familiarize yourself with the note on the link above, after reading this note.

Some general principles for planning a trip by car

When planning a route for a trip by car to Europe, you can divide the trip into two parts: one part is a trip across Russia and Belarus (from home to the border, and back), the other part is transfers between cities in Europe.

The difference lies in the slightly different driving style during these stages of the trip.

Driving in Russia along the route "house - border" (and back) is performed, as a rule, according to the "come on, come on!" (on the way back - at home) as quickly as possible.

And the journeys between European cities, as a rule, are not long - 200-500 km (3-6 hours of driving a day, with stops), and if you travel around one country (even such a relatively large one as Poland, for example, or France) , then even less, but more intricate, performed not necessarily over the shortest distance.

Transfers between hotels in Europe are carried out with a stop at places of interest on the way from one city to another, with stops in beautiful places, etc., so there is a slightly different, less hectic and intense rhythm of movement.

In addition, when performing calculations, you can safely assume that when traveling through the territory of Russia (and the Republic of Belarus), the fuel price is the same along the entire route.

When traveling in Europe, the price of fuel varies significantly from country to country (and this must be taken into account when planning a route). Plus, road usage charges are added to the fuel bill.

When planning a route in Europe, you need to figure out which country is better (more profitable) to refuel, taking into account the price of fuel. The savings will be small, but there will be.

Ultimately, after completing a full calculation of the route of the trip, you should have a complete idea: how many kilometers you will have to travel and how much money you will have to pay for it.

Determining the stages of the route

The general route of the trip is pre-divided into stages. Usually, one stage is one day trip, i.e. trip "hotel - hotel".

But you can assign (choose) these stages based on any considerations, based on your needs and capabilities.

In general, the choice of the stages of the route remains entirely at the discretion of the user. For example, at one time I practiced a route across Russia from home to the border, not breaking it into stages, it was like one stage of my trip: “home - border”.

Calculation data for each stage of the route is entered into a table (preferably in Excel - this is more convenient, not on paper), and then general results are summed up and conclusions are drawn.

In general, there is nothing difficult in calculating the route. The math is simple. A little assiduity, accuracy and thoughtfulness when planning, that's probably all that is needed for this.

Drawing up and planning a trip itinerary in Russia, a practical example

If you are not familiar with the general principles of working with Google maps when building a route with their use, as well as with the issues of calculating the distance and travel time (on the route) when using them, then I recommend that before reading this part of the note, read the note where this is described in detail.

And here, for example, we will plan and calculate the route of the trip from Ufa to the border. It is planned to cross the EU border in Brest.

We open Google maps, and build a general (without details) route Ufa - Brest (just from the city center to the city center):

Google offers two routes: through Moscow and through Voronezh. Of course, we are more interested in the shorter one (via Moscow), it is highlighted in blue on the map.

The total length of the route in Russia is about 2400 km. Of course, you don't need to try to overcome it in one move, which means you need to break it down into two stages (you can also into three, if there is a need).

This part of the road, from Vladimir to Orekhovo-Zuevo, is the middle of our journey from Ufa to the border. Somewhere out there, on this site, and it is necessary to plan a vacation (the first overnight stay).

Where the rest will be carried out, in a motel on the road, or in a hotel (I recommend the latter option, you will rest better, however, a little more expensive) - is up to you.

I don’t know how to find a sensible roadside motel, and I try not to spend the night in them (there was a couple of times the experience of spending the night in roadside hostels, but somehow it somehow does not cause me enthusiasm to repeat it).

You can, of course, take a few hours to take a nap in the car, but this is not the best way to relax, especially ifthe next daythere is also a long haul.

Factors to consider when planning a route

FIRST FACTOR - BIG CITIES

I'll tell you about the example of Moscow, but this factor should be taken into account when planning trips to Europe. All these paris, berlin and madrid, you need to go around in the same way, if visiting them is not the purpose of the trip.

To Vladimir - 1150 km from Ufa. If you choose to spend the night, for example, the city of Vladimir, then the next day you will have to travel through Moscow during working hours.

You will leave Vladimir at 10 am, at 12-13 pm you will be in the Moscow area. If it happens on Sunday, then it's still okay, but if it's on a weekday, then it's not a fact that you won't have to bump into traffic jams.

How can you avoid this? And, right away, at the planning stage? There are actually two options.

If you are an experienced driver, and you can afford (able to complete) a route of 1500 km in one sitting, then obviously the best solution would be to be patient a little and "give up" on the first day of the trip (while the forces are fresh) extra 250-300 kilometers, after passing Moscow.

That is, choose a place to spend the night somewhere outside Moscow, somewhere in the Kubinka area, for example:

In this situation, you will be driving through Moscow late at night, and you can not expect big problems (with traffic jams).

In principle, I do this when I travel from Orenburg to Europe. I try to drive through Moscow late at night, and drive at least a hundred kilometers away from it, although this requires an extra effort (four or five extra hours on the way).

The second option, if you still choose some place between Vladimir and Orekhovo-Zuevo (that is, before Moscow), then it is better to immediately plan to go bypass Moscow the next day.

You can, of course, assess the situation with Yandex traffic jams and take a risk and poke through the Moscow Ring Road (as in the picture above), but as for me, it's better to go around right away. It's not a fact that you won't be stuck in Moscow for a couple of hours.

In general, an element of uncertainty is present in this case, but we do not need it. Plan immediately to use an alternative route, for example:

As you can see, such a route is only 40 km longer than the route through Moscow along the Moscow Ring Road (this is about an extra 30-35 minutes on the way), but the traffic on it will be much less than in the area itself, the capital.

SECOND FACTOR - BORDER CROSSING TIME

On the second day of the journey, you will be in Brest late at night. Question: where to plan your vacation? In Brest, or go straight to Poland at night?

When organizing an overnight stay (rest) in Brest, you will have to cross the border the next day, during working hours. There may be queues at the border. But at the same time, rest (hotel) in Brest is cheaper than in Poland (15-20 euros in Belarus, versus 30-40 euros for a hotel in Poland).

What's more important: quickly pass the border, or save a few euros - it's up to you to decide, I just pay attention to this moment. I myself always choose the option with crossing the border late at night (it takes 10-20 minutes, there is one or two cars at customs), and I plan to vacation somewhere in the EU.

If you have never planned long trips, I recommend that you read the note on the link above, you will learn a lot of interesting things.

Drawing up and planning a trip itinerary in Europe

The route of the trip through Europe is planned similarly to the route through Russia. Only the logic of its compilation changes a little (as already mentioned above).

For the rest, the stages of the general route in Europe are also determined, routes are laid between the points that are planned to be visited, data is collected on time and distance on them.

All this is summarized in a table (in stages), and the total is calculated.

As for the choice of filling stations in Europe, I again draw your attention to the fact that the price by country there sometimes varies significantly, therefore, when planning filling places, this moment must be taken into account.

When planning a route in Europe, you should also decide in advance: what do you want from the trip, I mean, from the very process of moving on the roads?

If you want to see more views of the country, to look at the life of people in it, then plan to move along local roads (not along highways).

If the task is to get from one place to another in the fastest way, then definitely plan the maximum use of highways, where they, of course, are (yes, in most countries you will have to pay for them, but it's worth it).

Also, there should be an idea (at the stage of preliminary calculation), and exact knowledge (at the stage of final calculation of the route) about which gas stations you will refuel during the trip and how much money you will have to spend on fuel.

Planning a travel itinerary in Europe

Since the preliminary calculation does not require special accuracy, it is performed quite quickly and easily. During the evening, it is quite possible to estimate the route Orenburg - Lisbon and back (with some experience, of course).

When the travel plan is fully clarified (hotels will be booked, sights to be visited will be selected), the calculation can be clarified already for specific points.

After you have compiled an exact list of cities and places that you would like to visit for your vacation, put it in front of you, open Google maps, and begin to directly typeset your specific travel itinerary.

The route sequentially connects all points that are planned to be visited during the trip. At the same time (when drawing up a preliminary calculation), you can clarify the order of visiting places.

It may well turn out (on the map it is clearer, clearer) that first you need to go to town B, then to castle C, and only then go to town A for an overnight stay, for example.

Route calculation example

Let's perform a preliminary (estimated) calculation of the movement along the route of the trip Smolensk - Warsaw - Prague - Vienna - Krakow - Brest - Smolensk:

We mentally break the planned route into logical stages (according to the points where it is planned to walk / spend the night), draw a sign, and start filling it out.

Our first section is Smolensk - Brest (EU border) - Warsaw. We are building a route from Smolensk to the center of Warsaw, and assessing its length and duration.

If we "pull" it in one sitting, do not break it. If you need an overnight stay, then we immediately determine (choose) where it will be (as in the example with the trip from Ufa to Brest above).

According to the calculation, it turns out that the length of this stage is 875 km, the travel time is 10 hours 20 minutes:

This is a normal one-haul leg. You can not break it, even if you add an hour to pass the border (which is real, if you use the entry in to pass the border).

Determine the distance and travel time to and from the border. To go to the border 680 km and 8 hours. From the border to Warsaw 3 hours and 190 km. Let's add an hour "to the border", and we will assume that we will be in Warsaw in 4 hours.

We write to our table:
"1. Smolensk - border:distance 680 km, travel time 8 hours, fuel 49 liters;
2. border - Warsaw, distance 190 km, travel time 4 hours, fuel 14 liters; "

But in principle, calculating the amount and cost of fuel is not the purpose of performing this calculation. The fuel will still have to be counted separately, so you do not need to include it in this table.

The purpose of this calculation is to determine the total distance for the trip, and with the times required for movement at individual stages of the general route, necessary to draw up a general schedule of movement.

A traffic schedule is a document in which all stages of the trip are described in detail: where, when and how much we leave, where and how much we plan to arrive, what is the expected mileage on the daily stretch, etc. information.

In principle, for really long and difficult trips, I would recommend not to be lazy and make it up, purely "for yourself." Helps when you run all over Europe.

In the same way, we calculate the rest of the route, and as a result we get a certain plate with the first results, something like this:

Departures (stages) of the trip
№	Route	Distance	Travel time	Fuel consumption
1.	Smolensk - border	680 km	8 h	49 l
1.	border - Warsaw	190 km	4 h	14 l
2.	Warsaw - Prague	635 km	7 h	46 l
3.	Prague - Vienna	290 km	4 h	23 l
4.	Vienna - Krakow	470 km	5 h	37 l
5.	Krakow - border	460 km	6.5 h	34 l
5.	border - Smolensk	680 km	7.5 h	49 l
	Total:	3415 km	42 h	254 l

Evaluation and analysis of the planned trip route

After performing a general calculation of the trip route, we have data that can be evaluated and analyzed in general planning. What can (need) be assessed? What conclusions can be drawn?

1. LENGTH OF STAGES (STAGES) AND TIME ON THE WAY

We estimate the distance and travel time at each stage of the route. If somewhere the length of the stretch (or its time) does not suit us (too long), we divide it into two additional stages.

Or, conversely, we take three short stages and make two of them. This is according to the circumstances, according to need and at will - solely by your decision.

For example, if the Krakow - Smolensk section seems too long (14 hours on the way, plus an hour to the border), then it might make sense to provide for an additional overnight stay in Brest, immediately after crossing the border.

2. PLANNING DEPARTURE TIMESANDARRIVAL

Having information about the travel time at each stage of the route, when drawing up a general travel plan, you can (and should) think about what time is the best to hit the road? For example, from Smolensk?

If you leave early in the morning, say, at 6 o'clock in the morning (as many people like to do), then we will be at the border in 7.5-8 hours, at about lunchtime. Hmm ... at this time there may not be as empty as we would like.

In this case, arrival in Warsaw is planned at 17-18 o'clock. Also not the best option. Warsaw is the capital, and there are enough cars there. And we plan to arrive there at the height of the evening rush hour.

In a foreign city (and even in the capital), it is best to arrive late in the evening, at night or very early in the morning (just believe my experience).

I would plan to leave Smolensk at 2-3 o'clock in the afternoon, with the expectation of arriving at the border at 10-11 o'clock in the evening (there will obviously be fewer people in the direction of Poland), and to a hotel in Warsaw at about midnight, maybe by one in the morning ( travel around the city will be free).

By the way, in such cases, when planning, do not forget to take into account the difference in time zones. For example, in Poland the time is one hour behind ours. And if you cross the border of Belarus at 21:00 local (= Moscow) time, for example, the crossing of the Polish border will be at 20:00 local (Central European) time.

Scheduling departure times is a fairly important element and applies to other routes as well. For example, the stage Prague - Vienna. Does it make sense to leave your hotel in Prague at 8 am (arrival in Vienna will then be around noon)? Of course not!

When leaving at 8 am, we are guaranteed to find ourselves in the capital's morning traffic jams. You also need to estimate the time of check-in at a hotel in Vienna (it is not always possible to check-in at noon, usually check-in is from 13-14 hours).

Better to sleep well, have breakfast in Prague, and plan to leave from there at 10-11 am. Then the arrival in Vienna will be before the beginning of the evening traffic jams, just in time for check-in, and the morning traffic jams in Prague will have already passed.

Here this element, the time of departure / arrival - must always be taken into account when planning trips... Many neglect this, but in vain.

3. TOTAL MILEAGE PER RIDE

The total planned mileage for the trip is 3400 km (according to the speedometer it will be possible, a little more * about 3500-3550 km) - even a VAZ-2109 will easily and without problems pass such a distance (if the owner somehow looks after it).

What does the knowledge of the total mileage give us? It allows you to estimate the amount of work with the car that needs to be done before going on vacation.

If, before leaving on a trip, you have an oil change (or scheduled maintenance) according to plan after 2000 km, and the total mileage along the trip route is planned, say, 5000 km, then there are two options: either perform car maintenance a little in advance (before the trip), or you will have to change the oil somewhere on the road (in Europe).

Both options are acceptable, and the choice is yours.

Knowing the information about the total planned mileage, you can make an informed decision on what to do with the car: service it before leaving, or look for a service center somewhere along the route in advance (and plan the time to visit it).

In addition, before a long trip, you will still have to drive the car to the service (for inspection), and knowing the planned mileage greatly facilitates the decision-making process "whether to change this crap, or will it last a little more?"

4. OTHER ASSESSMENT PARAMETERS

250 liters of fuel? Even if we take the average price of 1.2 euros per liter (and on such a trip it will be cheaper on average) - this is about 330 euros per journey - it is also not so much.

Thus, the entire general plan of the itinerary for vacation is assessed, after which (if necessary), the general plan of the trip is also clarified: hotels along the route are added or removed, the timetable is specified, etc.

After the final clarification and approval of the route of movement, the selection of gas stations along the entire route is made, and the required amount of fuel required for the trip and its cost are specified.

On this, I will finish the article devoted to the compilation, calculation and evaluation of the route of the trip, planned for a vacation in Europe (or in Russia - it does not matter).

... Not all low-cost airlines find their way into search engines. It's worth checking a few separately to find the cheapest tickets. There are 101 discounters in the list. From Ryanair to a company that only flies between Hawaii.

For a change, other search engines and travel agencies in one line: OneTwoTrip , Momondo , Kayak, AnyWayAnyDay, Messenger Travel, Kupibilet, Biletiks.

Travel Blogs

Blogs (standalone)

Youtube channels

Preparing for the trip

Bicycles and other means of transport

Hosteljobs- work in hostels around the world. Sometimes for money, sometimes just for accommodation and food. Usually no more than 4-5 hours a day.

helpx.net- work program for food and lodging. Work most often requires 3 to 6 hours a day on weekdays.

World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms

Find a crew- a place in the cabin and free travel in exchange for work on the ship.

Other

hitchwiki.org- wikipedia for hitchhikers. An irreplaceable resource if you are planning a hitchhiking trip for the first time.

listentothe.cloud- negotiations of air traffic controllers to the music. Ideal for work. Moreover, in real time, you can listen to the negotiations of dispatchers and pilots of dozens of airports around the world.

If we helped you save money or find something interesting, we will be glad if you support our project.

Due to the devaluation of the ruble and the actual closure of transit through Ukraine, difficult times have come for Russian car tourists. However, there will always be people who are not afraid of these (I hope, transient) difficulties; for them and this post - here we will focus on a more fundamental problem: adequate travel planning, in particular, route selection... The general availability of navigators and online tools from the route planners category creates a harmful illusion of the ease of solving this problem, which is often dispelled in real life in the form of wasted time, money and nerves during a precious vacation.

So, the window to Europe (with the exception of Scandinavia and the Baltic States) for Russians has narrowed to four narrow loopholes on the Belarusian-Polish border, represented by the international border checkpoints (MAPP) Bruzgi, Berestovitsa, Varshavsky Most and Domachevo. Does the omnipotent Google know about them? In general, Google Maps is another ugly product from Evil corporations... Its creators neglected all the principles of cartographic science: maps are poorly readable, generalization is inadequate, the main thing is indistinguishable from the secondary, there is no hierarchy of objects (including the road network). Maybe it at least knows how to pave the way? I remember that just a couple of years ago Google conducted all routes from Russia to Europe exclusively through Brest. Now he copes with the border crossing better, but went to the other extreme.

For clarity, we will bring the situation to the point of absurdity by setting a trip from the Belarusian city of Lida to the Polish city of Olsztyn. And this is what the vaunted Internet giant gave out:

Rice. 1. A typical incident of online route planners.

We are offered to cross the border through the “Sofievo - Lipschany” checkpoint, which was closed 20 years ago. I believe that after such an embarrassment, every self-respecting navigator should stop working with google maps due to loss of confidence... However, let's check how Google's commercial competitors cope with this quest: theaa.com, Bing, TomTom, ViaMichelin, and Nokia's here.com. Let's put it bluntly: they do poorly. The first repeated Google's mistake, the latter did not know such a city of Lida, and the rest had a vague idea of the road network of the CIS countries and only for this reason were not mistaken. The only one who could take into account the nuances of border crossing is Yandex maps, but I will refrain from recommending them: the product is clearly incomplete (does not allow entering intermediate points, does not give out alternative paths, poorly detailed stages, etc.), and the cartographic base is ugly.

Here is such nonsense, little ones: tools that are worthless on the Internet. By analogy, would you keep a loose-headed hammer in your kit? The result is a little predictable: sooner or later, you will beat off your fingers.

Is it really a failure, thought Stirlitz, but guessed to change the platform. There is also an excellent open source project - OCM(OpenStreetMap.org), and various (paid and free) search engines are built on its basis. With the first click, googling on the subject gave the desired result: the site http://openrouteservice.org/?lang=en creates routes better than anyone else. There is even an interface in Russian and a very interesting and useful feature Avoid Areas: you can outline the territory that is better to go around - large agglomerations, war zones, hostile states (as part of our test, I sent all of Ukraine there), and the engine will exclude it from consideration. The new service coped with our test perfectly, not only drawing a path through the existing Bruzgi crossing, but also finding a recently built ring road around Grodno.

It is with this engine - OpenRouteService- we will use it in further research (attention: this is not a panacea, but only one of the tools, not devoid of its shortcomings). Let's practice and create a virtual route from Default City to, say, the Montenegrin resort of Budva.

First of all, the journey should be broken down into stages. Do not overestimate your strengths: if there is only one driver in the car, he cannot steer for more than 10 hours without risk and harm to health. This means that a day's journey should not exceed 800 km when driving on highways and 400 km on ordinary roads. With this regime, the first overnight stay will inevitably end up in Belarus, which, in principle, should be avoided: there are few hotels, they are unreasonably expensive, and having dinner is a problem. However, there is nowhere to go: booking a motel on the Polish side is risky due to the unpredictable delays at border crossings. By the way, God forbid you to get to the checkpoint from Friday lunch to Saturday morning, because at this time thousands of Belarusians go shopping in Poland, and you are guaranteed to stand in line for many hours. Thus, it would be best to leave Moscow in the afternoon (not on Thursday!), Spend the night in the Smolensk region, drive through Belarus in the next 7-8 hours without stopping, cross the border and complete the stage in Poland.

Unlike Google and others like it, the smart engine did not even try to seize part of Ukraine along the Moscow-Budva route without clarification. (And I would gloat over those who, trusting Google or Yandex, would go to test the Kovel-Lvov section). Poland is proposed to cross along the shortest route: along rural roads, from Domachevo to the exit to Kosice. From rich personal experience, we will define this option as an amateur: in Poland and Slovakia, you have to get on bad sections of roads, wade through an endless series of towns and villages, drive in a ragged rhythm due to the interlacing of speed limits, sometimes drag for a long time after tractors and other slugs. In a tiring day, you will cover a maximum of 400 km at an average speed of 51 km / h and you will not go beyond the middle of Slovakia. Moreover, in Hungary you have to buy a vignette to compensate for the delay in driving on the highways. This route is shown on the map on the left (let's call it route A).

Rice. 2. The best way to transit through Poland by private car

a) on the way to Romania and Bulgaria; b) on the way to the rest of Southern Europe.

In general, the transit of Poland is akin to art. Real skill comes only with time, and no electronic assistant can replace it. It is better to talk about this rich topic separately, but for beginners I can give two tips: 1) be sure to get a paper map of Poland's roads; and 2) try to reach the highways as quickly as possible, bypassing major cities as much as possible. The implementation of the second principle in our test case leads to the variant shown on the map on the right ( route B): we get to the closest to the eastern border of the Warsaw-Katowice highway and rush along it to the south. An important nuance is to enter the highway not in the Warsaw area (kill two hours at the intersection of the metropolitan metropolitan area), but to the south - in the vicinity of the city Tomaszow Mazowiecki... Do you see how radically different routes are laid automatically (albeit with the best tool) and by a person based on practice and experience?

Route B is optimal not only for the Montenegrin direction, but also for all other countries south of the Czech Republic and Slovakia (with the exception of Romania and Bulgaria - for these directions, unfortunately, there is no alternative to route A). Having followed route B to Katowice, for further movement to Budva you have to choose between the longer and more expensive (but fast and less stressful) route along the highways through Ostrava and further along the Czech Republic - Austria - Croatia, and shorter and cheaper - through Tychy-Cieszyn and further across the Czech Republic - Slovakia - Hungary - Serbia. The transit of Hungary and Serbia are two separate complex topics (to which I may come back), but there it is possible to simplify the task by entering toll roads that run almost from the border itself.

As for Poland, it is wrong to consider this country only as an inevitable transit evil: there are many interesting cities and places in Poland, 1-2 of which should be included in the route. And then - as in chess: the number of travel options increases exponentially, and it is impossible to describe them in advance. Proceed with the iteration method, breaking a long route into stages, working through each stage separately, clarifying the possibility of an overnight stay at selected points, leaving time for rest and excursions, etc. As a result, before the start, you will have a detailed and optimal trip plan, which will largely save your vacation from unnecessary fuss. And today I offered you one of the suitable tools for this :)

A trip to Europe is surely a must-visit for anyone with a fondness for travel. And since Europe is a very complex concept, the prospect of buying a tour to several countries at once seems dubious and, of course, expensive. Planning a trip on your own is a direct way to a sea of vivid impressions and equally pleasant savings.

You should not be afraid to take organizational issues upon yourself, a trip to Europe by car (or by plane 🙂) is not so scary as the imagination draws it. The main point is to choose a priority method for you to travel between countries from the above. We will help you decide, write out all the nuances and calculate the approximate cost of your future adventure!

The difference between auto and air travel is only in the principle of preliminary preparation. And if everything is simple with an airplane - we buy tickets and a huge winged car takes us to the country of our dreams, then with a car it is more difficult, because the planning process here requires more meticulousness. Well, if only because you will control the four-wheeled beast yourself.

To make a successful trip across Europe by car, it is necessary, first of all, to draw up a reliable and detailed route.

P.S. The starting point of our trip, both by plane and by car, is the city of Moscow.

Looking for cool shots with the Eiffel Tower - how do you like it?

We are laying a tourist route in Europe

It all depends on your fantasies and desires. Perhaps you are an avid explorer of Europe and this time you are striving to explore France inside and out, or maybe you are discovering the western expanses for the first time and want to capture all the great capitals. The extreme option is unlikely to fit into a standard 14-day vacation, but you can try.

In any case, first decide on the main cities where the adventurous spirit attracts you, and enter the points in the navigator, having estimated the type of route, and along the way mark the stops on the good old map - in case of an unexpected shutdown of the gadget. Remember, your plan should be as specific and detailed as possible.

By the way, special planning sites help to calculate the route of the trip. They will roughly calculate the kilometers and hours that you will spend traveling around European lands, as well as the approximate (from the word very) cost of fuel consumption. And following the well-known recommendation - build your path so that you can drive no more than 5-6 hours, and in relation to distances, limit yourself to 250-300 km daily. You don't want to contemplate the landscapes from the car window during half daylight hours?

Walking the streets of Barcelona somewhere in the Gothic Quarter

The favorite tourist route for traveling in Europe with a starting point from Moscow goes through Belarus and flows smoothly to the border with Poland, and there already - wherever the navigator tells. We advise you to familiarize yourself with the customs regulations in advance, because there are often restrictions on the transportation of certain groups of goods.

Behind the border checkpoint, ideal roads begin that will accompany you throughout your journey by car. Riding on them is not burdensome. But here's what can really cause inconvenience: most of the highways here are toll roads. Therefore, in order to avoid collisions with formidable inspectors and payment of fines, inquire in advance about the payment of travel in the countries included in your route through Europe. The tolls.eu website shows that in the Republic of Poland, for example, the fare varies from 150 to 1000 rubles.

An important point is the calculation of gasoline for a trip. Mark at least a few petrol stations in between each of the long journeys, but never make it to the last en route. If the tank is half empty, refuel at the nearest station, and do not rely on the "one" after a dozen kilometers. In general, you are unlikely to be surprised to learn that the cost of gasoline in Europe is much more expensive than at home, and gas stations along the highways offer fuel at higher prices than in cities. The approximate price of gasoline in the Schengen countries is about € 1.20, or 70 rubles.

As we said, with an airplane, everything is much easier. However, in the matter of how to save money and how to find the cheapest air tickets to Europe, there are some snags.

Photo of Paris taken from the Arc de Triomphe (rise - 12 euros)

We buy cheap air tickets in Europe. What are low-cost airlines?

2. We use services to find cheap air tickets at full capacity. The most convenient and proven:

Some of their chips can not only find for you the cheapest flights to Europe, but also help you decide on the route.

For example, the flexible search function: we drive Moscow into the line "from where" and Everywhere - into the "where", plus the desired month, and we get an advantageous offer. And having escaped from the capital to the Schengen country, from there we can go for a penny to almost anywhere in Europe.

The golden rule of promotions for cheap tickets to European countries - do not hesitate. You saw, buy. If you postpone the purchase until tomorrow, you will most likely have to start looking again.

3. Fly around Europe with low-cost airlines.
The countries of the Schengen agreement are famous both for their "open" borders among themselves and for the convenient network of low-cost airlines that connects them. Low-cost airlines, or “low-cost air carriers” in Russian, may well offer to fly from Italy to France for less than 1,000 rubles.

Of course, passengers pay with some inconveniences - luggage surcharge, surcharge for seat selection, obligatory online check-in (otherwise surcharge at the airport), lack of meals and further down the list.

But one glance at the prices of low-cost airlines (Ryanair, Wizz Air, EasyJet) - and all this fades into the background, because there is an excellent prospect of a tour of European countries with very inexpensive flights ahead. See for yourself:

Free observation deck in Bergen, Norway
(walked up in about 1.5 hours)

If we travel around Europe on our own, then we should book the hotel on our own.

Here the following services will come to the rescue:

We issue a Schengen visa on our own

Actually, one of the main points of our trip. Without this insert in the passport, alas, the lights of Europe will not shine for us. Where to apply for Schengen? The most budgetary option will be to collect the documents yourself and apply to the visa center. By the way, we already have a ready-made article () that will assist in obtaining a Schengen visa. Read, study!

In short: we form the necessary package of documents, fill out an application for obtaining a Schengen visa and pay a visit to a visa center with consular accreditation. The algorithm is quite simple, but for some reason many go to travel agencies or intermediary firms, preferring to shift the burden of organizational red tape onto the shoulders of "professionals". Of course, for some extra payment.

Don't overpay. Prepare the following documents:

bank card statement (balance - at the rate of € 90 per day);
confirmation of accommodation booking;
certificate from the place of work indicating the amount of income or a sponsorship letter;
medical insurance (travel insurance is ideal);
air tickets. If you travel around Europe by car, you must provide an exact route with the number of days spent in each country.

Study a sample of filling out an application for a Schengen visa 2019:

And, having checked again the availability of all the documents for obtaining the Schengen, go straight to the accredited visa center of your city / region.

In Montserrat, near Barcelona
(the second time we thought it was boring, it also started raining)

Determine the cost of travel to Europe

If we undertake to calculate the price of such an undertaking as an independent travel across Europe, then it makes sense to take into account the cost of a visa, tickets and accommodation, because everything else depends only on the traveler's appetite. And these points are very approximate, because everyone chooses his own ideal route.

Let's compare how much the basic 5 most popular countries in Europe will cost. For a trip in June from Moscow and per person (accommodation in a double room - the amount for one - in an inexpensive hotel, but with normal reviews):

If you ask why not by car, then we will answer that the gasoline consumption alone for the road from Moscow to Berlin will be about € 190 (and 24 hours of travel). Of course, it is not entirely correct to compare the distances covered by an airplane and a car on the same route. Still, it's better to travel cheaply in Europe by air.

But there are probably more adventures behind the wheel and with a company of friends.

The best sights of the countries of Europe

Are you traveling to the Schengen area for the first time? Then, for sure, the places that you are eager to finally see with your own eyes will coincide with our list of the main attractions of the countries of Europe.

Eiffel Tower, France. For some it is a boring pile of iron, for others it is a dubious construction that disfigures the city's appearance (an approximate interpretation of the words of Dumas and Maupassant), and for others it is an eternal symbol of romance. Only one thing is certain: a date with her is exciting and exciting even for the tenth time in a row. The same will be told by guidebooks to Europe, which annually give the tower the title of the number one European landmark.

Colosseum, Italy. Today, the grandiose structure of the times of the Ancient World also attracts thousands of people every day. True, she seeks not for bread and circuses, but for a piece of history and photographs.

Temple of the Sagrada Familia, Spain. Perhaps the only sight in Europe that attracts crowds of tourists even in an unfinished state. What will happen in 2026, when the Sagrada will be shown to us in all its glory, just in time for the centenary of the death of the chief architect of Gaudi?

Sagrada Familia and crowds of tourists - come here early in the morning (at 7 o'clock)

Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany. This is an ideal collective image of all the castles and palaces that we contemplated in cartoons in childhood and which we read about in legends, novels and fairy tales. The most fabulous place in Europe, it inspired Tchaikovsky to create Swan Lake. What will Neuschwanstein inspire you to do? 🙂

Louvre, France. Visitors to the Mecca of Fine Arts and its surrounding areas are generally divided into two types. Those who can't wait to break into the crowded halls and appear before the original painting of Mona Lisa, and those who first prefer to "grab" the pyramid - the main entrance of one of the most famous European landmarks.

But - the morning Louvre, there are practically no people!

Well, will you try to draw up a cheap travel itinerary to Europe, or maybe with a ride through our Top 5? 🙂 It's up to you, the main thing - do not be afraid to organize your adventures, and not only European ones, on your own!

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Hello.

Motorcycle travel is my hobby, I like it, and I try to get out on long trips more often. Probably, any travel fan, regardless of the preferred transport, be it a motorcyclist or a hitchhiker, spends a lot of time over maps, dreaming of a new route, drooling and calculating finances. I'm no exception) I want to go to a lot more places, so I look at the maps and open the sites of various route planners much more often than necessary. In conjunction with considerable practical experience in using auto-planners in travel, over time, the advantages and disadvantages of some of these programs have emerged.

This is what we'll talk about in this article, about auto-route planning sites.

Almost any site with online maps now has a built-in route planner, but some are godlessly buggy, others do not take into account such route features as, for example, ferries. Finally, many planners have too little limit on the number of key points.

Yes, and here only free programs will be considered, paid, they are all cool and work great, there is no need to talk about them.

In addition, route planners usually have their own "specialization" in a particular region. There are also global auto-planners, but they do not cope well with local roads and distances, compared to regional ones.

Let's divide the considered auto-schedulers into several groups:

1) World route planners.

2) Route planners in Europe.

3) Route planners for Australia.

4) Route planners for South America.

5) Route planners for the USA and Canada.

6) Route planners in Africa.

7) Route planners in Asia.

8) Route planners in Russia.

Uff .. A lot happened ... Well, let's go point by point:

1) WORLD!

Actually, the scheduler, sewn into the Google map engine. Not very bad, but often does not find small objects on the map. The route of the trip in the Baltic States on a motorcycle, which I drove this summer, and which you can see in the picture, Google could not lay, because it did not find the Grigorovichi border crossing point (this is between Belarus and Latvia).

On the other hand, the same planner perfectly guided me along the way when I rode on regional dirt roads in the Ryazan region. In short, how lucky. The main advantage of Google is that it searches and builds routes around the world.

Not a bad global planner and an excellent planner for the USA. From time to time I communicate with Americans through couchsurfing, and since a fool sees a fool from afar, all "my" Americans are completely crazy motorcycle tourists. And they recommend Yahoo when planning their travel itineraries in the United States. I personally did not use it.

This auto-route planner is the former map24.com. World planner, works very badly for the central part of Europe. I tried to use it on a trip to Spain, but just for Spain it does not work, because "Knows" too few Spanish roads =)

An excellent auto-planner, supports all the necessary options that are needed to build a route. He knows many roads, including local primers and temporary huts, but he is focused mainly on Europe. By the way, this is a very strange thing. MapQuest perfectly sees all roads, even those that can only be driven by a tractor, but at the same time there are no many small settlements on the map 🙁

2) Europe.

High-quality planner for Europe with beautiful maps. I really got the impression that this is more likely not a Route Planner, but a Trip Planner, that is, a map-map, and the site is more likely not for cars and motorcycles, but simply for independent tourists using any public means of transport.

An excellent planner with a separate search for motorcycle travelers. What is the difference between the route of travel by motorcycle and car, I did not quite understand, perhaps this is just a marketing ploy to attract another category of users =)

As the name suggests, this auto-planner takes into account ferry crossings and is tailored for travel to Scandinavian countries. Well, in fact, that's all, this planner can be useful when planning a combined tour of the Scandinavian countries, that is, for trips whose route includes more than one ferry crossing.

3) Australia.

In general, there are not very many roads in Australia, it is quite difficult to get lost there, so the main advantages that route planners in Australia should have are the addresses of hotels, eateries, gas stations, etc., sewn into the map. This Australia auto planner has it all.

It was created on the basis of Google maps, so I don't see much point in contacting it, it's easier to go straight to the source.

A fairly voluminous and powerful portal with information for tourists. In addition to the auto-planner, there is also a search for hotels, plane tickets, car rental, etc.

4) South America.

Only works in Costa Rica.

Works all over Latin America, but! I could not test it due to the language barrier, because I did not understand how to switch to the English version of the site.

5) USA and Canada.

It calculates distances, gives out a lot of useful information. Not a bad alternative to the world's auto-planners.

6) Africa.

Builds routes only in South Africa, works on the Google engine. This is all I have found. Do not go, children, to walk to Africa!

7) Asia.

More like a self-travel planner than a route planner. Not quite in the subject, but I did not find anything else in Asia.

8) Russia.

It so happened that most often I use this particular auto-scheduler. At one time I came across it on the Russian site of the Iron Butt Association, and I am very happy about it. Almost all of my motorcycle trips, which required at least minimal preparation, were calculated with this planner. I can say that this program works just fine, calculates distances very accurately. It also has ample room to plan a trip with many turning points. Shows the time it will take to pass the route without speed violations =) In general, in my opinion, AvtoTransInfo at the time of this writing is the undisputed leader among auto-route planners in Russia.

The same as AutoTransInfo, but worse, since it gives out less information. In fact, apart from the distance, it counts nothing else. Distances, however, give out quite accurately.

Works in Russia, and also shows all Lukoil gas stations on the route. Periodically wildly, unbearably buggy (!!!)

There are many more regional route planners out there, but the ones I've listed are without doubt the most convenient. Also, every search engine has maps, and more often than not, a scheduler is bolted to these maps. Yandex, for example, works well, but tends to shorten the route a little. But it can also be used, so the final choice is yours.