Folkestone to Krakow in one day?

Using the Eurotunel, would it be possible, or indeed sensible, to drive from Folkestone to Krakow in a single day?

If not, could you recommend a cheap overnight hotel, for the journey to and from?

Of course it’s possible if two of you (or more) are driving. Is it sensible? No way! It’s 16-17 hours non-stop (all being well) and just under 1,000 miles.

Cheap overnights - look for chains like Ibis. Search ā€œbudget hotels Germanyā€ since that is where you’ll want to stop.

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Gendarmes reckon the Driver should stretch the legs… every 1.5 or 2 hours… making the most of each 20 mins rest period…

put that calculation into any travel plans… :wink:

I think it depends how old and fit you are and if you are the only driver. I’ve done +/- 1,600 km in one go but it was thirty years, and it wasn’t fun.

Kassel seems to be about in the middle. There are some hotels called ā€œB&Bā€ (it’s the name, they’re not b&b’s) near the autobahn.

nope… it’s not fun and not good for anyone… the Gendarmes’ advice is for all Drivers… not age related.

Trouble is, folk tend to think ā€œI don’t need to do thatā€ā€¦ and often it’s quite OK with no bad happenings… but it’s a bad habit to get into.

Gendarmes ask folk to err on the side of caution… no matter wot their age/health.

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Pop a few benzedrine with a can of Coke and the drive will be a doddle… :grinning:

(Just be prepared to sleep a whole day once you arrive :grinning:)

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We did 1,200KMs in a day when moving here. We didn’t drive non-stop and ended up stopping for a couple of hours in a car park on the autoroute as we were both shattered and needed sleep. This was during the Covid lockdowns so everywhere was shut.

Would not recommend. Definitely won’t ever be doing that again.

We’ve done North France->South/Dordogne in a day a couple of times.

Quite how we didn’t end up divorce or one of us with a life sentence for murder I honestly don’t know.

Definitely split the journey.

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In days of yore, '62, '64 and '67, as a family with just one driver, we would complete the Reading, Berks to Zakopane, Poland trip within one day. Remember though that the East German and/or Czech borders would seriously take a good chunk from the actual driving time. Also, there were a great many fewer vehicles on the road, particularly in the east, although horse carts would also slow one down considerably. Would I wish to do it now? No. B&B brand hotels are cheap, too cheap for us, but hey ho.

I did Rio to Salvador on my own in the 1970s when I was 30 and the traffic was very different. It’s 1000 miles. I could barely get out of the car when I arrived and certainly never did it again.

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If it was good enough for Guy Gibson, it’s good enough for me🤭

I did not know he used bennies! Good to know!

We lived on them driving road trains across Australia back in the day :slightly_smiling_face:

I think all the Bomber Command pilots did (and maybe other crew), they were Government issue if I remember correctly.

Oops, too much information. Not being willing to take them was the reason I only lasted one season at Buntine’s, that and my itchy feet of course. :rofl:

Blimey, really? If lorry drivers followed that advice you’d soon notice the shortages in the shops. :rofl:

the advice is recently being drummed in. … and comes after various accidents/incidents on the roads involving all classes of vehicles.

Incidentally, I’m wondering if the firms allow ā€œproperā€ times for their drivers to get from A to B.
The number of HGV’s which thunder along, over the speed limits, on our Departmental roads… is quite alarming.
In conversation, someone gave the excuse that they have to speed to meet their targets or their wages get docked ???
but that seems rather dangerous to me…

Don’t know about drivers being told to hurry up or losing wages, sounds unlikely to me as I never experienced such a thing, but as far as I know the law only requires drivers to take a break after a maximum of 4 and a half hours.

But long overall hours are permitted, known as ā€˜spreadovers’ in the industry (English) and ā€˜amplitude’ in French. I remember being required to work a 15 hours spreadover on one occasion, (I refused) which was legal twice a week I think. Also, on a UK drivers’ forum recently they were saying how nice it would be to get the overall limit down to 12 hours a day. :astonished:

But to my mind the silliness in France (not the UK) is the Sunday ban which forces some drivers to start work at 10pm on a Sunday night after finishing a week on days on Friday evening. The body clock is simply not prepared for that and, as a result, I have always since retirement tried to keep off the roads on Monday mornings, remembering how tired I used to be.

talking over lunch… the situation/conversation I recalled was about the HGV trucks which take stuff from the quarry to offload at XYZ.

They get paid by the number of loads… so, apologies, it wasn’t docking wages it was the incentive for the driver to get there and back as swiftly as possible…
and their bullying antics are not much fun for ordinary road users.

Same for bus drivers (and conductors in the day). Cover the morning and evening rush hours and have the middle of the day ā€œoffā€.

Buntines…??? When?