Avoiding highways
Highways are boring, especially if you have a car that does not go fast. The alternative is to drive off highways. Of course it takes longer, but you see more along the way and it is easier and find places to camp if you do not want go to campsites.
As an example, we drove from Norway to Albania in 2019 without being on the highway at all. We took the ferry from Karlskrona to Gdynia / Gdansk and stayed in Eastern Europe. This ferry is a good alternative to the Kiel ferry if you are going slightly east in Europe. The Kiel ferry is very expensive in the summer, but Stena Line to Gdansk costs just over 200 Euro for a car and cabin for two.
Then just put the GPS on “Avoid highways” and drive off. But you cannot blindly rely on GPS. Be sure to have a paper map to see the greater view. Try to avoid cities and towns where there are often queues.
On the trip Poland-Albania it was only the first day, out of Gdansk, that we ended up in a queue of some size. We had set the GPS to take the smallest roads and partly followed narrow roads through fields and dirt roads in dense forest. If you can do this this depends of course on what kind of car you have.
I use the free Mapfactor Navigator app with Open Street maps to navigate when driving on the road. They have very detailed maps. For resort areas where the usual car navigator have little coverage I use the Locus Map app with openandromaps, which are topographic maps for mountain biking. That is, they show everything of roads and paths. So it’s just as fine to use for hiking.
In this way we found many nice places where we could freecamp. Sometimes just by luck, like when we found a great spot on a beach by a lake in Poland, or by using an app to find places.
There are many apps for those who have motorhomes or off-road vehicles. However, be a bit critical of the places suggested. Like the place we found in Slovakia outside a relatively small town. It had a great view over the town, but we were very much on display. Right after we had parked the cars, an angry farmer came and shut us out because we had littered, which we obviously had not. Later in the evening the police came and said we couldn’t camp on the grass. But fortunately, we were allowed if we left early the next morning.
Autobahn with some detours through Germany
In 2019 we visited Albania, see https://www.inditravel.org/en/albania-roadtrip-og-camping-2/ Home from Albania we took the ferry to Bari in Italy. There we stayed off highways until we were past Tuscany, but then we began to get homesick and stayed on the highway the rest. By all means, if you are in this area you must visit some of the historical towns of Tuscany. They are the finest medieval towns I ever have seen. We have driven this northbound route many times and think the A22 through Brenner to Austria is fine. Be sure to pay the highway fee in Austria. It’s called Vignette and can be purchased at gas stations near the border. There are heavy fees if you don’t have one, and it is often checked.
If you are heading for Scandinavia or eastern Europe, it is a good idea to stay east on Autobahn 9 trough Germany to avoid the big cities and queues there. Following 9 you can end up in Munich, Berlin or Hamburg, but there is an opportunity to avoid it. Past Munich we chose the blue route on the map because we arrived in the afternoon rush and there were large queues on the ring road around Munich. Apart from a little queue through Rosenheim, it was easy driving on good roads. A side effect was also that we found a fine little campsite just before Landshut, Leisure Camping Lain am See. I understand that Germans are going to Norway to fish now that I saw the sea. It was a muddy pond with tame carp. And a big clubhouse for the local fishing club
These small campsites are usually much nicer than the large campsites, and much cheaper. The place could of course offer a small beer garden where you could enjoy today’s reward and dinner for 5 Euro
Further north we continued on 9. Previously we have taken 10 past Berlin and continued on 24 in direction Hamburg. But this time we wanted to test out a new road after to avoid queuing around Berlin. So we took off on14 at Leipzig direction Magdeburg. There 14 stops now, but it is under construction further north. Instead we continued on 189 which is a good road with little traffic. It goes through woodlands with long straight stretches if you have to pass a truck. If you want to stretch your legs there are many opportunities for a hike, and many small charming towns. After a while you end up on 14 again as it is finished built in the north. Then it is 24 against Hamburg. If you need camping there it is a good place just north of Magdeburg near 189: Campingplatz Erholungscenter Jersleber See.
24 ends up in the center of Hamburg so be sure to get off at Kasseburg and drive a short distance of 404 until you get to Autobahn 21. After a while you have to leave the autobahn again and take the 205 to Autobahn 7 which will take you further north.
NoSomme useful links/apps
Ioverlander.com Internet and app
park4night app for Motorhome camper
https://www.openandromaps.org/en Topografical maps
