With the ever increasing cost of diesel, the option to travel across Europe toll-free becomes even more tempting. The toll free route to Innsbruck is straight forward and not overly time consuming. There are plenty of places to stay en route, making use of either aires and stellplatz or campsites.
The map above is easy to follow, but essentially, we travelled via Luxembourg. Luxembourg does of course feature on many of our toll free routes (click here for more) primarily due to the availability of cheaper diesel!
From Calais, head towards Dunkirk and then either via Lille, Mons, Charleroi and Arlon towards Luxembourg. Luxembourg makes for a pleasant couple of hours for a stop over and there are various campsites, although not many are open all year round. The second route to Luxembourg is via Brussels, so Calais, Dunkirk, Ostend, Brussels, Arlon and Luxembourg. The two routes offer very similar mileages. We choose which route according to the time of day – no one wants to be on the Brussels ring road at 17:00 on a Friday afternoon!
Luxembourg makes for a pleasant break along the toll free route to Innsbruck
Refuel in Luxembourg and head for Germany, towards Saar Louis, then follow signs for Karlsruhe, Pforzheim and Stuttgart. Passing Stuttgart, it is an easy run towards Ulm and then the A7 motorway towards Kempten and Fussen. Close to Fussen the motorway ends – follow the “Fern Pass” and signs for Innsbruck. Once in Austria, if you travel on the motorways, you will require a “vignette” toll sticker for vehicles under 3500 kg or a “Go-Box” for vehicles over 3500kg.
Fuel in Austria is usually cheaper than in Germany, so it is worth waiting until Austria to fill up. There are plenty of garages in Austria along the S189 and S171 roads. Traffic on these roads was light when we travelled.
A lovely backdrop at Camping Innsbruck
To vary the route slightly, you could divert to Augsburg from Luxembourg and follow Germany’s “Romantic Road”. There are plenty of towns and villages to visit and plenty of stop offs. A summary of our trip along the Romantic Road is here.
