In the summer, we'll be driving from Rotterdam to central Switzerland (somewhere around Interlaken, Brig or Lauterbrunnen). We'll have two young children, so we plan to split the drive into shorter sections and overnight in hotels or guesthouses in one or two places along the way,. We'd prefer to stick to main roads for most of the driving, but happy to then drive for an hour or so off the main roads to reach some nice stopovers. Ideal stopover locations will be small towns or villages with a pleasant guesthouse/hotel with parking, a choice of eating places, and maybe some good swimming or hiking or something else fun for the kids. Having looked at the roadmaps, there is no one obvious journey we could make but a route through Germany seems an obvious place to look. Ideally, we'd like to go on one route and return on a different route. Does anybody know some great German roadtrips between the Netherlands and Switzerland? All ideas considered :-) Many thanks
The middle Rhine Valley is about 1/2 way of the arond 7 hour drive between Rotterdam and Basel, maybe do a few hour Rhine cruise or visit some castles there, in Ruedesheim you can take a cable car up to the Niederwald monument and maybe a horse carrige ride up there, if I remember right there is also a falconry where you can see the birds fly, a little hike up there will take you to a different cable car which you could use to get back down, but sorry don't remember where it ends right now.
For your return you could use the Alsac route and visit Strassburg.
Start by looking at http://www.viamichelin.com/. When you put in going from Rotterdam to Interlaken the website gives you 3 possible routes. I would forget route 3 and use 2 to go and 1 to come back. Deviate from these routes where it suits you. As tempelton suggested, follow the river Rhine from Cologne or Bonn southwards to Mainz or Wiesbaden and then take the freeway to Basel. If you have the time take a detour into the Black Forest between Karlsruhe and Basel to places like Baden-Baden and the smaller villages in that area. Route 2 sends you via all kind of toll-roads once you are in France but take the ordinary roads in this part, and go from Basel along the W-side of the Rhine and visit places like Colmar, Riquewehr and Strassburg. For the kids a visit to the old fortifications in Luxemburg might be interesting.
P.S. Where does your ferry come a shore? Put in that place as a starting point and end point and the website will tell you how to go around Rotterdam. Of course if you are interested in modern architecture, a visit to the center of Rotterdam might be a good idea.
You could take the http://www.schwarzwaldhochstrasse.de/1-1-Schwarzwaldhochstrasse---Paradise-of-nature-and-experiences.html at Baden-Baden, just check the link for what can be done and seen there, there is just to much you can do and see in Germany, if your children are old enough you might be interessted in visiting Phantasialand in Bruehl close to Cologne, http://www.phantasialand.de/en/home/ or on your way back Europapark in Rust.
it would be useful to know a more specific age - there's a difference in what a 4yo, a 8yo or a 12yo might enjoy. further, are there any special interests/hobbies? might make it easier to suggest something fitting.
it's my understanding that children of very young age have not much palate for 'scenic drives', so I agree that unnecessary detours/slow roads should be avoided if possible.
I drive from Europoort to Italy once or twice per year. I now generally prefer to enter Italy via Austria and the Brenner pass,but on the rare occasions I head via Switzerland Ifind the A61 a quieter and usually less congested route than the A3, and this will make it easier to get down on to the B9 for the scenic bits along the Rhine. Another tip is if you were planning to use the A5 into (or more precisely under!) Basel, it can be easier to turn on to the A98 through Lorrach, but it is at least 3 years since I went this way. I guess you know you'll need a vignette for Switzerland
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