Cole0416

I am patiently waiting for my delivery date (hopefully 9/4/24) to be officially confirmed and have started doing what most do - dreaming up plans.

1. A question I have to the group is has anyone dropped off anywhere but the shipping agents in Stuttgart or Leipzig? Does it cost extra?

Because of possible flights, my drop-off may need to be on a Saturday or Sunday and I wonder if the other drop offs are open on weekends since it seems the shipping company in Stuttgart is not.

2. Can anyone share preferences on driving either the east part or west part of southern Germany? I fortunately had a chance to drive the passes through Switzerland in a Porsche rental before so I do not need to repeat that. I'm looking at either setting up camp in the east side and using it to visit around Bavaria and Austria OR setting up shop in Baden Baden and exploring Black Forest and possibly into France just a bit.

Thank you for any insights to these questions or any other advice regarding European Delivery.

Chris

Mike981S

Good luck and have fun!

I have dropped it off once in Frankfurt (when it was available as a drop-off). Drop-offs in other places than Stuttgart/Sindelfingen or Leipzig will cost. The European Delivery document will include the available location and cost. I append the doc I received earlier this year (locations and costs may have changed for MY25).

See the attached document. Note that you can arrange drop-off in Sindelfingen over the weekend if you arrange it with Mr. Simovic. Cost is reasonable. Or you could drop off the car a day or so earlier (if you in the area early enough).

Depends on how much time you have. You can do the Black forest in about 1 to 2 days (depending on how many miles you want to drive a day), while Bavaria and Austria (and the Dolomites) have many options that you can spend 1 to 2 weeks just there. You have Garmisch-Patenkirchen and the roads around it. You can head over towards Berchtesgarden and enjoy the Rossfeldstrasse. You then can hop over into Austria and drive the roads around and between the lakes there. Then you can drive to Zell am See and drive the Grossglockner for a day or two, and it is half a day to drive to Cortina d'Ampezzo to drive in the Dolomites. I have several posts showing some of the roads and views I encountered during my Euro Delivery earlier this year (IG: mike981gt4) and follow several of the trip reports here on RL in this forum and some others.

Mainly have fun, try to be flexible due to weather and potential road closures (Switzerland just closed the highway from San Bernadino to Lugano due to a wash out). And depending on the car, make sure you pack light. It is more fun and you will have room left over to bring home souvenirs.

Enjoy Switzerland too!

Cole0416

Thank you for the help. You run into any great hotels? I see all the great resorts, but we did that in Switzerland and enjoyed more of the hotels versus huge resorts.

Also, thanks a bunch for the price list for drop-offs. I wish they shared this earlier to help with figuring out what type of trip you want to take.

Mike981S

No problem. I normally book short term (1 to 3 days ahead of time) with one of the booking apps (Agoda, Booking.com, Expedia etc) and look for smaller hotels with high ratings unless I want to experience some special resort experience.

In Baden-Baden we stayed a bit outside in a Landgasthof in Geroldsau (there are several highly rated Hotels there). Great food, charming rooms. Many of the villages in the Black forest have similar places. We for example stayed in the Ochsen in Schönwald im Schwarzwald. Rooms can be a bit smaller, but great food and spa.

In Bavaria, the same. For example, we stayed in Landgasthof Karner in Frasdorf near Chiemsee which has a 16th century floor from one of the local monasteries in the main building.

Many of the country guest houses have outdoor parking only though. But it should not be a big problem since they are all in pretty safe areas. In larger places, we did choose hotels with garage. In Garmisch, we stayed at the Riessersee Hotel. It is a bit outside of Garmisch, overlooking the valley and offers both breakfast and dinner packages. It has a fun road leading up to it though the road surface is a bit broken. Great views and rooms and the old bobsled run is walking distance from it. Drawbacks: it is a fair distance from downtown and their underground garage was the only garage i encountered where I could not enter with my GT4RS even when using the front axle lift.

Two of the best places I stayed at during my trip were the Edelweiss Hotel in Berchtesgarden (it is better than the Kempinsky there), and Hotel Sittnerhof in Merano. Stua Catores is a nice bed and breakfast in St.Ulrich/Ortsei in Val Gardena overlooking the valley and having a convenient underground garage, but there are many other great places too.