I'm from the UK, and have friend that moved here from Poland. They seem to think that driving 5/6+ hours without a break is perfectly normal in mainland Europe. They even went as far as saying Europeans are used to 20 hour drives with breaks every 6 hours? That seems utterly insane to me, but I don't have a reference point. Are you guys just built different or is my friend exaggerating?
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That’s less European and more country/personal. My partner is polish and thinks that too. I’m Austrian, and my family and I think it’s self torture and traveling with cozy stops every few hours is better.
On the other hand he says he’ll be driving 8hrs but in the end he’d make even more stops and breaks than me. Maybe that’s why they drive longer.
But to be fair after 4-6 hrs I’d prefer a overnight stay and he’d still drive
No it’s not normal and it’s not safe. I like to take a short break every 2,5 hours. I never drive over 10 hours a day.
In finland 4-6 hours is considered one leg. Stop or no stop will depend on various needs: toilet, food, drink, gas. But if none of that is needed, then it can totally go non stop. 8-10h would be max for a day drive.
Driving 20h non stop is insane and an eastern European thing, making all of europe wary when they see eastern european license plates. Those mofos just drive from romania to lapland without stopping.
Only to drag the caravan to the Med. it’s a once a year thing (at most) for the majority of Dutch people. Anything over 2 hours by car is exceptionally long.
Coming from a small country, Estonia, I think a break every 2 hours is a must, more than that is pure torture. Inside Estonia there is rarely reason to go on for longer. Driving through Europe I have followed similar practice, but I also dont do it often.
Even truckers are limited to doing 10 hours max a day, with mandatory break after 4.5 hours.
I’d say up to 6 hours is normal. After that you probaably need gas or wc or snack. Driving maybe 12 tops a day might be normal (with 2-3 short stops), especially if you can reach your destination in that time. If my destination is 20 hours away, I would break it into 2 day trip.
I know people who drive from London to Kaunas (24 hours) in one trip (without sleeping). I think its completely stupid and dangerous. But, yes, there are people who do that…
I know people who do that, it is actually a point of contention about BEVs that a bunch of Germans think the range isn’t enough to make it to Italy or Denmark with only one short break for a driver change. Personally, 2hours is sort of a comfortable max and 3 hours is reasonably doable but 6 hours behind the wheel without a break is death march territory.
Six hours is mid-range, yes. I have to drive 800 km for times per month and do that in one go with maybe two pee-stops thrown in.
Yeah up to 6h sounds normal to me. I’d usually stop earlier, but I’ve also done 6h before.
My Latvian FIL regularly makes trips to Germany where he drives 20 hours non stop.
I don’t think it’d be the norm but it’s do-able.
It is not unheard of, but depends on more factors and is not a common thing among all Europeans. The quality, speed and cost of the public transport play a huge role. Like when I was at uni, we would get a minivan pack it full and drive from Austria to Portugal. It took over 24h with stops and of course rotating drivers. Nowadays, I wouldn’t even cross my mind to go there by car. All longer (4h+) drives of the last 10 years were either in Eastern Europe or the US. Everywhere else I take the train or plane.
I’d say 6hrs with a small 15-20min break in between is completely normal, also non stop 6hrs isnt super crazy. But it also depends on the road I guess, 6hrs of non stop modern highway is less tiring than 6hrs of rural unmaintained roads or driving up in the mountains.
So the meme “An American thinks 200 years is a long time, a Brit thinks a 2 hour drive is a long drive” really is true lol
I live on the eastern end of Austria, and crossing east to west / vice versa takes about 7 hours. I will do the 5 hours to Innsbruck with a little pee break
The rule of thumb is 2 hours plus 15 min break. I must admit driving 400km in one stint is not unusual for me.
The rule of thumb is 2 hours plus 15 min break. I must admit driving 400km in one stint is not unusual for me.
Personally, I think about 4 to 5 hours is the maximum without a stop. I have done more than that in a hurry, but if I get to plan the trip, I’ll try to stop after 5 to 6 hours at most to use a toilet and stretch my legs.
No, in my experience it’s not. It is a good idea to have a bit of a break every 2 or so, give or take. Modern cars even will warn you about that after driving a long time. 6 hours is, in my view, simply irresponsible.
Have a few colleagues who think it is ok to drive from southern Germany to Spain for two to three weeks of holiday. Nonstop except for short pee stops. 2000+km
Ah the joy of driving in a packed car overnight to Croatia in a caravan of other Czechs and Poles doing the same. 5-6 hours is fine, above 10 I’d probably rather fly
There is some truth to it but also some exaggeration. Not many would do a 20-hour drive in one go, even with breaks, but driving long distances is perfectly normal. My mate is driving from Lisbon to Munich, which is over 22 hours, but she will stop in Bilbao overnight and maybe again somewhere else. I’d drive to Malaga from mine which is about 7 hours in one go but I’d stop for a coffee.
As a Pole i confirm the 5-6h thing. I know a guy that from time to time goes from Cracow to Gdansk and he usually does it in 1 go, which takes him around 5h. He takes a break only if he’s hungry or has to take a piss.
Tbf this way is more boring than tiring as it’s just highways but it ofc makes it faster with the 140 km/h speed limit. I heard in UK it’s 70 mp/h so 112 km/h, right?
In Italy it is normal, Italy is long, and to go down from north to south takes 8-10 hours of driving.
What do you mean without a break? Without stopping to sleep, very common. Without stopping to eat, go to the bathroom or drink coffee? Less common, on highways there are many rest stops equipped with bars, toilets and restaurants.
I have done up to 1000km in a day with no serious problem. My car runs on LPG and has about 300-350km range on LPG so these are my breaks when I need to refill. But I can easily go through 3 fillups in a day if needed.
Lots of Brits will drive over to France then either down to Spain or Portugal or across the continent for holidays. Most people I know would break after 4 good or so, maybe less.
4-6 hours is normal in my opinion, with maybe a small break. I can understan your friend. A lot of Polish tourist drive to Croatia and some drive 10-13 hours.
When we go skiing or on holiday we often drive 8-9hours and only stop for gas or toilet.
Yeah, it’s pretty normal, I drive from Scotland to Spain and Poland with trip legs like that. Alas I switched to an EV recently and now I have to stop more often.
A 6-7 hour drive is the longest i’ll go without stopping for some food and to stretch my legs. But i can do a total of 18 hour travelling before i need some sleep.
Only when I sleep would I not at least piss once in a six hour stretch. It’s a ridiculous thing to boast about (which is unfortunately what this is). A lot of people seem to take pride in not stopping when driving. Feels like an Andrew Tate take on manliness.
I’ll happily drive the 10hrs without a break, but since I need to stop to fill the tank might as well have a quick pit stop.
We drive NL to PL in one go, but we switch in the middle, so we just drive 6 hours each.
Nah that’s weird. The mantra is “drive 2 hours rest 15 minutes”. Usually when driving long distance we’re with at least two drivers so we just switch very two hours. Which is generally around the max for me anyway, after 1.5-2.5 hours I’m usually happy to have a break.
I have been on trips with coworkers where they’ve driven 7-8 hours without stopping or switching drivers. But they’re also salesmen who in daily life are on the road in their car all day as well so they’re used to long drives on their own. And on the way back when they’re more tired even they generally switch drivers every two hours
Also from the UK. Yes, it’s slower than driving non-stop but I like to break it into two hour sections then take at least half an hour break. This is different when I’m a passenger though or when there are multiple drivers, in which case I’ll happily go longer between breaks
When I was younger I was doing ~8 hours without breaks, ~12 hours a day max.
These days I try to limit my daily driving to 8 hours or so, with a break at the 4h mark.
But to be honest, I could still do much more, I just don’t want to anymore. It’s not like I’m tired after those 8 hours.
But as someone else said, a modern car with automatic gear and stuff like adaptive cruise control helps a lot in making driving less tedious.