Modern Vespa

I am planning a roadtrip... It may not happen this summer, but it will happen in the next couple of years & I was hoping to get some feedback from anyone who has done something similar...

The original plan was to tour the southern part of Italy... But to get there from Ireland would mean driving through the UK first, then onto the channel tunnel, onto a train in France, another train to bring us to Italy & on from there - with the same on the return journey... Its allot of travel, just to get to the place where we want to tour... There is also a possibility of driving a van to Italy and unloading the bikes there... We have also considered buying bikes in Italy, but this has its own risks... let alone the difficulties in getting insurance.

Alternatively, we could manage the west coast France without too much hassle. This would entail - Dublin to Rosslare, ferry to Saint-Nazaire, Nantes, Bordeaux, Biarritz - across the boarder to Spain & then repeat in reverse to get the ferry back... Has anyone done similar in the past? We want to use the scooters to go short distances, not several hours a day. This is about finding nice beaches and night life not racking up miles... Any suggestions of places to stop would be greatly appreciated, particularly where to go on the Spanish side...

You should go riding your vespa...

Ride it

If you dont want to ride so many miles to get to italy how about catching the ferry to Spain. Not sure if its that much difference though??
If you have a van going there anyway then you could at least put your scoots in the van for the crossing to save money. And you have a choice of riding it all the way there or putting it in the back of the van. But you should still ride it

Or

If all you want to do is explore southern italy for a few hours every now and then just hire one. Ive been told there are quite a few vespas in italy

Two tips:

If you are not really interested in touring, then renting locally makes more sense.

If you really want to ride your own bike, you can contact these folks that specialize in shipping bikes to Italy: http://www.eurobiketrans.co.uk/

Or, for a rental in Tuscany, we use this company in Pontedera http://www.noleggiomototoscana.it/?lang=eng

The manager is Roberto, and he has provided the scooters of the Bella Italia Rallies as well as for several MV members. Tell him "Alberto from Greece" sent you.

Sorry if I didn't explain this properly, the idea is 100% to tour on the bikes, but we also want to enjoy the places we find, so rather than spending 7/8 hours in the saddle every day, we want to find interesting places in route and spend some time there. Ireland, France, Spain is looking more realistic, and would still be a serious amount of miles.

Ferries are limited out of Ireland and getting one to Spain or Italy doesn't seem to be an option.

I found that buying a local/regional map with campsites (or hotels) really helped to find those kind of places. You will find more interesting places than guides such as lonely planet.
And you will know where to stay (or not) when you get there!
Havibg no plan is the best plan.

Im planning to go to Croatia next month via france italy etc. but i only have a few weeks for the round trip:( I prefer the relaxed approach, stopping wherever i liked at the time

Me too, hope you enjoy Croatia. Great place. It might be a bit far to get to, but the coast road from Dubrovnik through Montenegro is great, with loads of interesting places to stop by the sea...

I'll second that. We drove from Rijeka to Dubrovnik in a rented Fiat. It is one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world.