Been around most of 'near europe' and found all of it delightful in one way or another. Favourites would be Haute Savoie region and general Alpine type roads. A driving holiday in any of the regions is rewarding but Haute Savoie in particular is amazing. Been many times. You're close to a lot of the attractions yet off the beaten track in minutes if that's your pleasure.

Southern France/ Northern Spain was also great driving. A run up through Andorra and across the mountains down into Barcelona or even out the coast to all points west is nice also.

Or work your way up from Santander through Basque and across onto the cote. If you come up as far as the Verden Gorge and then head for Grenoble - that'll take you right up onto Annecy by a very scenic route with fabulous accoms etc and you can explore from there - or shoot on through San Tropez for the Ital border. Here you can't go wrong between even the major resorts but in the resorts themselves you can get a little bogged down.

If you're wanting to have a nice slice of France/ Italy and Switzerland then there's a great circuit from Chamonix out through the Mont Blanc tunnel to Aoste and circumnavigate back over St Bernard pass into Martigny and back over the Martigny pass into Chamonix. (This little run is around 150 miles and depending how often you go off-track it can put an afternoon in wonderfully.) I did this one from Manigod one morning and back to Manigod ( a little further obviously) - then had lunch and drove back to Newtownards. Of course that was on a bike.

There's a fair bit of accom around to any desired standard. Your hit-rate for nice lakes increases here and Como/ Garda and Aneccy-du-lac are all within easy reach. All of them are serviced by amazing roads. You might even want to spend a day in the passes. Try Susten, Grimsel and Furka - and take a wee run out to Grindlewald. You'll love it.

Cheers.

Mark

http://bloomorganplus4.blogspot.co.uk/