my first trip to europe

Hello all, im in need of some advise and direction. So I purchased my first camper after christmas, its a 93 fiat ducato, basic enough. Myself and my girlfriend are travelling back from canada where iv lived for passed few years, in mid to late july,. We plan on taking off from leitrim and spending a week or 2 travelling around the south of ireland maybe kerry, cork and then head off from rosslare to cherbourg in early august!! Would I need to book ferry much in advance? I seen one way on oscar wilde for 294 euro on the 2nd of august. Good deal ?

anyways once we are there we have about 3 months to spend taking in all some of mainland europe. Main places we want to see are france, belgium, holland, germany, poland, Switzerland, italy, Croatia. Would this be enough time to take all this in? Was aiming to take in the more northern counteries in august and half of sept, and then hit south of france and italy for end of sept and october. For weather reasons!

Just started planning a little today, when we land in france, we are going to head in the direction of paris in the first few days, maybe stopover in normandy region along the way, any suggestions? From paris i think we will head in the direction of belgium and holland.

we are in our late 20's early 30's, interested in outdoors, nature, woodworking, antiques, hiking, biking,
beer, wine and good quality food.


We have never been to mainland europe before and would greatly appreciate any info on places to see, campgrounds to stay at, etc. Is there an essential book I should have to show me campsite locations all over europe? also not sure if ill know what exact dates ill be at certain campsites, do i need to book long in advance?

Im sorry for the long, disheveled message, just really looking forward to our first trip away and want to make the most of it by preparing as much as we can!

thanks

david

Last year we had a 1 night stop in Le Mans but in the centre itself along side the river. It was a free stopover but small and I suspect it could get very busy. As for all of the other places you intend to go, in Germany in particular I would recommend following the Rhine or Mosel as they have some excellent free/very cheap camper stops along the edges of the river. We used a book called camper stops Europe and was good for us. But can be out if date very quickly.
Good luck and enjoy.

Also recommend Camperstop as the best book for Aires and Stelpatz etc also look at joining the acsi camping card site as it give you out of season discounts ,most of the books can be bought here
http://www.vicariousbooks.co.uk/
and have never made any plans as to where i will stop and so long as you start looking late afternoon you will be ok.
heres a couple of links to pages on my website that might be a help.
http://www.rebbyvid.co.uk/#/useful-links/4539633232
http://www.rebbyvid.co.uk/#/going-to-france/4542257529
also have blogs on France /Germany/Belgium/Holland.
Rob

16 DAYS? to do Roscoff - Paris - Dijon - Northern Italy - Switzerland and then back to Roscoff

I would respectfully suggest you need to fight the urge to cram it in a bit harder.

That really is a lot to do in what is basically 2 weeks, unless you really do like driving on motorways and paying tolls. Anything over 200miles/day really isn't much of a holiday to me - France is a very big country.

If you really must do all that, my advice is head straight for the furthest point as fast as possible and work your way backwards towards Cherbourg.

That way when the time starts to run out (and it will) you can just head straight back to the ferry.

Whizzing through Europe probably doesn't appeal to most of us old codgers on here but since you are in your 30's (envious) I'd say go for it and enjoy. There are plenty of internet 'camp finding ' sites that will allow you to search for an aire/campsite within 'x' kms of your location, google up a few eg camping car infos, or searchforsites uk. Make sure you comply with the legal requirements in each country. Carry a spare wheel and have good breakdown cover. Other than that I hope you have a great trip.

i have stopped here the other side of Paris and handy for the Station into Paris

http://www.beau-village.com/English--Homepage.phtml
if you do decide on this one just check with reception if you are late back as we got locked out and had to shout over the gate for someone to let us in

Totally agree. I think for your first time it is maybe a bit ambitious also you want to take in the surroundings your travelling through to enjoy your holiday.

Thank you hymer544, I do believe my fridge runs on the leisure battery when not running, I plan on taking it around ireland for a week or so before heading to the continent to get a feel for it, the camper is a 1.9 diesel so hopefully has enough power for the trip, a little worried about that! I would be interested in getting couple solar panels, dont know anything about them, are the hard to set up? Any links to good ones would be great! Would def be interested in picking your brain on couple topics im a little nervous about,, Im not fully registered on here, so cant use the pm yet!

If it is a "3-Way" fridge i.e. it runs on 12volt 220-240volt and gas you do not want it to run off the leisure battery when the engine isn't running. Such fridges can drain a leisure battery VERY quickly and that can quickly kill the battery.

The only fridges that can and should be run off a leisure battery when the engine isn't running are compressor fridges such as the Waeco - they are usually 12 volt only anyway and they do not run off gas at all.
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I shall check this out. It may run off the gas! Im still in canada you see so looking forward to figuring out how it all works when I get home. I do like the idea of a solar panel, can this be hooked straight up to the leisure battery to charge it when engine is off..anybody know of somone willing to fit one in the north west area? Thanks again for the comments

Thanks hymer544, I just bought a brand new leisure battery, can the panel be hooked up to this to keep it charged, or are special type of battery required?

daithi, normal 12v lead acid batteries are best. Plenty will tell u otherwise and try and relieve u of a lot of euro for fancy gel batteries...total snake oil. Lead/acid batteries kept inside a van with a trickle charge attached will be perfect. Solar panel, charge controller and a bit of wiring and ur sorted. 1 panel and 1 battery would prob be enough, especially if u fitted LED bulbs to habitation lights and are not usinga microwaves or sat dish/tv etc a lot.

Pity you booked a weekend sailing as they are more expensive. We are sailing out a week later for 3 weeks. Return crossing with cabins cost €505.

We use the all the Aires book mostly and find it great.

If you have decent batteries and move every couple of days driving for 3 hours or more you should be fine. We do have solar and even this weekend our batteries were showing 13.7 volt by 10am each day.

Thanks for the advice, I tried to change it but looks like there are no mid week bookings left in early august, anyways looking at buying that solar panel you sent me the link for hymer544,, and installing it my self, hope it goes ok!
Im getting some personal travel insurance sorted for myself and my girlfirend.however whats the best breakdown assistance coverage out there? Is that what the adac membership is?

I did have to use ADAC and can't fault them

i wouldn't wing it,

NEW TELEPHONE NUMBER For joining. 22nd January 2015. They understand and speak perfect English.

Telephone Number is Cologne 00 49 221 47 27 47 8.30 am to 5.30pm but don't forget the hour difference to the UK

you will be sent a membership card in the post after joining with the relevant numbers on the reverse

in france on all autoroutes, you call one number,025 1092032 regardless of who you have cover with, Adac will then intervene when recovery firm contact them on production of your card,

on all other roads, then your ADAC contact is the one to use

Last year some Craickers claimed ADAC were offering Irish customers lesser cover than the previous year. ADAC never informed me about any change in cover. Anybody got any update on this??

We are heading off in July for a month in a 1991 Hymer Camp. Booked Roslare to Cherbourg in February return plus two cabins for £652 and thought we were getting a reasonable deal. Have only made one fixed stop for a week in the Ardeche but am planning on D Day sites, St Malo, LaRochelle, Ile de Re and Bordeux area all of it with the exception of the Ardeche using Aires de Camp. Looking forward to it but it is a bit of an unknown quantity.

Hi geordiharry. For ile de re, u could consider the aire at le bois place. At beach, hot open shower, fresh bread and lovely village 5 mins away, all for €12. Even in Aug we got a spot, there r about 40 spaces. Follow signs for camping municipal le bois place.

Thanks stacks. I phoned the number from the earlier post here and the guy spoke perfect English. The full transaction for all five of our details and payment was no trouble. I have confidence they will be as good when really needed. They have 15 million members! And I've seen them all over Europe many times. The cost is amazing value AND includes medical ins for whole family (for kids under 18) at 109€.can't understand why one would use any other company. We r off on 14th fr 5 weeks so hope we won't need it. Have a good trip.

There's been a good few post's on this topic use the search tab above you will find a lot of information. A lot depends on your personal needs Halfords is a good start