Planning our first long trip in Europe (1 Viewer)

[PeeAndDee]

Hi
We are still relatively new to all this, we bought the motorhome in June but because of work restrictions we have only managed a few weekends away but now we are retired we are planning our first long trip to Europe.
Hoping to visit France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and then back up through Germany - leaving in March and away for about 12 weeks.
Need your advice on any special connectors/adaptors that we need to take with us so that we can connect to an electrical hook up when we are on proper sites and also do we need any special hose fittings so that we can connect to taps to fill the fresh water tank?
As novices we would welcome any tips that help us leave the UK prepared.
Thanks

 

[Jaws]

I would take a normal EHU plug to Euro two pin plug adapter ( you can buy them ready made but I always make up my own )
Tap adapters .. Just the usual screw on ones. We use a Hoselock connector and have three sizes of the screw on bits
I would investigate Switzerland before committing to it.. We found it bloody expensive
Italy.. Completely personal ( and I love the place ! ) but after two personal experiences and many reported ones, we go no further south than about 50 miles north of Rome..
Pisa .. Your best bet is to stop at the camp site to the north west of the city and get a bus in.
Traffic is terrible and you will find no where to park your van
Germany.. every where is great ! Do be aware though, that they have their version of the LEZ in Berlin and a couple of other cities, so if your van is not Euro 4 it could get expensive !
Spain.. the further south you go the more Spanish it is..
I used to be very anti Spanish, but after just one trip my opinion was completely turned around.. Love the place and 99% of the people are wonderful
France.. My old dad used to tell me if you canna say something nice, say bugger all.. But of course many many people love it to bits..
I suspect that we have just been terribly unlucky every single time we have been there and met folk who 'Haine de roastbeef' ( hate all things roast beef as close as I can get with my pathetic French ! )

 

[Jaws]

Forgot !
As you are hopefully going down to Italy, the extra couple of hundred miles to get down to Croatia is more than worth the effort.
Wonderful people, wonderful country, sites sounds and grub you will remember for years to come

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[Boringfrog]

What type of gas bottles are you taking?

 

[faraway]

I would take a normal EHU plug to Euro two pin plug adapter ( you can buy them ready made but I always make up my own )
Tap adapters .. Just the usual screw on ones. We use a Hoselock connector and have three sizes of the screw on bits

Which "connector and screw on bits" do you have please? Any numbers or photos would be appreciated(or a link). Thank you

 

[Figaro]

An excellent blog to read is Julie and Jason's our tour.co.uk
An invaluable mine of useful information for touring Europe.
Masses of info to keep you occupied for hours.

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[moulin 87]

If you going to Italy than as said to ignore Croatia and Slovenia would be a waste, the same could be said for Austria...Though it could a trip for a following year...

We have found Spain to be very spanish from the North to the South, the North of Spain out of the peak in July and August can be stunning...

We prefer the southern half of France to the North but the 'natives' are very friendly...

Early on in your trip, it will could still be quite cool at times in the north...

 

[chaser]

I would take a normal EHU plug to Euro two pin plug adapter ( you can buy them ready made but I always make up my own )
Tap adapters .. Just the usual screw on ones. We use a Hoselock connector and have three sizes of the screw on bits
I would investigate Switzerland before committing to it.. We found it bloody expensive
Italy.. Completely personal ( and I love the place ! ) but after two personal experiences and many reported ones, we go no further south than about 50 miles north of Rome..
Pisa .. Your best bet is to stop at the camp site to the north west of the city and get a bus in.
Traffic is terrible and you will find no where to park your van
Germany.. every where is great ! Do be aware though, that they have their version of the LEZ in Berlin and a couple of other cities, so if your van is not Euro 4 it could get expensive !
Spain.. the further south you go the more Spanish it is..
I used to be very anti Spanish, but after just one trip my opinion was completely turned around.. Love the place and 99% of the people are wonderful
France.. My old dad used to tell me if you canna say something nice, say bugger all.. But of course many many people love it to bits..
I suspect that we have just been terribly unlucky every single time we have been there and met folk who 'Haine de roastbeef' ( hate all things roast beef as close as I can get with my pathetic French ! )

Pisa, don't agree, seen this many times, we had never been to Italy in the van before, and just followed signs to car park from the north, and this is what we found

.
There was one other motorhome to the left of this photo and that was it , totally empty otherwise walked through a gap by the car past some houses and we were in the main road outside the tower

 

[hilldweller]

France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and then back up through Germany
Thanks

Situation normal. That is a massive ask. You'll come back ready for a holiday. Slow down and savour it.

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[Jaws]

Which "connector and screw on bits" do you have please? Any numbers or photos would be appreciated(or a link). Thank you

Just ordinary tap screw ones as you find in the UK.. Just google Hozelock tap connector
There are three common sizes..
FTkSuQmCC

 

[Jaws]

Pisa, don't agree, seen this many times, we had never been to Italy in the van before, and just followed signs to car park from the north, and this is what we found
View attachment 133364 .
There was one other motorhome to the left of this photo and that was it , totally empty otherwise walked through a gap by the car past some houses and we were in the main road outside the tower

We even asked a policeman if there was anywhere to park.. He looked at the MH, said no, sorry.. And that was the old Miller.. only 7.5mtrs long

 

[faraway]

Thanks Jaws

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[chaser]

We even asked a policeman if there was anywhere to park.. He looked at the MH, said no, sorry.. And that was the old Miller.. only 7.5mtrs long

Yeah I realise that but just saying what we found, couldn't believe it was a normal car park , and asked a police man if it was ok , and yes no problem, think it was two euros.

 

[Granjan]

My hubby says an inch rubber hose and large cable ties will get you out of trouble in alot of places!

 

[whingyraindrop]

Hi
We are still relatively new to all this, we bought the motorhome in June but because of work restrictions we have only managed a few weekends away but now we are retired we are planning our first long trip to Europe.
Hoping to visit France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and then back up through Germany - leaving in March and away for about 12 weeks.

Phew! That's a lot of driving In twelve weeks. Its easy to spend that long in any one of those countries without feeling that you have seen even a small part of it.
Relax and enjoy.

Lorraine x

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[Jaws]

My hubby says an inch rubber hose and large cable ties will get you out of trouble in alot of places!

Without putting too finer a point on it, does your hubby run a XXXX web site ! ??
I am sure I have seen something like that before !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Granjan]

Without putting too finer a point on it, does your hubby run a XXXX web site ! ??
I am sure I have seen something like that before !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No !

 

[PeeAndDee]

I would take a normal EHU plug to Euro two pin plug adapter ( you can buy them ready made but I always make up my own )
Tap adapters .. Just the usual screw on ones. We use a Hoselock connector and have three sizes of the screw on bits
I would investigate Switzerland before committing to it.. We found it bloody expensive
Italy.. Completely personal ( and I love the place ! ) but after two personal experiences and many reported ones, we go no further south than about 50 miles north of Rome..
Pisa .. Your best bet is to stop at the camp site to the north west of the city and get a bus in.
Traffic is terrible and you will find no where to park your van
Germany.. every where is great ! Do be aware though, that they have their version of the LEZ in Berlin and a couple of other cities, so if your van is not Euro 4 it could get expensive !
Spain.. the further south you go the more Spanish it is..
I used to be very anti Spanish, but after just one trip my opinion was completely turned around.. Love the place and 99% of the people are wonderful
France.. My old dad used to tell me if you canna say something nice, say bugger all.. But of course many many people love it to bits..
I suspect that we have just been terribly unlucky every single time we have been there and met folk who 'Haine de roastbeef' ( hate all things roast beef as close as I can get with my pathetic French ! )

Had never heard of LEZ or Euro 4 until you mentioned it, think our van should be compliant as it was new in April 2015 and is Roller Team with the standard 2.3 litre diesel. This really does show how you learn a lot from this site.

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[PeeAndDee]

What type of gas bottles are you taking?

I am really unsure on the question of gas as I know that Calor gas bottles are not available in Europe.
We currently have 2No. 6kg Calor gas bottles which weigh about 32kg when both full and a neighbour travels all round Europe using 2No. 10kg Gas Lite bottles which weigh less than the smaller Calor gas bottles so was thinking about switching to these lighter bottles for the extra capacity plus they are also cheaper but would appreciate anybody's thoughts on these lighter bottles?
We did post on this site a while back for advice on possibly converting to refillable gas bottles but then I hear all these stories about there being less and less places that let you fill the refillable bottles - a few weeks ago I did ask at our local Morrisons petrol station and was told that all the forecourt staff had been told that refillable gas bottles cannot be refilled - I have also seen many posts on this and other sites saying that some parts of Europe have very few places to service the refillable bottles.
To say that I am confused on the best way forward with regards gas usage and availability on long European trips is an understatement.

 

[Jaws]

Refillables are getting hard to fill, however, there is a big difference between refillable bottles and a refillable system where the filler is attached to the motorhome.
We very occasionally get asked what the gas is for and I always say it is for the onboard genny.. End of issue LOL !!

If you was just going to one country then I would say wait till you get there, get a bottle locally along with an adapter .. But travelling around that is hopeless.
I cannot offer any more advice as I fitted an Alugas system several years ago and just fill up where ever we happen to be..

 

[chaser]

We even asked a policeman if there was anywhere to park.. He looked at the MH, said no, sorry.. And that was the old Miller.. only 7.5mtrs long

Not wishing to prolong this thread but for anyone that may be interested, I have just been looking at maps on iPad and this is a screenshot of the park we were on
I may be wrong but think it was the middle one of the three top ones and it is just off the main road in from the north.

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[maison]

Re Gas.

We switched from standard Carr 7kg to the Calorlight 6kg a few years ago. The lightweight ones feel to be about the same weight full as the standards do empty. On long trips to the Continent we always ensure both are full before leaving.

The refills are more expensive for slightly less gas but we find that the ease of handling makes up for it.

 

[clanjones]

We did exactly what you are planning in March of this year, as first timers, but stayed in France - had a wonderful time. We are off 4 month this coming March and can't wait. We did convert to LPG (alugas) and had no issues at all with filling up although there have been threads about issues in Italy. It is just so convenient.

We also have 2 x solar panels and 2 leisure batteries and were never short of power. Unless leccy was included in the camp site tariff we never paid for it, we just used the batteries.

Joining ACSI was well worth it and paid for the subscription after about a week.

Lastly have you thought about how you are going to keep in touch or is that sorted or are you looking to disappearing for 3 months!

 

[Mike800966]

RE Gas. I would install a single 11kg bottle with an external filler. I would also make it possible to connect a small Camping Gaz cylinder to the system. CG is the most universal throughout europe but it the genuine ones are an expensive source of gas, however if you got to a country where they would not allow you to refill your "system"
(we had an outright refusal in Italy, he was "technologically trained" he shouted) then you could always fall back on the Camping Gaz. Incidentally dont forget that a major advantage of these refillable installations is that you can top them up any time you see a supply. Take a set of adapters for each country , I think the full set is four adapters.
If you are going in March then itmay be pretty chilly at times, so you will use more gas, however just for cooking and fridge, we would get at least 2 to 3 weeks out of the 11kg

Enjoy the trip and take it slow! do pay attention to the vignettes and emission zones , they are springing up all over europe

Mike & Ann

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