Going to Lake Como,Italy (1 Viewer)

[Stevegreen1959]

Good Evening All,
We are planning our first motorhome trip to Lake Como in Italy and are looking for advice on a 1st night stopover close to Calais.
We arrive at 1-15am and plan to head off through Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland, but will need to rest up for a while ..... any advice and help would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers
Steve and Gilly

 

[GAVLAD]

Gravelines aire on outskirts of Calais towards Dunkirk is a good safe aire to try upon your arrival.
Other than here, a few have stayed at Cite Europe which is near to the Eurotunnel terminal

 

[kip]

Gravelines is always a favourite nice aire about 20 min from calais.

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[MikeD]

Gravelines for me as well

 

[DanielFord]

Can't help with the overnight, we always try to put as many miles between ourselves and Calais as possible. We have been to Lake Como many times, it is a beautiful place. Try to stay to the North of the Lake, it seems to be cheaper than in Como proper.
The last time we did the Calais crossing we headed to Como as quickly as possible, so we stayed at Luxembourg, Switzerland and then over the Alps to Como. We did 2 night stops at each point, meaning we could take 5 days at Como.
If you want details on places we stayed, let me know. We do love Italy, and have taken many routes to get there

 

[Stevegreen1959]

Hi there ....thank you for the responses, they are really appreciated.... And thank you DanielFord for the tips...although we aim to be closer to Como town if possible as my wifes family originate from that area!
Can you give advvice of routes and stops over the Alps please?

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[DanielFord]

Can you give advvice of routes and stops over the Alps please?

First tip I'll give you, going over the Alps in any vehicle is tiring, there is no point you can switch on the cruise and relax. It's all twisty roads, and in a motorhome, you ain't going to be going fast. The pay off is the spectacular views you get! It always us much longer than you would expect to cross the Alps, because we keep having to stop and take photos!
We Have a strict maximum drive time of 5 hours, not including stops. All of these drives are perfectly doable, as long you break regularly.

A couple of route suggestions the stops are all campsites with facilities):
Suggestion 1:
Luxembourg - stop here N49.784881 E6.210633 (camping Birkelt)
Lake Titisee, Germany - A couple of sites here N47.887269 E8.138569
Staubbachfall, Switzerland (At the foot of Jungfrau) - N46.588741 E7.908132
Then on to Como

Suggestion 2:
Luxembourg, same site as above
Lausanne, Switzerland - N46.517270, E6.597866 (nice site and they give you a free bus pass to go into town)
Then on to Como

We have also done the ferry to Santander and taken a wholly different route, but that doesn't help you.

 

[DanielFord]

Oh, and I have been remiss:


You'll find if you pay the subs, you'll get endless advice

 

[DanielFord]

Sorry @Stevegreen1959 my mind isn't working in joined up thinking tonight. Crossing Switzerland you will need to either purchase a vignette if you want to use the motorways (if you are 3,500kg or less). If you are in excess of 3,500kg you must pay the heavy vehicle levy for all roads. Ironically, the heavy vehicle levy works out cheaper for tourists than the vignette.
Both can be purchased at the border, the heavy vehicle levy requires you to fill in a form, so you'll need to park up and go into the office. The vignette can be done at the roadside, a guard will even stick it in your window for you

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[Delboyarapaho]

DanielFord's advice about going over the alps is good although we drove in a car recently and the alternative is to skip the going over and go through the St gothard tunnel. toll included in the vignette/heavy goods fee (I understand) and is a very viable and time/effective alternative. so our plan is to judge on the day when we go with the moho in june. if the sky is clear we will go over the top if cloudy will use the tunnel cause there's not much point going over if it is peeing down

 

[EX51SSS]

 

[WynandJean]

Hello and welcome from West Midlands.

I notice that you have used 2 out of your 5 free posts. To get the most from the forum you will need to subscribe. It's well worth £15 and will allow you to continue posting as well as letting you into areas that non members can't access.


Broken Link Removed


Wyn

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[suavecarve]

There is a car park in Como that you only pay a couple of euros overnight. Dudelange is a free aire in Luxembourg and perfect for popping into Luxmebourg City on the train for 3 euros. And i would choose Bergues over Gravelines as it is extremely freer and still en route. Can you spot the common theme in my thread ?

 

[EX51SSS]

There is a car park in Como that you only pay a couple of euros overnight. Dudelange is a free aire in Luxembourg and perfect for popping into Luxmebourg City on the train for 3 euros. And i would choose Bergues over Gravelines as it is extremely freer and still en route. Can you spot the common theme in my thread ?

Yes the aire at Dudelange is definitely worth a stop. Not much around except walk but train to Luxembourg as previously mentioned

 

[Moodybrook]

need to rest up for a while

If you are stopping near or at Luxemburg and you don't fancy a lorry park/mixed car park(aire) then I and many would recommend "Bon Accueil" if you have acsi it is not expensive and facilities are first class, quiet, good shop beside the entrance, excellent Chinese just across the road and 3 euros into town, bus just 50 yards from entrance.

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[Stevegreen1959]

You will have to excuse my ignorance here....what is acsi??

 

[EX51SSS]

You will have to excuse my ignorance here....what is acsi??

ASCI is a book, card, app for discounted camping sites all over Europe. There's over
9000 sites that are inspected (3000+) by them and the maximum a site can charge ranges between €11 and €19 instead of their normal site fees. But only usable on non peak times.
Have a look on ASCI camping.

 

[Chris]

I have been to a few sites in Spain where they display the ACSI sign but just offered a discount of €5 per night.

Better than nothing though.

By the way welcome @Stevegreen1959

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[EX51SSS]

Ah didn't notice you'd just joined so.....

 

[Stevegreen1959]

Thanks everyone for the useful information you are all providing...we really do appreciate this.
This trip will be our first together in a motorhome we are hiring- (I have hired one previously and toured France... when I was on my 1st marriage ) ... sort of testing the ground with a view to buying one of our own in the future maybe.
We (me and Gilly) have been married a year now and this trip is to see where her family originates from, so we wanted to make it into a road trip as Gilly has never had a motorhome holiday before...so at 50+ she is about to try something new. We both drive so it will be fun to share the driving.
We depart 21st July from Calais and want to take a few days to get to Como, hopefully taking in some nice overnighters on the way and definitely go over the Alps and into Italy... we only have 2 weeks so plan on around 5 days at Como before heading back to Calais which we plan on doing in 2 / 3 days.

 

[Stevegreen1959]

Another question for all you experienced people.
What advice can you give for internet access while abroad? Do you rely on the 3G/4G networks, or do you use some sort of dongle / mobile router?
We would ideally be looking for something with no contract.
Thank you

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[hilldweller]

I have been to a few sites in Spain where they display the ACSI sign but just offered a discount of €5 per night

There are something like 9000 discount sites and 20000 inspected sites.

 

[Chris]

There are something like 9000 discount sites and 20000 inspected sites.

To be honest I never look at the book.

That's not my department

 

[Deleted member 29692]

Another question for all you experienced people.
What advice can you give for internet access while abroad? Do you rely on the 3G/4G networks, or do you use some sort of dongle / mobile router?
We would ideally be looking for something with no contract.
Thank you

The most reliable way is to use the 3G/4G networks.

Most of us use a MiFi device and "3" preloaded/PAYG data SIMs. They currently offer by far the best value for roaming of all the UK companies.

Something like one of these:

http://www.motorhomewifi.com/catalog/3g/

and this:

https://www.mymemory.co.uk/SIM-Card...loaded-with-12GB-of-Data-for-Mobile-Broadband

They probably aren't the best deals currently available but you get the idea.

Just don't expect the speeds to be mega fast. They usually won't be as fast as you get on your phone in the UK. If you don't understand how network prioritisation for roaming customers works then have a read. If you really have to have top end 4G speeds then a local data SIM for each country you visit is the only way you can do it.

You could also invest in a WiFi router and antenna to connect to conventional WiFi networks. MotorhomeWiFi supply the kit that many of us use and the support from Adam is second to none.

http://www.motorhomewifi.com/catalog/iboost-wifi-system/

We've found that we've had far less success with the iBoost when we're abroad than we do in the UK. There seem to be far fewer open networks available. Of course this might be different if you predominantly use campsites which we don't.

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