To Plan - Or Not To Plan? (1 Viewer)

KeithChesterfield

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May 20, 2015
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Later this week we go to France in a Motorhome for a month.


We've booked the crossings with Eurotunnel, quick and easy for us and the dog, but that's all the planning except for one place we'd like to visit.



We'd like to visit Compiégne, north of Paris, a town we visited by car many years ago and we'll stay near there on the first night.



After that we'll just meander around France stopping as and when we feel like it and with the help of the Rough Guide and All the Aires visit places we've not seen before.



We may head south to the Med or west to the Atlantic coast depending on the weather (sunny climes are always better than wet ones) and for the whole month we'll be 'lost' in France not knowing where we'll be from one day to the next.



We may stop one night at some places and perhaps a few nights at others that take our fancy.


Do any of you do visits abroad without any set plans or do you feel the need to know what to expect every day?

:france::france::france:
 

Easyliving

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Hi Keith

I have booked our tunnel tickets for August, we only have 18 nights away and are aiming to have a few days at Bodensee (Lake Constance). I have just spent an hour or so poring over maps and all the aires / camperstop books and trying to decide where to stop on the outward (fast) and return (slow) journeys.

Like you I have decided not to do any planning about where to stop, just point the van in the right general direction and stop when we get tired or we stumble on an interesting place.

Looking in the books there are hundreds of aires / stellplatz on our approximate route so why plan in advance, we'll just stop when we feel like it.

Paul

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vwalan

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i normally catch a ferry to santander in autumn . the destination is santander in april.
where go in between is anyones guess .
and it can change from day to day.
might meet someone going to somewhere and think ,yes lets do that as well.
weather ,vehicle ,crowds etc all play apart in the decisions .
even then we can delay the return with a quick phone call.
now do we have tea or coffee ?
 

GeebeeJaybee

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We are going on the 11th July for 10 days but have meticulously planned both route and stops.
Staying at Aires most nights with a primary choice and then plan B and C stops in case full.

I actually would rather be a bit more relaxed but due to annual leave constraints we only have 10 days and we need to make it down to the Pyrenees to watch a couple of stages of the race (the primary purpose of the trip) and then across to Mount Ventoux (?) for Glyn to cycle up the mountain (idiot) luckily the race isn't doing that climb this year so he can take his time!

Because of all the above we have planned very thoroughly, next time who knows?

First weekend in our MH coming this weekend then France trip will be the first big adventure.

Large football flag purchased for MH to see if we can pick ourselves out on TV coverage of tour!

Jen
 
D

Deleted member 29692

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We don't plan any more than we have to. In France, staying on aires that means none at all beyond a rough idea of where we want to go.
This year we have a site booked at Lake Garda and that's it. We've got a week to get there from the tunnel and a week to get back again and have no plans for that beyond a rough idea of the general direction we need to be headed.
 
Nov 6, 2008
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The only plan we had was to book the boat from Portsmouth to Santander, one way. Didn't know where we were going, how long it would take, and it was the best thing for us.
Booked the return boat when we were roughly two weeks from wanting to come home. I couldn't do with having to be here, there, and everywhere by a set day or time.
If you are somewhere that's nice, stay a while. If it's not so nice, move on.
Take your time.

Craig
 

hilldweller

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No plan = no plan to go wrong.

If you like it keep doing it ( despite what your mother told you ), if you don't you move on.

Nothing worse than "this is great, we'll stay a bit longer, oh no, we can't, got to in ....... on .......".
 
Oct 15, 2012
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Use to plan my holidays down to the last detail but since I've bought a motorhome, my plans seem to go out the window, which is what motorhoming is about. You don't like an area or are not happy on a site then you can move on quite quickly, we have done this a few times and it's great. :)

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R

Robert Clark

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We felt restricted when we had a firm plans especially when we had booked sites in advance. Now we don't tend to book anything except our channel crossings.
We prefer to go where the mood and the weather takes us
Whatever you decide - have fun
 
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Basic only Firm plans i.e, Ferry bookings & first night only, then approx the area or part of france , we think we like to visit, then sort out aires as we go.
I must admit I do quite a bit of looking at aires on google earth and various reviews before we go ( just so I don't end up at a crap aire ( did it once at Gournay en bray car park middle of town full of fun fair / circus travelers very noisy etc then in morning found we were parked in the middle of the market unable to move on.)
This year off to Brittany in sept ferry booked first night choice of 2 aires then travel anti-clockwise around Brittany, or that's the theory.
Terry
 

snowdrops

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We research a lot of what we want to see, eg Chartres, Avignon, Orange, Provence etc and then book our chunnel. We have a lot of information by the time we get there, Aires books, ACSI app & card and the Eyewitness/lonely planet books. Knowledge gives choice I feel. This time we've planned a straight run to the Med so have a route in mind, but route usually as and when. We discovered the wonderful Fontevraude Abbey by getting lost !! We do try and settle onto an aire while it's daylight, to get bearings and enjoy dinner somewhere or we turn up at a campsite late afternoon in the chance there may be a pitch. :)
 

lorger

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Apart from booking the ferry or tunnel we normally just have a rough idea of the area we want to visit, although that has been know to change a few times. We have never booked a campsite in France with the MH and never been stuck, we've always went school holidays

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MattR

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We have a rough idea so that we don't miss out on interesting things to see but happily change if we find a great place to stay or the weather is perfect for what we want to do. We have also not ventured further south that the Dordogne when aiming for Spain.

We never books sites in advance and the only time constraints tend to be when meeting up with friends.
 

Puddleduck

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On and off for many years.

MattR

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We don't book anything, but plan everything! When we are on the road we like to travel as much as possible and that means rarely stopping for more than one night. I admit, it is a curse sometimes but it's simply the way we are :oops:
We are all different - one of the things that I love about our mh is that we can travel as much as we want but we don't have to move if we are having fun, there is lots to see etc. Each to their own :)

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