The big advantage of travelling in a motorhome is the ability to just go wherever you feel like going.
Drive, arrive, handbrake on, fridge to gas and open the beer, wine or whatever is your preference - easy.
And if you get there and decide you don`t like it, you can just move on to somewhere else.
This freedom to travel wherever I like is what drew me into motorhoming.
Modern motorhomes have all the facilities onboard to be completely self sufficient for several days.
Precisly how long depends upon a number of things. Assuming you are off grid, ie no mains electricity, then you will be dependant upon the leisure battery for lighting, the water pump for the taps to flow and the fan which blows for the gas fired warm air heating. I have two 80 Ah 12 volt leisure batteries and a solar panel on the roof which will charge them up when the sun shines. So in UK in Winter it`s useless, but in Summer it`s a very valuable addition.
I`m not really sure how long they will last off grid and I`m not geekie enough to do the calculations for amps used for all the appliances, but I monitor the voltage and I have never yet come close to discharging the batteries to a dangerous level. Running them too low changes the chemistry in the battery and will do them permanent damage and drastically shorten their life.
Modern LED light bulbs also make a big difference as they use so little power.
Most of mine have been changed for LED`s but I think there are still a few of the old halogen bulbs that get so hot in use !
LPG gas is used for cooking on the hob and oven / grill, hot water and heating. I have Gaslow re-fillable bottles which saves having to swop bottles over and can be refilled at most garages with Autogas.
I use a whistle kettle on the hob for brews. There`s something I like about whistle kettles, I`m not sure what it is, but I like the gurgling noise it makes before it boils and it feels very reassuring and homely when it blows somehow.
So basically, anything generating heat is done by gas, as to do it by electricity (eg kettle or toaster etc) puts a big strain on the batteries and might leave you in the dark.
After electricity and gas, water is the next essential. Motorhomes have a fresh water tank, mine is 120 litres I think and there is also a grey waste water tank that holds 100 litres. That`s where the water from the sink and the shower goes to and needs to be emptied peroidically.
The loo empties into a cassette storage tank and that needs to be emptied as well :(
Actually, it`s not as bad as it sounds, but is still not a job to look forward to.
All sites have somewhere to empty both tanks but if off-grid, then it`s necessary to find a suitable place. The grey waste can be emptied down a roadside grid or hedgerow if necessary but the black waste cassette needs more careful thought about it`s disposal.
Navigation
For finding my way around I use a trusty old Tom Tom Sat Nav loaded with full European Maps which I find hard to fault but also like to use Collins paper maps which are great for getting an overall view of a journey to see the bigger picture.
I also have Maps.me and Google maps on my phone which I find very useful and accurate as backup.
Both work on GPS without internet access and Google maps is particularly useful for traffic information.
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Collins old school paper maps |
Campsites
The Continent is very motorhome friendly compared to the UK. Nearly all towns and villages have dedicated motorhome parking areas. In France these are called Aires de Camping Car (French call motorhomes camping cars) and vary from a few spaces on a car park to beautiful riverside or lake locations. Charges vary depending upon the facilities offered but many are free whilst others charge a few euro`s.
Either way, they provide safe and secure parking and are ideal for a night or two stopover.
Most European campsites provide a full range of facilities like laundry rooms, swimming pools, restaurants, bars and entertainment for adults and children. These are great, but if just travelling through an area we don`t really need all these facilities so an Aires de Camping Car is usually a better option.
I usually like to do a mix of Aires for single nights and Campsites for when were staying in an area for a few nights.
ACSI offer an out of season discount scheme called Camping Card. With this they offer discounts at Campsites during the off season. Usually it is just July and August that are classed as peak season.
The book and card cost about 12 euro so that cost is soon recovered in just a few nights stay so they are good value.
I also use apps to find campsites, Camper Contact is excellent for an annual fee of about 5 euro and includes reviews and photographs. It can also be used off line.
Free to use websites are park4night and searchforsites. There are probably many more if you search but those are a few I have found useful.
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ACSI discount campsite guide |
Destinations
I bought some DK and Lonely Planet travel guides off ebay very cheaply. They were priced at about £2.30 each including postage. They mostly turned out to be former Library books and were a few years old but still very relevant. To buy new they are priced about £15 each, so I thought they were a bit of a bargain. Some showed no signs of wear at all.
I use them to research an area and make sure I don`t miss anything of interest.
TripAdvisor and Wikitravel are also an invaluable source of useful information.
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Travel Guides |
Wifi
For wifi I use a Huawei Mifi dongle which gives internet over the mobile phone network.
It works rather like a mobile phone with a rechargable battery and sim card slot.
It connects to the mobile phone network in the UK or abroad and provides internet access. It`s lightweight, slightly larger than a credit card and can be carried around for internet access on the move. It also seems able to get a signal when my phone can`t and has a port on the side for connecting an external ariel for even better reception.
I usually buy "3" data only sims which can be bought with 4, 12 or 24 GB data already pre-loaded onto them.
This is Pay As You Go, but there are contracts also available.
The "3" network provide good coverage and it is on their Feel At Home scheme which provides access to their network in most European Countries without roaming charges.
If another network provider has an offer on data sims, I would consider using that as the dongle is un-locked so can be used on any network.
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Huawei Mifi dongle |
Photography
I love photography (well, point and shoot snaps really, but I do aspire to be more proficient one day) and have a Nikin D3100 DSLR camera with a Nikon 18-35 mm lens and a Tamron 70-300 mm zoom lens.
I also have a Nikon Coolpix waterproof compact camera which is useful for snaps.
I use a Roadhawk DC2 dashcam which captures some good scenery along with whats going on on the road.
I have a Motorola Moto G4 camera phone also. This is great for quick manipulation of photographs, cropping or colour correction etc.
It`s so much easier editing on the phone using the inbuilt options than it is on any of the other devices !
My music comes from an old Samsung phone (no sim) that is loaded with lots of music. This can be connected to the Motorhome sound system by Bluetooth.
I also have a separate Bluetooth speaker for use when I`m not driving.
I find it better to have the music on a separate device to my main phone as the music is momentarily muted when it receives an email or text message etc which can be annoying !
Unfortuately all my playlists have become scrambled for some reason I don`t really understand. I also had a lot of difficulty loading it all onto a new larger Gb SD card as well so I think something is not quite as it should be on the music front but hopefully I`ll get it sorted before we set off.
Television
I have a JVC television with built in DVD. It is connected to the Oyster self seeking satellite system but from what I`m told this will only pick up the Sky signal from Astra 2 satellite down to around mid France. After that nothing, zilch, nada.
I`m ok with that though, in fact I`m quite looking forward to getting away from the TV and the internet will give me the news if I feel the need to catch up with World events.
Money Money Money £££
I use a Revolut App based pre-loaded Visa card for most day to day expenses.
This is linked to my Current Account and using the App, funds are easily transferred between the two. It is accepted almost everywhere and what I like about it that as soon as a purchase is made, I receive a text message to confirm the transaction, very useful and reassuring.
The transaction appears in the App straight away and the currency conversion is always at a very competitive rate.
After loading the card with GBP, if the exchange rate looks decent, you can convert it into euro`s at very good rates. I did some recently and got a much better rate than buying cash euro`s even at the "best buy" seller rates.
The App also categorise`s expenditure and gives a summary, so drinks and eating out go in a category, fuel and oil in another, groceries in another and so on.... very useful.
I have a euro cash fund for small daily expenditure and I have a Nationwide Credit Card for emergencies. This is a good card to use abroad as it doesn`t make a currency conversion fee as many cards do.
I have a budget that I hope to stick to, together with a contingency fund I hope not to use, but it`s there if I need it in an emergency.
