How do you choose where to go? (1 Viewer)

[Spriddler]

Dup.

 

[Next Stop]

it gets to be like a strange race we have with ourselves

I like this analogy, I too like to over plan, not through fear of missing out but just trying to make best use of our limited time (with kids still at school).
But with all the planning I feel that there are sometimes no surprises and that we are just acting out a play that we've produced.
Looking forward to a time when we can just slow down a bit and be a bit more spontaneous

 

[Lenny HB]

I know but when that happened we had no passports with us.

More poor excuses, I mean who with a motorhome would leave home without a passport, only mear amateurs would do that.

 

[Monkeynuts2215]

I don't mean country, but actual place, town, village, with so many places to choose from what makes you gravitate to a particular area?

Just ask your wife

 

[our poppy lll]

Hey man, wow, I just follow the clouds, I look into the sky pick one with my eye, and follow it till I stop.
It’s like that song, it’s all too beautiful. What did you see there…, I saw the sky…, what did you do there…, I got high…, it’s all too beautiful…..

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[vzac]

More poor excuses, I mean who with a motorhome would leave home without a passport, only mear amateurs would do that.

It was a long time ago, when francs were king. Learnt a lot since then.

 

[The POPs]

I don't mean country, but actual place, town, village, with so many places to choose from what makes you gravitate to a particular area?

1. You can’t buy happiness
2. Travel while can
3. Home is where you park it
4. One life live it
5 . France is a good place to start
6. Done most of Weston Europe and now in Portugal Algarve

 

[Johnny Be Good]

It just happens we don't do planning.

Sometimes we find places in guide books but a lot of the little interesting places are often not in the guide books.

I often look at the way we are traveling and look up a few towns/villages online and head for the interesting ones.

What you don't do is go straight to your destination you need to be prepared to meander about and double back if necessary. If you decide you want to be at X by tomorrow night and head off with that in mind you will miss all the gems you could have of seen.

After caravanning and motorhome for the past 45 years I would say get in the van and head off roughly in the direction you want, underway you will meet so many great people who have also travelled and will give you some great ideas. Cup of tea and chat and it becomes a good adventure.

 

[jumartoo]

We (I do most of the planning) choose a destination we need/want to be at at a certain time and then I look at places to stay along different routes to get there. Then I check out Wikiloc for bike rides/walks. Our preferred activities.

The parking app reviews (I use P4N) sometimes give some good information of local attractions that you wouldn't necessarily find elsewhere.

We rarely have a disaster.

 

[Soycd]

alien portals

Do they show these on Park4Night? I'd be right up for a bit of that!

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[Linda farley]

This is the bit I don't get. So, I set off from my home to go to, let's say, Madrid. I know the route. At what point do I go down a road that I don't need to be on? I'm really sorry but I just don't get it. I can't imagine driving aimlessly, not knowing where on earth I'm going or where I might end up. It's not that I'm against it, I just can't imagine how I would do that

 

[Linda farley]

Think of it as going shopping: You have a rough idea what you want, shoes and a bird feeder maybe, but you do end up browsing in the lingerie and bedding dep'ts.

 

[BigPaul]

I don't mean country, but actual place, town, village, with so many places to choose from what makes you gravitate to a particular area?

Is this a joke?

 

[Linda farley]

You sound like my old man. He travels in straight lines and has to know the route. Although when we were out near bath trying to get back to bournemouth and loads of roads were closed by flooding, he coped ok and I think he even enjoyed it. Plus his radar got him to a familiar pub! ( only one pint though).

 

[jess12]

mostly settle on a rough area we would like to go then check the area out on utube then adjust trip to find campsites

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[Next Stop]

Is this a joke?

No joke, I have a genuine interest on how people plan their trips. For example, I'm off to Portugal next year, apart from Lisbon I don't yet have any plans along the way, just looking for helpful advice on how people choose where to go
Hopefully, peoples comments will help me (and others) plan our future trips.

 

[Carpmart]

One thing not mentioned is the European Touring part of this Forum. I’ve searched that quite a bit for old tips on sites etc over the last couple of years.

If you have a site or a town or an Aire or an Area Autocaravan in mind, use the search on the forum to see if it’s been mentioned in any post previously.

Finally, soon we will just be using AI to plan for us, where do you want to go, what do you want to see en route and hey presto, a number of different option spewed out to consider… actually now I suggested this, I’m going to try it…

 

[suavecarve]

Do they show these on Park4Night? I'd be right up for a bit of that!

Journal Entry - Vernet Les bains, gorges and abbey.

A new Journal entry has been posted Vernet Les bains, gorges and abbey.. You can discuss it here.

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-france-apocalypse-bugarach-idUSLNE75Q02D20110627/

 

[Simon G]

We had to be in Pau (France) for a week, I'd never been to Brittany, so off we went on the ferry to Caen. Bayeaux pops up en route. Visit there. SWMBO suggests Mont St Michel, another day gone. Very old, borrowed Rough Guide mentions Cap Frehal; had driven past before Marg reads about it, double back, a lovely bike ride. My IFA had mentioned in passing the Cote du Granit Rose; Rough Guide again points to 'best' place to experience it (Ploumenac'h, BTW...). We're both sailors, so want to see the Raz de Seine from the safety of shore, so head to the cape, but en route there's... Two weeks later, we're high-tailing past Cognac & Bordeaux to make it to Pau in time.

Lonely Planet or Rough Guide will find the gems in an area, you just have to read beyond the highlight boxes and the 'where to stay/eat/get p*****d' sections.

Make sure you select 'Avoid Tolls' (or even 'Avoid Motorways') in your nav app and you'll find places. Have fun...

 

[Soycd]

Journal Entry - Vernet Les bains, gorges and abbey.

A new Journal entry has been posted Vernet Les bains, gorges and abbey.. You can discuss it here.

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-france-apocalypse-bugarach-idUSLNE75Q02D20110627/

Love the last line in the article:
"Of course, after the end of the world, that source (of funds) may dry up. We'll have to find something else," he said.

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[Hymerboy]

That can be a bit hit & miss as we have found out other people's idea of heaven can be your idea of hell.

Sounds like you are talking about Benidorm

 

[Lenny HB]

Sounds like you are talking about Benidorm

Certainly my idea of hell.

 

[jonasw19]

This autumn we had 60 days left. Plan A go to Soth of France, Plan B Spain if weather poor.
1 fixed place and day - Chartres to visit niece 5 days after we arrived.
Reality -
did get to see niece two days after plan.
Mrs asw19 is now full time driver, decides we will go along a variety of canals and eventually end up in Mulhouse 1200 cycling miles later. This was NOT the South or Spain.
P4N and google maps, only paid one night. If we havent been somewhere before, we prefer to travel 10 miles than flog along for 100miles to get somewhere else we have not seen.
The only real plan for the whole time was to do some cycling.
The most difficult part was finding poodumper and water in the East of France along our canal!

We did find interesting places that we hadn't heard about and they were always closed, so we just marked time until they were open, sometimes several days.

We have the luxury of time, but I do like to arrive at our night stop in the daylight.
Google is a mine of photos and maps so you can plan ahead as much or as little as you want. Learning how to travel hopefully is a very useful skill. I am beginning to relax. Most things can be solved, though not if the designated driver wont listen to well meaning advice....
Go with your flow
jon

 

[PandJ]

I think It depends on how much time you have for your trip.
We are never abroad for more than 2 weeks (for medical reasons) My husband plans the route so we know which towns, places of interest, campsites etc we would like to visit. Often we will deviate slightly from the plan though.
If we had been able to travel for 2-3 months at a time, like many forum members, I think we would be far more flexible in our planning.
Everyone has their preferred way of trip planning, there is no right or wrong way. For us, planning adds to the excitement of the upcoming trip.

 

[vzac]

Generally if we’re just weekending we tend to go within an hours drive, luckily we’re in the northwest so have some great options Yorkshire, Lancashire, southern lakes and the Peak District. So it really depends on availability especially if it’s last minute.

You can't beat a good trip to Accrington.

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[cyberyacht]

I usually have 2 or 3 longish (5-6 days) destinations in mind and a few possible stopovers en route. The return journey is to head on an approximate compass bearing to the ferry home and tend to fill in the blanks as I go. The longish destinations don't always turn out to be the ones planned. Remember, if you don't care where you are, you aren't lost.

 

[Nanniemate]

I know but when that happened we had no passports with us.

Why not just another excuse

 

[Nanniemate]

More poor excuses, I mean who with a motorhome would leave home without a passport, only mear amateurs would do that.

Didn't see this sometimes I'm.little concerned could be a Lenny HB in female form

 

[TheMachMan]

Inspiration of where to visit comes from a combination of different resources such as MHF, YouTube, travel TV shows, magazine & newspaper travel sections, word of mouth. Anything interesting gets saved in my Apple notes (one list per region/ country) and is pinned on Google maps. It’s amazing how it builds up. Then we head off with a rough plan and try and take in these places as we go!

 

[KiwiKampers]

mostly settle on a rough area we would like to go then check the area out on utube then adjust trip to find campsites

We try to avoid the “rough” areas!
We also avoid campsites. I can recommend wildcamping.

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