Advice and tips for an apprentice FLT

[Lenny HB]

st resort I will go to France, I have read the trips from @Lenny HB And @DBK etc, and I’m just struggling with the concept of just “setting off“ With no place to aim for or rest my head

But that is the whole idea of having a Motorhome. Our first ever trip in a Motorhome we hired one in Germany and just set off with no idea where we were going.
First trip in our own van we were heading for the German Baltic coast. Weather was crap so we turned right at Belgium and ended up in Slovenia.
Trouble with booking anywhere is if you find somewhere nice on route you want to stay for a couple of days you are stuffed. The only time we have ever booked (just the once) was when we were spending a month in Portugal with my mate so we set off giving ourselves over a week to get there and had some nice stops on the way.

As for Croatia and back in 3 weeks that's not even enough time to get there & back you might get a couple of nights in Croatia.

Most of our stopovers are from Camper Contact, never had much luck with Park4Night always takes me to places where a 5m van would struggle. Sometimes we just find a wild spot.

 

[Lenny HB]

If you have been to the WW1 and WW2 sites check out the Verdun area of France, just as much to see as in the UK sector of WW1, with some spectacular forts.

Great fun when you wander into a Fort that wasn't actually open & get locked in, like we did.

 

[Lenny HB]

We tend to record our stops on Autoroute well the boss does. Like John DBK I can't remember place names but I always remember where we stopped & can find them on a map so don't bother with records myself.

 

[WESTY66]

But that is the whole idea of having a Motorhome. Our first ever trip in a Motorhome we hired one in Germany and just set off with no idea where we were going.
First trip in our own van we were heading for the German Baltic coast. Weather was crap so we turned right at Belgium and ended up in Slovenia.
Trouble with booking anywhere is if you find somewhere nice on route you want to stay for a couple of days you are stuffed. The only time we have ever booked (just the once) was when we were spending a month in Portugal with my mate so we set off giving ourselves over a week to get there and had some nice stops on the way.

As for Croatia and back in 3 weeks that's not even enough time to get there & back you might get a couple of nights in Croatia.

Most of our stopovers are from Camper Contact, never had much luck with Park4Night always takes me to places where a 5m van would struggle. Sometimes we just find a wild spot.

Thanks Lenny HB its just going to be a massive adjustment for me but one that I’m looking forward to, I mainly use search for sites and camper contact (not so much mainly because I can’t have iPad on it’s side).
My latest plan is france, with a few days with Snowbird on the mosel then back to
Meander round western France. But that could change in half an hour
I need to follow a few FLTs round for a week

Edit, what’s autoroute?

 

[PhilandMena]

Great fun when you wander into a Fort that wasn't actually open & get locked in, like we did.

Pity they let you out !

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[Ian Bosman]

Hi all, I am due to set off for Croatia for a three week trip (I know it’s not long enough but I’m still working to pay all your pensions) and im getting a bit twitchy with everything that’s going off (won’t get paid if I have to self isolate on return) so I am planning a plan B,C,D etc.
Last resort I will go to France, I have read the trips from Lenny HB And DBK etc, and I’m just struggling with the concept of just “setting off“ With no place to aim for or rest my head. After years of touring on the Harley I’ve always had a destination to aim for with a hotel in the vicinity. The problem is I have an uncanny knack of stopping off somewhere be it for a coffee or the night somewhere crap and round the corner is usually something 100 times better.
How do you guys find all these wonderful canal side free aires and interesting places to stay? All tips and recommendations will be gratefully received, bear in mind that eventually I want to aspire to be the ultimate FLT for when I retire

There are plenty of books and apps to help you find places for the night stops.

 

[Lenny HB]

Pity they let you out !

Don't appear to have a emoj for UP YOURS.

 

[FIDGET]

I think FLT is wrong , I feel more like a FNT Frugal Nomadic Traveller fits us better.

 

[RubyOptics]

I posted in the newbies thread a bit earlier, but it's relevant to your question as well. We just got back from our very first 2 weeks in a motorhome. We relied fairly exclusively on Park4Night, backed up with google etc. We never had anywhere to stay planned before we set off in the morning and never really had anyproblems at all. One tip we got from the owner (we rented our van for the two weeks) was using self-service jet washes to dump grey water. If you are wild camping...if it doesn't "feel" right to you, then try somewhere else...you'll sleep a lot better if you are somewhere you feel safe.

 

[Lenny HB]

I think FLT is wrong , I feel more like a FNT Frugal Nomadic Traveller fits us better.

But that won't wind up the holy than thou, you must use a site brigade.

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[thebriars]

Great fun when you wander into a Fort that wasn't actually open & get locked in, like we did.

Ah! was that your skeleton we saw.

 

[WESTY66]

Just an update about sending my files.
It has basically mucked up my phone.
I am as certain as i can be that this is my incompetence at storage and i have been trying to clean up.
I managed to succesfully send 4,000 to WESTY66 who got them onto the map and was going to send him another 14,000 (I only have 18,000 for some reason) but i cant at the moment.
I am fairly certain that i have the files saved in the correct format on my old laptop so they are not lost, (yet)
I just have to wait for a tech savvy member of staff to mend my phone so i can download maps.me again.
So to those who are awaiting them, You hav enot been forgotten and i have to make a work around.

suavecarve All done in seconds, many thanks

 

[suavecarve]

Just an update about sending my files.
It has basically mucked up my phone.
I am as certain as i can be that this is my incompetence at storage and i have been trying to clean up.
I managed to succesfully send 4,000 to WESTY66 who got them onto the map and was going to send him another 14,000 (I only have 18,000 for some reason) but i cant at the moment.
I am fairly certain that i have the files saved in the correct format on my old laptop so they are not lost, (yet)
I just have to wait for a tech savvy member of staff to mend my phone so i can download maps.me again.
So to those who are awaiting them, You hav enot been forgotten and i have to make a work around.

Quick update.
It was my total incompetence in knowing how to work a phone that was the issue.
I only have 16GB on my internal drive and it was always playing up.
I had a spare 31GB out of 32GB on my card.
I didnt know you could choose where to download stuff to !!!!! Who reads the instructions anyway ?
So i had to do a factory reset.
Now i have 8 spare GB on my phone and can send them through, and more importantly my phone is fixed and does not appear to be as annoying as it has been for the past year.