Going to Europe for the 1st Time

[Steve4077]

I'm new to the site so this is my first post. We live in the Isle of Man and have had a motorhome for a couple of years (Rapido 8096DF). I think we are past the newbie stage (85 nights away this year in the UK), but still a lot to learn. I have two main areas I would like to know more about.

1) We've never been to Europe. It would be really useful to hear different views on what we need to do before we go, any country-specific advice (we are considering France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Italy) and some general advice on do's and don'ts.

2) We are also considering going full-time in the motorhome for about a year starting March 2024, including both UK and Europe, so any advice on what we probably haven't thought about would be helpful. We will be maintaining an address in the Isle of Man via my daughter. More specifically, we both need ongoing prescriptions and I have a B-12 injection every four weeks, so figuring out how to get those is a major consideration.

Any advice welcomed.

 

[HKF]

I'm new to the site so this is my first post. We live in the Isle of Man and have had a motorhome for a couple of years (Rapido 8096DF). I think we are past the newbie stage (85 nights away this year in the UK), but still a lot to learn. I have two main areas I would like to know more about.

1)
We've never been to Europe.
It would be really useful to hear different views on what we need to do before we go, any country-specific advice (we are considering France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Italy) and some general advice on do's and don'ts.

2) We are also considering going full-time in the motorhome for about a year starting March 2024, including both UK and Europe, so any advice on what we probably haven't thought about would be helpful. We will be maintaining an address in the Isle of Man via my daughter. More specifically, we both need ongoing prescriptions and I have a B-12 injection every four weeks, so figuring out how to get those is a major consideration.

Any advice welcomed.

You live in Europe And you've been to the UK, which is in Europe

Aside from thatto the FUN and good luck for your adventures

 

[davidbaldam]

Hi and Welcome to FUN. You will find Motorhoming on the Continent so much easier. One thing I found was to have a few different tap adapters, we’ve found that most sites use the same electric mains plug but it may be handy to get one to use over there.

 

[Steve4077]

You live in Europe And you've been to the UK, which is in Europe

Aside from thatto the FUN and good luck for your adventures

Yes, good point. I always think of Europe as starting at the channel

BTW we've spent a lot of time in Europe on holiday - mainly getting a Villa and hiring a car - just never been in the motorhome.

 

[HKF]

Yes, good point. I always think of Europe as starting at the channel

BTW we've spent a lot of time in Europe on holiday - mainly getting a Villa and hiring a car - just never been in the motorhome.

You'll get some excellent advice on here and no one will care if you ask what you think is the dumbest question. Everyone is so nice here

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Lenny HB]

For prescriptions try and build up a stock before you go after they are gone you can usually buy them over the counter by showing your prescription it will be expensive in France but cheap in Spain.

For travelling plenty of travel threads, links to mine in my signature.

 

[Soycd]

If you have done considerable time in the UK motorhoming then I think you will find things much more motorhome friendly in mainland Europe. France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria etc. are all well geared up for motohomers who seem welcome in most towns. France and Germany in particular with their aires/stelplatz stand out for me. If you have not already I'd invest in Search for Sites and Park4Night apps. If you are thinking of full timing and want to go to mainland Europe then awareness of the Schengen 90/180 rules might be a good idea. There is not much to dislike about motorhoming in Europe!

 

[Steve4077]

I use SearchForSites for most of our recent trip planning. We almost always use campsites so I haven't used Park4night very much. We used club sites quite a lot at the start, but now we are finding many excellent (and generally cheaper) independent sites.

 

[LesW]

I use SearchForSites for most of our recent trip planning. We almost always use campsites so I haven't used Park4night very much. We used club sites quite a lot at the start, but now we are finding many excellent (and generally cheaper) independent sites.

Search for Sites is excellent for finding stopovers in Europe as is Park 4 Night.

 

[WillH]

Do's and don'ts? Do go, don't overthink it.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[DerryW]

If you haven’t yet done so, I would download the Camping Car Park Ap and purchase the payment card, and as you’ve not used them before, add £20 credit on the card, it makes things a little less stressful on you first visit to one of their aires. Whilst not free they’re not silly expensive and tend to be a bit more generous with pitches sizes when compared to a lot of the free aires.


PS. Welcome to the FUN

 

[Sue and Rick]

The most expensive thing for your trip will be the ferry off the Isle of Man

PS Do you know John and Gary who used to own the Onchan track?

 

[suavecarve]

Ensuring you have refillable gas would be the highest on my agenda followed very quickly by enough battery and solar and the initial cost of these will be made up quite quickly by using the apps (campercontact is my new favourite outside of france) to find free stopovers.
After that it is just a matter of which wine region and how much of it you can carry

 

[royandsharont]

If you like staying on sites then the ACSI camping card discount scheme is great value outside pretty much July & August. It’s digital from 2024 so easy to get online.

Lots of different things appertain to the weight of your van if over 3.5t and is country different so you need to be aware there are plenty of differences

 

[Steve4077]

The most expensive thing for your trip will be the ferry off the Isle of Man

PS Do you know John and Gary who used to own the Onchan track?

Ferry can be expensive, although my 7.5m motorhome is only about £60 return more than the car.

The tax rates on the Isle of Man are very low though compared to the UK, so I can afford quite a few ferry trips on the tax I save

Sorry, I don't know the people you mentioned. Population here is 85,000, although it does sometimes feels like everyone knows everyone