Budget hints and tips. Might have to cancel my first road trip. Too expensive :-(

[Norfolk Jim]

Yeh - it doesn't have to cost much if you're careful and you can still have a great time. We go off to north-west Scotland for 2 weeks and i reckon it costs us around £700 max and it's a long way from here. You can't compare with a hotel unless you want a permanent base you have to come home to every night. We used to book cottages until we realised we were missing so much. We found that out when we booked a holiday cottage in Applecross village and decided to go to Skye. Was a day trip and only saw a small part. With camper you can go and if you like you can stay - also if you end up with noisy neighbour on a site you can either move or drive off - hotels you bu99ered! How's it go ~vanlife......... I reckon even with kids I could do ops trip for around £1800 all in ferries the lot and have a ball...................

 

[Norfolk Jim]

Oh yeh - what made my sons trip to Italy even better was he proposed to his girl on Amalfi coast and she said yes - wedding next year

 

[Karlos]

Couldn't agree more jim and if the weathers crap you can chase the sun, we were in Salou in June great site, near the beach and cycled for the shopping every morning absolutely loved it and I know who was in my bed the week before.

 

[Norfolk Jim]

Due to our work commitments etc we often go away for couple of weeks in May and in Sept. Usually these are in North West Scotland or the Western Isles and more often than not we don't actually have any set agenda/itinerary until a day or so before we go (unless a ferry needs booking) - we do however make a decision on dates early so we can decide whether to take our young hyper labrador with us or not as our kennels get booked up pretty quick - hence not abroad yet.. Sometimes we don't even decide what time we are leaving till the night before and for the last 5 years it's worked wonderfully and we also have a great list of sites. I cannot bear to have everything too regimented apart from, that is, making sure our camper Colin is all tickety boo...............tyres right pressure, oil and water etc all spot on and Colin is clean then off we go and who knows where................... that's the freedom of a camper - couldn't bear to spend the time working out costs - surely if you can afford the outlay on a Cali you can afford the holiday???

 

[GregW]

Oh yeh - what made my sons trip to Italy even better was he proposed to his girl on Amalfi coast and she said yes - wedding next year

Wow... that was an expensive trip

 

[Trebor]

Hello Sapto . Re staying on members drives . What happened to the map of Cali Owners we used to have . We met some lovely people in Sweden by using it . They laid power on for us at their sailing club and let us use the club house , even invited us to a elk stew dinner ! Members could opt in or out to a map . Can’t see the problem as long as it’s vague geographically from a security point of view as it was before .

 

[Norfolk Jim]

Wow... that was an expensive trip

For him yes but the fun was trying to find somewhere in the camper to hide the ring as wife and I were the only 2 to know and his now fiancee basically packs the van before the trip - ended up the only place we could think of that she'd never need to look in was spare wheel kit - how he held himself together for 2 weeks we still don't know and are so proud of him.

 

[Eber123]

Hello Sapto . Re staying on members drives . What happened to the map of Cali Owners we used to have . We met some lovely people in Sweden by using it . They laid power on for us at their sailing club and let us use the club house , even invited us to a elk stew dinner ! Members could opt in or out to a map . Can’t see the problem as long as it’s vague geographically from a security point of view as it was before .

Good morning,

I agree, it would be nice to have the map (or something similar) back. I believe I read here that the map was taken off because of the new GDPR legislation.

As Trebor suggested with an informed opt-in should get across these legislation. If it was available I would opt-in.

Regards,
Eberhard

 

[Trebor]

Funny how the DVLA don’t seem to be worried about GDPR ! Bet the French wouldn’t worry .

 

[gvick]

Hi Mark for or first Euro trip in my bay window van ,when our kids were young, we went to Dunrell in Holland.
Ferry from Harwich and if you were staying at campsite you got free entry to the funfair and water park (which are adjacent) - the people who own Dunrelll also owncentre parcs.
Our kids loved a water park and fun fair then we went sight seeing to local town on our bikes .
Hope all the replies to your thread have helped - family holidays can be expensive.

 

[Adno]

Nobody says that caravanning is very cheap, it's just another form of spending free time, you are closer to nature. My last year's vacation on Halkidiki was great, we were practically standing on the beach. We have changed camping 3 times. There was no boredom. Unfortunately, there was one minus the Serbian-Hungarian border. Serbia is not in the EU and you had to queue for over 12 hours. This year I hesitate about going to Albania or Norway.Except that 2 weeks driving in Norway is too short.