Cali with family of four for long summer hols in Europe = ???

[Max-Felix]

Great joy or likely mutual murder?

Mum, Dad, nine year old girl and big brother...three weeks around France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria.

My wife and I survived 6 months in a T3 doing similar but a long time ago - can the addition of two small kids really be possible in such a small space?

Thinking awning and some sort of rear mounted storage box on bike rack to ease the lack of storage but has anyone survived to tell the tale of similar?

 

[Hotel California]

Many travel with 2 adults and 2 jongsters , guess you need an awingtent or pop-up tent , and think using campsites frequent as freecamping with 4 would be hard on water .
Everything is doable , but we are just 2 and dog , can not imagine having 4 in....

Others wil join the conversation soon giving theirs...

 

[theonecraw]

We are two adults, two kids (9 and 7) and two dogs. Awning is essential but it's very doable. Enjoy!

 

[cleve]

We have a beach but with 2 adults and 3 children ages 8, 5 and 3. Quechua pop up tent and mft euro select tow bar mounted storage box help us out with additional storage space and somewhere to throw things on longer trips.

European travel is much easier than you think as the (hopefully better) weather helps with the outdoor living side of things. We usually tour France for 2.5 weeks but off to Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and a quick dash back through France this summer and can't wait.

I'd definitely recommend some local trips before going anywhere further to try things out and see what else you need or don't need. We frequently forget something major on the first trip of the season like pegs when we had an awning, groundsheet, underwear for one of the children etc so still perfecting our list.

As long as you are organised and prepared that the first night working out where things go is going to be stressful the rest of your trip should be great fun!

 

[Amarillo]

We are planning 12 - 15 months away (June 2017 - August 2018) with 2 boys ages (when we depart) 3 and 2, one dog and one puppy due to be born on 24 June this year.

 

[BerndRos]

Yes....it will be a doddle.

I bought 4 kids up sailing the seas n harbours with the rigours that entails.

You will have a ball, as long as your at the same time organised & willing to be a little Gypsy like.

 

[Oliver]

2 3/4 yr old and 12 weeks old baby off for 3 months through Europe. Roof box, pop up tent for on site storage and comfortz awning essential. Will be a blast. So don't worry, your kids are even old enough to be useful. Will be great.

 

[Skylark2.0]

Take 5 days clothes each (including those you are wearing) and plan for sites with laundry. With 5 you may need to do it more frequently.
When we, 2 adults and a large teenager, go away for 2.5 weeks, the weirdest thing is coming home. It feels very strange to be so far away from each other with so much space. We only feel excitment when we drive off together on trips.
Th Cali seems to have loads of space compared to our old high top camper!

 

[Max-Felix]

Thanks all - very enthusiastic replies which are great.

Agreed it should be much easier in the summer - when we did this in '94 for six months in the old T3 we started in April in Northern France and did we have some wet, cold and trying weeks...

But time to go for it now - not getting any younger and the kids are growing up sooooo quick.

Just need to find an affordable Cali now!

 

[Tink]

Thanks all - very enthusiastic replies which are great.

Agreed it should be much easier in the summer - when we did this in '94 for six months in the old T3 we started in April in Northern France and did we have some wet, cold and trying weeks...

But time to go for it now - not getting any younger and the kids are growing up sooooo quick.

Just need to find an affordable Cali now!

I would seriously hire one to try first! I heard of one family with 2 small kids in the Edinburgh area who bought a new one and sold it after 3 months as they found it far too small and claustrophobic for touring. So might be best to try before you buy.

 

[Fishyboy]

Hello,

Done the last 3 years, month at a time around Europe, Me, Wife 2x teenage kids.

Kids in tents, first time took way way too many clothes, all sorted now.

Enjoy

 

[teeboy]

Ditto - we did a similar trip last summer - 2 adults, 1 boy 11yo and daughter 13 yo.

We managed:

Luxembourg
Baden-Baden, Germany
Austria
Switzerland
Turin, Italy
South of France
Lyon
Troyes

Popped into Lichtenstein and Monaco to increase the country count

This last year (late July - early August) - We had average weather until Switzerland then brilliant weather.

We have a Vango Kela side awning - Doing one night stops is a bit of a pain, but we tryed to stay for 2 or 3 days per stop - the stop in the south of France was 5 days for a proper chill out

 

[teeboy]

Now the kids are both large teens it is getting cramped, so I would say do it while the kids are smaller. We keep saying that it is too cramped for four of us now, and talk about selling the van - but can never quite do it!

 

[Mark13]

Great joy or likely mutual murder?

Mum, Dad, nine year old girl and big brother...three weeks around France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria.

My wife and I survived 6 months in a T3 doing similar but a long time ago - can the addition of two small kids really be possible in such a small space?

Thinking awning and some sort of rear mounted storage box on bike rack to ease the lack of storage but has anyone survived to tell the tale of similar?

Do it!

We were lucky - that was what we did for family holidays in the 60s and 70s and am still not quite sure how parents managed with all five children. Roof rack, tent, and sometimes a trailer.

I only remember the wondrous bits. Murder must have seemed an attractive option from time to time but if I remember rightly it was pretty infrequent occurrence. And some will disagree, but I think we've probably all turned out to be reasonably balanced grown ups, sort of.

Just don't take too much stuff (apart from spare headphones and back up charger for the iThings).

Enjoy it!

 

[Sp0_0k]

but we are just 2 and dog , can not imagine having 4 in....

Same.

 

[shudycamps]

No children, just 6 dogs and bicycles.

 

[rjt36]

We toured France, Italy and Switzerland last summer for 2 weeks, with a 15 yo girl, 13 yo girl and a 11 yo boy! No problems at all. Small pop up tent for the 5th chair and 2 man tent for whoever felt like sleeping in it.......but often the three just loved being up top! Yes, you need to be a little bit organized, but it was fun and they all still talk about it!

 

[zeratul]

After practicing about 6 smaller trips the past 10 months, this august we'll be going on our first long road trip with 3 children (7/5/3 years old).
The plan: 3 weeks: Belgium->Slovenia in 1 long day, then Slovenia, Croatia all the way to Dubrovnik, back via Venice to the french atlantic south coast (our family has a house there). Then the children stay in France another week with their grandparents while we go home in one go.
We plan to stay only one night in every campsite, but of course we might stay 2 nights in the perfect spot.
We've booked 2 nights in a Tree house glamping (Garden village Bled, slovenia) and 2 nights in a Kids hotel in the middle of Croatia, all the rest will be camping with the Cali on campsites.

Still thinking about taking all the bikes (4 on the bike rack, the smallest one inside) or just the children's bikes, or none at all. Not being able to open the tailgate when the roof is up is not so nice.. I have to practice mounting and unmounting the bikes and see how long it takes. Any advice?

 

[rjt36]

You might have or want to consider a roof box. We found it invaluable in helping to keep the van free of the tent, pillows, sleeping bags etc.
Sorry but no real experience of bikes!.....l

 

[Oliver]

Agree with RJT36. We are travelling with two kids (3yr and 3 months), 3 bikes and just bought a roofbox (Thule Touring 200) to maintain some sort of order in the van.

 

[cleve]

After practicing about 6 smaller trips the past 10 months, this august we'll be going on our first long road trip with 3 children (7/5/3 years old).
The plan: 3 weeks: Belgium->Slovenia in 1 long day, then Slovenia, Croatia all the way to Dubrovnik, back via Venice to the french atlantic south coast (our family has a house there). Then the children stay in France another week with their grandparents while we go home in one go.
We plan to stay only one night in every campsite, but of course we might stay 2 nights in the perfect spot.
We've booked 2 nights in a Tree house glamping (Garden village Bled, slovenia) and 2 nights in a Kids hotel in the middle of Croatia, all the rest will be camping with the Cali on campsites.

Still thinking about taking all the bikes (4 on the bike rack, the smallest one inside) or just the children's bikes, or none at all. Not being able to open the tailgate when the roof is up is not so nice.. I have to practice mounting and unmounting the bikes and see how long it takes. Any advice?

Your trip sounds fab! Having dented our roof by lowering the roof after loading the bikes I think my husband now puts the biggest child's bike on first, then 2 adult ones and middle child's bike on last. Balance bike gets attached somehow to the others using straps and bike trailer strapped on the under side of the bike rack. Really not sure how we will manage it once my youngest has a pedal bike!

We have decided to always take our bikes as the children love riding them around campsites and then we don't have to pack up the van everytime we need shopping as we try to pick campsites where we can cycle as much as possible and we have had some great rides that we would have missed had we not taken the bikes.

 

[Volky]

Just arrived at this thread, really helpful as we're planning our first Europe trip with the kids (2 under 10). And very excited! Looking at pop up tents as I write - we don't need it to sleep in but thought it would make a useful bike and other assorted bits-store.

 

[T6 CFO]

Just arrived at this thread, really helpful as we're planning our first Europe trip with the kids (2 under 10). And very excited! Looking at pop up tents as I write - we don't need it to sleep in but thought it would make a useful bike and other assorted bits-store.

A couple of us at least have gone the pop up tent route for bikes. I've done so for the tow bar rack and bikes and on occasions for the porta loo to live in.


Mike

 

[Volky]

Thanks, we decided to buy the Quechua full height tent, which you partly inflate. Looks quite large, but think it will be worth the space sacrifice - particularly for the bikes, which we thought at first would be too much of a hassle to take with us. We're not going down the roof box route, think I'll be doing a fair bit of washing! Talking of which, can anyone recommend a small drying frame?

 

[Volky]

Not really thinking - the cycle rack will double as an airer.