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

[hewittd]

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?

The shop also have a washing line that mounts onto the side, I bought one a few weeks ago but haven't had the chance to use it yet - looks nice though :

Washing Line

 

[Volky]

Missed that one, thanks very much for pointing me in the shop's direction. Spent another weekend planning the trip and best use of Cali space - lots of fun!

 

[hewittd]

Missed that one, thanks very much for pointing me in the shop's direction. Spent another weekend planning the trip and best use of Cali space - lots of fun!

No problem, I'm going through the same trauma at the moment - except we are a family of six planning a month long jaunt around Italy...space is critical

 

[Volky]

Six! I'm full of admiration! And very envious of your 4 week slot! I assume you're taking a roof box? Makes you really decide what is critical and what isn't. I've found myself loving the Cobb but hating the design of the "huge" domed lid. Finally managed to get it to fit in a crate, but gas canisters had to be moved somewhere else...now looking at how best to use the space in the wardrobe.

 

[zeratul]

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.

Thanks for the advice. I have to see if I can mount all 5 bikes given the maximum weights and my wife's bike is electric which is still very heavy without the removable battery.

Did you ever consider using a roof box, and if not why not? I know it cannot hold too much, but we'd be able to store all duvets, pillows etc in it, that alone is already a lot of volume. And we have the box from a previous car.
It would save a lot of space ?

But I'm only thinking about it, I realize it leads to extra fuel consumption and parking garages can be a pain.
As for ferries, the car height limit for a "regular car" is usually between 1.7m and 1.9m anyway...