Borris
Super Poster
VIP Member
Fantastic photographs. Thanks for the campsite information.
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Borris
Super Poster
VIP Member
We have just returned home from our trip to Tuscany and I thought that as the OP, an update would be in order. It was our first trip abroad in a campervan and I would like to thank all of you who posted on this thread for your valuable input, much of which came in very useful.
So now to the detail:
Vehicle - VW T6 150ps Manual Beach
Distance travelled - 2630 miles
Average MPG - 41.5 on the MFD
Fuel - Almost exclusively super diesel. Highest price paid 1.83€ Per litre in Italy.
Ferry - DFDS £106 Dover to Dunkirk return. However, we made good time on the return journey and arrived back a day early which cost us an extra 56€!
Route - Caught the 02.00 ferry to Dunkirk, then saw dawn come up on a beautiful day over France and Belgium. Refueled in Luxembourg then on through Germany and back into France via the Vosges Parc Naturel, where we stopped outside of Strasbourg for the night. Next morning on into Germany through the glorious Black Forrest and on past lake Bodensee and then into Austria before spending the night wild camping on the Gerlos pass. Day three took us over the Grossglockner high alpine pass. We were lucky as it had only just opened.
I took this photo on returning to the Cali after we had been eating apple strudel and coffee in the cafe for the previous hour. We came back to discover the boot open. No foul play, just yours truely had forgotten to shut it. It's my age!!!
After breakfast it was on into Italy and the Dolamites where we stopped for the night. After spending a further night on a campsite, with showers, we headed south for our final destination in Tuscany. Whilst there the weather was variable and the landscape green unlike the typical golden photos you associate with Tuscany.
After spending a lovely week with our eldest daughter and son in law we headed back along the coast was via Pisa, La Spezia, Genova and Savona before turning inland towards France. After an overnight stop at Cuneo we wiggled our way across Les Alps Maritime into France over the Colle de Maddalena and onto Gap. Then Grenoble and onwards back up through glorious rural France on the empty back roads. Fantastic driving roads and very picturesque. If you have the time, do try these fast empty and wonderfuly interesting back roads. I've always been a fan of the rural France you never really see on the Péage and there's no pot holes either.
Overnight stops - we used an App called Park4night for all but one of the six nights that we slept in the van. The other night was spent on a very nice camp site in northern Italy. For the rest of the holiday we were billeted in a villa. Well half of one at least.
The Park4night app was very useful. For these nights we stayed in the following spots.
1. Outside the Bürsner motorhome showrooms/factory/service centre near Strasbourg. Nice Toilets, hot showers, EHU and all for free. The irony of sleeping in a Cali outside a great white showroom wasn't lost on us either.
2. On a mountain pass in Austria. No facilities! Well there was plenty of running water, thousands of tonnes of the stuff every minute from the nearby Krimml Falls! Mrs B had a very bad night as I had parked the van on a slope and she didn't hold back when it came to telling me so either.
The neighbours had already nicked the only flat area. To make matters worse, In the morning we discovered a perfectly flat car park only a hundred yards further on down the road!
3. In a deserted Italian winter sports centre in the Dolamite Mountains. No facilities. Plenty of trees though!
4. In the car park behind an industrial park in Cuneo, Italy. No facilities except hedges.
5. In the empty carpark of a ancient heritage farm in the south of France. No facilities.
Tolls - We really didn't want to spent a fortune on road tolls. We both find them fast and convenient but very boring. We much prefer to take our time and drive along the back roads and see the countryside properly. Yes, it is slower but much more interesting and offers more opportunities to stop and take in the scenery. Accordingly, we had allowed four days to reach Tuscany and another four for our return trip. Total spend on road tolls ended up being 41.60€
9€ for the obligatory 10 day Austrian motorway toll sticker.
26€ for the Grossglockner high alpine Pass (however an Austrian skier asked us for a lift to the road summit and insisted on giving us 10€, so the pass only cost us 16€ in the end).
50 cents for a couple of kms of Italian Autostrada outside Florence.
16.10€ for about 100 miles of French Péage motorway but only because we were making good time and decided not to spend another night in northern France. Mrs B wanted to get back to watch the wedding on the TV.
Environmental Stickers - Having read up on this issue before we left, my course of action was to apply for the cheap French Crit Air sticker (that was waiting on the mat when we got home), avoid the areas of Germany that require the Umwelt Plaquette and ignore the Austrian Umwelt Pickerl as it appears to be volutary for cars (at the moment). Looking at the windscreens of other cars in these countries, the display of these stickers isn't universal, with many not displaying anything.
Known misdemeanors - Tried to park in an old hill top Tuscan town having failed to notice the height restriction sign in amongst the many other warning signs. The Italian authorities do love a good sign fest. The car park was down a very narrow back street which was one way only. The trouble was the exit was through an archway only 1.7 metres high! Therefore, there was only one course of action left, to drive out back down the one way street the wrong way whilst ignoring the gesticulating locals.
Close shaves - Only one incident, caused by the driver of one of a fleet of brand new Bentley Continentals being driven on what looked to me like some sort of motoring press journalists test drive. It occurred on a blind bend on the Grossglockner Pass when the fat head concerned came barreling past us and all but collided head on with a very shocked French couple rounding the bend in the opposite direction. In his hurry to cut in he very nearlly took the front N/S corner off of our Cali. Whoever he was, he should either drive more responsibly or preferably seek other employment that doesn't involve driving. Idiot!
Problems - Only had one short minor issue with the Cali. I don't know what caused that problem but it was short lived and easily sorted out merely by turning off the ignition and then turning it back on again. It showed as an engine management light accompanied by reduced power and rough running for less than a mile before I was able to stop and reset it. That may well turn out to be a soft ware glitch. I'll have it looked into at the dealers at the earliest opportunity. See my separate post entitled, "Has anyone had this problem".
Things learned - Well not much really. We've had this Beach for two years and are fully aware of how brilliantly versatile it is. The Beach was the ideal vehicle for this trip with the larger bed being very comfortable on this longer trip. We do want to swap our sleeping bags for a couple of 4cm thick Duvalays with pillows but we knew that before we left. The manual gearbox on our pre-specced ex demo van is wonderful but when in heavy slow moving traffic, a DSG would have been a welcomed enhancement. Nothing new here as I have always liked the DSG. Our last Cali had one and Mrs B's car has it as well.
We are going to get a pair Van Essa window bags. I don't like having the rear windows blanked off but I must concede that they would save all the faffing about in the boot looking for clean smalls every morning when on long trips. Anyway it's mainly the the rear window you need available when driving.
Finally, I am also either going to make or buy a slide out tray thing for the boot because it has always been a chore to unload the boot to get at something at the very rear. A pull out tray should put pay to that issue.
For the last two weeks we have eaten, slept and enjoyed an amazing adventure in our Cali. We have sat around the table inside her with our daughter and son in law and enjoyed fabulous picnics whilst overlooking wonderfull views of Italy. Now back home, I've just reconfigured Bluebell bus back into school run mode for Monday morning, child seats and all. I'll soon have to convert her again to a seven seat airport transfer bus layout to take us, our son and daughter in law and three of our grandchildren to the airport for what our four year old grandaughter calls our aeroplane holiday. Not long after that it will be the kids school holidays when it will be in constant use for outings of all kinds including duties as a beach hut, pavillion for spotting steam trains and feathered friends etc, no doubt playing games whilst sheltering from the rain and the ever popular countryside sausage sizzles. The Beach is a truely amazing vehicle that never fails to impress me. It does everything so well and knocks spots off of just about anything else you can buy.
So now to the detail:
Vehicle - VW T6 150ps Manual Beach
Distance travelled - 2630 miles
Average MPG - 41.5 on the MFD
Fuel - Almost exclusively super diesel. Highest price paid 1.83€ Per litre in Italy.
Ferry - DFDS £106 Dover to Dunkirk return. However, we made good time on the return journey and arrived back a day early which cost us an extra 56€!
Route - Caught the 02.00 ferry to Dunkirk, then saw dawn come up on a beautiful day over France and Belgium. Refueled in Luxembourg then on through Germany and back into France via the Vosges Parc Naturel, where we stopped outside of Strasbourg for the night. Next morning on into Germany through the glorious Black Forrest and on past lake Bodensee and then into Austria before spending the night wild camping on the Gerlos pass. Day three took us over the Grossglockner high alpine pass. We were lucky as it had only just opened.
I took this photo on returning to the Cali after we had been eating apple strudel and coffee in the cafe for the previous hour. We came back to discover the boot open. No foul play, just yours truely had forgotten to shut it. It's my age!!!
After breakfast it was on into Italy and the Dolamites where we stopped for the night. After spending a further night on a campsite, with showers, we headed south for our final destination in Tuscany. Whilst there the weather was variable and the landscape green unlike the typical golden photos you associate with Tuscany.
After spending a lovely week with our eldest daughter and son in law we headed back along the coast was via Pisa, La Spezia, Genova and Savona before turning inland towards France. After an overnight stop at Cuneo we wiggled our way across Les Alps Maritime into France over the Colle de Maddalena and onto Gap. Then Grenoble and onwards back up through glorious rural France on the empty back roads. Fantastic driving roads and very picturesque. If you have the time, do try these fast empty and wonderfuly interesting back roads. I've always been a fan of the rural France you never really see on the Péage and there's no pot holes either.
Overnight stops - we used an App called Park4night for all but one of the six nights that we slept in the van. The other night was spent on a very nice camp site in northern Italy. For the rest of the holiday we were billeted in a villa. Well half of one at least.
The Park4night app was very useful. For these nights we stayed in the following spots.
1. Outside the Bürsner motorhome showrooms/factory/service centre near Strasbourg. Nice Toilets, hot showers, EHU and all for free. The irony of sleeping in a Cali outside a great white showroom wasn't lost on us either.
2. On a mountain pass in Austria. No facilities! Well there was plenty of running water, thousands of tonnes of the stuff every minute from the nearby Krimml Falls! Mrs B had a very bad night as I had parked the van on a slope and she didn't hold back when it came to telling me so either.
The neighbours had already nicked the only flat area. To make matters worse, In the morning we discovered a perfectly flat car park only a hundred yards further on down the road!3. In a deserted Italian winter sports centre in the Dolamite Mountains. No facilities. Plenty of trees though!
4. In the car park behind an industrial park in Cuneo, Italy. No facilities except hedges.
5. In the empty carpark of a ancient heritage farm in the south of France. No facilities.
Tolls - We really didn't want to spent a fortune on road tolls. We both find them fast and convenient but very boring. We much prefer to take our time and drive along the back roads and see the countryside properly. Yes, it is slower but much more interesting and offers more opportunities to stop and take in the scenery. Accordingly, we had allowed four days to reach Tuscany and another four for our return trip. Total spend on road tolls ended up being 41.60€
9€ for the obligatory 10 day Austrian motorway toll sticker.
26€ for the Grossglockner high alpine Pass (however an Austrian skier asked us for a lift to the road summit and insisted on giving us 10€, so the pass only cost us 16€ in the end).
50 cents for a couple of kms of Italian Autostrada outside Florence.
16.10€ for about 100 miles of French Péage motorway but only because we were making good time and decided not to spend another night in northern France. Mrs B wanted to get back to watch the wedding on the TV.
Environmental Stickers - Having read up on this issue before we left, my course of action was to apply for the cheap French Crit Air sticker (that was waiting on the mat when we got home), avoid the areas of Germany that require the Umwelt Plaquette and ignore the Austrian Umwelt Pickerl as it appears to be volutary for cars (at the moment). Looking at the windscreens of other cars in these countries, the display of these stickers isn't universal, with many not displaying anything.
Known misdemeanors - Tried to park in an old hill top Tuscan town having failed to notice the height restriction sign in amongst the many other warning signs. The Italian authorities do love a good sign fest. The car park was down a very narrow back street which was one way only. The trouble was the exit was through an archway only 1.7 metres high! Therefore, there was only one course of action left, to drive out back down the one way street the wrong way whilst ignoring the gesticulating locals.
Close shaves - Only one incident, caused by the driver of one of a fleet of brand new Bentley Continentals being driven on what looked to me like some sort of motoring press journalists test drive. It occurred on a blind bend on the Grossglockner Pass when the fat head concerned came barreling past us and all but collided head on with a very shocked French couple rounding the bend in the opposite direction. In his hurry to cut in he very nearlly took the front N/S corner off of our Cali. Whoever he was, he should either drive more responsibly or preferably seek other employment that doesn't involve driving. Idiot!
Problems - Only had one short minor issue with the Cali. I don't know what caused that problem but it was short lived and easily sorted out merely by turning off the ignition and then turning it back on again. It showed as an engine management light accompanied by reduced power and rough running for less than a mile before I was able to stop and reset it. That may well turn out to be a soft ware glitch. I'll have it looked into at the dealers at the earliest opportunity. See my separate post entitled, "Has anyone had this problem".
Things learned - Well not much really. We've had this Beach for two years and are fully aware of how brilliantly versatile it is. The Beach was the ideal vehicle for this trip with the larger bed being very comfortable on this longer trip. We do want to swap our sleeping bags for a couple of 4cm thick Duvalays with pillows but we knew that before we left. The manual gearbox on our pre-specced ex demo van is wonderful but when in heavy slow moving traffic, a DSG would have been a welcomed enhancement. Nothing new here as I have always liked the DSG. Our last Cali had one and Mrs B's car has it as well.
We are going to get a pair Van Essa window bags. I don't like having the rear windows blanked off but I must concede that they would save all the faffing about in the boot looking for clean smalls every morning when on long trips. Anyway it's mainly the the rear window you need available when driving.
Finally, I am also either going to make or buy a slide out tray thing for the boot because it has always been a chore to unload the boot to get at something at the very rear. A pull out tray should put pay to that issue.
For the last two weeks we have eaten, slept and enjoyed an amazing adventure in our Cali. We have sat around the table inside her with our daughter and son in law and enjoyed fabulous picnics whilst overlooking wonderfull views of Italy. Now back home, I've just reconfigured Bluebell bus back into school run mode for Monday morning, child seats and all. I'll soon have to convert her again to a seven seat airport transfer bus layout to take us, our son and daughter in law and three of our grandchildren to the airport for what our four year old grandaughter calls our aeroplane holiday. Not long after that it will be the kids school holidays when it will be in constant use for outings of all kinds including duties as a beach hut, pavillion for spotting steam trains and feathered friends etc, no doubt playing games whilst sheltering from the rain and the ever popular countryside sausage sizzles. The Beach is a truely amazing vehicle that never fails to impress me. It does everything so well and knocks spots off of just about anything else you can buy.
Last edited:
sapto
Super Poster
Lifetime VIP Member
Thanks for updating us! Nice to read you had a great time
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