First trip - lessons learned

[Geordiemunro]

The old hands can look away now, but I thought I'd share my experiences of our very first trip in my Cali (purchased second hand ex demo from Heritage VW in Bristol).
Having never owned a camper before I toyed with easing ourselves in gently with an overnight in the UK, but with holiday to use up decided to dive in at the deep end and have a wee road trip to France. We pretty much made it up on the hoof and ended up visiting the Loire , La Rochelle and a bit of Normandy on the way back. In short, the Cali was fantastic and kept us snug and warm in what are probably typical conditions in France in March (cold and wet in the most part). It's taken me years to justify the expense of buying a camper to myself, but having taken the plunge I've absolutely no regrets.
And what did we learn? Well, loads if I'm honest and probably a lot of beginners mistakes just like everyone else but the top 4 are: 1. France is big (ok so I knew this already, but probably overestimated how much we could fit in in a week) 2. Aires are great 3. A good satnav was invaluable and took a lot of the stress out of locating campsites and aires 4. (And I never thought I would say this) Mcdonald's in France were great and a real eye opener compared to UK- good coffee and generally clean toilets.
Can't wait for the next trip!

 

[motacyclist]

Hi Geordiemunro, thanks for posting that, you sound like an old hand! And welcome, of course.

I think we all know what you mean about justifying the expense, but I've never heard anyone on here say they've regretted it (yet!).

Colin

 

[Geordiemunro]

Thanks Colin. Maybe more "old" than "old hand"!
I should add to my previous post by saying that it wouldn't have been such a successful trip without the benefit of the accumulated wisdom of the forums, which I scoured and devoured in the days leading up to departure.