Christmas and New Year
All please can you help set expectations from your experience?
We are just back from our UK Christmas and New Year tour and have discussed at length how nice it would be to spend next year in warmer weather overseas.
We have around 3 weeks to play with, have never taken our Motorhome overseas (AT Comanche), would like to experience somewhere warm'ish to spend the festive period, we have two dogs and would like to steer away from overcrowded family sites if possible?
So, is three weeks too short a time. Is this period very expensive and we need to book now? Plus should we be more cautious and ease our way into overseas touring first to gain experience?
Thanks in advance for any help you can give.
Comments
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Cannot help on costs over Christmas but they should be easy to check. My first trips with a caravan on to the Continent were for 3 weeks. If you allow a week for travelling to and from the south you will get two weeks on site. This is perfectly feasible
for a solo driver.peedee
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Mick, Christmas isn't the best time of year to make a first foray into Europe - short days, early darkness, a long drive to get to the sun and few sites open on the way.
But the dogs limit your options. If you can organise their care then my own advice would be to leave them and the motorhome at home, and fly out to somewhere sure to be warm. I well remember a cheap palm thatched beach hut on the very southern tip of Sri
Lanka.Then take off with the motorhome in the Spring. Good luck.
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Why would dogs limit the options. I am not aware of any sites not accepting dogs in the winter months and these days you visit the vets for passport validation 5 days before any crossing.
Don't forget Mick has a motorhome and can travel quicker and also use the motorhome Aires.
peedee
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Why would dogs limit the options.
Because the questioner might not want the dogs to endure 24 hours in cages on the Pont Aven ferry to Santander. Because he can't fly to Spain with dogs and then rent an apartment. Because he can't fly long haul as we do.
Motorhomes (and caravans) are not the only way to spend Christmas, and not necessarily the nicest way.
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Why would dogs limit the options.
Because the questioner might not want the dogs to endure 24 hours in cages on the Pont Aven ferry to Santander. Because he can't fly to Spain with dogs and then rent an apartment. Because he can't fly long haul as we do.
Motorhomes (and caravans) are not the only way to spend Christmas, and not necessarily the nicest way.
Write your comments here...Or cheapest
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All please can you help set expectations from your experience?
Thanks in advance for any help you can give.
Write your comments here...I think it's tight to get to a warmer place and be back in three weeks. I notice you are in Norfolk so Harwich would be your nearest port but Hook of Holland to the sun is a lot of driving. If you head for southern ports a lot
of time will be taken up driving or sailing on a long crossing. Spain / Portugal are the obvious destinations but weather is not dependable and I have some experience of being in Spain in January (north of Benicassim) and it being empty of people. The south
of Spain offers a better chance of milder weather but again it's a very long way to go on a three week holiday. As we are retired we travel the continent with the caravan a lot in May/June or Sept/Oct but in January we go to the Canaries and have a small
apartment for 4 weeks (looking forward to that right now). This is just my view from our experience, I'm sure some others may see it differently.(Oh and despite what I have said I do know that the Camping and Caravanning Club have a Christmas/New Year rally at Camping Tropicana in Alcossebre (halfway down Spainish coast) which could be reachable if you really wanted to do it.)
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Why would dogs limit the options.
Because the questioner might not want the dogs to endure 24 hours in cages on the Pont Aven ferry to Santander. Because he can't fly to Spain with dogs and then rent an apartment. Because he can't fly long haul as we do.
Motorhomes (and caravans) are not the only way to spend Christmas, and not necessarily the nicest way.
Ok thanks Eurotraveller, now I understand where you are coming from. I have never considered my dog a limiting factor for travel on the Continent but for long haul I do agree and yes he does go into kennels then.
peedee
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I can but add my agreement with the comments made above. We've been in Southern Spain in January and had cold weather so there's no guarantee of warmth even if you were prepared to drive over 1,000 miles to get mid way down Spain. Try a shorter trip in summer
first and take ET's advice and fly somewhere warm.0 -
Thanks all, I really appreciate all views from those of you who have been there and have the T-shirt.
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I agree there is no guarantee of good weather but lots of vanners spend Christmas in the Benidorm area. Thats just under 1200 miles form Calais. 400 miles a day is easily doable using the western autoroute down through France and across Spain using the autoroute
via Zaragossa. I came back from Cadiz in 4 days once!If you take the Portsmouth ferry to northern Spain you can easily do it in three days there and three back.
peedee
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You mentioned wanting to avoid the overcrowded family sites. In another thread I have mentioned that all the sites we've been to in the past 4 trips have been quiet sites. But the Spanish are very family orientated and they tend to come out at the weekends
when the weather is good - often several generations in the same party. Many sites have all-year-round pitches where the locals keep a caravan and large awning permanently. Even so, the sites we've been on have never been crowded - quite the opposite.One other thought, your van is quite big so you may want to look at access to any sites you fancy.
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