How do you plan your next trip?
Whether you’re a meticulous itinerary planner or a "see where the road takes us" kind of traveller, every caravan trip or motorhome adventure starts with a spark of inspiration.
From booking the best campsites months in advance to spontaneous camping weekenders, we all have a unique "pre-departure" ritual.
Tell us: What’s your travel planning style? 🚐💨
How do you plan your next trip? 15 votes
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Comments
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Apps: Using specialised camping apps to find campsites
After I have decided which part of Europe to visit, I use the Search for Sites and Camping-car Park apps primarily.
Quite often we make up the itinerary as we go along depending on the weather and our progress to our final destination.
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Review platforms: Reading reviews of campsites from the area you want to visit
I guess our method is similar to most. We usually start to plan a year in advance when on our summer French trip.
For some reason we come up with areas of France we want to visit the following year, usually The Loire and AN Other. Then we start picking fellow campers brains for advice and recommendations.
When home we work through ACSI, C&MC and UKCampsites websites and come up with a short list.
Then the sad bit, to some. Planning and booking early is a habit, partly through previous necessity, partly my OCD. I check channel crossings and site offers with various providers and shuffle our dates to get the best fit on convenience and prices, then book. This is usually all completed by Oct/Nov.
Colin
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Other
We are the same as @Michael88 and @peedee using all sorts of sources to suss out where to go and what sites to stay on.
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Other
I chose an area then select a club site in it. Is that the first option?
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Other
I also selected “other” for the same reasons stated above. We have stopped going abroad now, due to insurance costs, but there are still areas in UK we have not visited much.
We used to plan months ahead, but not these days, too much uncertainty and too many health problems, now we only book a few weeks before we go.
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Other
We choose an area to visit, based upon what’s of interest, activities, how busy it might be, what’s the weather like, and just go from there. We might pre book our first stop, but after that it’s choose sites while rolling, although we do like to have a bit of a route in mind. So it’s “other” for us.
We will use reviews sometimes to help us choose, plus apps, plus CT, etc….. so we use as broad a spectrum of information as we can to make sure the chosen places to stay are what we want and like.
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Flexibility rather than plans set in concrete for us. I recall going across from Plymouth to Roscoff intending to look around Brittany - but it was overcast and raining and the local forecast said it would stay like that for a week. So we went south instead - and it didn’t stop ranimg for 600 miles till we were going down the long A75 hill towards Montpellier, with the Mediterranean coming into sight.
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I still have on my computer a copy of MS Autoroute which I found very useful for initial planning of trips.I am sure there are online varients now?
David
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Apps: Using specialised camping apps to find campsites
Emails yesterday ['2027 sailings advance notice'] and today ['sailings now released'] from Brittany Ferries, 2 minute discussion on whether to go later than normal early December departure - selected February 2027, got out the credit card, and booked. Quickest £1,000 spend for a wee while. We never plan where we will go after arrival in Santander, because we always change destinations, usually to escape the rain/chase the sun, so our itinerary is that of an inebriated spider, staggering back and forth towards or from the latest bright idea … 😁
Steve
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My goodness, the south coast s a long way to travel from Scotland!
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Apps: Using specialised camping apps to find campsites
And, even with the benefit of VB semi airsuspension, I feel every mile via the driver's seat 😁. It was better this year, because we no longer have a Listed Building, where the insurers limited the Unoccupied Property cover to 60 nights, so we used to make 2 winter trips, with a 3-4 week break in between, just enough time to empty/repack the M/Home, get prescriptions renewed, wash the clothes and bedding, then 'encore une fois' for another 2 days drive to Portsmouth. The cost of diesel + 2 Portsmouth-Spain-Portsmouth tickets was not insignificant …
Steve
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This summer we are doing.....
1. South Wales, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset.
2. The Outer Hsbrides (without the caravan - we have a cottage for that week)
3. Middlesborough, Northumberland, Scarbourough, Sutton-on-Sea....
Now all as we need to do is afford the fuel!!!!
David
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Indeed and it all adds to the fun but there’s no other way of getting there.
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Other
It is Arthur but then a long ferry crossing for marchie and another long drive in for about three months in Spain, so not really the same and a fair (indication) point by TW I would say?
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