Round up of the ‘Post It’ stories, our trip to Croatia. Tuesday 30th June, 2015.

We knew before we left home at the end of April that this tour was going to be an exciting one because France was the only country on this journey that we had ever visited with ‘Bessie’ before. Yes we had ben to Belgium as a day trip visitor to Bruges but we had never camped there and it had been a long time since we had set foot on Italian soil. Our journey took us through France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and back again with a stop off in Luxembourg in addition to all those countries again. We camped in each country with the exception of Italy where we only stopped for lunch on the way south and a police border check on the way north again!

We loved it all and even Smokee surprised us at how well he was during the holiday. Now at 14 years of age and having arthritis we were not sure how he would travel but he seemed to enjoy himself as much if not more than before. He slept most of the time and we noticed that he does not spend as long a periods in the sun these days but he still prefers to be warm and in the sun than on the floor of the van where it is much cooler. Hence the expensive electric bills in Germany where we were sometimes on a metered site and at 1€ for 1.4kwh it was it was quite an addition to the bill.

What bits did we enjoy the most? All of it really, we were very impressed with the high standard of cleanliness and the facilities in Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and Austria, which were all a cut above most. Then the sites in Croatia were equally as good where they were relatively new but there they were also being cleaned constantly by resident cleaners at every site we stayed at.

The quality of food when dining out was also very good and in Croatia it was exceptionally cheap. All the people we engaged with were very welcoming, friendly and helpful. We were a little surprised by the friendliness of the German campers we met, and there were many, as our only real experience of this nation’s people was from the hotel holiday days when they were up at midnight putting towels on sunbeds! Totally the opposite this time and we found them lovely.

The beautiful scenery of Austria blew us away and I am sure we shall return many times, I want to revisit Walchsee to do some of the cycling which is so easy in that area and use the free public transport on offer. We shall also return to Croatia, probably in September this time when there will be less campers after all the school holidays had finished.

What did we enjoy the least? The German unrestricted autobahns, I consider them to be dangerous particularly for vehicles like ours which have less agility than the big cars doing 120mph plus on a two lane motorway with very short joining on slip roads. The very poor road conditions we experienced in parts of Belgium and the vast amount of roadworks in both countries.

Shopping was not a problem and there was an abundance of supermarkets but surprisingly we could not find the less fat/calorie products we have become accustomed to in the UK and whilst this was not a major problem we really do not like drinking tea and coffee with anything other than fully skimmed milk these days.

We were very grateful for the hospitality of Dianne and John at Camping Jodl in Austria and were lucky to be able to visit this site before it closed for good. We also met many very nice people and hopefully we shall keep in touch with some of them again.

It had been Sharon’s idea to visit Croatia after seeing photos in a magazine of the beaches; I had originally thought she would not want to go through some of the countries along the way to get there. After reading some of the experiences of such as Chas & Cath and David on the forum I wanted to go and see it for myself. She now wants to venture to new places again and it looks like a stay in Italy may be on the cards!

So what did it all cost for those who like to know what they may be able to expect? We travelled a total of 2779 miles and had 61 camping nights in total away. We spent £371.54 on diesel which cost an average of 78 pence per litre and Bessie did 26.9 mpg which I thought was good given our 4000kg weight.

The average cost per camp site per night worked out at £13.70 and that included all taxes. In Austria I was very surprised at the high additional charges for tourist/environmental taxes etc. At one site we paid 18€ a night for the pitch and then an additional 6€ taxes, which I thought was very high especially had we stayed there for 20 nights like we did on one site in Croatia.

We had to get the Go Box for the motorways in Austria which was not a problem but required some planning and preparation with sending them vehicle documents by email before we left the UK. We actually spent £28.15 in tolls in Austria including two tunnel charges so I still have a lot of credit on the Go Box for next time. £30.29 in Slovenia and £9.92 in Croatia. We hardly used the toll motorways wherever we went so please don’t think these charges are what you may pay yourself.

So for those who often worry about whether they can afford to tour for a couple of months I would suggest most can, We ate out a lot more on this holiday than usual, mostly in Croatia where it was cheap, but if you add up all our spending on the entire holiday itself (excluding gifts) it averaged out at £41.51 a day which I thought was very good.

I hope you have enjoyed reading the stories and to put you on notice there will be a lot fewer of them on our next tour as we want to return to Spain to where we once lived and see our friends there.  As most places will not be new to us I generally do not write about the visit. I shall leave you with a photo of the old town of Rovinj in Croatia which we really loved.

Regards, Roy