Large Scale Maps and Itinerary Planning
we are looking to tour around both the UK and Europe this year. With so much information available, both books and maps is creating quite a daunting task to peice all of this together in to some kind of logical order .... basically where to start where to end and what to see and when. When you look at reviews on certain guide books they are very mixed and often not comprehensive enough, greatly focusing on some areas but not others.
Our initial idea is to make one of our rooms at home into a travel room and to obtain the largest scale maps possible and to hang these onto all rooms. We could then focus on areas we believe may be of interest to us and mark these on the wall maps, from this we could then create a detailed image itinerary and a separate written itinerary linked to the map.
This probably sounds a little to in depth and unnecessary perhaps?
Any advise would be very much appreciated as to any suggestions on putting this all together, best guide books to buy and which are the best largest scale maps available for both the UK and Europe.
Thank you John
Comments
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John
It sounds as through you're looking forward to the planning part of your trips, like many of us do.
Having been touring the UK and Europe for over 50 years my initial advice for the European section of your holidays is not to pre-book any sites other than in August. At all other times there are plenty of campsites sites, aires, stellplatz, sostas and pitches available, especially for motorhomes. We each have our own preference when it comes to maps. I prefer to use the Hallwag (1:500000) maps for Europe (Amazon), others prefer Michelin maps.
I rarely use guidebooks. There is a plethora of information on this CC website (Club Together etc) about places to visit, routes to take etc that are more up to date and often more informative than hard books. If you have any specific questions about an area you're thinking of visiting, start another discussion. In the mean time good luck
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Hi David,
Many thanks for your quick reply and guidance given. Where did you originally start did you plan on a large scale map and put together a touring itinerary? Just wondering what both you and other members here have done as maybe let's just plan the first country say France and take it from there especially as you have suggested and not to pre-book any sites. Probably a little more fun than being to organised?
John
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We certainly did - for our first caravan trip to France. We got a 'route-planning' single sheet map of France, and highlighted with a pink marker pen the route we were likely to use. Then we transferred that to a Michelin atlas map, page by page. In those days (pre-internet) we got loads of information on campsites from the French tourist office, and with the same pink marker pen put blobs on the map anywhere we found a site near to the route we were using.
That way, whilst using the Michelin atlas 'on the road' we knew just where the nearest site was at any stage of our journey. But, we didn't book anything, had no problems finding sites (towards the third week in August) and our trip worked out much as we'd planned, but with longer stays at one of two sites which we liked very much.
One enormous help, in those days, was the Michelin Campsite Guide, because each site in the guide had a 'tent symbol' on the map, so in future years this was our planning tool of choice.
Now it's so much easier because there are Apps, and websites, and route planners, etc (though in a way it makes it all more complicated). You might want to download 'Archie's Camping' which has the POI's for 30,000 plus campsites, is compatible with most SatNavs, or there is an App if you prefer to use a mobile phone.
We have only once, in thirty-odd years, booked a site and that was in the year when my eldest had just finished his A levels, and he and several of his friends joined us for a fantastic three weeks in the Ardeche, at a site they'd loved when smaller.
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Hi Val and David.
Many thanks for both of your suggestions. Val you mentioned a 'route planning' single sheet map, am I correct in assuming you've used a fold out map and used that to create your own route planner or are you referring to something more specific for the job?
David, you mention the Michelin web based tools, is this a similar route planner to google maps?
John
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Hi David,
Thank you got it and downloaded the app, just need to start creating some of my own POI as well as using the Archies ones and import into our new sat Nav, which we have not even started yet.
Bought our first ever motorhome around 2.5 months ago and already been away 8 times so got the bug already and never caravanned in our lives. Took a BIG back seat from our business which we have left to our daughters to run, you could say early retirement at 54, a few years on now at 57. So excited about touring around and living the outdoor life dream.
I digress, back to the Sat Nav, although the motorhome was new did not have a Sat Nav so decided to upgrade the whole radio CD / Sat Nav to the latest Pioneer one - not to sure if this is the best but time will tel. Anyway need to update to the latest maps and then start importing a load of POI.
No doubt I will get to learn soon wether this was the correct choice or not and hopefully input from others on their preferred form of Navigation.
cheers John
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Hi, A good place to look for maps and travel guides is www.themapshop.co.uk in Upton upon Severn Worcestershire best in the world and good shop to look around, I shall be looking in there in the next couple of months whilst we are in Worcestershire before coming back to the Lot France.
Enjoy your planning I am a map person OH a gadget man.
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Hi RedKite,
I have had a quick look on their site thanks, looks certainly comprehensive choice, wanted to start collating some info over the next few days so will need to call them as over 1.5 hours to drive to from where we are. It's difficult knowing which ones without seeing some reasonable examples, which are limited in their site, so will call to see if they can advise. As mentioned in my other postings, looking to find the largest possible wall map or to tile several so that it' easy just to glance at the whole country and regions to then plot particular places of interest for our own itinerary. Probably need to get a laminated one so we can perhaps use pins to select places and to plot a route.
You mention your a gadget man, same here, which apps do you find the most intuitive, providing the most important information that most of us motorhome users or caravanners need, or is this subjective, probably already answered this?
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John
We originally adopted the same method of planning as Val has explained above. We head for Italy twice a year now so the general direction is pretty fixed for us but we make a holiday of each journey to and from Italy, attempting to visit different places on route. An excellent APP for motorhomes is Campercontact. It lists thousands of Aires, Stellplatz and Sostas across Europe which are ideal for the odd overnight. I wouldn't like to spend much longer in many of them but many are ideally suited for a short walk into the local towns, cities or villages. Touring in mainland Europe with a motorhome is very different to doing the same in the UK. In Europe motorhomes are welcomed in almost every place since they are seen as bringing trade to the community, hence parking costs are often minimal but services for them are still provided. Re satnavs; we use a Garmin without any add-ons for motorhomes etc but we've occasionally found that the IPhone is best at getting us out of a fix if the Satnav has given up on a difficult destination. Enjoy your motorhome and the planning.
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Thank you Dave will look at the app. Just need to find a very large scale map now for the UK and Europe to redecorate the walls so can look at the 'bigger picture' may be like sticking the tail on a donkey to start with and go from there ha ha.
Thanks again for everyone's advise any others greatly welcomed.
John
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I spend hours over the winter months planning our next trip to Europe and where to go in the UK as I get nearly as much pleasure from the planning as the holiday. I tend to get guide books out of the library to read up what they say about various areas and once I have a general idea to google the areas tourist guides on the web to get more information. I then write out the main suggestions of distances, sites and what to see in a Word document so I don't forget.
For Europe I mainly use ACSI sites and have Archies Camping on the satnav in case we urgently want to stop somewhere. UKcampsite also has reviews of sites in Europe and not just the UK. I use Michelin route planner for a guide to distances and time involved.
My main inspirations for where to go usually come from reading various people's blogs. Having decided where to go this year, I am having a complete rethink and starting to research the French Alps after reading a blog on another forum whose pictures inspired me.
I have to say that I don't think we have EVER stuck to our plans once away! Either staying much longer or much less in the first few places or for various reasons ending up in a completely different area!
My blog if you are interested is jennyandjohngocaravanning.wordpress.com
Enjoy your planning. It gets me through the winter which I hate.
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Yes, we used to use a fold out map. Our choice was the Michelin one because it was 'similar' to the Atlas. Our first trip involved 'where do we want to end up' (Carcassonne), followed by 'where do we want to visit on the way' (Burgundy and the Pont du Gard area) and then putting a ruler on the map from our start point (Calais) and highlighting the nearest roads to the ruler! Rudimentary, but it worked, and it started us off using non-toll roads. At one time tolls weren't charged on certain weekdays, so we used to choose to travel on the toll autoroutes on those days but at other times we would stick to non-toll roads.
These days our planning is much less, and we just tend to think 'where shall we end up' and set off! Sometimes we get to where we first thought of, though often we don't. We stay as long as we wish somewhere, and then look for an alternative and move on. Usually it's the weather that moves us on, but occasionally it is something about the site we don't like, or even having noisy neighbours. We have been known to move just a few miles down the road to avoid very disruptive neighbours on one site.
These days our caravan is stored in southern France, so we are more fixed as to where our first few nights might be spent, but this year we're intent on going back to Provence at some time during the holiday.
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We are planning a trip down to Portugal, going via the tunnel and working our way down, through France and Spain. My question is at what point does it start to get warm. And do we really need to go to Portugal for the sun. Leaving next week.
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We are still relatively newbies for travels to Europe. We usually have a destination we are aiming for and work it from there. We are heading to Slovinia this time, so are looking at the Germany and Austria route. I usually do a bit of research of what I'd like to see or visit on - route. Then it's just a case of joining the dots. Apart from the ferry we don't book. So we can be flexible on site choices. Quite often we get chatting to someone on site and they recommend somewhere, so we will make changes to our route home. We are not retired so we do have to have a return date set.
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.Mike Hi ,as many will tell you below Valencia it starts to get warmer ,around 60ish during the day although it can vary in different years,but cold at night Portugal being on the West coast is possibly slightly cooler due to the Atlantic prevalent breezes..Enjoy .0 -
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We plan using the various web-based tools that are available and use our car's GPS, but always have a paper map with us on the Continent as we've found that GPS isn't always as reliable as it is in the UK (which isn't 100% reliable either)
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