Most Memorable Tour Ever!
Some are new to touring, some are not, some love pottering around this country, others prefer going overseas! But I would imagine we all have a trip that stands out in our memory for lots of different reasons.
Mine is a tour done years ago, in a tiny little camper van, just we two and of course the dog, in this case a rather large loving Rotty called Dina. Cornwall was the lure, I had never been. We had three weeks, not a lot of cash, but off we went. Little camper didn't go very fast, or very far in a day, plus we tended to get side tracked by castles, little villages etc.. First stop off was Bath, lovely place, but up next morning and off we rolled. All through lots of other magical places, picking up a deserted M5, then through Exeter, up to Okehampton catching a glimpse of new A30 bypass being constructed (!) All across Dartmoor, second night in Plymouth, then finally crossing over via Torpoint Ferry into Cornwall. We drove all over, Lands End, Lizard, up the Atlantic coast, Tintagel, up into North Devon. We drove until we almost ran out of fuel, waiting for next salary to hit the bank, some lovely sites, some we couldn't wait to leave next morning! Every day was a new adventure, so easy with much less traffic on the roads, lots of pitches just to roll into and stop for the night. We discovered some of our very favourite places on that trip, and made one or two friends we still see thirty odd years on.
At some point, we are hoping to do the same overseas, trying to capture that same sense of discovery, enjoying something totally new!
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In our first 'caravan' year in the 60s a tour of Switzerland and a trip up the Jungfraujoch.
Will be there again this year but the Jungfrau trip is a bit too expensive for us now!
For sheer spectacle only Norway has matched it..
PS. We had a Sprite caravan then.
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Well I was well into ours, when this lovely website went and lost it. So now again in an editor.
Our most memorable tour was some 28 years ago, with tents and a small trailer rather than a caravan and our two primary school aged boys. It was a 3 week tour as far as the Bay of Naples.First day Le Havre to Bourg en Bresse, then under the Alps, using the Tunnel du Frejus, to Turin and on to Genoa. Here in the night when I awoke to use the facilities, I was surround by hundreds of tiny LED's. I had never seen fireflies before, so of course had to wake everyone else up, so they could marvel as well. Onto Rome and a visit to the Vatican and St Paul's, before continuing south to Vico Equense, on the bay of Naples, for a week in an orange and lemon orchard, which was also a camp site. Very sticky tents.👎 Visits to Pompeii, Capri, the beach and of course Vesuvius.
North again via Montecassino, Assisi, Pisa and a trip up the tower, before traveling through the mountains this time across to the Ardeche and onto Le Puy. A couple of nights there, before a stop off in the Loire, prior to the run into Paris for the daily fight for pitches in the Bois de Boulogne. A trip up the Eiffel Tower and a visit to a few other sites, and then back to Le Havre for the ferry. I improved my French a bit that year ( did German in school) I went in the Camion lane on the Pont de Tancarville and could not reach the booth. Ah it means lorry.😂
Just reading through this makes me feel tired. How did we manage to do it? 11 sites in 3 weeks with tents. Just a lot younger I guess.☹️
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I think the most Memorable Tour we did was this by adding Eastern Europe to our Germany and Austrian Trip. But all our 13 Trips with the Caravan have been memorable for many reasons.
http://www.joysofeuropeancaravanning.co.uk/5thtripineurope2008.htm.
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Easy. The first time we rented a Suzuki Jimny and drove around Bali and saw those terraced rice fields and the temples.
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Lovely memories. I had guessed most folks memorable tours would be more exotic than ours, but like most others, it was the fun and freedom that we recall the most, and getting by in an old vehicle, existing on a budget (it was our first year at work after university). We are hoping to make France our first long tour away, all those castles and glorious old towns.
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Well our most memorable would be back in 1989 when we were both a pair of poor students. My lovely Grandmother bought me a 1972 T2 VW for getting into university and we thought we owned the world.
The van was a Westphalia conversion with an elevating roof. We had a great week in Brighton wild camping where ever we could. It was winter and cold with no heating, but we were fine once in bed. All went well until a huge storm broke out. We were travelling from Newhaven back to Brighton when the wind was so strong it was almost pushing us off the road. Anyone who knows this road will know you are at the top of the cliffs at some points with the wind howling in from the sea. Then it happened, a huge gust of wind got under the elevating roof ripping it clean off, the canvas was torn and held on only by one of the gas struts. Our clothes were also stored up there in the roof space, so when the roof went so did the clothes. It was like a scene from the start of the Wizard of Oz with all our clothes blown into the air and across the road.
A passing motorist stopped to offer assistance and I can still remember he was in a Morris Minor.
It took days for AA Relay to get us back up to Edinburgh. We had the van roof replaced and had many happy adventures in her, unfortunately, most of them resulting in the breakdown service taking us home. We were bitten by the bug and have owned motorhomes ever since, thankfully more reliable
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Great story Stewartweber, our little camper was a tad hit and miss! We once drove back from Whitby with only one gear, after clutch went. We perfected rolling up to lights to a tee that trip!
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