Sidetracked in the Cévennes – very cheaply
I've been reading the new Jan 2019 MMM (The Motorhomer's Magazine) that arrived today.
There's an article entitled 'Sidetracked in the Cévennes' about a guys trip to France in his Pilote MH.
Normally most of the articles in this magazine have reports of people who visit France, and other European, and stay on sites which cost not much less that you'd pay in the UK.
But he didn't, despite going to France during the main holiday season in August, he stayed on Aires and 'wild camped' and his total overnight stopover payments for 12 days were a staggering €3.
His MH has all facilities and he doesn't require EHU, similar to mine, but even I find that quite remarkable – and reading where he'd been and what he'd seen I don't think he was in any way restricted on his holiday by not going on expensive sites that offered services he didn't need and require.
Obviously Channel crossings and fuel had to be paid and he would have had to top up with water a few times, usually around €2 from the Bornes, but little else to add to that grand total.
I know that's not a holiday for everyone but it does show that even in the height of the season in Europe it's easy to find places that are easily accessible and it's not essential to spend a fortune on overnight stops.
Comments
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In low season even caravanners can stay on a beautiful site in the Cevennes for just 11 euros a night. There is a site at Nant (in the Aveyron) Les Deux Vallees which is part of the ACSI scheme and takes the ACSI Card in 2018 between the following dates: 13-04-2018 - 13-07-2018 and then from 01-09-2018 - 14-10-2018. I imagine next year's dates will be much the same.
We have found sites, even in high season, for eight euros per night!
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I pay a bit more than either of you but we all have our own preferences.
His £60,000 leisure vehicle + staying on free Aires.
My £8,000 Caravan + €15 campsite with swimming pool, ice cream sales, meals service and drinks on the terrace.
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One of the things about the Cevennes is the walks, a member of my family had a lovely holiday there doing this walk. There are so many possibilities with holidays.
Robert Louis Stevenson Trail LINK
Nice to see this area highlighted, thanks K&M.
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agree, what 'quandry' do motorcaravanners have?
like any other choice of product on offer, it's take it or leave it...
we will be starting a long tour in 4 weeks time and it will be a combination of local convenient stops (aires) to visit particular destination for, perhaps, a bit of culture.....we have quite a few Spanish cities we wish to visit....and three or four 'put your feet up' sites with all the trappings as in ET's example....
if I just wanted one place to stay for weeks on end (especially in the sunshine) we'd fly somewhere...we do that separately each year, anyway.
so, touring in the MH, in van friendly areas, allows for a flexible approach....
certainly doesn't put us in any sort of quandry.
im not quite sure what JVB was driving at?
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......still shop around for the best deals in insurance / utility bills / phone and internet providers? Would we look askance at them for doing that?
Of course not but, in the same way that we all have different criteria of what comprises the best deal utilities/insurance etc,so we have different opinions of what comprises a best deal in terms of sites v aires etc etc.
We all make assumptions and irritating as it may be its easy to see why that happens when talking about MHs which are so relatively expensive.
I cant know why people would choose to do what they do but that's their choice as is mine.
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I'm not so sure that there is any great differential in the comparative costs of tow car and caravan against a motorhome anyway. Middle of the road car and caravan about £50K and about the same for many motorhomes on the market. Even second hand the differentials are fairly slight.
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We are away at the moment so not seen my copy of MMM yet. I suppose setting out with the objective of paying as little as possible for a few weeks holiday as an experiment might be quite interesting as a one off. However I would find it a bit strange if it was the objective for every holiday as there would eventually be some limitations which would start to eat into the enjoyment unless some flexibility was built in.
David
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Hi CY, just had our MH buddies down for some holiday planning and,as you do, were taking the mickey out of each other re our choices.
Our outfit would be app £10k less than their MH, an Autotrail Scout, but they also have a car which cost £20k so a total of £30k for them to have the same holiday and travel abilities as us.
They have reached a point where, having tried to better what they have each time they change, they now find it harder to justify, in relation to their financial situation,the cost of a like for like replacement.
We are both limited as we holiday with Grandchildren so the savings of a downsize are not practical but then neither do we make our outfit choice for purely practical reasons.
If we wanted to get a MH then I am sure we could justify it!
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Not everyone wants to stay on "holiday" sites with everything on offer. We know people who holiday in the way originally mentioned, finding off the track interesting places. One of the pleasures of owning a van is the freedom of choice out there. I haven't tried it and I wouldn't deliberately seek out a non payment route but it sounds fine to me.
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Our c/van new 2.5 yrs ago with everything we need to allow us 12months use and top of range car now 5yrs old with all the "gimmicks" and 24,000 on the clock was less than £30,000 for the two and we have no thoughts (at our age) of changing either
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I think your third paragraph sums it up WTG.
Although sometimes the extremes, never staying on a site, never paying can result in a sort of social detachment and obsession with achieving a relatively free holiday by not going to certain places. The people we know who like doing this spend a lot of time working out how they can avoid spending money but it can be a bit boring hearing about their efforts to achieve this! But if that's what some like, that's what they'll do.
I think somewhere like the Cevennes lends itself to this but possibly not the more popular areas.
edit There are also pages and pages on other web sites devoted to free camping!
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We were in the same situation earlier this year. Do we change the MH for another one
OH had recently bought himself a secondhand VW Passat and was enjoying having a 'nice' car to go about in again after using my little Kia Picanto for the last 6 years.
We considered the MH replacement and worked out we would need another 40k on top of the one we owned, to get something we would like to change to.
Then we looked at going back to a caravan and the benefits it would bring. Long story short, we now have a caravan
The only things I miss about the MH is the payload, and the ability to use Aires (not that we ever did, but it was always a possibility when travelling)
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