Key Considerations When Planning An Extended Motorhome Trip
What is the point of owning
a motorhome if you don’t occasionally take it for an extended
trip?
Whether you’re planning on spending the summer touring the Peak District or heading to the continent, any trip in your motorhome of more than a week takes very careful planning. Read on for our essential motorhome tips for long breaks.
Breakdown cover
Make sure your breakdown cover is up-to-date and if you’re travelling to Europe, ensure that you are covered for this.
Also, organise your breakdown cover a few days before you leave to ensure that you are covered for the outward journey.
Take it for a service
Even if you’ve recently had your motorhome MOT’d it’s still worth taking it for a basic
motorhome
service before you leave.
This will ensure everything is oiled, greased and ready to go.
Fuel budgeting considerations
As any motorhome owner knows, one of the most glorious things is the low cost of the holiday. With the average touring site charging between £15-£25 a night, it’s a fraction of what you'd pay at a hotel. However, fuel can be a high cost if you're covering lots of ground, so do make sure you have budgeted well for this and factored in days out as well as getting from one campsite to another.
Store cupboard items
While it would be lovely to eat out three times a day this would be a) expensive and b) not always possible to achieve, especially in the continent where pubs and restaurants simply are often closed. In addition to this, camp shops are notoriously badly stocked. Make sure you have enough stock to always produce a nutritious meal from scratch such as beans, tuna, pasta, sauce, tinned fruit and veg. Also buy additional toiletries including spare toilet paper, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shower gel, razors and hand wash.
The essentials
Don’t forget other easily overlooked essentials such as washing-up liquid, cloths, tea towels, salt and pepper and olive oil.
What's also useful is a spare phone charger, a well-stocked first-aid kit, painkillers, candles, torches, batteries, lighters and antibacterial hand gel.
Hook-up
It’s unlikely that every site on your trip will offer hook up, but make sure you have marked on your itinerary which ones do and which don’t.
Flat tyres, dead phone batteries, electric shavers etc. all require a bit of electricity to keep them going.
Paper file
Buy a robust folder to store all essential paperwork in. This should include details of motorhome insurance, breakdown cover, campsite bookings and so on.
For those travelling abroad it should also include photocopies of your passports and your EHIC cards.
Things to do
Pack plenty of books, audio books and download some podcasts to listen to on the road.
Take a few games such as cards and board games for evenings when there’s no hook up or internet connection.
A well-planned motorhome holiday is always a happy one, and for those planning an extended trip it really is essential that you take these key planning steps into consideration.
If you're still planning your extended trip, check out 12
of the most beautiful places to take your motorhome in the UK for inspiration.
