Agree for first timers with the all one place sentiments. Red Pennant gave us excellent service when we had problems in France last time.

Two things to consider: Correct front lights with a sticker (available on ferries); Your gas bottles might not get refilled abroad due to different systems. Otherwise great suggestions, applause from Germany.

No problem with being thorough! The devil is in the detail as they say :) We did our first trip last year, Eurotunnel France, Spain, Portugal, Spain and ferry home and boy did we learn a lot. Firstly not to panic, it's not that difficult, secondly that there is no right or wrong way, just your way. For planning I like the look of Via Michelin. We used Michelin maps, a big book of printed ones, you don't need to be online for something on paper so always a good backup. The satnav of choice, for us, is WAZE. An app for your phone, has the correct speed limits at all times plus live traffic info. The ability to avoid tolls is there on every journey and we found it much more reliable than google maps. Google maps was the one time we found ourselves down a lane, on a steep hill, in the dark and ended up digging the van out of a field entrance! Ended up covered in mud. We made it but I don't trust it! We also travel with a JRT so give Dougal a hug from us x

That Airstream looks the business !!

We are recent caravan owners, I would love to take to Germany but currently lack the confidence. This video has inspired me.👍👍👍

Great to see you back, I find Waze a very good free satnav with good traffic

Dougal just wants to be with you, wherever that is. I've used Google Maps for the US. And Yes, switch to Satellite View, and check out the roads. All Interstates are the same, but US Highways are not. Some are crap, but some are great. Just be aware. And the safety warning doesn't change. Don't pull over to check a deficiency someone points out until you get to a safe place. And always call your motor group to help with repairs. I carry the best AAA plan for that reason.

Brilliant video.....’thanks for dddddoing it’. Peter

Brilliant not enough for beginners or thinking about it. Excellent. Thank you.

As usual, thorough and informative!

Great video Andrew, very informative

Fabulous video Andrew! Very interesting! Kept me watching to the end! Cheers Oliver

Very informative video,Andrew,as a now retired international lorry driver,now a solo motorhomer,I agree with much of what you say,I use a tag and find it great for speed and convenience,also avoids mischarging on toll booths.One thing I would emphasise is that most French service areas even the one with garage service are not really safe for overnight stops,sites and Aires are far better.great videos and good advice.Thanks Paul

I think a lot of points are also useful for motorhomes/campervans. Certainly the points on navigation, I use a little bit different approach, although similar to yours. We have spend more on our satnav so we can enter weight and size of our combination, which means it takes the larger roads and automatically avoids with low weight limits and height restrictions that are important to us (driving under a bridge which only allowed a height 5cm higher was a little bit enervating). In case of the example you gave we would be suggested to take the road around the centre. I plan mostly using google maps and our satnav, but also paper maps. The satnav gives me different options from which I choose the one that comes closest to what I want. After that I add points to the route so it has to take the roads I want and on some points I remember where to take another junction. Although planners tend to get pretty good, experience can be a lot quicker/shorter/nicer ;-) I know we keep our daily distance low, but I prefer to spend not more than 3 hours driving a day, so you don't need a couple of days to recover from the trip if you are not used to driving larger distances. I look forward to a similar guide for motorhome and campervans (although even that can differ a lot depending on your needs on the road).

Brilliant set up you have everything to hand

Sooooo helpful, im taking my daughter for a month this summer in our caravan. Thanks for all the tips

Brilliant Andrew! Really helpful. Many thanks.

Thank you Andrew for such a detailed vlog. I learned so much 😁

Great video with very useful information, thank you Andrew

Always loving your work Andrew!! Keep that up. The sensible details you give out are life savers for newbies.

Hi Andrew another great video for new comers just starting out looking forward to your up coming videos cheers Kev

Such a great and informative video. Thank you

Big thumbs up from me Mr D. Good, sound, common scence information. Looks like Dougle has made a full recovery. 👍🐶

I hope you both and all have a truly amazing time on your travels 🐕 😊😊🚐🌍🌍🌍

Great content Andrew 👍

Brilliant. Really helpful info

That was an excellent guide, thank you. I think you overplay the threat of strangers a bit. One of the best things about travelling is meeting people along the way. Yes there are bad people but the vast majority are really very good. It is wise to be wary, but it is also good to be open to meeting and talking with people.

Brilliant video Andrew. You answered all the questions I would have asked. 👍 Keep up the great vlogging.

Good to give a mention for the two big clubs. We consulted them for our last trip. It can get confusing travelling through 5 different countries and different rules on the road. We never aim for much more than 200 miles a day. Just too tiring as only one driver.

A great vlog and very informative. Big thumbs up

Very informative as always will look into the red pennant if and when we decide to go overseas next year. Many thanks for this and all your other information videos, always useful and never boring so thanks Dougan and tell the small chap in th leather thanks as well😂

Great video, I've been to south of France the last 3 years using the A26 etc found driving abroad very easy and would recommend to all campers etc to do it Look forward to your nxt blog

Back to your very best. It’s what I have been waiting for .. can’t thank you enough

Hi Andrew, thank you for this video. Tina and I are thinking of taking our caravan to France next year and your video has eased a few of my concerns. I found it very useful. Ive used Via Michelin when planning bike tours of Europe so I know how good it is. Keep up the good work my friend.

Brilliant video absolutely brilliant thank you 😊

Hi Andrew, Thank you for sharing this. We are just coming up to the end of second year of caravanning. Last month we booked our first ever trip to France so you sharing the vlog was really helpful. We still have a number of things to sort out and this video has come in handy.

12:45 That road is a damn sight less busy than when we crawled along it in July!

Excellent video and excellent advice as usual. I like the Michelin route finder page, not come across that before. Have always used Google so that's on the list to try. We were planning a trip to France for 2019 but we decided to wait and see what happens after Brexit. So we booked Cornwall again to be on the safe side. Thank you Andrew for some cracking advice.

On point video Andrew. Not gonna lie though, seeing Dougal's #unimpressed face always brings a smile to my face! 😁

An excellent and detailed video. Thank you very much!

Great Vlog! Enjoyed it; it didn’t seem long because it was very interesting. By the way liked your reference to your shirt / curtain colour; the plain shirt worked much better.

you might think it's a long video but you are so knowledgeable and the information is so useful, it actually seemed quite quick - looking to do my first trip to France next year so this has certainly helped me, thank you

Very good Wonderful good words Best wishes Safe travels forever to you and doogle ☺🐕

My compliments, very informative!

Fabulous video Andrew very informative, my van is away now until February so getting my caravan fixes from you and my other favourite Vloggers. Enjoy Portugal and looking forward to next instalment.

JFYI. We booked through caravan club and needed to change crossing to get back short notice (Friday night for Saturday). You can only change via who you booked with. Friday night the club was closed, so I had to book Ferry online to get home. You can't modify your booking online with caravan club. So ended up costing us £100 more. Booked direct last time and was able to change date / time / people not problem at all. Thats a BIG gotcha for us. Great video as always... Thanks, Graham

Andrew and the Gypsy Souls. Two excellent, sites full of caravan information.

Very informative video :)

Excellent and thorough introduction. I'm looking forward to seeing your review of the towcar, I'm interested in your thoughts on the pros and cons compared to the Navara as I'm choosing between a big SUV and a pickup!

Great video. Good camping sites.

Great video as always. We would love to go round France in the future. :-) I like google maps to put all the stuff we want to see... then we can group them into manageable days. No point in going in circles.

Thank You, Thank You. This is just what we needed to see and learn from. Thanks Andrew. 👍😀 P&J

Thank you Andrew, we are planning our summer trip in our newly acquired Vw camper. The via Michelin app is great, has the road signs etc and fuel costs which is helpful for coatings.

I’ve been wondering how to pay a toll with a right hand drive car for a while, pleased to see that it’s ok to get out and walk around. 👍 Also that cover picture you took with the car, caravan, the dog in the window and the France sign going into the train is a brilliant photograph! Thanks for creating such a useful and informative film. Stephen 😀

Andrew's guides are not only useful but they inspire confidence, especially if you're new to caravanning or motorhoming abroad. Also, site reviews are invaluable both in the UK and Europe because there's nothing worse than travelling all day only to find dirty facilities on a litter strewn site. I know most leisure vehicles these days are self-contained, but at 6' 4" it's nice for me to stretch out in a mains shower occasionally and wash-up crocks and pans in purpose built sinks. Also, for what many site owners charge you'd expect the place to always be kept spotless. Unfortunately, many are so lazy that they can't be bothered to keep the site and its facilities clean, showing their contempt for the people who keep their businesses thriving. These slob site owners should be brought to book, and bad reviews and the resultant loss of revenue will hopefully make them change their ways.

I wish it would be easier to take a long road trip like for example, a Eurasia expedition. Maybe one day I can tour Europe. I'll keep this video saved and bookmarked. ;)

Excellent video

Hi Andrew. Really enjoyed the video - as always. Particularly liked the ideas on route planning and the practical suggestions on site booking. Great ideas for when we take our first trip into Europe which we are planning now.

I am a motorhomer and I found your route planning tips excellent. On the fun side - paying tolls when driving a motorhome is not as easy as just leaning out the window. The one set of buttons is too high (set for truckers) and the other set is too low (set for cars). I enjoyed my wife cursing because the change slot means she has to open the door and get out or contort around it (because she is only in her socks). Such fun!

Here’s a google map trick I’ve used many times in conjunction with a TomTom sat nav. If you can’t find a specific address or you want to identify a junction or other entrance. Right click the mouse on the feature on google maps. This gives you a very precise lat and long location, which can then be entered into to your TomTom. Works a treat, found many a factory entrance using this method and street view to confirm the location.

Hope you get your airstream sorted you are an airstream lover

Hi Andrew and Dougal. Love video and found it very informative. Now you done holidays and new Motorhome Reviews. How about you do a review and holiday in a 30year old Motorhome. But not a VW Campervan. Just a thought. Cheers from George and Jane UK

Spot on 👍👌 Europe can get additive it's never as scary as we may think, go once an your hooked😊 so much to see an do🌲🌳🌴☀️🌈🍇🥨🍦🥂🍻🏔⛰🏕⛲️🏰🌅. Let's hope they let us in next year 😂. Lee 🎩

Via Michelin TIP was worth the entire 30 minutes!

thanks for this video but can you make a video for foreign tourist who wishes to visit UK or Europe and want to hire caravan/motorhome and go on a short trip a guide like this.

Did Andew rabbit on? 🤔 = No! It was most informative. A excellent video 👏👏👏.

Thanks really useful info

Great informative video You do need clean air stickers and vignettes for various countries too.

Hi Andrew and Dougal. You don't need a printer, dependant on your operating system and potentially with Adobe viewer installed you can print to a pdf file. Click on the change printer output option.

Thank you Andrew. I especially appreciate the tip about Via Michelin. I had not heard of that before. One thing I would maybe disagree about is the distance to travel in a day. Your advice is good for people on an extended touring trip. However if you only have 2 weeks and want to get south for the sun for example, I would go much further per day on the outward trip. Get there quicker. But on the way home, take it easy. You don't want to get home tired.

Excellent video! Another tip if you don't have printer to print out route: click print button anyway. You will see "PDF" option. Click it, select "Save as PDF" and it will save your route as document that you can open later at any time. Then you can send it to your phone or just keep on laptop. During breaks you can look up parts of route from that file without needing internet connection.

ViaMichelin is a great tip. I also found free iPhone and iPad ViaMichelin apps that looks really useful.

thank you

Found the video most useful, especially the tip about “via Michelin”, We’re long distance lorry drivers, but that app. Looks useful. For fellow campervaners and Motorhomers can I point you in the direction of “park4night” app.

Hi Andrew, I agree with the distance per day you mentioned. I have found if I try to drive more than 200 miles in a day I get completely wiped out. If I’m in Scotland, I change that to no more than 4-5 hours. Have a great time xxx

Shame that he caravan button on Via Michelin has now been taken away - was hoping to use VM more going forward but for me, that was one of the main reasons. Great video as always Andrew.

Downloaded the ViaMichelin and gave it a try. Even with the caravan toggle on it was guiding me down a single track road with a few passing places. Very scary. Good job I viewed the route on street view first and didn’t take the caravan. Doesn’t seem too effective.

Hi Andrew. This is a very useful video, thank you. I agree that Via Michelin is a real asset for caravanning, particularly because of the caravan check box option. Also, on security - unfortunately, incidents do occur - such as thefts at motorway toll points by motorcycle riders. Fo this reason, I would always lock the car even if exiting the vehicle momentarily to pay a toll. I'm not just being "clever" about his - we were victims in 2002...

The first time I took a caravan abroad I booked nothing and that was stress free, Ok I booked a ferry the day before but only to get it cheaper. Not having deadlines is much better and there are plenty of places to park up en-route especially if you take the autoroute. If not France and Spain have plenty of places to park up, then find a site you like. I would never go in July or August as that is hugely stressful with very busy roads and damn HOT!! The rest of the year it's easy. Oh one major thing you fail to mention are the RN roads in France. Things have changed in the past few years and if there is a parallel autoroute forget the Route Nationals. They are festooned with roundabouts, traffic lights, traffic calming, 30km/hr limit sections meaning it will take you a week to do what you can on an A road in a day. If you are towing a caravan you will wear your gearbox out before you get to Spain...oh and the speed traps...Bonne chance.

LOL yes I wondered about the curtains, whether the shirt was used for them or them for the shirt, thanks for solving another mystery. I'm not sure how you feel about the airstream now after that vid on how things went wrong with yours...

Would love an travel abroad video after Brexit, see all the new processes especially with a dog

Hi Andrew, Informative, information presented in segments, personal insight, anecdote reflections,.... Your demeanor & physical appearance as always friendly/pleasent. The Dougal stills are filled with personality. Fabulous, 👬🇺🇸🇬🇧🌈💞😍🍌😮🌋😍🍩🍌😣😀💥🌋

please try to get the campervan trip in during the first half of 2019 - 😊

Thanks for sharing. My question is ; what are the best caravans to buy and how much petrol roughly is used on a trip?

omfg Dougal is soo cute!

You know Andrew, Charlie Boorman and Ewan McGreggor could use a good logistics guy in their London motorcycle HQ. I heard they will be doing "Long Way Up" next year in the Americas. You DO have that North American San Diego experience on your resume/CV, good motorcycle skills and, I'm sure Dougal would love chasing a few llamas, which are pretty much just tall sheep. 😀. Hmmmm?

14:06-14:16 In reference to maps, what about Rand McNally or the local motor clubs (AAA in the USA, CAA in Canada, or The Royal Automobile Association Club in the UK)?

Der Andrew, many Thanks vor this very good Video. I am german and I share your experience with Viamichelin. One more point is that a lot of road numbers in google are wrong. Realy terrible. And also important for me, You have more details. You can realy see on the map, even in the smallest village, where you have to go at the beginning in the middle or at the end. I have my paper Michelin too. Thanks a lot. Jürgen from Germany

Hi Andrew Only just got around to watching this , yes it is a long video, but with great content. I'm aiming for a trip through France into Spain when lockdown and restrictions are lifted and was wondering about the marker boards on back of caravans that are needed if in spain. Is this a requirement in France also? Or are they only required if your rig is over a certain length? Regards Steve

Is the one nsurance only cover caravan,motor homes? Is it included A van convert into camper?

That shot at the start reminds me, whatever happened to the Etrusco coffee maker give away? I never saw anything about it on their Facebook page, did I miss it?

thank you for that andrew that helped me a lot mate

Just a thought. If you don't have a printer available, then "Print to PDF" and then you can have that file available on phone, tablet or computer, without having to redo the map each time.

Please could you do an update to this video post brexit, and in particular, in relation to taking a dog, thanks

27:25 We have an Emovis tag (formerly Sanef). The tolls are the same price, but to us the benefit is just sailing through without any hassle or grief. It's even better now that the 30kph lanes seem to have their height restrictions lifted and you don't even need to stop.

The instructions for Portuguese tolls was only partly correct, its fine if joining at the extreme Spanish end of the A22 to rely on registering a credit card but intermediate junctions do not have the facility and the other methods will have to be used

What a great resource Michelin maps are, thanks Andrew! True enough I can save £4 by taking an alternative route to Wales soon. Think I'll use the bridge on this occasion though, I can just about afford a £4 premium. Seriously, for European trips it's marvellous. One minor detail, I entered my exact car details (which was a nice surprise) and it calculated the cost over 254 miles to be £47 (£4 extra with tolls) with or without the caravan. I would expect 25% higher amount than stated towing. Of course it'd be impossible to calculate the extra cost depending on the weight of the caravan.

How long is the journey on the euro tunnel?, Does dougal have to cross his legs😁

Oh wow, it's been a long time since I saw commercials on websites. You know there are adblocker for safari. It gets rid off all the annoying commercials on the webpages.

Why the hell did they give you a failing grade? An "F"?! Throw that out, we give you an A+!