Bkw141

Hi Patgale

add my input into the very interesting and excellent advices above.

My wife and I are avid travellers and spent many years in planes, trains and cars travelling around the world. Like you, got fed up with hassle at airports, trying to find hotels and, when there, "stck" in one place for better or worse. in addition, I being English and my wife french and spent our married life living in UK and France, we realised that we had hardly seen any of either country or much else of continetal Europe. two years ago, after 3 years of extensive research, we bouoght a mobile home and have not loked back since.

Freedom to go where you xant, when you want and with your own home on wheels with you is fantastic.

before we purchase our camper van 2 years ago, we spent 3 years researching on internet, looking at forums (and finally joining this one which is the only one we found that is good), spending days eaxh at many exhibitions, visiting dozens of dealerships in France and Belgium, hiring one for a week AND knocking on doors of parked camper vans and spending hours discussing their experinces etc. like the internet, information overload and much that conflicted. we also spent many an evening over a bottle of wine listing and then re-listing our must/nice to/must not haves. once you get to that agreed list, then go back to dealerships/exhibitions and try and find a model that fits as close as possible.

an additiopnal consideration is that, at hte exhibitipons, the dealers offer special deals including packs added free of charge. we got tv, sattelite, solar panel,second battery and a lot more included in our model free of charge. also negotiate other extras; they need to sell the stock!

as we are retired, we had the time to do all of the above and it was much more fun than it sounds. net result is that the camper van was 90% exactly what we wanted. we did over 20,000 kms in first 11 months and then it was victim of homejacking!

OK, 3 months later adter insurance settled, went out and bought second one that is 95% exactly what we wanted and, to date, done over 20,000kms!

compared to decades of tradtional travelling, thos 40,000kms represent some of te best, varied, interesting holidays we have ever had. freedom to go slowly, be diverted to see sights off the beaten track, meet a mcyh broader range of people and also belonging to a camping car fraternity; paerk next door to each other or just pass in street and always open and friendly.