# Motorhome Newbies!



## JanetD (Feb 8, 2012)

Hi Everyone.

We are very "newbies"!! in fact, having our maiden voyage this weekend!!! (in England) BUT. we are wanting to travel to France in May. Any suggestions, help, ideas, etc. What's best for booking the Ferry. Ideally it would be ok for us to go from Dover to Calais or Portsmouth to St.Malo (bet thats expensive though) So we are just waiting for your help Guys!!

Cheers! Jan& Mick.


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## moblee (Dec 31, 2006)

Hello Jan & mick 

We always book a *Return* on the internet in England before we go, you can get really stung if you do it at the ports.

We've never travelled from Portsmouth but would expect its expensive....Always Dover/calais for us but we live that side of the Uk. 
Have you got your Gas,hook-up cables,Hi viz vests (Poundshop) for Europe, a hose,tin opener,bottle opener,etc, etc....

Hope you enjoy your first trip.


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## JanetD (Feb 8, 2012)

hi phil

well we've got all the hook up stuff and most certainly the Bottle opener!!! (':lol:') 
We used to have a house in Pleine Fougeres, about 10 years ago so thats why we always used the portsmouth/st malo crossing. did the ovwernighter and made it part of the holiday.....the kids used to love the shows on the Stena line!!!

but now weve got the motorhome its seems daft spending a lot of tiem on the crossing.. but it would be nice to retrace "the old days" haha! 

ive joines caravan club and camp + caravanning club so maybe we'll get some ferry discounts. ive heard about acsis ...but not sure yet. 

ooh mustnt forget the hi viz jackets.....and do you have to get a breathalyser tester for france now....by law???

thanks for info..

jan x


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## Wilmannie (Feb 7, 2010)

Hi & wellcome, hope you're looking forward to lots of good times!
If you want to go to France think about the Dover/|Dunkirk DFDS ferry offers, lots of very good price return tickets & easy motorways from Dunkirk to wherever. Also, unless you have a lot of time, consider making your first trip overseas to somewhere not too far away & motorhome friendly like the Moselle Valley or Normandy. (but I tend to be a bit cautous) Whatever you decide, best of luck & hope it all goes well!


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## JanetD (Feb 8, 2012)

thanks for the info wilmannie!


someone else told us to be wary about going abroad early on when using the MH. 
We used to have a house in France and travelled there a lot. (nearly every school holiday) is it very different going in the MH. rather than just driving directly to a house? That sounds a stoopid question really. because i know the answer ....yes it is different ....but do you mean be cautious because we wont know the MH "rules " properly when going to find sites etc? or just because we wouldnt know about being abroad in it......thanks loads for your replies!! 

jan x


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## MrWez (Sep 25, 2011)

Portsmouth/St-Malo is an expensive crossing BUT for me it's preferable to take the short journey from home to Portsmouth and start the holiday as soon as I'm on the ferry as well as starting my holiday closer to where I ultimately want to be on my holiday. To me it's more fun than driving several hours in this country just to get a cheaper crossing and have to drive for the several hours just to get back to where I would have started from if I'd taken a more expensive crossing!

If I was going further east I'd consider Newhaven-Dieppe before the drudgery of driving up to Dover.

It's much easier driving a MH in France, I've also got teenagers that'd whinge incessantly about too much driving - proper touring for me will have to wait until the youngest is at uni.

Your choice of crossing depends on whether you want to save money or where you want to go and how much time you've got to get there.

In addition to the things already mentioned it's important to take an electric polarity tester, many French campsites have reverse polarity electrics which can damage some electrical appliances - it's important to check the polarity before you plug your appliances in or else you can knacker them! We've got some adaptor plugs that our EHU cable plugs into to reverse the reverse polarity back to normal - if you get my drift.

Also some continental sites have different EHU connectors so we have a normal and reverse polarity adaptor for that too.

These adaptors aren't anything fancy only a short length of EHU cable with the appropriate plugs and sockets on them.

MrWez


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## Hymervanman (Aug 20, 2010)

Welcome to this great site. Ashas been mentioned previously to Channel virgins, you can use Tesco Clubcard vouchers to pay the full or part payment on Eurotunnel. It is our chosen method and effectively gets the three of us plus the motorhome across the Channel and back for £40 worth of vouchers. A no brainer really!!
Also get yourself the All the Aires book from Vicarious books- a good start for free aires to stay at.


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## Hydrocell (Jan 29, 2011)

Hi Mick and Jan

The first thing to buy if your going to France in is the All Aires France Book & the ACSI Camping Card and Books, you can get these via VicarousBooks.co.uk they also sell them at the Motorhome shows, these two book along can save you a packet.
As regards to ferries is always going to be Dover/Calais or Dover/Dunkirk, the prices of the other crossings are very, however I worked out last week that I would save £200 going from Dover to Benidorm including the extra fuel from Wales to dove and the fuel from Calais to St-Malo or Caen.

I hate driving to Dover much prefer Plymouth or Portsmouth, but the way the price of fuel is a saving is a saving, the most important thing for us is as soon as we set off we are on Holiday.    

We will be going from Dover to Calais in the next few weeks travelling across if DFDS ferries cost £34 each way it’s a no brainier.
But of course the choice is yours

Regards
Ray


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## pgjohnso (Jan 8, 2009)

We are going Dover - Dunkirk with DFDS going out on 31 March for a two week tour of the Italian Lakes via Luxembourg. Booked end of last year - 2 adults and up to 8m - £48 Bargain. We have previously sailed from Portsmouth - Caen which is a pleasant cruise and excellant for exploring the Normandy area. 
Enjoy.


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