Tuscany Trip to collect brand new Roller Team...
Discussion
Roger Woods said:
AyBee said:
Dammit, just realised the gf is doing the Brighton marathon on the weekend that the dates cover and sadly they don't offer other dates 
Just had a mail back saying that they have avaibility on the 4 and 5th April, I cant do but could that work for you?Roger Woods said:
AyBee said:
No, those were the dates I was talking about. Marathon is on the 9th unfortunately. Put an email to them asking about later dates but I'm not hopeful.
Bugger, sorry left hand and right hand and all that!
I'm semi-tempted to go without her, I could really do with a holiday right now and love exploring!Roger Woods said:
The hire place have confirmed that they do it every year so I'm hoping 18/19 for me, cheap week
I've stuck my email address down to get a reminder next year. I just know they have 200 to bring back and I assume doing it this way is cheaper for them than sticking the remaining ones on a truck so keeping fingers crossed that they might add in some last minute dates.
Well it is all systems go now. I wont go into details, but it has not been quite as straightforward booking it as I may have hoped, we were regretting making the booking at one point as it all seemed a bit disorganised. But it is sorted now, so we will be going out in a couple of weeks and starting the trip back. I HOPE it is going to be good, we have no info on suggested routes or tips on where may be open, where isn't, any areas to avoid or anything, I'd have thought there may be some more help and or info afforded to those of us that are first time customers of theirs and also undertaking what is an unusual trip for the first time.
Having said all that, I drive in Europe all the time in RHD vehicles, so the getting about is not a concern. But will be first time in a proper camper, and I hope we can get a suitable route with decent safe places to stop over. I just hope it is a nice trip and doesn't become an "ordeal!" But let's see!
Having said all that, I drive in Europe all the time in RHD vehicles, so the getting about is not a concern. But will be first time in a proper camper, and I hope we can get a suitable route with decent safe places to stop over. I just hope it is a nice trip and doesn't become an "ordeal!" But let's see!
Edited by s3fella on Wednesday 22 March 18:33
s3fella said:
I hope we can get a suitable route with decent safe places to stop over.
Apologies if I've got it wrong but aren't you free to choose your own route as long as you're back on a certain date? If that's the case I'd have thought it relatively simple to plan your route and stopovers well in advance and have sites booked already. Anyways, the whole thing sounds like a great adventure and I'm sure like many I'm looking forward to hearing how you got on. Antony Moxey said:
s3fella said:
I hope we can get a suitable route with decent safe places to stop over.
Apologies if I've got it wrong but aren't you free to choose your own route as long as you're back on a certain date? If that's the case I'd have thought it relatively simple to plan your route and stopovers well in advance and have sites booked already. Anyways, the whole thing sounds like a great adventure and I'm sure like many I'm looking forward to hearing how you got on. But we have an idea of route now, looking at out via Genoa, Monaco, cannes, then north west to avoid the s
tholes of marseille and montpellier and Toulouse, then up the West coast to Brittany. if the Van has an over cab bed it'll be over 3m and cost you more on the french motorway tolls, unless you push the button and say "je suis un Camping car", then 90% of the time they reduce the price to class 2
check the montblanc / Frejus tunnel prices, as again these can be steep depending on vehicle weight/height/axels
its worth buying "all the Aires" book(s), I've found these the easiest to use, Aires are open all year and often free
(motorway Aires are something completely different, and generally regarded as not safe)
check the montblanc / Frejus tunnel prices, as again these can be steep depending on vehicle weight/height/axels
its worth buying "all the Aires" book(s), I've found these the easiest to use, Aires are open all year and often free
(motorway Aires are something completely different, and generally regarded as not safe)
Spuffington said:
Any update s3fella?
How are you getting on?
We're back all intact! It was a good trip! Harder than you may think, but good nonetheless. How are you getting on?
I'll try to do a bit of an update in summary we had a few glitches but sorted through them:-
The flight out was a bit of a mess, there was a lot of us on what turned out was a group booking and BA had not allocated seating for families and couples, so there was a bit of hassle but it got sorted.
Motorhomes on arrival were not quite how you may expect. They weren't ours, but had you been collecting your own, you'd be disappointed with the finish! Ours wasn't too bad, but had a few nicks and scrapes on it, with masking tape still on areas of the roof! One poor guy was there for about 1.5hours apparently, taking photos of all the damage! And they'd not been washed outside although the Motor home company rep said they should have been. Inside they were new, but again bits of glue to be cleaned up and stunk of fibreglass, but ok, better than external.
Tour of the van for us was a bit "rushed" we've never had one before, some were on their 4th Italy trip, so when they left the grey waste in the open position, saying it was closed in that position, we only noticed after 1st night when had a soggy pitch! Also we had an issue with getting the heating working on night one, as the gas needed to be purged though, but google sorted that one. Again, should perhaps have bene commissioned better? Who knows.
So we learned a bit as we went along. One thing that they will have to sort I think is the 240v adapters for the hook ups in France and Italy. When given the tour, the lady said it was in the gas cupboard but they could not find it. After whizzing about, it seems they had decided to not provide them on this trip as "everywhere uses the standatrd three pin plugs now". Well everywhere we did, until the final night in Le Touquet, did not! So we had only the 12v electric until we located one near to Monacco on day three! But it all worked then and the missus got a hairdryer that was useful on board then too.
Trip wise, we went to La Spezia night one, then up to near Monacco,for a night, down to St Tropez and found a lovely campsite wiht a huge pool complex, and had it pretty much to ourselves for a day, so rebooked for a further two days. Ended up staying til Sunday am and it had got busier Saturday as Euro schools were broken up, so we headed off toward Millau and up towards Claremont Ferrand. That was a long driving day and we had some issues with high winds that made progress slow, so arrived very late. Then an early start next day to try to push to Calais, but again, head winds made slower progress and we stayed last night in Le Touquet, then Calais next am.
Overall, a fun trip and I would do it again. The 7 days is tight, especially if you want to stop somewhere for a few days as we did. In total we did just about 1700 miles, went from 30 degrees and perfect sun to -2 and Snowing on the same day(!). Went up and down some ridiculous climbs on narrow roads, but had no real issues, van drove well. And despite two days of 10 hours driving, it was certainly easier for family than in a car, missus was able to rustle up and serve a proper lunch on both days whilst still belted in in the back!
The 10 day trip would be easier, no doubt. I have learned that whilst in a car, sat nav is generally pesimistic, in camper van it is optimistic and we were consistently a hour or so late on every half decent trip. One day, due to diversions, over 4 hours late! So doing 500 miles in a day even on toll roads is not that easy.
Generally, the further South you are the more welcome we seemed to be. Italy, lovely people but the sites and facilities are not as polished as France.
We had some epicly great days and nights, amazing views and some comedy moments, including an Austin Powers 3 point turn buggy moment in Deiva Marina turning a 7.2m mh in a road about 7.5 m wide! We encountered three height restrictions that required turn around, and surprisingly 2 were within a mile of camp sites were were due to visit, no mention anywhere on websites on in one that we encoutered when we left, not even mentioned by the receptiojn at check out.
Le Touquet is a dump. We stayed at the most expensive place of the whole trip, £30 for a night, and the staff were surly, the place had no hosepipe to refil on board tank, and no grey waste dump. We found an areas there they were doing building work and there as a tap there, hurrah, but the miserable French f
ks has removed the actual T piece from it so no one could use it. None of my spanners fitted! £30 and no water, fking marvellous! For next year.
Make sure we take the mains adapter.
Also, the water pipe for fresh water, we needed a hoselock tap connector which I bought day one, take that.
The fresh water pipe is quite short. Only just reached the van in our two main campsites.
Take hairdryer if you have girls with you!
Take a groundsheet to peg down outside main hab door as most sites were sand or gravel pitches and the sand got everywhere!
As above, take a 12v car hoover, as the sand is a pain to clean with dustpan, especially at hab door threshold which is a channel under the main step level.
Probably extend by a couple of days to take the pressure off, if doing it with family. A lads trip would be no problem in 7 days but it is tight.
Take T BAGS! We bought some, (40) but they were crap and we ran out of them in 5 days anyway!
Try to avoid the massive cycle race we ended up in the middle of, the organisers s
t there pants when they see a RHD brit camper coming down the road that their cyclists are blatting down ignoring that it is not a closed road race! We kept well to the right and drive slow, but there was a few close shaves! St Tropez area, loved it, go back there for sure.
Le Touquez, leave contents of cassette toilet on the campsite entrance! It was truly crap place.
They are doing it next year so go for it!
Great update. Thanks for taking the time.
TBH sounds like a few of your issues were just learners norms and things we've all done with our own vans.
On reflection given the issue with kit, I'll stick to taking my own van and perhaps reconsider my plans for next year.
Shame about Le Touquet - I've been there a good few times (admittedly without the van) and certain bits are nice. Others, it quickly falls apart being a bit touristy. But £30 is outrageous when you think how cheap aires are (or free).
Well done for taking the leap of faith and giving it a go. Could you be persuaded to buy your own now?
TBH sounds like a few of your issues were just learners norms and things we've all done with our own vans.
On reflection given the issue with kit, I'll stick to taking my own van and perhaps reconsider my plans for next year.
Shame about Le Touquet - I've been there a good few times (admittedly without the van) and certain bits are nice. Others, it quickly falls apart being a bit touristy. But £30 is outrageous when you think how cheap aires are (or free).
Well done for taking the leap of faith and giving it a go. Could you be persuaded to buy your own now?
Spuffington said:
Great update. Thanks for taking the time.
TBH sounds like a few of your issues were just learners norms and things we've all done with our own vans.
On reflection given the issue with kit, I'll stick to taking my own van and perhaps reconsider my plans for next year.
Shame about Le Touquet - I've been there a good few times (admittedly without the van) and certain bits are nice. Others, it quickly falls apart being a bit touristy. But £30 is outrageous when you think how cheap aires are (or free).
Well done for taking the leap of faith and giving it a go. Could you be persuaded to buy your own now?
Well we need a garage for motorbikes and mountain bikes, and so the vehicle we had, a rollerteam 690G was the top of our list of MHs. Would I buy one? Well we bought a new (to us) Ducato LWB van this year, to take the bikes and MX bikes, and it is excellent. 100mph, 30 mpg, aircon, nice place to be etc. The MH on same platform was not as an nice a day to day drive, so it could not really replace the new van I dont think. And we averaged 18.2mpg on the trip, although they were all autos!TBH sounds like a few of your issues were just learners norms and things we've all done with our own vans.
On reflection given the issue with kit, I'll stick to taking my own van and perhaps reconsider my plans for next year.
Shame about Le Touquet - I've been there a good few times (admittedly without the van) and certain bits are nice. Others, it quickly falls apart being a bit touristy. But £30 is outrageous when you think how cheap aires are (or free).
Well done for taking the leap of faith and giving it a go. Could you be persuaded to buy your own now?
I could live with the layout and kit, but is it £43k worth of kit for us? Ultimately, I think we need a van for the day to day stuff, MTB trips out, camping etc, but would love the MH aswell if I could justify the cost! Sadly, having got rid of my very reliable trustworth £1200 Ducato van for the new one, I cannot justify the cost of both. So van will stay for now.
If I ever end up with keeping the van and getting JUST a MH, with no need for big garage, I would proabably go for a low profile front one, less restrictions and better MPG. Or maybe a caravan for the back of the Ducato van...!!??
You don't have to buy brand new - our 05 plate MH cost a couple of grand less than half that and does everything we want it to. It was faultless when we went to France the year before last and faultless again touring north and west wales last summer. It also has a bike rack fitted on the back so transporting MTBs is no problem and fuel consumption is around 23-25mpg. Of course should we take it MTBing, we've got a shower handy for when we get back.
Antony Moxey said:
You don't have to buy brand new - our 05 plate MH cost a couple of grand less than half that and does everything we want it to. It was faultless when we went to France the year before last and faultless again touring north and west wales last summer. It also has a bike rack fitted on the back so transporting MTBs is no problem and fuel consumption is around 23-25mpg. Of course should we take it MTBing, we've got a shower handy for when we get back.
Yep, of course. We do need a big garage to take the MX bikes, minimum 125cm tall, and that limits options to things like Rimors, Roller team 690Gs or some CI carrocia stuff.
The shower is a boom, we have one on the van although you do need to heat the water for it first.
Sadly, with the change in FX rates, the same campervan from Italy which was £38k new last year, is now about £42k. This has also put the price of the 2nd hand ones up a bit too.
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