France, Germany, Switzerland in a motorhome
Discussion
Deesee said:
No sorry not that I’d recommend, however for the kids I would recommend Courmayeur, if you go via the tunnel Mont Blanc, there’s a swimming pool at 1800 meters and if they wrap up they can go onto the glacier (3000 meters ?!?) loads of ice cream and fairly reasonable restaurants, and supermarkets.
If you go Simplon (my preferred) look at brigerbad there’s a big thermal spa with a big slide on the mountain!
Cheers.If you go Simplon (my preferred) look at brigerbad there’s a big thermal spa with a big slide on the mountain!
I stayed in the hut on the glacier above Courmayeur last September. The weather report described it as "unseasonably chilly" at -10°C.
dsl2 said:
Hi Vex, here already old fruit & unfortunately leaving next week. A real shame as it’s absolutely fabulous & of course would of been great to meet up for a few beers & a chat to say thanks for when I picked your brain with my home auto issues!
We are staying at camping jungfrau & ive picked up the winter offer brochure, it’s a steal from 1st October through to 30th April for 1390 euros plus electric on top, seems very fair indeed almost wish I was into skiing & winter sports!
I don’t want to leave, contemplating looking into leaving the truck here & flying home, then coming back next month for a few weeks.
Popped in there today, what a great site and totally different to its winter feel. Had a good chat the one of the winter organisers and came away with a lot more confidence and a good feeling for the site.We are staying at camping jungfrau & ive picked up the winter offer brochure, it’s a steal from 1st October through to 30th April for 1390 euros plus electric on top, seems very fair indeed almost wish I was into skiing & winter sports!
I don’t want to leave, contemplating looking into leaving the truck here & flying home, then coming back next month for a few weeks.
They even have their own parking team to get the van etc onto your pitch properly and where you want it.
Can’t wait to organise something and get down there.
V.
Yes a stunning location made all the more special by the fabulously helpful staff we encountered throughout, great onsite shop / supermarket & pretty decent if exceptionally busy restaurant too.
Absolutely loved the place & suspect we will be spending a good three or four weeks based there again next June.
Let us know how it goes if you end up staying over winter as I'd be intrigued to hear just how well the Swiss cope with keeping things moving for campers in the snowy freezing cold winter conditions.
Absolutely loved the place & suspect we will be spending a good three or four weeks based there again next June.
Let us know how it goes if you end up staying over winter as I'd be intrigued to hear just how well the Swiss cope with keeping things moving for campers in the snowy freezing cold winter conditions.
After starting this thread and saying we had 3.5 weeks we've had a long think and have now changed our plans. The route / plans are still roughly the same, but we have now pushed the trip out to 5 weeks!
Current Plan is......
- Drive to the Vosges area of France via Metz / Nancy and spend a few days there
- Go to Switzerland (Interlaken area) and spend another week or so there
- Go to the Black Forest area of Germany, spend a few days there, maybe visit the Alsace area of France by cris-crossing the Rhine
- Slowly make our way home via the Rhine valley, then pick up the Moselle River and make our way towards Luxembourg before heading back to Calais
I'm not convinced 5 weeks is long enough, but kids need to go back to school and I need to try and find a job!
Current Plan is......
- Drive to the Vosges area of France via Metz / Nancy and spend a few days there
- Go to Switzerland (Interlaken area) and spend another week or so there
- Go to the Black Forest area of Germany, spend a few days there, maybe visit the Alsace area of France by cris-crossing the Rhine
- Slowly make our way home via the Rhine valley, then pick up the Moselle River and make our way towards Luxembourg before heading back to Calais
I'm not convinced 5 weeks is long enough, but kids need to go back to school and I need to try and find a job!
dterry said:
- Go to the Black Forest area of Germany, spend a few days there, maybe visit the Alsace area of France by cris-crossing the Rhine
If you're going as far south as Freiburg in the Black Forest area, I can recommend a wonderful site I've been going to since a kidhttps://www.camping-kirchzarten.de/
Plenty to do in the area, with a free swimming pool next door and you get a free travel card to get into the city too (the city is very nice too)
Thanks for all of the suggestions previously, we are now on our trip......
We got the eurotunnel last Friday (27th August), basically during all of the delays. Our scheduled crossing was 16:20, we eventually left the UK at around 19:20 and arrived in France in the dark and in the middle of a massive thunderstorm. Rather than drive for anothr few hours we stayed at a small aire at Gravelines between Calais and Dunkirk. The aire was basic, but just outside the moat and the fort town so we looked around on the Saturday morning
Saturday was spent driving through Belgium and Luxembourg, staying saturday night at an aire in Amneville. This was a little weird as the aire was basically a wooded area at the back of a large leisure area (hotels / zoo / casino / cinema etc)
Sunday was a relatively short drive to Gerardmer in the Vosgues, and effectively the start of our holiday. We stayed for 3 days at camping les sapins which is 200m from the lake, and a 15 minute walk from the town. Campsite was great and cost around 29euro per night for motorhome, 2 adults, 2 kids, dog and electric, pitch was approx 10m x 8m
We then moved to Xonrupt-Longemer which is about 5km from Gerardmer and stayed for 3 nights at camping du lac which is just across a quiet road from lake longemer. A much more basic site and more crammed in, but at a cost of 40euro for 3 nights it was excellent value, i would have still been happy at twice the price.
Today we travelled a few miles again and are based at Camping Vauban on the edge of the fort town of Neuf-Brisach, this site is great, massive pitches and massively spread out, but very very quiet. We’ll stay here for a couple of days and 5hen head down towards Basel and into Switzerland.
So far our biggest problem has been the heat... i never though i’d say that, but with much of the past 8 days being over 30c, with some days hitting 38c it has been very hot, today with an outside temperature of 36c and no breeze the van was hitting 42c inside and there was no escape. Sleeping has been very difficult in these temperatures. Luckily the lakes have been lovely and the inflatable kayak has had a lot of use.
We got the eurotunnel last Friday (27th August), basically during all of the delays. Our scheduled crossing was 16:20, we eventually left the UK at around 19:20 and arrived in France in the dark and in the middle of a massive thunderstorm. Rather than drive for anothr few hours we stayed at a small aire at Gravelines between Calais and Dunkirk. The aire was basic, but just outside the moat and the fort town so we looked around on the Saturday morning
Saturday was spent driving through Belgium and Luxembourg, staying saturday night at an aire in Amneville. This was a little weird as the aire was basically a wooded area at the back of a large leisure area (hotels / zoo / casino / cinema etc)
Sunday was a relatively short drive to Gerardmer in the Vosgues, and effectively the start of our holiday. We stayed for 3 days at camping les sapins which is 200m from the lake, and a 15 minute walk from the town. Campsite was great and cost around 29euro per night for motorhome, 2 adults, 2 kids, dog and electric, pitch was approx 10m x 8m
We then moved to Xonrupt-Longemer which is about 5km from Gerardmer and stayed for 3 nights at camping du lac which is just across a quiet road from lake longemer. A much more basic site and more crammed in, but at a cost of 40euro for 3 nights it was excellent value, i would have still been happy at twice the price.
Today we travelled a few miles again and are based at Camping Vauban on the edge of the fort town of Neuf-Brisach, this site is great, massive pitches and massively spread out, but very very quiet. We’ll stay here for a couple of days and 5hen head down towards Basel and into Switzerland.
So far our biggest problem has been the heat... i never though i’d say that, but with much of the past 8 days being over 30c, with some days hitting 38c it has been very hot, today with an outside temperature of 36c and no breeze the van was hitting 42c inside and there was no escape. Sleeping has been very difficult in these temperatures. Luckily the lakes have been lovely and the inflatable kayak has had a lot of use.
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