Our Tips and Tricks For Long Haul Travel

There are several ‘little things’ you can do in advance, and each day, which ensure your on the road experience is as smooth as possible.

Maintenance
Make sure that your motorhome is up to its optimum holiday standard. Tyre pressure should be ‘just right’ (as per the manual for your model). The lights (indicators, too) should all be in good working order – and so should the brakes! The engine might need some oil, the radiator might need some water – and so on. You could get a professional involved, here, if you think it is necessary. Book in for a service or check-up with a garage that deals with leisure vehicles and large motorhomes if you feel that something may require attention before making your next big trip.

Maps
Okay, this is the digital age, and everyone loves a satellite navigation system. One of these electronic devices hooked up to the clever tin cans in the sky means travel is very easy. A sat nav is brilliant for pointing you in the right direction once a destination is programmed in and telling you when you need to take a turn (etc). Plus, if yours is updating correctly, it’s handy for keeping you notified about the situation on the roads ahead so that you can miss out newly occurring snags and difficulties. But[HD1] there’s no real substitute for ‘proper’ maps. The printed kind. The kind you can spread out over the table at breakfast, and physically trace the day’s route with your finger.

For a start the physicality of paper maps means they take up a larger area so everything is instantly more visible than on a sat nav screen, and that can only be a good thing. Seeing large and being able to use your finger to run along the route means the information is going to ‘get in’ to the brain. We’re not necessarily suggesting you use paper maps instead of a sat nav – but more so in addition to. Covering all bases, as it were. The downside of paper maps is that they don’t do the whizz-bang stuff that sat navs do. They don’t tell you when to turn or notify you of a diversion due to an accident or other incident.

So, take paper maps and use them at the start of the day, before setting off (or the night before, when planning) and as ‘back up’. They’re a great way to get an overall view of your routes.

Intercontinental prep

If you’re going travelling around Europe rather than staying in the UK, there are various things you must do beforehand:

• Make sure your passport is up to date.
• Ensure you have the correct UK sticker on the back of your vehicle.
• Obtain GHIC or EHIC (these are health insurance cards) if you haven’t already.
• Make sure that you have travel insurance and breakdown cover.
• Research, and be aware of specific travel regulations in each country you intend to visit – and the up-to-date versions of these can easily be found using our old friend the internet.

Weather appropriate attire

Nothing quite like chucking everything in the back of your vehicle at short notice and heading off into the sunset. However, common sense and even a cursory amount of research can save you a lot of hassle. How much of a disaster would your short break or holiday be if you just sprang into action (from the armchair in your living room to the driving seat of your motorhome, in minutes), and arrived at your destination only to find that it was raining cats and dogs? Or snowing? Or absolutely freezing cold and you haven’t brought a suitable coat?

A little bit of planning, in this regard, can go a long way. Check the weather forecasts online – there are plenty of easily accessible sites which can help you out, here. Check for the days you will be travelling, staying and travelling back again. Check the area you will be travelling to. All of this specific information should be pretty easy to find. Once you have it, you can plan what is appropriate to take in terms of clothing and footwear (etc).

Obviously if you are travelling across or around Europe you are going to find that conditions can be quite different to here in the UK. So, again, do your homework in terms of the likely weather scenarios you’ll encounter, and take the right steps (pack the right gear)!

Food

The chances are that you will choose to ‘eat out’ at some point while you are on the road. Perhaps you’ll park up at a camping site and cook your own most nights, or perhaps you’ll venture to the nearest town to enjoy the lunchtime cafés and the night-time restaurants. Perhaps the journey is everything and you’ll be spending almost all of your time literally on the road – and so motorway service stations will become meal providers each day.

Our advice is that if it’s at all possible to plan in advance then you should. Think about the meals you are likely to have in your motorhome. It’s a simple equation: how many days will you be away, how many meals a day will actually be in your motorhome – and therefore how much food do you need to take? It’s no good taking thirteen tins of beans and only two bread buns if you’re intending to have beans on toast every day. That’s an extreme example, of course, but the principle stands. If you can bear it, plan out your meals in advance and take the food you need.

However, you might be in a position to buy food while you’re travelling. If you’re going to be away for a couple of weeks, you could take ‘long life’ milk with you for your regular cuppa. Or, if you are going to be moving from inhabited place to inhabited place, you might think it better to buy fresh from local shops every couple of days.

Entertainment

If you are bringing your motorhome out of its winterisation phase, you should remember to put the TV and radio or media player back in before you set off. Nothing quite like getting 400 miles away and settling down for the evening to watch that DVD of that great film, only to find that you’ve left the TV or the DVD player back at the ranch. Or the remote control! Don’t forget that either!

Other important accessories

Really, what we mean here is make sure you take a first aid kit with you. Plasters, bandages, antiseptic, headache tablets, cold remedies, antihistamine tablets, insect bite spray and so on. All of the ‘quick fixes’ that will make you feel better if there’s illness or minor injury.

It’s also worth taking spares of lightbulbs, toilet roll, toothpaste – plus a repair kit if you have a motorhomewith a garage or boot rack and you’re taking your bike along too!