Hi, my husband and I have just bought an Autosleeper Palermo and are planning on selling everything we own to live a nice basic life in the fresh air away from the crowds.
We are a music duo and will be working each evening at venues mostly in south devon. We are finding it difficult to think of places where we can just pull in and sleep overnight (obviously staying on a site every night is going to work out very expensive.)
Most parks and sites that i have contacted are not interested in full timers and we are starting to wonder if we have made the right decision.
Does anyone have any thoughts or advice on this please?
I suppose laybys are the next best thing although assume you will need the odd night on a site or service station to get a shower and refil water and such? I was a trucker when younger and tried to stay away from services due to cost.Remember if in a layby first make sure you park near the end.Trucks have no choice about nightouts and once the drivers hours are up they need to stop and park,you should be ok and get talking to the odd trucker in stops,they know all the best places!
Caravan Club CL's and C &CC CS's are relatively cheap £4 to £8 a night and you can stay on each one for 28 nights (or similar number) and I am sure that if you did not pick the very popular ones they would be happy to do a deal on price for an extended stay. There you would have more security then wild camping, electricity on some and water and dump points.
We hope to do it in the next year or 2 and will use mostly CL/S's as are base, can't wait.
By the way, if you are having trouble getting insurance cover for full timing, try Comfort insurance Brookers who I know do cover with just a C/O address.
There has been quite a bit of discussion on the newsgroups about this and the way I understand it from the discussion is that it is not officailly permitted but then look at the number of lorry drivers who do it every night and how often are they moved on, I believe in one poll I saw there was just a handful of motorhomers who had been distrubed by the police while overnighting in a layby. I only stay in a layby overnight if I want to drive till late and start off again at the crack of dawn, but must admit that when doing this I never get a good nights sleep because I remain alert to every noise outside.
You can stay on Motorway service areas but that will cost you around £8 if you are there over 2 hours.
Could you not negotiate a deal with the owners of the venues you will be working at? If you're parked in a pub car park, for example, you wouldn't need to think about driving anywhere after a late night.
Laybys are designed on the whole for truckers who have no choice and on average spend 4/5 nights out per week.However some laybys are best avoided due to risk of theft.
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: All year round motorhome living
