Planning our first trip over to Europe in the car this year camping; the dog and missus in my car and my sister, brother in law and their 18 month old son in their car.
Plan is to travel over night to channel tunnel from Cumbria and get the 3am train; then through France, Belgium and Germany, with our destination being a day at the Nurburgring.
Does anyone have any good suggestions / recommendations for camp-sites along the way, places to eat and things to do / see? Thinking about 5-6 days with the track being just one and a visit to the NationalPark Eifel.
Also thanks for TT's guide, excellent place to start.
Cheers
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The above is a site at Wirftal, part of the Landal group. Pleasant site and accessible for the Nurburgring, we found it a good base for the Eifel. Depending on the date of your visit, if you are in tents, the Eifel is noted for bizarre weather conditions, unique to the locality. At Easter, we went from snow overnight to 20 deg, and back again.
The Eifel is a fabulous area for sight seeing, and if you have time, you are also in striking distance of the Mosel, which again is well worth a trip aiming for around Bernkastel
Eatwise just try anything you are not familiar with, you can't go wrong, but I suppose fresh water fish may be something of a speciality.
You have a lot to cram into 5/6 days but it should be a good taster for a return.
Thanks for the link, thats the type of thing we are looking for. I'm very interested in ww2 history so would like to see the bridge at Remagen.
Looking at last week of July; the thinking behind my plan so far (i have checklists for what to have in the car, where vets are for the worm and tick treatment etc and even have a project plan in the works) is to get to the Nurburgring on day 1, or to that area and relax for day 2 and maybe 3 then head back to Calais stopping off at national parks / towns / villages along the way. Because we will have our dog i'm hoping that pubs / cafes will have outdoor seating.
Obviously we can't see everything but hopefully this will be a taster to many camping trips both in the UK and in Europe.
Do think carefully about this. You are talking about a trip of around 1000km from Cumbria to Nurburg, with only a very short break as you cross the Channel. If you are sharing the driving it may be just feasible for you and your friends, but are you sure your dog and your friends' child will cope with what could be a real ordeal? Our experience is that after a journey like this, we need several days to recover from the drive before we can relax and enjoy our holiday. In your case, it sounds as if you will be packing up and heading home almost as soon as you arrive. Only you can know if this is what you want from your trip, but I have to say, it does sound as if by the time you get your tent put up, visit the vet and take the tent down again, there will be precious little time left to unwind.
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!
Quote: Originally posted by chrissie7 on 14/1/2011
Do think carefully about this. You are talking about a trip of around 1000km from Cumbria to Nurburg, with only a very short break as you cross the Channel. If you are sharing the driving it may be just feasible for you and your friends, but are you sure your dog and your friends' child will cope with what could be a real ordeal? Our experience is that after a journey like this, we need several days to recover from the drive before we can relax and enjoy our holiday. In your case, it sounds as if you will be packing up and heading home almost as soon as you arrive. Only you can know if this is what you want from your trip, but I have to say, it does sound as if by the time you get your tent put up, visit the vet and take the tent down again, there will be precious little time left to unwind.
Thanks for your reply: I am thinking carefully about this hence my forward planning regarding suitable campsites being dog and child friendly. The distance may not be achievable in the time we have planned but we have a contingency that we may add on a further 2 or 3 days.
My first thoughts were to travel through night to the tunnel so my nephew and dog can sleep so there is no long amounts of sitting in the car; this of course will have an affect on myself and brother in law who will be doing the lions share of driving. Thats not to say however that we may decide that will stop off and stay the night multiple times on route which is why I was asking for good quality campsites around the route we are travelling.
If you want to take the route via Brussels to Germany, after arriving in France at 05.00 local time. you should be the other side of Brussels by 8am, so you might be ready to stop at this campsite Nice area & you can visit Brussels. When yer ready you are less than 4hrs from Nurburgring.
Try this one: http://www.camping-lachaumiere.com/ Not far from Calais. The French owners do speak english. The pitches are small but alright for a stop-over campsite near the ferry or eurotunnel.
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: First Time Trip
