Well, we are two weeks into our 5 month tour of Europe and it has certainly been hectic. First nigth we stopped in Germany, near Karlsruhe after a long days driving. Sunny evening, left door open a bit, heavy rain in the night and everything is soaked! Next day drove to venice. Can recommend Camping Miramar on punto sabioni. Very close to the ferry into St Marks Square. Just got the bbq out for food and it started to rain. 3 to 4 hour thunderstorm followed!
Since then we've been down to Vieste (near Foggia, southern Italy), absolutely beautiful. Campo Vieste. Right on the beach. But forgot the bikes were on top of the car and drove under a low barrier...oops. Bent the bike racks but managed to straighten them. At least we could dry things out!
Next we drove across Italy to the Amalfi Coast and took the scenic coastal route. Absolutely stunning, tho a scary drive at times!. Bad news, Lonely Planet said there was a campsite at Priano, so we took the steep road down. There wasnàt one there, couldnàt turn around and burnt out the clutch getting back up the hill. Luckily we'd taken breakdown cover. 4 hours in the baking sun ended with us in Sorrento )absolutley beautiful views from the tent of mount vesuvious, Camping fortunata is the sitename) and the car who knows where. Hopefully we get it back today and can continue up to Rome. Can't believe we've only been here 2 weeks, hopefully things will calm down a little.
Great weather though! Rome and Sardinia next!
Rich & Cat
Don't forget to leave a review of the French and other European campsites you have visited!
Rich & Cat - what a clever idea, get all the problems over at the beginning!! Seriously, heres to 4 1/2 months of trouble free touring from now on for you both.
Not been to Sorrento since about 1972 but my recollections are that it, and the Amalfi coast, were absolutely beautiful. Also seem to recall the 'hairiest' coach drive of my life allong that coast road - and no, I'm not referring to what my hair looked like in the '70s.
Look forward to reading more of your adventures (hopefully happy ones only) as your grand tour continues.
Spent a couple of weeks at Camping Fortunata last year. Our Pitch was just down from the shop. As you say superb view across the Bay of Naples.
Don't forget to pick up your 'Magic Italy' booklet and book mark before you leave Unless you got one a Miramare. This gives you 10% discount at any of the 'Magic Italy' sites. We have never stayed on a bad one yet and there are a couple in Rome and on Sardinia.
Well, sorry for the lack of updates, we ran into a few more problems and any internet time we had was taken up trying to solve them! (broke down again, and then had the car broken into and quite a bit stolen.) Still, that didn't stop us, and we really had a great time. (Massive thunderstorms, Italian mechanics, cancelled ferries, Slug infestations, walking down ski runs, excellent food, Croatian police, rather stupid/scary canoeing experience, smelly tent...and more). To this day I still don't know how we got everything in the car. Will try and add some more details if people are interested?
One thing we were lucky with is the campsites, they were all great.
A quick overview of the places we went.
Germany (stop over)
Venice
Vieste
Sorrento
Rome
Sardinia
Lake Bolsena
Florence (not camping)
Castiglione (Lake Trasimo)
Pakostane (Croatia)
Lake Bohinj (Slovenia)
St Martin (Austria)
Bavaria & Black Forest (Germany, not camping)
Annecy (France)
One night stop over somewhere near biarritz
Comillas
San Vicente (Spain)
The big sand dune near Bordeaux
and Finally just above Le Mans.
Phew..was a great trip, it's just been so hard to settle back into work. It's exactly a year to the week since we set off as well. :(
Hi, I wonder if you could give me a bit of advice, my husband and I are in the process planning an externded tour of Europe ( approx 9 months) which we hope to start in September. We are going in our caravan and towing it with a landrover county. I am having difficulty finding breakdown cover, as many policies only allow you to be abroad for a set amount of days or the car needs to be less than 10 years old. Any advice would be appreciated, also any info on good sites etc.
Julie,
We went with Liverpool and Victoria for the Insurance and Breakdown as they were the only ones we found which would cover us for 5+ months abroad in one trip. (180 days I think)
The breakdown cover was obviously well needed, and it worked out fine. Although you do find your self waiting for things to arrive (taxi, breakdown truck, they say 30 minutes but it's usually 3-4 hours.)
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Touring Europe
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