If you are someone who loves the freedom to go pretty much wherever you want, whenever you want, without major planning and the stress and expense of booking flights, hotels etc, then it sounds like motorhome travel could be for you. However, it’s certainly not a luxury way to travel and as with everything, motorhome travel does have it’s downsides, so it’s important to be aware of the good and the bad before you decide whether it is for you.
We want to give you an honest review of how we have found motorhome travel, to help you decide whether it is something that you could see yourself doing or not!
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The Best Things about Motorhome Travel
There is so much that we love about travelling in our motorhome, it’s hard to give it as much justice as it deserves in one blog post, but we’ll give it a go.
– The freedom to travel wherever, whenever
There is no need to worry about booking flights, finding good hotels and finding the best prices with motorhome travel, and that’s something that we love the most. We absolutely love the fact that we can wake up in a new place every day if we want to, and we don’t need to give it too much planning. We have travelled so freely all over Europe and the UK in our motorhome and for us, this is the number 1 best thing that we love about motorhome travel.
– You can bring your pets
One of the main reasons that we chose this type of travel for ourselves was so that we could bring our dog, Lottie, with us! We just love being able to bring her on our travels with us, as leaving her behind at home was not an option. She just loves exploring new places as much as we do and it makes us really happy to see her having such a great time on our motorhome travels. We know that pets are part of the family and nobody really wants to leave them behind so motorhome travel gives both you and your pet the freedom to travel which we think is amazing.
– You get to go to places that you would never normally go on just a holiday
Another thing that we really love about motorhome travel is that we get to travel to small towns, villages, and remote locations that we wouldn’t really visit if we went on a normal holiday, where we’d be more likely to spend more time sat around the pool at the hotel or at the beach. It’s great to be able to check out the lesser known tourist locations and find some hidden gems in our motorhome! Also – some of the park-ups we have stayed at on beaches, in mountains and by the side of lakes, with the most stunning sunset / sunrise views, right in the middle of nature, you just don’t get with any other type of travel.
– It can be less expensive than other forms of travel
The cost of package holidays, flights and hotels is more expensive than ever at the moment, and a holiday abroad for some families is just not affordable. Motorhome travel can be a much more affordable way to travel, especially for families, and you can still get to stunning locations in Europe without the ridiculously high travel agency costs.
– You have all of your belongings with you
This is something that we love a lot about this style of travel. Packing what you need for a week or a couple of weeks into a suitcase and making sure that you’ve remembered everything can be so stressful – but with motorhome travel, it’s not something that you need to worry about at all. You can take all of your favourite belongings and your home comforts, well, maybe not all, there are obviously some space limitations, but not as much as when you’re packing a suitcase!
We love that we can pack things like our kayak and bikes so that we can get out and do our favourite activities wherever we want to.
– Your motorhome is a mini home on wheels
This point ties in with our point above. Sometimes when you’re travelling, especially for a long time as we do full time, it’s easy to miss things from home. However, when you’re travelling in your motorhome, and you have your home comforts with you, and it does become a mini home on wheels, we find that we don’t feel so home sick and coming back to the van after a day of exploring always feels like coming back to your home. You can cook, shower, go to the toilet and sleep in your van, just like you would your home.
– The community of other van life travellers
We have met some lovely people whilst on our motorhome travels. Whenever you’re driving down the road in your motorhome and you pass another one, most people love to give you a wave, and it really does feel like a little motorhome community! You get to meet lots of other like-minded people at campsites or park-ups and it’s great to chat to people and share your travel plans and experiences. There are also some great motorhome Facebook groups where you can learn so much and people are really helpful.
– You can work remotely from the most amazing locations
If like us, you plan to travel long term in your motorhome, and you may need to do some remote working on the road, then you will see why this point is a highlight of motorhome travel for us. This style of travel allows us to be able to work from wherever we like, given that we have signal, and earn money whilst on the road which is really important to us. We have worked all over Europe and the UK in some stunning locations that you would never dream that you could work in! Beats going into the office or working from our home in the UK!
The Worst Things about Motorhome Travel
Although there are many, many great things about motorhome travel, as with every type of travel, there are some not so great and we want to be completely honest with you and share everything so that you know both sides.
– It’s not luxury, and it doesn’t really feel like a holiday at all sometimes
It’s safe to say that motorhome travel isn’t the most luxurious way to travel. If you’re like us and you’re travelling on a budget, then you’ll probably still cook most of your own meals like we do, so it’s certainly not like an all inclusive holiday where you can just pick whatever food you like from the buffet! Also – emptying your own toilet, and that’s all we need to say about that!
However, if you’re not somebody who wants the most luxurious things when you’re on holiday then the amazing things about motorhome travel far outweigh the less luxury things!
-There are lots of chores to do
This point ties in with our point above. As mentioned, you’ll find yourself cooking, cleaning, emptying toilets, filling up with water and emptying grey waste pretty much on a daily basis. It’s not like the usual holiday where you would go to a hotel and somebody would be doing all of those things for you – well, no need to empty the toilet in a hotel! But all of these chores do add up.
– Driving a large motorhome can be difficult in some places
There are some small roads in the South of France, Italy and even in the Lake District in the UK which have been really difficult and stressful for us to drive. Also, having to think about where you’re going to park all the time can be stressful too. Driving a motorhome is very different to driving a car and there is a lot more to think about.
– You can worry about the security of the motorhome when you’re not in it
Because your van becomes your mini home on wheels and has your personal belongings in it, it can sometimes be a worry when you leave it parked up to go out for the day. There are however lots of security measures that you can take to make sure that you’re leaving your van as secure as possible, such as trackers, steering wheel locks, safes, security cameras and much more, to give you some peace of mind.
– You are in a small space
This is not so much a problem if you plan to just do short trips here and there in your motorhome, but if you plan to travel full time in your motorhome like we do, then you need to be sure that you can live in a small space with the person / people that you’re travelling with! It’s not so easy to take yourself off to another room as you may in your house if you want your own space, so this is definitely something to think about.
We really hope that the points above have helped you to consider whether motorhome travel is for you. All that we know is, making the decision to do motorhome travel for us was the best decision we’ve ever made, and we’ve made memories that will last a lifetime on our travels and seen the most beautiful places!
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I love everything about travel, from seeing new places, learning about new cultures and trying new foods! I believe that travel is one of the best forms of education you can get, I have learnt so much about myself and about the world from travelling all over. Travel is something I feel so passionately about, and I love the fact that we are now lucky enough to have this opportunity to do what we love as much as we can, it’s a dream come true.
Before we started travelling, I worked in local government in administration. I had been in this job for several years and had reached a complete brick wall where I was so fed up, but didn’t know what else to do. The only thing I knew that I wanted to do was to travel, and had wanted to do that for many years.
There were hundreds and hundreds of places on my wishlist that I wanted to go to, and I knew that going on a weeks holiday maybe twice a year if we were lucky wasn’t going to cut it.
After being in lockdown due to the Covid pandemic, and working from home staring at the same 4 walls every day, 2021 seemed like the perfect time for us to take the risk to finally do what we had dreamed of for so long.
It was a hard decision to completely change our lives, but so far it has been the best decision we have ever made!
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