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Travel
Tips
We
have been camping continuously for over a year in Europe
in our VW camper van.
We have a few tips to pass on to any intrepid travelers
out there planning a similar journey.
Western Europe:
Light tight
curtains! If you're traveling in the
northern countries, i.e. Scotland, Ireland,
Scandinavia,... look into light tight curtains
for your camper. If this is not possible, be sure
to have some comfy eye masks. It stays light 'til
11pm and gets going again after 4am. This makes
it hard to get those good melatonin hormones
going. You can get tired out or sick pretty
quick.
ATM machines beat
travelers checks! You get a better rate
of exchange. And because you're using local
currencies, you avoid all the hassles. There are
machines everywhere, even small towns and they'll
take both the Cirrus and the Plus network, as
well as others. Call your bank to find out if
your debit card is part of either network as it
is sometimes not written on the back of your
card. It is important to know which one because
sometimes a machine will take one and not the
other, but it's always marked on the machine.
Budget more for
Petrol! Corollary: get a camper with a
diesel motor. You might think $2 a gallon is bad
back in the States, but here it's nothing to
spend $5.
Use Web based E-mail
(i.e. Hotmail, Yahoo, Juno, etc.). We
use a laptop because of our need to update our
web page, cyber banking, as well as composing
e-mails off-line. But it's a hassle to get access
to phone lines, especially in France. But if you
must use a laptop, be sure to get hooked up with
a global ISP or an ISP that has roaming
arrangements around Europe. That way at least
when you're pleading for a phone line, you can
show them the local access number.
Read up before you
come. This makes things so much more
fun. A Europe experience is a great time to learn
loads about history and art. Some of the books we
found useful are on our Books
Page.
Eastern Europe:
Cross borders at
Major Border Stations! I.E. the ones on
major roads. Also, do it during the day, avoid
the middle of the night. While being suspicious
is part of a border guard's job description,
these former communist states seem to excel at
this aspect of their profession. If you cross at
an unpopulated place or time, they wonder why
you're there and have all the time in the world
to investigate your presence. This can be
intimidating and unpleasant. You run the risk of
losing any time gains you thought you might make.
Be absolutely sure you have all your auto papers
-- green card, registration and rental agreement.
They're looking for stolen cars.
Stock up on camping
gas. Our VW camper van has the 3 kilo
butane gas bottles which are handled very easily
in the West through an exchange at all camp
grounds and some gas stations or grocery stores
(drop off your old canister and pick up a full
one). However, In Eastern Europe there is no
exchange program whatsoever. It is sometimes
possible to fill these bottles at a large
facility that refills the large 100 kilo bottles
for home gas stoves. But in our travels we were
only able to do this in Hungary and Romania,
after searching for hours and sometimes days. We
tried unsuccessfully in Poland, Slovakia and the
Czech Republic. It's a matter of plumbing: the
thread sizes are different. If you know you're
coming to E. Europe, discuss it with the person
you get your van from, perhaps they have an
adapter solution.
Have toilet paper on
you at all times!
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