Hi Mark,

We are in a similar situation only now starting to plan as well, Like you we are planning towards doing UK / Scotland for +/- 2 months ?? before heading for Europe. What best starting time & routes through Europe have you planned? Eastern countries ?
I tend to go towards a full on garage motorhome due to 1 storage ( Mobilette + awnings & Kayaks in your case ) and also the fact that it gives you a full width double bed which I feel important for an extended trip, Weight restriction seems to be an obstacle , C1 licence?
I would like to be able to follow and learn from your moves in buying / planning so please post your forthcoming adventure,

Cheers

Jean

Hiya Sixtiesboy

From our own experience we have had two motorhomes. One without a garage and one with.

We started without a garage and at the time couldn't see much point, or need, for one.... But as we progressed and spent more time in the motorhome on each trip (and acquired a dog with all associated paraphernalia) we decided that a garage was a must! So we traded in our, otherwise perfect, motorhome for one that was a little(!) larger and had a garage.

Having a garage suits our use but even though our current van is a metre and half longer than our old one it has less moving around space inside. The bed over garage bit always means there's some dead space within the motorhome's overall size.

Anything related to layout within a motorhome tends to be a bit of a compromise somewhere...

Long trips do generally mean more stuff to carry and having it all crammed into too smaller space does not promote harmony several 1000 miles down the road.

Best of luck with your deciding and discussions on the subject

Thanks Neilmac and Jean, food for thought although I was already leaning towards the larger garage your comments seem to enforce the need, certainly with a longer duration away, I also plan to take kayaks although the weight bothers me, so I am looking at the inflatable options, I have never tried one out so I need to research them a little more.

In terms of planning Jean we have not done much, this has all come a bit sooner than we expected, I have had VW's before but have never experienced a larger motorhome, my dream was always to retire and just go travelling, with a vehicle that provided a permanent bed and a bit more comfort and see where I ended up.

When I met my present partner she got on board and we looked at how we could do it sooner, we planned to pay off the mortgages as quickly as possible, we bot have a house each, and once free of that expense rent out and live off the proceeds, I have had lodgers for a number of years as I was living in a 4 bed house alone, but someone suggested turning my house into a HMO, House of multiple occupation, after some research and a visit from someone who has a number of them we have decided to convert it into 6 bedrooms and rent out the lot individually.

After doing the sums I will actually be as well off as I am working! So our 4 year plan has suddenly become a 6 month one, we hope to have the house converted by the end of October, at which point we move into my partners house while we sit back for a few months and make sure everything is running OK with that, that time will be spent putting our lives in order, and doing all the things needed to enable us to undertake an extended travel period.

We have been to quite a few shows in the past couple of years looking, but have not got too serious due to the original timescales, but we wanted to be aware of what was available and get an idea on prices, the problem is my partner and I have different ideas on what our motorhome should look like, we are a bit like chalk and cheese, so it is not easy,I get that there will always be a compromise, it is just working out what things are essential and then work out the compromises around those.

So to be totally honest we don't have many firm plans around our trip, we did not want to go too far to start with as the motorhome will be new to us, so if we have problems and need things sorted we are not to far away, so we thought the summer travelling around Scotland, northern England and perhaps Ireland, then travelling somewhere warmer, my thoughts then would be heading back to northern Europe, Scandinavia perhaps? and just seeing where the road and our mood takes us, and who knows how long?

I would love to do New Zealand and Australia and America, my partner is not so keen, but once on the road that may change.

So it may be that your ahead of us in your plans, I may be able to learn a few things from your experiences? do you already have a motorhome? are you planning a long trip? there just seems so many things to do and think about.

Sorry, bit of a ramble there.

thanks
Mark

Hi
We have had our motorhome for 6 years now and travel everywhere with a wheelchair but we don't have a garage. It means we have space and light in the van and we have a Luton as our fixed bed again it's light and airy and surprisingly spacious 4ft8 x 6ft9.
We opted for a roof box and bike rack that we can put a box on too.
Just another option to put in the mix.

Enjoy what ever you're decision.
Lj

We have a good size garage in ours, I think the bigger the garage the more stuff you end up carrying. Not sure if its all necessary. One thing to consider if you plan on travelling through Europe is the height of the vehicle. If your vehicle is over three meters high you go into a class three bracket on the toll roads which is considerably more expensive. Carrying stuff on the roof may take you over the three meters. We are 2.99 meters high and just get through as class two.
We have only had MH with a garage which is useful for carrying tables , chairs and BBQ. Another important thing for us was to have a permanent bed. We suffered when we had a caravan, we had to convert the table into a bed each night which was a pain.