You need to plan ahead when you visit England in a motorhome

September 18, 2019

Being Brits with big families back home, we visit England frequently and pretty much always take our motorhome. We love the convenience of having all of our home comforts with us, being able to break the journey on both sides of the English Channel and not having to impose on friends and relatives as we visit.

Most of our clients visit England at least once during their European tour so we thought we’d help you to prepare for your first English adventure. The one big difference between touring in England and France is that there are very few opportunities to just park up and stay for the night except on campsites in England. You have to plan overnight halts carefully and even outside of high season in the spring and autumn, campsites can become fully booked.

In our recent blog about visiting London, we mentioned The Caravan and Motorhome Club and we think membership is a very good investment for a UK motorhome trip. In addition to many other member benefits, the club has a huge number of club-run campsites, affiliated campsites and certified locations to stay at and membership is required to use some of them plus access discounted rates.

We also think membership of “Britstops” is a must as it gives you access to a great selection of free overnight halts from pub car parks to organic farms, antiques centres to vineyards and this is very useful in a country where free places to stay are rare.

For a wealth of information to help plan your trip and find things to see and do whilst there, the Visit Britain website is really helpful and also has further suggestions on finding campsites.

To get to the UK from France, the shortest ferry crossing (just 1hr 30 mins) from Calais to Dover is usually considerably less expensive than other, longer crossings. The “Chunnel” (channel tunnel) from Calais to Folkstone is truly fast and convenient if your budget will stand it and you might find a good deal to use the “Chunnel” if you happen to book during a special offer (usually only available when booking a long way in advance). A great website for identifying the options for any dates or routes is this price comparison website.

For the last ten crossings we have made, we compared prices for all crossing options and finished up using P&O Ferries from Calais to Dover. Their pricing for motorhomes just seems to be keener than the alternatives every time and they offer a very reasonable fee to upgrade to a flexible ticket which allows you to travel anytime in 72 hours of your booked time. For just £12 per person per crossing you can also use the “Club Lounge” on board the ferry which is a haven of peace and comfort with free refreshments to enjoy whilst you cross (the sofas are so comfortable in The Club Lounge, we take our pillows on board and have a power nap whilst we cross!).

However you choose to cross and wherever you stay, we are sure you will enjoy England so don’t be deterred by the challenge of finding overnight halts. There is truly a huge amount to see and some great places to stay if you plan ahead.