Thank you will take a look that’s very helpful
We went last August and stopped 3 nights in Dubrovnik, drove into Montenegro, was fantastic. Did all the usual places in Croatia, split, rovinj, Zagreb, zadar . Absolutely fantastic, no problems at all.
So ignoring the night in England you did 3 overnight stops on the way down?OK. After a night at The Drum Inn (Ashford), we did the 10 mine drive to Eurotunnel and caught the 1015 hrs train on Monday to Calais. We then drove across France to just south of Reims staying at a site that we know well. From there, we went via Germany, Austria and Slovenia into Istria (Croatia) arriving on Thursday when we camped on a site on Krk Island. After a long weekend there, we headed down to Stobrec just south of Split before starting home after another week. We followed more or less the same route in reverse to get home with the exception of stopping for a couple of nights in Ljubjana, the capital of Slovenia) where we booked into a hotel for a couple of nights because we wanted to explore the city but there are no campsites within easy reach of it (to my knowledge anyway).
We were content to use autoroutes / autobahns / motorways wherever possible and therefore paid tolls most of the way through France and, to a lesser extent Croatia as well as having to buy vignettes for Austria and Slovenia (a vignette is basically a motorway pass) which we got from a service station on the German autobahn before crossing the border into Austria. We only really strayed of the motorway when we decided to find a campsite for the night(s).
On the outward and return drives, we never tended to do mega distances in one day and generally get on the road by around 0930 and drive until 1530 - 1600. We usually take a break early afternoon and then work out where we're likely to be at around 1430 -1500 and check on line for campsites in that area. We've never booked a campsite in advance but that's relatively easy out of high season. In Croatia in particular, we aimed to be at a site by 1500 and usually got ourselves set up and tea brewed in time to watch the site begin to fill up. I learnt a long time ago that there were few things worse than driving all day and then having to find a campsite, sometimes in the dark.
We did a total of 2801 miles during the whole trip and spent £341 on diesel. Tolls / vignettes etc. came to about £215 and campsite fees another £510. We used an ACSI Camping Card on every site and only paid the full price for one night at a site on Krk Island because we are too early for their ACSI window by one day. IIRC that one night cost us about €46 but the rest of the stay was €25 per night which was very close to the average cost of a pitch per night over the whole trip.
Thats about it from me. I'd be happy to answer any other questions that you can think of and also provide a list of the campsites that we used during the trip. That said, I did report on most of them on here at the time in this thread (starting at Post 7117):
Where Have You Been In Your Van Today?
Not today, but spent the weekend camped in a school field in Faversham with a few mates for the hop festival:www.t6forum.com
We are thinking of doing a long trip next summer (2025) and I like the idea of heading down the Croatian coast. Was originally thinking of Italy but we are going in high season so I think Italy will be a nightmare, would Croatia be a bit better?
@cgtmiles. I must have had a senior moment in that post as it was actually Ashford + 4 more nights before we got to Krk, Croatia on the Friday, IMHO, If you're planning on Croatia in high season, it will be very busy and you would be much better booking all your campsites in advance. We've been there in the van in September twice now and it's still quite busy. We always try to get to our site for the night by 1530 and generally find ourselves pitched up with a cuppa in hand whilst watching a lot of fellow campers arriving and looking for the last of the vacant pitches. We invariably use ACSI sites which are usually a bargain with the Camping Card and never pre-book. We also tend to stay wherever we end up on a Thursday until the following Monday.
@Pedro20001. Out of interest, what did you do for car insurance in Montenegro?
I spoke to brentacre and said it wasn't a problem
Can you tell me more about the ACSI card pls ? When to buy on line or at a web page do I need a app ect
Also have you used or looked at the camping key card ?
Assume I need the motor home version not just campsite ?
We just have the Camping Card ACSI Digital subscription and App. This enables you to have a digital membership card and to access all site information both live and download to your phone etc.
I've only ever bought the 'ordinary' guide and never had any complaints - I don't know much about the 'motorhome' version but I don't think the paper version is available in English and I suspect that it also covers aires and park ups where there are no facilities which TBH wouldn't be much use to us except in an emergency - I've got a chemical portable toilet unused in the loft but we never take it with us any more and much prefer to use a proper toilet with proper washing facilities so we always book into sites (during my working life, I did my fair share of stuff in the field which often included 'wild crapping' using bin bags which we took away with us but I didn't have much choice then and now I do!).
Although very tech savvy, I can also be old school as well in as much as I bought the paper ACSI books but also have the paid for ACSI apps downloaded to both my iPad and Android phone (I'm the same with maps in that we navigate with satnav but I love looking at paper maps and always like to have a vague idea of where I'm going rather than just relying on IT).
As I think I said earlier, we never pre-book sites and tend to get the books / apps out early afternoon, make a judgement on where we're likely to be a couple of hours later and then find a site in the appropriate area. That approach has never let us down yet but having the luxury of no time constraints on our trips helps - if it take us a week to get somewhere rather than 4 or 5 days it really doesn't matter too much and we also enjoy the journey itself (hope that makes sense!).
Although very tech savvy, I can also be old school as well in as much as I bought the paper ACSI books but also have the paid for ACSI apps downloaded to both my iPad and Android phone (I'm the same with maps in that we navigate with satnav but I love looking at paper maps and always like to have a vague idea of where I'm going rather than just relying on IT).
As I think I said earlier, we never pre-book sites and tend to get the books / apps out early afternoon, make a judgement on where we're likely to be a couple of hours later and then find a site in the appropriate area. That approach has never let us down yet but having the luxury of no time constraints on our trips helps - if it take us a week to get somewhere rather than 4 or 5 days it really doesn't matter too much and we also enjoy the journey itself (hope that makes sense!).
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