moorgate

Well no, Everyone else doesn't have Mayday - it's only UK cover. Eurobreakdown covers car and caravan, in Europe as well as UK, for £75 a year .

Reedyontour, If you don't want to spend nights in Calais then don't go there ! That's why I mentioned the resumption of three sailings a day between Portsmouth and Caen. You can easily explore the Normandy and Brittany coasts within just a day's drive from there without travelling too far. You can alternatively nip across from Plymouth to Roscoff and stay within 50 miles of the ferryport. Will sites in France get busier as summer goes on? Probably not because French school holidays began a week ago and the French families who are going on holiday have gone already. You can tour without booking by phoning ahead. But whether you go or not really depends on your confidence and your own attitude to risk. Good luck either way.

Brittany Ferries are back next week to three sailings per day from Portsmouth to Caen, so clearly someone is going across, but perhaps half the normal numbers. The best fares on that route are from one of the two big Clubs. Many travel insurances will now cover problems arising if you catch Covid when you are overseas, but will not cover cancellation costs if you catch it in UK before you set off - so wait and book a ferry a few days before you travel then you need not worry about fares being refundable . Reports from France say campsites are pretty empty so you can go most places without reservations. Take a site guide and a phone - call sites 24 hours ahead.

There are better play areas than at motorway service stations. I suggest the children might have a run about at Clumber Park close to the A1 stretch, then Brougham Castle at Penrith before heading north to the M74 .

Meadowsweet, by September the ferry from Poole to Cherbourg should be running again, with a 1400 arrival time. If you can manage 200 miles to the city site at Nantes that afternoon, it leaves you with 250 miles to the Dordogne the next day. Mind you Nantes is worth more than a single overnight stop.

Camping Montreal at St Germain les Belles - about 20 miles south of Limoges.

Talk to driving instructors in your local area to find one who can provide one to one towing training rather than a group course.

But the one thing I don't like is that Mayday is UK only. My car and caravan insurance both cover Europe as well as UK so I only buy a breakdown/recovery policy which also covers both those areas. . I have used Green Flag Europlus which has just been mentioned but there are lots of others which give that double cover.

What's the risk of a local lockdown somewhere in France if the infections flare up? Parts of Catalonia and Galicia are already closed down in the same way as Leicester and Melbourne. Infections are low in France right now but who knows what might happen there too, and I wouldn't to be stuck on a campsite if that happens

I have in the past arrived at Calais with a caravan at all sorts of silly late night times - we simply stayed in the first Calais car park or supermarket forecourt that we spotted. Once we saw a group of travellers' vans on rough ground in the town and pulled in with them. We were always too tired to go further at that time of night. The next day I would simply set off south and do 200 /250 miles and stop wherever we got to by 2 or 3 pm. and pull into some camp site listed in the site guide which lives in the car door pocket. Let the children loose . And then open a bottle . And later go for a meal in whatever town or village it is. And then think about a plan for the next day . Take care.

Hi Darren, welcome here. Jack up your caravan and take a wheel off - then go round the car breakers yards and ask if they can match it,

Reports published locally said that the Barnes family retained ownership of Padstow Holiday Park but sold Padstow Touring Park in 2019 to Lovat Parks plc - a London based company which owns a handful of other sites, none of which I have visited so can't advise you which way they are heading. For anyone with a smallish caravan or campervan I would recommend Dennis Cove site at Padstow as a better location by the river side, but access is tricky for big vehicles

"Lovely drives and scenery" for me would be be over the Pyrenees towards Foix and Toulouse, and then northbound on the A20 autoroute, though the A75 via Millau is even more interesting .

Well done, Clive. I am glad you are sorted. Mind you, I heard of someone the other day who said "I don't have to pay for the tunnel with one of their credit vouchers next time I go , I have got a cash refund and can pay them with that."

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