How to prepare for a Europe Roadtrip | MOTORHOME France & Spain

Hi everyone, how you doing? Thanks for joining us and a massive welcome to our channel to all the new people that have joined us recently. We've had a few haven't we? Yeah, we've had quite a lot since we got back to the UK. As most of you know, we spent last year in the States traveling in this beauty, in this motorhome, but this year we're off to Europe. In fact, we're going in two days time. Can't wait. Yeah, we haven't really planned our route or nothing properly, but we kind of know where we are. But we have planned what we need paperwork wise and that's what we're going to talk to you a bit about today. What do you need if you go into Europe? And there's a lot. There is a lot. So grab yourself a brew or a glass of vino, whatever takes your fancy. Sit back, relax and we'll go through what you're going to need. So first up, passports. So those beauties that you can't travel without, you're going to need your passports. Now there's a bit of a regulation on you need three months on your date of your passport. It needs to be three months in date when you get back from Europe. So ideally you're going to need at least six months on your passport. Now, as you all know, we came out of Brexit. No going over Brexit, please. Can't be doing with that. Let's just talk about what the rules are. You've got 90 days in the Schengen if you're on a British passport like that. Now, 90 days means you've got 90 days in every 180 and you can keep a track of your Schengen days. There's a Schengen calculator, isn't there? There is online. Really easy to use as well. Now, I'll show you this now. This is what the Schengen calculator looks like. And if you want to use that, that'll keep that'll keep a track of where you're going. But if you are very fortunate, like me, to be Irish as well, you can have an Irish passport. So I'm a dual nationally, aren't I? I'm a split chick. I've got an Irish passport as well. Now, if you've got an Irish passport, it does entitle your partner, your husband, whatever, to travel with you. Now, what did you do, Gary? Right. So obviously, because I've only got a UK passport, I had to email the European Direct Contact Centre. What I did was I sent them an email and I basically said, this is what we're doing. My wife has an Irish passport. How does that relate to the rules, Schengen rules to me? And they came back and said, providing you can prove that you travel together, which obviously you can, then you can stay in the Schengen zone as long as you want, providing she's also stayed in the Schengen zone. So the rules are provided we travel together, they don't affect me. And we can prove it. So making sure that you keep your travel receipts, your travel documents, etc. If you are lucky enough to have an Irish passport, like me, or you're entitled to claim one, it will make a difference as you're travelling. We've just had a right old little moment there. So I'll put the outtake at the end for you. Honestly, you can't take this one nowhere. He's had a pen on his face. I hadn't realised. Anyway, let's move on to the next thing. Camping car pass. Well, this is an exciting little find. And we've seen it on a couple of people's websites, including our friends Redsko Travels. Hi guys. Now, tell us what did we have to do for that, babe? So basically, we ordered it online, we paid five euros for it. But you can also then pay 25. Now paying 25 euros gives you the ability to book camping car airs in advance. Yeah, we took that option. Because we are going to be back and forth quite a lot. And we thought, actually, if it's a really busy season, and we want to kind of maybe stay in one of these places, and we know we can book. Now, these places are really cheap. I think they average about 10 euros a night. We're no experts on it yet. But we soon will be. We're going to give these a whirl. We've heard such good things about camping car. So we've got the camping car pass. We've got it in advance. But I do understand you can buy it there and then. Yeah, at the car park itself. Yeah, because we had a bit of time spare to sort things out. We really fancied being really organized, didn't we? Well, as much as we can. No, we're not. We aren't talking about us. We're not mega organized. We don't even know where we're going. We literally know the first and second night, I think. And that's it. So far, yeah. Well, I like it that way. So camping car pass. Fabulous. So that brings us nicely onto the apps that we downloaded. Wherever you go in the world, you're going to want the apps and the campsites and the availability to search for things, especially if you're going to be traveling sort of inland, off grid. You want to you want to do a bit of boondocking, free parking, whatever you guys call it. It's all the same thing. So we downloaded search for sites and park for night straight away. Now, how much were those? So we we upgraded to the to the sort of the premium ones. $5.99 for the search for sites. Yeah. And $7.99 for the park for night. And that's for a year, isn't it? That's for a year. And basically that allows you to download offline maps with all the information on it so that you can use it when you've not got Internet. Yeah. Which could well be a problem for us. We'll come on to that shortly. OK. And a couple of the other apps we decided on was we went for ACSI campsite. Don't know if it's any good or not. So if you follow our journey, I will we'll check out where we're going to stay in between. We're already members of the Camping and Motorhome Club and the or the Caravan and Motorhome Club. And what's the other one? We're members of everything. We've just joined everything. We're like crazy joining everything. You know what I mean? We ain't joined a cult yet, but we're on our way. So we joined all of these things because a lot of these things have campsites in Europe. We are full time motor homers, so it's a bit of an investment to spend a couple of hundred quid on and where we're going to stay just to make sure we've got loads of options in it. Yeah, it is. So that's what we've done now. A couple of other ones that we found and that we were told about that sound brilliant. We we've also downloaded is what's that one that we did with the Via Michelin? Yeah. Via Michelin really good for road planning your routes, isn't it? And also good for finding facilities like dumps, water, gas, all that sort of stuff. And also my LPG. My goodness, we love that one, don't we? Yeah. So really important to get that one because it's kept up to date all the time. So so it's always up to date. So if somebody's not got LPG, hopefully they've stuck that in the system. And even though it says they've got it, there should be a little bit of a note there saying no LPG. Yeah, because we actually had a little bit of trouble trying to get some LPG while we were in the UK. If you haven't seen that video, I'll pop the link down below. You know, I'm always pushing my videos. Anyway, we need the watch hours. So, you know, so LPG. Now we have got what's our system called again? The Gaslow. It's the Gaslow refillable system. We've got one seven one eleven kilogram, one six kilogram. Now, as we're talking about the gas. Yeah. Because you need separate connectors. We had the connector set, didn't we? Because we bought a set that covered us for Europe and the USA. But guess what happened this morning? Tell them, Gary, tell them all about it. I went into the gas locker where they're normally kept and they are no longer there. And I took them. So we don't know whether someone's finched them or they've just I don't know, you'd be misplaced or something. Yeah. So we've had a bit of a panic this morning. Well, we're not really a panic. It's a bit like, oh, God, what we're going to do? I was on to the rescue again. Yeah. So you've ordered it, haven't you? So Gary's ordered. What have you ordered? So I've ordered the set of three, which is the Italy, France and Spain. And those three cover pretty much all the other countries in the EU as well. So we should be good. Perfect. And if you guys are looking for the same things, we are part of the Amazon affiliate program and we'll pop the link down below. If you want to just go through that, you will not pay any more. If you use any of my Amazon affiliate links down below, it'll cost you exactly the same. Then we'll get a small percentage, although I've yet to see any of the bloody thing. So next things next, along with your gas, you're always going to need water. And we understand there's slightly different connectors for the water. Yeah. So I've tried to do as much research as I could by reading up and looking at other people's videos. And some countries you can use the UK ones, some countries you don't. But there's nothing specific about you need this for this country. So it seems to me there's just a whole mishmash. So I've got I've got quite a few connectors like that and hopefully they'll do. So there's a couple of different screw thread connectors and some push connectors as well. And I've also got the new hose. I've got has got another I've got like a push on at the end. So so I think we've got all bases covered. Which means again, again, I got them on Amazon as part that came as part of the Amazon affiliate thing as part of the hose that I got because the one we had in the States was one of those food grade hard hoses, which was a real pain in the ass to fold up every time I used it. So I've now got one that extends itself automatically with when water goes through. It's just like a crinkly one. You've probably all seen them. Brilliant. Absolutely. Gary doesn't stop talking about his house. Anyway, if you do want to go there about how it extends when there's water going through it. Oh God. I'm going to have to bloody cut this now. Right. Anyway. So if you do want these little things, I'll put the link down below. So I need to make a note of all the links. If I forgot to put a link, please, please jog me in the comments because I'm quite forgetful. Now I've hit nearly 55. So that brings us nicely on to road regulations and emission stickers. So you're going to need as you hit France and emission stickers. It's the law. So what did you do? We sorted this out already. What did you do? So I had to go on to the French Transport Ministry website and give them my details. I the registration of the van paid a bit of money. I think it was about eleven pound ninety nine. And they then sent us this basically this disc that we've got to put in the windscreen. Now, it's effectively it's like an ules exemption. Now, there are some cities where you can't go in unless you've got a certain color. Now, ours is brown because that's the emissions of the vehicle, which means we can't go into Paris without paying, paying somebody something. I don't know how certain certain cities we're good with a brown one. And that's what we've got to do a bit more research into which cities we can go in. We'll no doubt find out as we go along. We don't really go into cities anyway, do we? No, we don't. We always go on the outside and and sort of transport ourself in. Let's talk cost. What did that cost? Eleven ninety nine. Eleven ninety eleven euro ninety eleven euros ninety nine. And how long did it take you to from start to scratch to receiving it? About two and a half weeks. OK, so another one, giving yourself three to four weeks to be on the safe side to make sure you've got it. If you don't get it here, can you buy it in a shop? OK, so yes, you can in France. You can buy it when you get there. There are certain shops that do it. Now, the one in. So so we looked at other countries as well that we're going to travel in. We need one for Germany, don't we? So for Germany, you need a separate one. But we're not going to Germany. We're not going yet. We're going to. Yeah. But the French one is accepted in Spain. So that's a good, good news. Double bonus then. Eleven ninety nine. Well spent. So what we'll do is we'll pop the link below that we used for the Transport Association or the Ministry. We'll pop it in the description below. So that brings us nicely onto the next thing you're going to need for the law. The big old law. You've got to have UK stickers. GB is no longer the other way around. I'm not sure, but it does say UK. GB no longer used. So we've got a little sticker set, didn't we? Yeah. Two ninety nine off Amazon. They're cheap. I'm not pushing the affiliate link, but the link will be below. You don't have to use the link. Honest to God, you can go and do whatever you want on Amazon or wherever you want to shop. But you're going to need these. Now, these where do these go? They go in your number plate, don't they? Yeah. On the number plate, front and back. And you have to have one on the back or do you need more? You have to have one on the back of your vehicle. OK. Really important you get these guys as well. They're quite strict, So the next thing you're going to need to be law compliant and we are, aren't we? Law abiding. We're very law abiding citizens, aren't we? So what do you need, honey, for the headlights? OK, so headlights, you need these things here, which basically stop the glare, because obviously in the UK, our headlights go to the shine to the left, which is the side of the road you're driving on. In Europe, the shining to the left will blind the oncoming traffic. So you've got to block them with this set of stickers. $5.99 from Amelon. Again, I'll put the affiliate link in. I'm not I'm I'm flogging it like crazy. But honestly, this save you a lot of hassle if you want to go through these. Don't forget, if you do use our links, it will give us a small part of commission, but it won't cost you a single pence more. Now, with any travel, you've got to think about like medical insurance. And it's really it's really important to think about this, guys, because when we were in the States, I had a right nasty accident, didn't I? You know, still I still can't walk properly. I'm hobbling around with my knees. However, we had really good insurance and we were able to see a doctor and we had emergency care. Now, if you're a UK citizen, what you can get is what's called a G-HICC. Now they have replaced the old e-hics. Do you remember those pre-Brexit dent? You've mentioned the B word. But anyway, before that, we had e-hics. Now you get a G-HICC and they look something like this. Now, for your G-HICC, it's issued from the NHS for free. There's loads of scammy sites out there. So you need to watch yourself. I'll put the link to the NHS site that you should go through. Now, I'll do all of that below and all of the links and everything we're talking about. I'll put in the description at some point today. The G-HICC is brilliant. It will offer you emergency care in Europe, in all the European countries. And there's an agreement that people from the EU can use the British services as well. So this is essential. It takes 15 days to arrive. Now, what happens is when you apply, you are going to need your national insurance number. And if you've got it, your NHS number, you can get that from your doctors if you ain't got it. So you pop them in and then they let you know if you're eligible for one. Now, you should be eligible for one, and once they do that, it's about 15 days until it arrives at your doorstep, and then you're good to go. So give yourself three to four weeks before you travel in to sort your G-HICC out if you haven't. But you can never be too careful. So extra travel insurance, we do recommend. And we've sorted something out. We have, yes. So what we did was we got a Revolut card, which helps us on the financial side of life. But more importantly, we paid for the Premium Plus, which is £7.99 a month. Now, that gives us medical insurance throughout Europe as well. So in addition to the emergency stuff that we get with the G-HICC, we've also got the extra bits just in case. So the next thing we're going to talk to you about is SIM cards. Right, so as you know, we do a bit of YouTube. It's only a small channel, but anyway, it still takes data. So I'm going to try and get a new SIM card for the EU. When we went to America, we literally just walked into a shop, got a SIM card and a data package, didn't we? And we paid monthly. We're going to look to do the same thing. Now, we are winging it, so we can't give any advice. But here's now where I'm asking you for a little bit of advice. What do you guys use? Any of you that have already gone to Europe, what's your recommendation for a SIM package? Now, I don't want to use one of those e-SIMs because my phone's not compatible. I've got a sort of non-compatible phone with everything. And just so you know, this channel's filmed on a phone and edited on a phone all the time. But I could really do with your help. If anybody's got any great ideas that they think has been a great package for them, we're looking pretty much for unlimited data. We don't want to spend a fortune, obviously, but we do understand we're going to have to spend a bit for unlimited data. And we want it to cover Europe wide, preferably. So if you do have any suggestions, please pop it in the comments below. Thanks very much. The stuff we were going to talk to you about today, isn't it? Yeah. We know we've not done things like tolls because you can either do tolls with an electronic thing or you can just miss tolls altogether. And we think we're going to miss tolls because we've got a bit of time. However, when we get over there, if we're going to use tolls, we'll talk you through what we needed to do. When we use a camping car air, we'll show you what happens. Now, if you want to see a bit more of us and follow our journey, you know what to do, don't you? Hit that subscribe button. If you're already subscribed, you could ding-a-ling that bell. That will let you know that we've got a new video up. Also, give us a nice like and a comment if you've enjoyed this video, guys. It really helps the algorithm. I nearly couldn't say that word. Helps the algorithm push the video out further and lots more people can come and find it. And if we've missed something that's really important, then please do let us know because, you know, we're not infallible. We don't know everything. We're learning on the job. Yeah, exactly. And again, please let me have your comments about the SIM cards that we talked about earlier. If you can let me know what you guys are using, I'll be happily exploring that when we get to DF on Tuesday. So, thanks very much for watching, guys. It's been great to see you. We'll see you very soon. Love you loads. Take care.