❌ Don't Tour Europe without these Essentials!

Let's talk about five things that you do need when you're taking your motorhome to Europe and then three things that you really don't no matter what the Facebook groups or forums tell you. So let's dive into the very first thing that you need to take your motorhome or campervan to Europe and that is a way of connecting your electric cable to a campsite or any hookup point that you might find. Now you will use your exact same electric cable that you use over here in the UK and half and probably more than half the time you literally just plug it in on both ends exactly the same way that you do in the UK and it all works. It really is that simple. However, you do need to take with you at least two different adapters just in case. So the one that you'll use most commonly is a two pin adapter. So this is a tiny little length of cable and you plug the usual end into your van just like you do in the UK and then the end that goes to the campsite you'll probably find that instead of the nice big round circle that you're used to there will be a two pin plug. So what you do is you take your little adapter you plug one end into the cable it'll be really obvious which one and on the other end it will have the two pin plug you plug that straight into the campsite and it all works. Simples. Now some campsites in Europe just like over here in the UK sometimes you have to flick the switch and some of them have got like the twisty thing so once you put the cable in you twist it although admittedly that doesn't happen very often with the two pin plugs. It does not matter which way round the plugs go you just plug it in and hopefully it will magically work. So those are the first thing that I suggest you get. I also recommend getting something called a splitter cable. Sometimes on some of the campsites certainly some of the smaller campsites there aren't enough electric posts for every single pitch like you might be used to here in the UK. So what happens then is you and the pitch next to you share one electric place. It's fine perhaps they're not using it or perhaps there's nobody there in which case there's not a problem but what you want is a splitter so you plug the splitter into the campsite end then it's got two different attachments. You will use one they will use the other. You just have to bear in mind that whatever the ampage allowance is on the campsite you're both feeding into it and obviously you don't want to trip them and you hope that they're considerate enough to not want to trip you. So you can have to use less electric or certainly less high powered things than you might be used to. But that's worth having. I haven't used it that often but I have used it enough to make it worth carrying. I also recommend I mentioned this in a previous video by getting one of those reverse polarity plugs if you're concerned about reverse polarity. It's a little plug it goes into any of your three pin sockets in your van and then once you plug the electric cable in it won't tell you until it's plugged in but once you've plugged in that plug will then light up. So you connect your electric you connect your van to the electric as usual on the campsite you plug the plug into the three pin socket before you do anything else and it will tell you if you've got the reverse polarity issue or not and if you're concerned about that and you don't have like I mentioned the Sargent box which has got a little button that fixes it all for you then you want to get a little reverse polarity cable and you then plug that into your cable between your cable and the campsite connection point and that will fix the reverse polarity issues for you. So that's the first thing or group of things that I recommend that you get. Second thing you want an actual physical bank card. I use my phone and Apple Pay all the time and occasionally if I remember to wear it I use my watch like 99% of my life I spend I pay with my phone. However, in Europe you will find you need a physical card and the most common place that you'll need this is at fuel stations, you have to actually put the card in the little slot. Now sometimes the location of where you pay vary perhaps you pay in the kiosk, or sometimes or some of the fuel stations you pay at the end and you select the pump number, but more often than not, you pay just like you have pay at pump stations here in the UK. That's how they work in Europe, but they want a physical card so you definitely need to remember, I forgot on one of my trips and that was an absolute pain actually ended up having to get someone to send it over which was dangerous and a really bad plan. So do make sure that you bring an actual card with you. You may or may not know that there are some legally required things that you need to carry with you in Europe and I'm going to lump all these together as one thing. So here's what you need. First thing you need is a high visibility jacket for every single person who's traveling in the van. Don't forget, they have to be accessible from within the vehicle. There's no point storing them in the garage, or if you've got a car and caravan don't put them in the caravan. You're not allowed out on the side of the road without your high visibility vest on. Next thing you need is a UK sticker on the back of your vehicle, assuming of course your vehicle is registered in the UK. We used to be GB, we're not GB anymore. If you still have a GB sticker on the back of your vehicle, cover it up with a UK one or take it off completely. Next thing you'll need for most of us are headlight converters and these stop your obviously your headlights shine on one side of the road when we're driving on this side, but when you're driving on that side, they'll be shining straight into the oncoming vehicle eyes. So what you want is these headlight converters, you can get them from Halfords, Amazon, all over the place and the hardest bit is figuring out what vehicle you've got and where you fit them all. I have actually got a video of that, so I don't think I've put it out yet, but I will at some point put that little video out for you so you can see how you find out how to fit the things. I highly recommend buying two packs because I guarantee you'll fit them wrong the first time and I also don't recommend waiting until you're on the ferry or the tunnel to fit them because you'll have this much space between you and the van in front of you and you'll get them all wrong. So yeah, I highly recommend that you do that in advance. You can do it in the waiting area whilst you're waiting to board, that's always a good time to do it. Or you could do it on the other side, assuming of course you're not traveling at night. Next thing you'll need a warning triangle. You only need one warning triangle, there's a weird thing going around Facebook groups and forums saying you need two, unless you're a Spanish resident, you don't need two, just one is absolutely fine. Don't forget, or indeed, if you don't know, hello, they will change the warning triangles in Spain for the V16 lights, I think these are fantastic, they're basically beacons that you put on your vehicle if you've broken down, it makes you so much more visible, especially at night. They're coming in Spain on the 1st of January 2026, I assume the rest of the EU will spread once they see how much more beneficial they are, that that law will spread. They don't yet know at the time of filming, whether or not you're going to need a SIM card or data SIM in the V16 light so that they can track you. So I would hold off buying one until that is sure. Once it is sure, if you're watching this, I will put the link to the one that I recommend grabbing down in the notes, but don't buy one, well unless you're going to buy one with a SIM but they're obviously much more expensive, but don't buy one without a SIM card just yet because I'd hate to lose the money and then have to buy another one. You do need to carry a first aid kit, which given that you're going to be touring in Europe for a while in your motorhome or campervan, you're probably going to have anyway. But there is a law in many European countries called the Good Samaritan Law, which basically means if you see an accident, you have to stop and part of offering help is having a first aid kit. So you just have to have one, it does not specify what you have to carry or anything like that. Just having one on your vehicle is absolutely fine. If you are traveling to mountainous areas in wintertime, so for most countries in Europe, that's either the 1st of October or 1st of November and then goes on till around about the end of March. But if you're traveling places like the Alps, the Pyrenees, they require you to have proper winter or all season tires fitted with the three mountain peak snowflake sign on them. So you have to have those fitted on your vehicle. And then you also have to have either snow chains or snow socks. Now the actual rules for what you have to have will depend on the weight and the size of your vehicle. I will leave the link for the relevant article for you so you can see exactly what you need. If you are just crossing the Pyrenees to go down to Spain for the winter and you're just driving down one of the main roads on either side, you can get away with snow socks. Snow socks are lighter, they're cheaper and they're a heck of a lot easier to fit. And if you're just doing that route, you probably won't need them. So I wouldn't even worry about that. Snow socks are fine. If, however, you're going to go up into the mountains during the winter period, you're going to go motorhome skiing or spend some time up there, you want snow chains anyway because it's quite dangerous driving a heavy vehicle up and down icy roads. So make sure you get snow chains. Don't make my mistake of buying. We bought the right width or diameter, but not the right width. We didn't buy camp ones, we bought car ones. So make sure you buy the ones that fit your vehicle. You also need to carry some spare bulbs and some spare fuses. I would suggest that this is worth carrying anyway. They don't specify exactly what bulbs or fuses you need to have, but a little fuse kit that covers whatever your vehicle uses and a couple of spare bulbs for your vehicle is always worth having. So the next thing that I highly recommend you have is a good roaming device. Now that could be your phone, that could be a dongle, that could be anything. That gives you a way of getting Wi-Fi and the internet whilst you are traveling. You will be amazed even if you don't think you use the internet that much, but when you're trying to find campsites or you're trying to find the best routes or you're trying to find all sorts of things really. You use, even if you're looking up like, oh, what time does that market open or what day is it on or what's the best market in the area or the best restaurant in the area? You'll use it an awful lot. So I would make sure your phone has got some sort of EU roaming ability on it. You might have to pay for it. I know with EE, I changed there quite recently on to EE and I managed to get a brilliant deal where I have EU roaming actually as part of my contract, which is fantastic. You can also get a dongle or a Wi-Fi system that has a roaming data SIM card in it so that as you are traveling around, it will pick up the best network and you will pay for that as you travel around. The last thing you can do if you're going to do a really long trip is get a local SIM card. Now, I don't really bother with this, but you can, you can get a little dongle or indeed just get an old phone or something like that. Make sure it's unlocked and then you can buy a local SIM card. In France, they sell them at supermarkets. The locations of where they sell them vary, but you can often find them at supermarkets or shops like that. And then you just buy the SIM card, you put it in the extra device and you register it and off you go. It really is quite that straightforward. I don't really bother with that. I think you have to be out there for months and months, which frankly with the whole 90, 180 day rule now isn't really going to apply to most of us. But that is still an option. If you travel to one country regularly, it might be cheaper for you than having a roaming contract. The last thing that I recommend you definitely do have is a decent off-grid setup. Now for me, the joy of traveling around Europe in my motorhome is the ability and the freedom to be able to stay in place without booking months in advance. And those kind of places are the airs and some overnight approved stopovers and places like that, like I went through in the last video. So if you want to use places like that, you need to be able to stay completely self-contained and off-grid for at least a night or two before you then have to go into a campsite and either hook up to charge or indeed empty out all your waste and get new fresh water and stuff. So having the ability to do that starts really with your power. So I highly recommend if you've got the payload and don't forget about your payload, getting a decent size solar panel fitted onto your roof. And then if you can upgrade your system to lithium battery, I cannot tell you, but I can tell you because I did a video all about how I spent six weeks off-grid, didn't plug into a campsite once. And that's the video here about when I was touring around Ireland, I was testing out my new lithium setup and it was fantastic. If you haven't got a lithium setup or even if you have, but like me, use your laptop a lot, you have a drone, you have lots of devices that you want to charge. I'd also highly recommend that you get a portable power station like an EcoFlow. I've actually got two. I have one that charges my Starlink and my electric blanket. And then one is sort of an emergency, but if I need to charge my laptop up and stuff and it didn't charge properly whilst I was driving. So that's what I have. And those all give me the ability to spend time off-grid. I can go weeks without having to plug in for power. So that's really useful and highly recommended for you to get the most out of your touring around Europe. So on to three things that you really, really do not need to carry in your motorhome or your campervan. The first is a breathalyser. This used to be a law in France. It's now changed to a zero euro penalty. They haven't deleted the law entirely, but they cannot charge you if you don't have any full breathalyser on you. However, I've been told that if you carry an out-of-date breathalyser, they can. So I recommend not carrying a breathalyser at all. But if you do happen to have them from an old kit or something that you used to have, make sure they're still in date. Otherwise, get rid of them. Whilst we're talking about it, don't forget that the drink drive laws in many of the European countries are way, way lower than we've got in the UK. So you might be used to having a pint and then driving. You won't get away with that in many of the countries in Europe. So I always recommend never drinking and driving. But if you are going to have a little one, make sure you know exactly what your limits are before you drive. Next thing that you really do not need is a generator. They are heavy anyway, and you probably will not use it anywhere near as much as you think you're going to. If you're staying on campsites, most of them ban generators anyway, because they're a nuisance to other vehicles. But also you'll have hookup on most campsites, so you won't need the generator. And if you're staying off grid, you won't want to run a generator because that attracts attention and unwanted interest in what you're doing. Or you'll be around other vehicles and they will all get upset about the fact that you're disturbing the beautiful, peaceful spot that they are in. So I highly recommend that you don't carry a generator. And again, have some sort of portable power station that is quiet. It's easy to charge. It doesn't need any fuel like the EcoFlow. They are really, really useful bits of kit. And that way you can get away with a whole heavy generator nonsense. Third thing that you don't need, unless you're planning a very specific route and destination, is the crit air sticker. Now, I mentioned this on one of my previous videos about how you need it if you're going into the crit air zones. But you don't need to go anywhere near the clean air zones to go touring around Europe. So if you find that you don't have your crit air sticker or you don't have a clean air sticker for perhaps you're going somewhere like Italy and you see a zone that you didn't know was there, you don't have a sticker, you can park up outside it. It doesn't prohibit you from touring around the country because you haven't got one of these clean air stickers. You just park up outside the zone and get public transport. And it really is that simple. Just like we do here in the UK. So those are three things I don't think you should waste your money on. Unless, like I say, the crit air you are going to be going into some of the zones, it might be useful for you. But the others I really don't recommend that you carry. Don't forget, if you want more tips and tricks about touring around Europe, there are a couple of ways that you can get the information. Firstly, I am doing a live Europe touring webinar. I'll leave the details for that in the notes. If you happen to watch this video after that's been and gone, then the replay will be available for you. You can also grab my Ultimate Europe Touring Toolkit. Again, I'll leave the notes. Or if you prefer a physical book, you can grab a copy of my Complete Guide to Motorhoming in Europe. Which again, I will leave the link for you in the notes. So all of those will give you more tips, more ideas, places to visit, things to do and stuff to help you have the most incredible European adventure. If you're not already subscribed to the channel and you want more tips about touring the UK and Europe, then please feel free to subscribe and I'll see you on the next video. Take care. Bye.