In Conclusion

The trip was always meant as an experiment, to see if we were happy to stay away from home for an extended period and we could manage in the “confines” of the van. As regards the latter, of course, one of the main considerations when we bought “Bertie” was to have enough room for extended tours, and in this we feel we have been successful.

So, would we do it again? The answer is an unmitigated YES, although with the experience under our belts, it would be done slightly differently. To start with, we would leave a little earlier, although family commitments preclude before New Year. We would then travel directly to the far south of Spain, not in any particular rush, but so that we could get to the better weather sooner and then stay there for a longer period, perhaps as long as a month on a nice site to take advantage of the tremendous discounts.

After that we would look more at touring Spain properly – we missed visiting some of the larger cities, quite deliberately as this time it was an exploration trip. Once the weather started to improve we would then start heading north through Portugal – we feel the weather did not give us the chance to do it proper justice. Our intention would then be a slow return home, probably in early April, although this would also mean some technical changes such as MoT and insurance renewal considerations.

We came home with a list of fairly minor changes to equipment and kit taken with us. On stripping the van ready for service and MoT on our return, we realised that there was hardly anything we hadn’t used and so wouldn’t put back. Three weeks worth of personal clothes and bedding, taking the opportunity to use a site laundry every couple of weeks, worked very well (yes, we DID bring back unworn stuff but it was “just in case”).

Everything else appeared to go smoothly – drawing cash at machines as we went along isn’t the cheapest way of financing but we didn’t want to carry large amounts of Euros; perhaps we need to look at that. We were a little surprised that a goodly number of places we stayed at did not accept credit/debit cards.

The Gaslow refillable gas system was ideal as it was simplicity itself and, although there were not many filling opportunities in Spain (other countries being much better) our low usage, due to electrical hook-up and warm temperatures, meant it was never a problem. It was easy to work a gas-refill into our travel plans.

Navigation was easy; we used a netbook running Autoroute 2011 with the satellite navigation add-on for general way-finding and a basic Garmin nuvi250 satnav to generally forecast the road as we went along and then to find our destination. We carried Michelin National maps for general reference but found following the signposts was, mostly, the easiest way to get where we were going.

For campsites we had a fairly comprehensive database on the netbook, which could be called up as and when we needed it, the ACSI site books (very worth having, saved us quite a lot of money), the Caravan Club European sites handbook, All the Aires France and All the Aires Spain & Portugal, plus a couple of oddments picked up along the way. Additionally we carried the Rough Guides to Spain and Portugal which provided us with plenty of other information. We never booked a site in advance and only once were turned away, though a couple of times it was close….

So, what about the “numbers”? We kept a record of everything we spent.

We travelled 4341 miles and were away from home 58 nights. We used 742.5 litres of diesel giving an average consumption of 26.5 mpg. Fuel prices tended to be fairly even throughout the trip, generally the same numbers in euros as in pounds in the UK. Supermarket filling stations were always the cheapest. We refilled with 56 litres of gas costing £36.91 (66p per litre, shame the engine won’t run on it!), most of this used on the journey down and on the way back. We spent £545.59 on campsite fees, finding Spain much more expensive than Portugal (we spent hardly anything in France, using the Aires which, at this time of year, were usually free).

Our food costs were somewhat less than our normal – although we did take quite a lot of stuff with us, we still noticed that shopping in the supermarkets was a little less expensive than in the UK. We’re lucky in having a decent size fridge with a small freezer box that proved quite adequate for our needs and shopping regularly helped.

But the overall costs reveal the real story. Ignoring indirect expenses such as depreciation, insurance etc. but including our spending money (we’re not extravagant) the holiday cost us the princely sum of……… £37.23p per day, for the two of us. Not bad eh?

Roll on next year!