Summer Caravan Holiday to Spain | EP1 | The Journey
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2019
- Hello everyone, welcome back to another video. This is the first of our long awaited series from our summer holiday to Spain. We drive from home to Portsmouth to catch the overnight Ferry to Ouistreham (Caen). The following day we make the long drive through the middle of France passing by Le Mans to arrive at Chateau Camping La Grange Fort (www.lagrangefort.eu) in Les Pradeux. From here we make the final leg of the Journey to Camping Las Dunas (www.campinglasdunas.com/en) near L'escala.
This is by far the longest journey we've had towing the caravan and the first time driving in Spain, we managed to keep the kids occupied along the way and arrived with everything in tact. Albeit, we may have forgotten a few items :)
Please let us know what you think and if you've got any questions please ask.
Awesome music in this video:
Intro:
Starfields - Hallman
Wrong Team (Instrumental version) - Sture Zetterberg
How to Carry on (Instrumental version) - Wildflowers
Cameras Used:
iPhone X (256 GB)
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Go Pro HERO 3+ Silver
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Canon EOS M50
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Canon EOS 600D
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Accessories:
Zhiyun Smooth Q
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Manfrotto Mini Tripod - This thing is awesome
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Lenspen - Gotta keep those lenses clean
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External Mic
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TRS - TRRS Cable for External Mic (for use with phone)
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SD Cards:
For Go Pros
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For DSLR
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#Caravanning #TouringEurope
![Beginner's guide to taking your caravan abroad [CC]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vumy0Z4OylQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Lovely video Morley's! Looking forward to part two 👍
Thank you guys! Hope you're well. Andy
My wife Sue and I would like to thank you and your lovely wife and family for these amazing video stories which you tell so beautifully. The videos really help to bring caravanning to life and while Sue and I are living and working in Dubai, we hope next year to return home and buy another caravan and pick up where we left off. We are much older now than when we started caravanning in the 80’s but one aspect which you bring to life so well is the ease of carrying out the stages of hook up to arrival and what needs / can help and assist, helpful, different from when we did this many years ago. We also enjoy seeing your great kids and the refreshing history in the making for your family and followers. We have been watching with real enjoyment all that you have filmed, and we wanted to write to say thank you. My wife and I are both from Birmingham and it makes us feel back at home when we watch. Thank you again and keep making these amazing stories.
Best wishes and warmest thanks, Sue, and David
Thank you for letting us come along. Your vlogs are great fun.
Great video guys. Looking forward to watching the rest of your holiday as it’s giving us some great inspiration for our adventures.
Do it, get it booked this weekend - hehe just kidding. Where are you thinking of heading to? Andy
WoW what more can I say absolutely brilliant and I can't wait till the next one 👍🏻😎 sunny days ahead 🍺
Cheers Steve, very kind. Many sunny days ahead :)
Phew what a journey...well done all of you.Looking forward to the rest of the vlogs...and the sunshine the sunshine.😀
Cheers Dawn
Nice to have the videos back. Can’t wait for the next one. I’m glad you can put that awning in the channel on your own! I can’t. Cheers Oliver
Cheers Oliver. It definitely helps threading it through the upper awning channel inlet instead of the bottom. Once it's round the corner you're laughing. Hope you're well. Andy
Thanks for posting all these great videos, we are a family of 3 kids and last year was our first full year of caravanning. It was a huge success and our boys love it. They love watching your videos so thank you for inspiring us. Hope you guys are all well.
Nice to see ya back....wow the kids are growing up so fast.
Thanks very much, tell me about it!! Thanks for watching
I love the way you showed us around the boat .
Steve, my apologies for not showing you around. However, having boarded at 10:30pm and travelling with 3 kids, 2 of them quite young our priority was to get our heads down given the 5:30am alarm call and a 400+ mile travelling day ahead of us....
Thanks for sharing guys, can't wait for the rest of your holiday vlog. This hopefully will give me the inspiration to do something similar as this is our first year as touring caravaners .☀️🍻😉
No problem Steve, thanks for getting in touch. I hope it does and might whet your appetite for heading into Europe next summer?! Let us know if we can help at all (email contact form on our website). Andy
Hi guys, thanks for sharing your hols again, all the best Rob,Amanda & robbie 🏴👍
Great to hear from you all! No problem, it was fun putting it all together and the response has been much much better than expected :) Andy
Great video, lovely family and well driven.
Cheers! Andy
Great video Andy and Kate, and well done to the kids for travelling so far without killing each other. Looking forward to seeing your next video, best wishes 👍
Cheers Martin, ahhh they were very well behaved in the main - not too much moaning. Kate sitting in the back helps massively! Hope you're keeping well. Andy
MakeWayWithTheMorleys We did the same journey about 25 yrs ago ( crikey) to Cypsela resort which was a Eurocamp site about 20 miles south of where you stayed. We went via Calais and I seem to think it was about 1200 miles each way. We hired a tent that was already up so we didn’t have to tow. No bridge back then 👍
This is a great video series. Just started talking the wife into it now and these videos help
Andy, well done on the long trip looked amazing. Glad the annex on the awning fitted and looks good for storing the bikes etc. Nick T.
Cheers Nick! The drive was enjoyable enough, I wouldn't recommend more than 450 miles per day towing. In a motorhome I reckon you could knock it out in a day :) Thanks so much again for the Annexe, we did fit it but had to take it down to get a breeze through - it was that hot! Andy
Looks amazing
It was! Thanks for watching - Andy
Very good ❤
I enjoyed the vid very good, what a drive well done.👍
Cheers :)
Brilliant - Thanks. Hope we can get back to this soon now.
I hope so too!
Wow this brings back so many memories from my childhood. We spent a few years touring into Spain in the late 90s. I can tell you that the van is now stored there and my parents still go every year. I remember the days before the milau bridge . Hours of winding down then back up.
Ahhh I'm glad we were able to rekindle those memories! Actually, the first night we arrived we got chatting to a guy in the line for the takeway, he told us that he'd been going to this site for over 20 years. His kids had since grown up, they fly in to see them and have a cheap holiday :) Is that you?? Hehe. Thanks for watching. Andy
@@MakeWayWithTheMorleys no it's not but it is exactly what we used to do. I now have a van stored down there to that i bought.
Great vid
great stuff, look forward to the rest, after doing France for two years in a row we are thinking of Spain next year too.
Cheers Lloyd, blimey France would be a long one for you?! Andy
Great vid Andy
Thanks very much! Andy
Good video. Never been to Spain so interested to see the next one. Long journey though.
Cheers Steve, its worth a look - we had spectacular weather. As for the travel, I don't mind driving long distances and so covering 400+ miles in a day is ok for me but everyone is different. Andy
Wow Spain 😮. I live in Kent and think going to the new forest is being Adventurous lol. Great video
Haha, thanks for watching. Andy
with all the driving you were doing you seem very wakey..great vid 👍
Ty so much for.yourr time making this we are considering our first journey to.your first port of call and certainly taking notes can't wait for.the next episode
No problem, happy to help if we can. Please drop us a line if we can help, there is a contact form on our website. Andy
@@MakeWayWithTheMorleys many thanks Andy for.the response and certainly will.do
Some journey guys.OMG!!!!kids are so much older looking now.really looking forward to this series,have missed you guys this year.and on another note is there a van tour of your current van just now.it looks awsome.
Thanks very much, indeed they're growing up fast! I wasn't planning on doing a tour as we did a review of this very Caravan back in January.. Thanks for watching, Andy
Good to see you back Andy and family. Was good to see Kate doing some filming on the videos. That is quite a journey. I knew you were going to France but thought you were getting Ferry to Spain direct instead.
Thanks very much. We booked this holiday having met up with the UK couple who are the reps for the site at the NEC Caravan show, we asked their advice on routing and then looked at every which way possible. Portsmouth to Caen worked out best for us. Thanks for watching, Andy
SO SORRY TO SEE YOU GO - I really looked forward to seeing yo go from some burnt chicken and first vlog to where you got to with all your family videos?? 😢😢😢😢
Great Video guys. After doing France for 10 years, we decided to venture further south in to Spain & were recommended Camping Las Dunas. That was 8 years ago. We haven't looked back since. Our caravan is now stored at the Caravan Inn who put the van on the pitch for us. We now fly down during Whit week & drive down end of July. Every year we've been in M block, but next year hoping for the all service D block......near the automated toilet cassette cleaning machine (getting lazier in my old age!). Our kids are now all grown up yet still fly down in the summer.
I can't see us going anywhere else.. Looking forward to part 2 when no doubt will get the holiday blues.
Hi Mark, thanks for dropping us a line. Sounds like a great way to do it, I'd be tempted to do something similar (purely for the weather) but I would need to buy another Caravan as we love going away at home! Episode 2 is out later today, hope it doesn't give you the holiday blues!! Thanks for watching, Andy
Yeah, great to have you back. Great vid but not sure our 3 year old would manage 2 days in the car so may be start with a trip to France. With the exception of the Spanish roads the other roads looked good for driving on. Looking forward to Part 2👍
Cheers Jonathan, you know - we thought the same too. We were dreading the journey but we were so surprised at how they behaved. Lots of activities, dvd's and food was a massive help. Our longest stint was 5 hours!! Probably not recommended though. The other thing, little kids do make long haul flights, though you can walk round on a plane but you can also stop in the car :) By all means there are loads of great campsites within a few hours of most ports. The place we stayed in France in 2017 for example, is within a 3 hr drive from Roscoff. Part 2 out next week. Thanks for watching. Andy
Done the journey to the Costa Brava a few times.We do Portsmouth to St Malo, Rennes, Nantes, no tolls until Nantes to Bordeaux to Narbonne then into The Costa Blanca,it's three dayer for us. PS Beautiful family plus your wife is rather sweet..
Love touring in Spain and Portugal although we tend to get the Santander ferry have a great trip 👍
Job duties as punishment - love it! 😀
We run a tight ship! 😃
That’s some journey, Spain is at the top of my list to visit so will follow your videos with interest, tip for you with the motor movers, if say you want to do a sharp left turn, press the top left button and the right bottom button at the same time, it will turn like a single axle almost on the spot 👍
It was indeed and I'd be happy to do it again. Thanks for the tip - awesome, I shall definitely try that out at the storage yard when we next bring the Caravan home. Thanks for watching. Andy
Great video guys! We drove to Nimes this summer and did find the toll roads and fuel to be expensive but found the ease of not having to leave the motorway and find a town with a petrol station to be worth paying the premium. We had a similar tray for my daughter to use on the journey to what your girls had, its great for keeping them entertained. That and plenty of films/shows on the iPad. haha.
We've just booked our tickets for the NEC show in a couple of weeks, we've been finding it had to decide which van we like most, and as none of our local dealers stock them all and its hard to compare when its different weekends you've seen them so hoping to box it off this time. We'll be there on the Thursday, my favorites are either the sprite major 6 or the phoenix 650, we are rather limited on weight as I'm not sure I can be bothered to do my B+E test yet, plus we only have a Qashqai so its not the heaviest tow vehicle.
Anyway I've waffled enough, thanks for another great video, I look forward to the rest of the series.
Cheers buddy! There's not much you can do about the tolls, using a tag like we did doesn't save any money but it does delay payment as they offer you it on credit and it gets debited from your account a month later - which is handy. As for motorway fuel, we had a much better time of it coming back and managed to fill up cheaply all the way back. Spotting the signs for a supermarket in the direction of a certain place really helps, most of which are within a 1km of the m'way.
Going to the show is super helpful being able to sit in one 'van and then the next one. We really enjoyed the 650 when we had it last November, it's a cracking Caravan. Thanks for watching. Andy
Epic journey I will have to get Kelly to agree to driving down it looks fun.
I have a perfect plan hatched, we'll get Kate and Kelly drunk and then just book it!!
MakeWayWithTheMorleys I think that should work!
Wow, what a journey. Looking forward to seeing more of the site. Thank you for sharing. 👍
Yes a long way but it was definitely worth it :) Thanks for watching. Andy
Great video. We would love to take our caravan abroad but are nervous about all the toll costs and planning the whole trip, where to stop etc. Maybe after seeing the other episodes we will take the plunge
Justin, thanks for getting in touch. Send me an email through our website and I'd be more than happy to answer your queries and help you along the way. If you go West Coast of France from Cherbourg, Caen, St Malo or Roscoff you'll be hard pushed to find a toll. There's loads of online resources but please drop me an email. Andy
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Great video, it's wet my appetite to go on a European tour.
Book it, book it - hehe. Where are you thinking of heading? We're not sure what we are planning for next year yet. Andy
@@MakeWayWithTheMorleys we fancy Brittany, never been there with a caravan yet and feeling slightly reluctant about it. My wife wants to go so we are searching youtube videos on advice from prices, sites and areas.
Hi ya love your videos and Caravan trips we now have our own caravan and pickup truck so as soon as we can we are hoping to get away on our first trip it would be amazing to meet up with you all for a weekend 😃👍
Hi Ritchie, thanks for your message. Fab news! I hope this first trip out goes well, it’s a bit learning experience, do expect things to go wrong or to forget something, most of all - have fun!! Perhaps our paths will cross sometime. Cheers, Andy
Jeez, epic drive! Well done Andy (and Kate who I assume was on crowd control ;-) )
Thanks :) Yes, Kate sitting in the back was a tactical ploy, she tells me it wasn't that uncomfortable - I'm not sure I would have agreed. The kids were actually very well behaved, much better than we had expected. Thanks for watching. Andy
They look like they did brilliantly well done kids - we’re lucky to be within walking distance of school so ours only make 1h56 before it all kicks off, doesn’t seem to matter where, when, what they’ve been doing precisely that time or a massively complex and busy junction sets them off!
Great video Andy - good content and well filmed and edited
Long trip and things are always longer than anticipated
Kids were very well behaved ( either that or you edited out the bad bits !)
I’ve found with kids, it’s the first 30 years that are the worst - after that life gets better !
Thanks to you all for very entertaining watch and look forward to the follow up
Best regards
H
Cheers Howard, I wanted to make more of the journey that we showed but it's a fine line really as much of it would be very similar. Also, letting you in a little secret, I forgot my GoPro which I would usually use to shoot the outside angles (from the 'van). The kids were great, Kate being stationed in the back ready to hand out food, dvd's, wipes helped :)
Thanks for watching, Andy
MakeWayWithTheMorleys Did you leave it at home and not have it the whole trip?
Quality and image stability looked good tho.
Good idea sitting Kate between the girls
Hope you all enjoyed yourself and look forward to rest of vlog
Best regards
H
Hi andy and family another great vid looking forward to the next one. How are you getting on with the navara? Are you pleased.
Thanks Paul, very nice of you to say. Yes I'm pleased with it, various people have asked for a review video which I will hopefully get done this side of Christmas. Thanks for watching. Andy
Hi Morley’s- new subscriber although I have binge watched a lot of your stuff.
Have a similar background to you in that we have camped 7 times in France, Vendee and Aquitaine, in fact in your 2018 France series, we were just across the lake from you around the same time having sailed from Poole.
Thanks to youtubers like the Trudgians and Travelling K we have just purchased our first caravan.
Spain would be the ideal holiday for us so I am looking forward to this series of videos, maybe we will get around to doing something similar once I have got to grips with towing 22ft of caravan around as opposed to a 7ft trailer 😂😂.
Long way to go yet but can you give us a price breakdown when you review the holiday at the end?
Lastly ... although I have only just come across your channel, I did actually watch one of your videos quite a while ago, I was searching for Cadac cooking hints and the suggested video was you burning a chicken, didn’t think it was very helpful at the time but was pretty funny 😂😂😂
Thanks,
Paul
Hi Paul, thanks for getting in touch and subscribing!! Great to hear from you. Towing a Caravan in Europe I can honestly say is easier than in the UK, I'm doing my best to convince several close friends about this!! The main thing is to take your time and enjoy the journey, after all it is part of the holiday. We were quite prepared with the kids and made sure we had most things on hand to keep them occupied because whinging kids makes any journey awful.
I'm not sure if I will do a price breakdown vid as I'm not sure on the appeal but I'd be happy to share over email, there is a contact form on our website.
Well, YT's suggested algorithm is scarily accurate at times - for me anyway. I'm glad it made you smile, a lot of people we've met on site have said that was the first they also saw - hehe. Thanks for watching. Andy
When you take rests during a long journey I find It doesn't take the life out of you so much and you feel far less tired at the end of the day, it seems far more productive.
Hi Mark, thanks for your thoughts. I think it depends on a lot of things. Sometimes you just want to blat out a long stint to cover distance and stopping just prolongs things. However, everyone us different tolerances. I drive long distances as part of my day job, driving nowadays tires me out much less than say 15 years ago. But I do take your point and what works for one doesn’t always work for another. Cheers, Andy
Great video, we have a similar setup to you with the same van and Isuzu truck. We are planning for France next year and were wondering if you ever encountered problems with the back end of the van grounding when getting on and off ferries? Looking forward to watching the rest of your videos!
How guys excellent videos really helpful. Would you say Spain was better than France holidays in your previous years. Apart from the drive
Hiya Steve, thanks for getting in touch. Glad you liked the videos, I might use this in a future video!
As for better that’s quite subjective. The weather was hotter and more consistent than the West Coast of France (from our previous experiences). The site was absolutely massive with more going on than anything we’ve ever experienced caravanning. We had a fab time as you’ve seen and I’d love to go back but it’s not all that cheap to get there! Hope this helps, Andy
Yo much driving for me, but it looks lovely
You can always get the Ferry to Spain but it’s more expensive to do so. Andy
Enjoyed watching your adventure to Spain really thinking of doing it myself this August. I have travelled to west of France twice any advice to travelling to Spain with caravan please.
Hi Nathan, thanks for getting in touch. Travelling through France is pretty easy as you'll already have experienced. Having a toll tag made a nice difference in not messing about with credit cards and an unwilling teenager :) Beware though, our tag didn't work in Spain - I think there are some that will do both France and Spain...
We hit a lot of traffic down south, I would say from Le Caylar onwards - we used the A75 from Clermont Ferrand. Make sure you hit that stretch early morning. Road signage is all different to France, different colours etc so it does feel a bit strange first off. BTW, marker boards are also required for all vehicles over 12m long, we used adhesive stickers. Technically these should only be fitted to HGVs in the UK (if worried - duct tape over them), are ok but not mandatory in France but a requirement in Spain. Figure that one out!!! Drop me an email if I can help out with anything else. Andy
Great video. My wife would like to know If you could link the items the kids were entertaining themselves with in the car as our kids get bored easily on the long journeys. Thanks looking forward to the next video.
Hi Keith, of course that would be no problem, affliate link here: (amzn.to/2LJEHlC). The kids had them for their birthday, we went away before Spain and they used almost everything up so we had to restock it - hehe. Thanks for watching, Andy
Great Video, I've watched all your trips abroad. Where can I get one of those trays, we will be taking our grand kids away to France next year and they look ideal? looking forward to the next instalment.
Hi Barry, thanks very much! Here is a link for the trays, it is an affiliate link (amzn.to/2pDF5t1) - they were a present from my parents for the long journey :) Cheers, Andy
Hi love the video
Can I ask if you use vehicle breakdown cover and who you favour
Great footage guys, really enjoy seeing your adventures and it’s giving us ideas for our next trip abroad with the caravan! We did France this year and loved it, how’s the pickup perform on fuel? We were getting just under 28mpg with ranger & twin axle sprite
Cheers buddy, thanks for watching and dropping us a comment. The pickup is not great on juice, its doing about 24ish mpg towing. One thing though that obviously doesn't show on the videos, it was quite windy and without doubt this hurt us on fuel. Also went you get down south, some of the climbs are like 10km long, I went into manual mode to keep a constant speed and the decents were also as long. The risk of running out of brakes is quite high if you don't use engine braking. You don't get long climbs like that anywhere in the UK. Andy
Well done Andy that was some journey you done there 👏👏👏👏
Thanks Liz! It was indeed but well worth the drive :)
What a lovely site,any Idea of pitch prices as website not playing ball.
Fair play Morleys, that was one heck of a trek!! Do you find the twin axle more stable and easier to reverse??
All the best,
Black Country Dave
Hi Dave, thanks - it was a fair drive :) The twin axle is definitely more stable on the road, without a shadow of a doubt. As for reversing, I don't think it's much different. We have a quad mover fitted which does a good job of moving it round for us, one thing we've noticed is that when manoeuvring tight turns the tyre flexes quite a lot, with the pressures being lower than a single axle I'm always worried it will pop the bead on the rim. Andy
@@MakeWayWithTheMorleys I grew up on a farm with twin axle livestock trailers. When manoeuvring by hand, raise the jockey wheel as high as it will go to raise the front axle a bit off the ground (not completely). That will make it easier to push around on a flat surface. Since you have the movers, you will rarely need to use brute force and it is unnecessary to use this tip if you have them. Don't worry, I have never seen a fully laden livestock trailer tyre come off of its bead and we would make some seriously tight turns especially when towed by a tractor on the farm.
Great video guys. We’re just planning our trip for next year. Can I ask, did you have air con on your van? If not how did you find the heat?
Great to hear on your plan. We’d love to go back some day. No we didn’t have air con and were very jealous of those that did have to begin with. Then the temps dropped at night for a week or so, it’s not much trying to sleep when it’s 20 odd at night! You can manage without but I would recommend it. However more important is to have a good additional fan circulating air around the back of your fridge. Thanks for watching, Andy
Great journey 👍.
What towing cover are you using?
Hi, thanks for getting in touch. This is a free cover we got with the Caravan. It’s a universal cover and isn’t to expensive. Andy
Cool to see the kids playing in the car and not on iPads ! Where did you get the travel trays for the girls to play with on the move ?
Thanks very much, they did have some screen time but we wanted them to not be glued to them the whole journey. The travel trays are here: amzn.to/2MNvMPd - being transparent, that's an affiliate link. Andy
Hi guys...... another great holiday episode! When’s part 2 and the rest of the episodes out?
Thanks Stuart, I’m working hard to get Ep2 finished, most likely 6pm tomorrow evening but it might be 6am Saturday morning. I’m doing my best to get one out per week 👍
Super stuff...... 👌🏻 very influential content as we have a couple of young’uns too! Keep up the great work! Possibly thinking of starting up a channel and blogging too...... big commitment tho right?
hi all whens the next video coming ? looking forward to it x
Not sure just yet, we've had a busy few months but the channel won't die. We're hoping to get away soon travel permitting! Andy
Hi Andy, what awning do you have I have just purchased the Palermo grande, a 400 seems to overlap either the front or rear bunk window?
Hi Tom, we've got the Kampa Grande Air 390 All Season, it does overlap the bunk windows but is a better size awning for an extended break. I will buy some 'limpets' to hug it tight to the side of the Caravan for use in the UK but as you'll see in Spain, we didn't need to worry about that. We're also in the very lucky position to have the Fiesta Air awning too, which fits perfectly. Thanks for watching. ANdy
MakeWayWithTheMorleys Awesome, Cheers Andy , brand new to Caravanning having 2 kiddies too, your video’s are excellent, big thanks 👍😀
Excellent vlog. wow, that was some drive . Cracking looking outfit. What is the total length?
Cheers Richard. We're 13.1M or 43' in old money. Hence the marker boards on the Caravan, they're a legal requirement in Spain. Thanks for watching, Andy
So pretty
What did you think of the descent coming down from the central massif? Was it difficult? Reason I ask is that the Dutch auto club doesnt recommend taking that route with a caravan. Hope you enjoyed your stay at Las Dunas. We love it there!
It was quite the decent! My truck is automatic, so I had to put it into manual to try and hold speed without burning the brakes out. Fantastic views too! Camping Las Dunas is great with so many activities. We’ll go back some day! Glad you enjoy your time there like we do 😃. Andy
Hello Andy brilliant video, can you tell me if it is a lot different between your old single axle and your new twin axle in price on the ferries as we don't no if to upgrade to a twin axle or not.
Thanks mate
Ben
Hi Ben,
Yes there is small difference in price, like if you add a roofbox or bike carrier to your car. They are fairly minimal though in the grand scheme of things. If your Caravan is stored in a storage yard you might want to check with them if its ok for your Caravan to be bigger and fit in your spot - this was something we had to do! Thanks for watching, Andy
Andy those mirrors you got I assume are the millenco mirrors but are they convex or flat glass how you find yours mine seem basically like things look to big in mirror and a bit jumpy in the mirror lol
Hi, yes they are the Milenco Grand Aero mirrors, they were new for this trip. They’re the Convex shape rather than flat. They vibrate a bit but you can’t beat them for the huge view. Thanks for watching, Andy
Enjoyed your video but i was wondering why you decided to drive through France to get to Spain rather than simply getting the ferry from Portsmouth directly to Spain. Is it down to cost or is their another reason? Thanks
Hi Jim, thanks for getting in touch. Our Ferry choice was for several reasons, the main being cost. It's much cheaper to drive through France and the Ferry to Spain doesn't save much time. As we were staying on the East Coast (our preference for better weather) the drive would have been at least 6 hours, which bearing in mind the Santander Ferry arrives at 2pm or 5pm depending on which Ferry you choose, and with no delays - the bay of biscay isn't always that smooth, could mean that you arrive onsite quite or very late. The cheapest way would be to get the Channel Tunnel, this would have added another 200ish miles each way onto our journey but with no real break in the travelling we didn't fancy it with the kids. If it was just Kate and I, we'd go that route. Andy
That’s an epic journey, good to have a stop off on the way. We are doing the same crossing next year and staying in Brittany. Was Santander not an option for you? cheers Martin 🙂
Cheers Martin, indeed it was quite a drive. The return leg was even longer as we came back from Le Havre and not Caen. We discarded Santander pretty early on due to cost (>£1200). Also, the drive from Santander to Camping Las Dunas nr Girona is 7 hrs for a car, let alone when towing. Meaning the very earliest we might arrive would have been after 10pm. We felt more in control of our arrival time driving through France, plus it's cheaper even taking into the account the extra fuel and tolls. Cheers, Andy
Santander is expensive. We looked at sailing St Malo but as you said it gets us in at the wrong time. We are doing the Caen night crossing and staying at a site for 3 nights then moving another 2 hrs down the road to our main site. Not decided on return ferry yet. cheers Martin
Hi guys great too see the caravan videos are back, not sure if would fancy driving all that way. Looking forward to following your adventure. How are you finding the Nivara for towing, I want to change my L200 as it getting a bit long in the tooth now and I fancy a Nissan Nivara.
Best wishes
Jon
Thanks Jon. Well the drive was a long one but the weather definitely made up for it! The Navara makes for a great towcar, it’s a bit thirsty I’ll be honest but it feels well planted, lots of space and up to the job. I plan to do a review video but it’s finding the time to film when the car is clean - don’t but a black one 😂. Andy
MakeWayWithTheMorleys Andy I know all about a black car 😁 my L200 is black, the mpg on the L200 is bit poor I get around 28 around town on a run that can rise to 35 unless I'm towing then that drops to about 18. I must admit that that it's been chipped and setup for performance not economy.
Thanks
Jon
We spend a lot of time in Spain and Portugal which has many campervans/motorhomes parked on campsites. Many of these people do what you are doing and I ask myself why a huge motorhome and not a much cheaper caravan and a decent vehicle to drive around.
Hi Andy i am looking at getting a Navara for towing and I wondered how you rate it can i ask what year yours is and have you found it capable for a large van and its reliability enjoyed all your videos cheers mate.
Hi Ray, thanks for getting in touch. I’ve had my Navara for 2 years now, it’s on a 17 plate but was registered in 2016 and had done about 3k miles before I had it. Towing wise it’s well up to the job and with the extra canopy on the back will swallow all of our gear we can take. Very little needs to go in the ‘van. Our Pegasus Grande has an up-plated MTPLM of 1800kg and never had any issues. Even in high winds.
The car came with a 5 yr, 100k mile warranty. I’ve had a couple of things changed, battery (had a dodgy cell - called Nissan assistance and rac were there within an hr), lower rad hose (recall) and turbo breather pipe and seal. It feels a really solid car, I love the high up driving position. Drop me an email if you want to know anything else. You can see our email address from the contact page or visit our website. Andy
Andy are your marker boarders stuck with some type of adhevisve, or are they magnetic? where did you get them from? Thanks Ashley
Hi Ashley, sorry for the delay coming back to you. The marker boards were adhesive and bought online. We did see some contraptions whilst away, using a broom handle to span the rear grab handles with aluminium marker boards attached to that. The distance from the ground is important, I think the CAMC has some guidelines on placement.
@@MakeWayWithTheMorleys cheers mate 👍
Great work guys but why not overnight to San Sebastián to cut out all the extra road miles?
Thanks very much, this is a very common question of which I’ll address in an upcoming video. 👍
Looking at heading down there next year for our summer hols. I’ve never driven in Europe at all and I’m nervous with the caravan on at the best of times although during a long drive to Newquay recently and tackling the Derbyshire dales on a regular basis I’m feeling much better about it.
We’re thinking of a ferry to Bilbao and driving through Spain to cut down on time driving, what are your thoughts on this rather than the long drive through France? Thanks.
Hi thanks for your comment and questions, I'd really like to base a video around answering these as I think they might be appropriate for more than just you :) as such, please know that I will get back to you! Also, what is your name so that I can make it a bit more personal, cheers - Andy
@@MakeWayWithTheMorleys cheers Andy, it’s Dean. Long story behind the name shown!!
Recognise that Aire at Le Mans!
Yeah, me too.
15:35 family drone of course
Wow that was long journey. Looks like a lovely site. If you were to do it again would you rather take the ferry direct to Spain?
It was indeed but I wouldn't change the route. The Ferry to Spain is very expensive and if it's delayed (of course traffic can delay you) it might have been midnight before we'd have arrived. That drive East from Santander is over 7 hours without towing! That's further than our planned drive from Clermont Ferrand area. So it doesn't actually save much time. Though the kids aren't cooped up in the car for as long. Thanks for watching.
Hi, where did you get the tow cover, very smart
We got it free with the Caravan, I think they're about £80. It is universal so should fit anything really. Andy
MakeWayWithTheMorleys thank you 😊
What port is that? Is it Plymouth to santander?I can't wait for my adventure too. My hubby just finish converting a van into a campervan.last time I watch your video you had a campervan
We did the sailing from Portsmouth to Ouistreham (Caen), ahhh well done on the van conversion - I think you must have us mixed up, we've always had a Caravan. Thanks for watching. Andy
Have you never thought of crossing to Spain
It saves time and you would only need one stop,
less petrol and less driving which = less strain
Hi Maria, thanks for getting in touch. We did of course consider crossing to Bilbao but disregarded this as an option very quickly, when I do the round up video for this series I will explain why this was the case for us. Cheers, Andy
What’s happened to the Morley’s that have disappeared?
Just a quick one if you done spain again would you cross to Santander or france
I'll record a video shortly about this and explain the reasons why we went the route we did. Thanks for watching, Andy
@@MakeWayWithTheMorleys cheers andy no rush we may try europe next year that's all
OMG Andy, we are heading to spain next year just south of Barcelona. Long way with 3 overnight stops crossing at Dover to Calais. Love the video Tony and Jayne
Hi Tony and Jane, you're in for a fab time next year. Without knowing how far you're driving to get to Dover, I'd say you could do it in 2 stopovers but it all depends on your tolerance to driving long distances. If you want, drop me an email (contact form on our website) and I will give you some pointers. Thanks for watching, Andy
Tony whereabouts near Barcelona are you going?we (the wife & i)go to the Costa Brava every year on a motorbike riding from Teesside to Portsmouth either to Caen or St Malo,then 3 days to get to our site & stay on sites in static caravans for a week,we have already booked for next year & going back to Vilanova i la Geltru just south of Barcelona ,this year was Pals all the Spanish sites we have stayed in are brilliant.
Hi Peter, Camping Las Dunas is close to Girona near L'Escala. I'd love to do a trip on a bike to Spain or Portugal, unfortunately my biking days have been put on hold for the foreseeable. Thanks for watching, Andy
Where have yous gone all ok
Are you ex or serving I noticed the RHA plates and Pegasus van ?
No I'm not Mark, I'll admit it - I had to google military abbreviations just now :) I had one episode on a horse about 20 years ago in France on holiday and I vowed to never sit in another saddle again... no brake pedal!! :)
Thanks for watching. Andy
@@MakeWayWithTheMorleys Enjoy your holiday and take a look at our channel and any feedback would be good. Main thing I need to buy a decent editing package.
The video could be some more interesting is you were making a tour of the Karajan
Hi, thanks for commenting. We did a review of the caravan in a previous video. Let me know if there is anything specific you want to see. Andy
Hi there are you not caravanning anymore
Guess you have a small tank then as that's just over 400 miles from the port? Assuming you didn't leave the UK with a full tank. What sort of MPG are you getting? €1.55 is more expensive than the UK. Enjoy the hols!
Hi Jim, the published tank size is 73 litres on the Nav, however I've only ever put a max of 65L in when refueling. The time to play 'how accurate is my fuel gauge' is not when you're towing a caravan, with the kids in the car :)
I get about 300 miles out of a tank when towing, which some quick maths reveals about 21mpg. One thing I put on an earlier comment, it was quite windy at times and some of the climbs are super long - like 10k!! You don't get that anywhere in the UK, this obviously hurts you quite a lot on fuel economy. €1.55 is pretty typical at motorway service stations, even in the UK. I might add, that was the most I paid, coming back home we didn't pay more than €1.35 per litre.
Message pinged . Pitch 60 if you are about !
Cheers buddy, nice to meet you a few weeks ago. Hoping to get away in the Caravan soon travel permitting! Take care. Andy
MakeWayWithTheMorleys Hi Andy. Yes it was a bit odd seeing you . My wife said I was start struck it was funny . When I said I bumped into you she said “who”? And I said the caravanning family with the lady who you said had nice eyes and went to Spain. She knew then .
We are booked to go to Devon at half term, and we were planning on going to France in August he se why we binged watched your videos , but with the virus we are not sure what to do , pay up and commit or risk losing the money . Working from home for a few weeks! We may take the caravan somewhere and work from the laptops . Set isolation near a beach !
Take care and catch you again one day .
Omg.... that's so dangerous!!!! It's safe to haul such a big RV with a tiny SUV....that SUV is too heavy for your SUV.... it's overloadec.... dangerous on the road.... your family members and their belongings along with your camping gears and that motorhome is just way too heavy for that SUV to haul....
Did you mean to say it’s NOT safe? And that RV is TO heavy for my SUV?? Can you explain on what basis you think this?
Quite a good video but it lacks the humour and warmth of the Trudgians
Cheers, FYI - I’ve passed the message on. He agrees with you. Thanks for your appraisal. Andy
Great video ,my family made that journey way back in 1965 with dads jaguar mk2 pulling a Cheltenham waterbuck I was 8 years old and now I’m 62 .brought back a lot of memories looking forward to part 2.
Regards Steve