UK to Croatia by Motorhome

Overview

You can find a summary of our trip including links to all of the campsites we stayed in, the dates, costs and our reviews if you download our free... PDF →

You can view each of the places we stayed at and the surrounding areas in our series of videos covering the whole of this trip on our... YouTube Channel →

Planning our route to Croatia

We have sometimes taken the Newhaven to Dieppe ferry when travelling to Europe as it's generally cheaper than the Channel Tunnel, but for this trip we wanted to make up time by using Le Shuttle and avoiding a four-hour ferry crossing. If you're travelling through France, our guide to touring France in a motorhome → covers useful information for motorhome travel through the country.

For this trip we decided to book the campsites in advance to ensure availability and to avoid looking for vacancies on route.

We researched each of the sites regarding power supply, fresh water on pitch, grey water solutions, gas options and local shopping so we could make the most of each site. Gas availability and cylinder compatibility can vary when travelling abroad, so our guide to motorhome gas types → is also worth reading before a longer European trip.

We planned to use a number of toll roads and motorways (some close to cities) so we ensured we knew how to and had the means to pay for each of the toll roads and had the right documentation (CritAir in France) for low emission zone areas.

Documents and essentials

Before setting off, we made sure that we had our passports, driving licences, V5C, insurance documents, breakdown cover, spare bulbs, triangles, fluorescent jackets and GHICs. We checked the current entry requirements for each country on our route. Our essential motorhome trip items guide → can also help when deciding what to take before setting off on a longer journey.

• Passport and driving licence.
• Make sure your motorhome insurance → provides the European travel cover you need for your journey.
• Breakdown cover suitable for our motorhome size and weight.
• Country-specific equipment such as warning triangles, hi-vis jackets and headlamp converters.

There were a few items we took that proved useful throughout the trip. They included a battery and a mains fan, euros supply for laundry, portable clothes line to avoid costly driers, spare wheel and spare water pump for peace of mind!

Choosing overnight stops

We looked for places with easy access, safe arrival times and enough room for our motorhome. Some were rustic but fine for one night. There are also several useful motorhome and campervan apps → that can help you find campsites, aires and overnight stopping places while travelling.

We chose stops close to the main route so we avoided losing time on small roads during our journey.

Keeping driving days manageable

Planning our activities in advance was useful and we booked where necessary. (Venice sightseeing and Plitvice National Park, Croatia, especially).

We took breaks en route and interspersed our short stays at campsites with longer stops.

We decided to do no more than 200 miles per day, we planned to shop prior to our arrival at each site so we could buy goods more cheaply and have more choice. This worked well and gave us enough time to relax at the end of the day.

Arriving in Croatia

As soon as we drove across the border into Croatia we were rewarded with good roads, stunning scenery and the incredible Adriatic Sea coastal roads, where the views are stunning.

Final thoughts

We changed our bank to ensure that any transactions abroad didn't cost us anything extra. Lots of places took local currency only so we were able to cater for that.

We took a load of non-perishables with us, like rice, pasta, cereals and biscuits.

We wished we had more time to explore more of Croatia so we will definitely be going back there!

Written by Nicky Michelmore→