First Time Touring Europe? Here's Where to Go!

One of the most common questions that I get is, where do I recommend visiting in Europe? Where are my favourite destinations? Where would I send somebody who has never been to Europe before? Now, if you follow me or you're a member of the Wandering Motorhome Club, you will know where I recommend because I've been taking tours on little groups of people across to Europe, teaching them the ropes, and I'm deliberately choosing destinations and areas that are easy to drive, that have got decent views or things to do, and that are Brilliant for building up your confidence. There's a range of either aires or proper campsites depending on the kind of things that people want, and they're just really good, easy-to-visit locations, especially if you're traveling in a vehicle like a motorhome or a campervan. So in this video, I'm going to be sharing 5 of my favorite destinations for everybody, but particularly if you are a first-time motorhomer to Europe. Right, let's dive on in. So place number 1 that I highly recommend everybody visit, but if you're new to Europe, you'll love this one, and that's France. Now there are many, many regions across France that you can visit, but if you're first time or you're quite underconfident, northern France is the perfect place to build up your confidence and get the hang of driving on the wrong side of the road and all the other things that come with touring in Europe. So there's a couple of regions in particular that I recommend. So I'm taking a group of people across to— well, we're going across to Cherbourg and then we're going down to Mont-Saint-Michel and we're exploring the Normandy beaches and all of that sort of Normandy-ish area. You can also continue and going further west into Brittany. Brittany is beautiful. There are some areas in Brittany that have got quite narrow roads, but they have got lots of passing places and everything. Brittany and particularly Normandy, I recommend. And the reason for this is they're fantastic if you're traveling with young kids. You don't want to do lots of driving, especially Normandy. Loads of beaches, loads to run around. There are lots of museums, and if you want to go to the history, young kids might find that a bit boring, but There's plenty and plenty of other things for them to do. It's also fantastic for couples. And of course, if you're a solo traveler, there's loads for you to do around there as well. And the shortened driving time is a lot easier when you're traveling on your own because obviously you don't have to drive so far as well as doing all the action exploring and sightseeing and stuff. So that would be my first tip. If you want to go a little bit further down in France, the Loire Valley is also beautiful, particularly if you enjoy wine. There's plenty of châteaux and vineyards. And things to explore around there, so you can really feel like you've explored France but haven't actually gone that far from the French border. There are plenty of ferries to get across there. You could also go across on the tunnel if you don't want to go across by ferry, and it's not that far to drive the other side. So definitely I would say Normandy or the Loire in France is my top for first-time visitors to Europe. Next place that I recommend is one of my absolute favorite places in Europe, and that is Germany, in particular the Black Forest and the Romantic Road. Now, I love Germany, which is weird because when I first started traveling, I was just not that fussed about it. But it is spectacular. The beauty and the castles and the food and the people and the facilities. It's just amazing. Which is why I'm doing my next Europe trip after this one that's going to Normandy. Is going to be to the Black Forest. I don't know when this video is going to come out. The dates might have been released, but obviously they go to the Wandering Motorhome Club members first. So if there are any spots left which haven't been filled, I will release it to the general public. But if you want to come with me, then absolutely make sure you come and join us in the Wandering Motorhome Club. I will leave the link for that in the notes for you. But Germany is absolutely spectacular for everybody. If you've got kids, Or indeed grown-up adults, I highly recommend going and finding the toboggan runs, the Rodelbahnen, I think they're called in German. I'm sure there's a video— I know there's videos of Jade and us going round and round these toboggan runs. They're like toboggans on rails. They're so much fun. So kids everywhere, you can get double-seater ones if you've got young kids, so you ride with them. They're brilliant. But there's loads to do in Germany, and especially around the Black Forest area. You've got all the huge, beautiful castles. There's loads of hot dogs and yummy things to eat, and yeah, it's just fantastic, and it's not that far from a UK border, so you can get there in a day maybe. I tend— if I'm going down to the Black Forest, I tend to either go up through Belgium and then down, or I'll cut through and go through Strasbourg kind of way, so there's a couple of route options that you can do there, but none of them are particularly difficult. Third place I recommend is the Italian Dolomites. Now these are just slightly more mountainous, but the views are spectacular. It's a really good place to test yourself at driving your motorhome up and down slightly narrower, more twisty roads. If you've got an enormous vehicle, like sort of, I don't know, 8 meters plus, you might find some of the roads more difficult, and I probably wouldn't say go here as your very, very first motorhome trip, but you can absolutely incorporate it after you've been around Europe. Perhaps you've done— in fact, that's exactly what we did. We did the Black Forest, so we built our confidence on those easier roads, and then we carried on down and we ended up in the Swiss Alps and then into the Italian Dolomites, and it was an absolutely incredible trip. But I wouldn't go there straight away. I'd get used to driving on the other side of the road, how it all works. But you can easily, within a week or two, be exploring the Dolomites, and it's one of the most amazing places I've ever been lucky enough to go with the motorhome. So highly, highly recommend that one. The 4th place that I recommend you visit, and again, this is somewhere else that I've taken a group from the Wandering Motorhome Club, first-timers to Europe. We went over and we did Belgium and the Netherlands. And the reason that I love this is you can very quickly tick off several countries, so you feel like you have experienced a lot of little bits of Europe. So obviously when you first come across, you will cut that little corner of France if you've gone from Dover to Calais, and then you come straight into Belgium. You're in Belgium within an hour and it's basically a main road the entire way. I try and stay somewhere like the Menin Gate because I think the Menin Gate ceremony is incredible. Been a couple of times now and it always makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. But there are loads of other incredible places that you can explore around Belgium. And then the next day you're into the Netherlands. And the Netherlands are one of my favourite countries because it's decent roads, it's flat, with the exception of kamikaze cyclists, which are basically everywhere. It's really easy to find parking, it's really easy to go and find things to do. You can park up on the outskirts of Amsterdam, get public transport in. Amsterdam's gorgeous, but there is so much more to explore in the Netherlands. So yeah, that's definitely— that little corner is fantastic. So I highly recommend you could spend a few days there. It's brilliant for kids if you take If you've got kids, take them to Madurodam in the Netherlands. It's like this little mini map, if you like, of the whole of the Netherlands, but it's all mini, so you can see all the windmills and you can see all the clogs and things. There's so much around there, so it's a lot of fun. And then of course you've got slightly more grown-up places like Amsterdam for couples, or if you're traveling solo and you feel so inclined. So there's a lot to do around the Netherlands and Belgium as well. And then the 4th place that I recommend to people who are new to motorhoming in Europe, who want to go to a different country but aren't quite ready for driving on the other side of the road or a completely different language, is Ireland. Now, obviously, I'm talking about the Republic of Ireland now, but if you go over there, you go on a ferry, so it feels like a proper adventure, but there's enough similarities and there's enough to see, so you feel like you properly come out of the UK and you have had a proper adventure, and it's such a fantastic way Of building up your confidence. If you had to pick one, I mean, obviously the Wild Atlantic Way is superb. You probably won't be able to do all that. You definitely won't be able to do it all in a couple of weeks, but you could do a section of it and then come back at a future date and do another section. I did it in about six weeks. I did a video on it all there, and it's gorgeous. It's absolutely beautiful. So that's definitely a place that I would recommend for a first timer into Europe. If you feel like that's cheating and that's not a proper place in Europe, I think they might beg to differ. But never mind. Then Spain's always good. I wouldn't go down to the south of Spain. I'd stay to the north of Spain, and obviously you're traveling in winter, but that whole area in the north to central Spain is stunning. And also go up into somewhere like Denmark or even Sweden if you want a really massive adventure, because the roads to get up there are easy, easy peasy. It's such easy driving. It is a long way, but it's easy driving. If you can drive on a motorway in the UK, you can absolutely drive on a motorway in Europe. So there we go. There are 5 places that I recommend for people who are first-time motorhoming in Europe or people who just want somewhere nice and easy and uncomplicated to go touring. If you want some help planning your exact itineraries or where you're going to visit or where to stay on those countries, then I have actually got detailed itineraries inside my road trip planners for most of them. I'll put all the details for that in the notes for you so you can get ready-made itineraries, places to visit, things to do, all of that kind of stuff. Save yourself hours and hours of research. I've done all the hard work for you. And again, of course, if you want all this information in some sort of printed book, then you can grab a copy of my Europe book or the digital guide, which also comes with videos, which is the Europe Touring Toolkit. I will leave all of the links that you need in the notes. If you want more tips and tricks for touring the UK and Europe in a motorhome, make sure you are And I'll see you in the next video. Take care. Bye. Bye.