Motorhome Trip To Italy

Well here we are in March after surviving one of the soggiest winters in the UK ever. It is fair to say that it is very hard to think about a motorhome trip when it is freezing cold and raining. But things are changing now. Next weekend we will be in British Summer Time which means longer evenings and lots of chances to be outside watching beautiful sunsets. It’s also a good time to start planning your motorhome hire holiday for the summer. Where do you fancy going? Italy? France? Austria? With a motorhome you can go anywhere you like!

Sauze d'Oulx, Italy

Sauze d’Oulx, Italy

If you really can’t wait until the warmer weather properly kicks in here in the UK, you can always go abroad in a motorhome. Although I wasn’t necessarily seeking the sunshine, I found it last week, in Italy. I have just been in the Piedmontese area of Northern Italy where I did some skiing in Sauze d’Oulx and Sestriere where the snow was perfect and the days were surprisingly warm. Most of my ski trips are usually to France, but this winter I decided to go to Italy for a change. It was certainly not my first motorhome trip to Italy, but it was my first ski trip there. In 2013 I had spent a bit of time in the North of Italy, slowly making my way from Claviere, near the France – Italy border to the Italy/Austria border near Como. This was when I became aware of the wonderful ski resorts of the Piedmonte region.

I decided to do the whole motorhome trip to Italy as cheap as possible so I wasn’t even interested in using ‘proper’ campsites, so instead I chose to base myself around the main car parks of Oulx, just down the road from Sauze d’Oulx. I also found a really neat motorhome park that I found on Park4Night.com. Having said that, during my trip, I didn’t even stay here, I just used it for filling up with water, emptying the toilet cassette and waste water. Most of the time I just stayed on one of the larger car parks at Sauze d’Oulx. I really like going out for the evening in Sauze d’Oulx so it is really neat just to have your motorhome parked up ready for a good nights sleep. Wild camping with a motorhome is not quite as easy to do in Italy as it is in France, but if you are fairly subtle about it, it is doable.

Motorhome Parking at Stada Statale 23, 10058, Italy

A neat place to stay with a motorhome near Sestriere, Italy (from Park4night.com)

If you want to find out more about cheap, free places to stay in Italy you could take a look at this site called Area Sosta Italia, the site is a bit slow and is only in Italian, but there is some good information there.

Of course for many people, the idea of doing an Italian motorhome trip is not about skiing and snow, but about sunshine, great food, beaches and awesome coastlines. Yes indeed Italy has all that and lots of it too. I’m planning a trip for the summer with my children to go and see some volcanoes, I fancy seeing Stromboli, Vesuvius and maybe go over to Sicily and get a good look at Etna. I’ve never been to Southern Italy, so that is going to be a lot of fun.

My recent Italian ski trip was done in Chausson Flash 02, which is perfect for a couple or somebody travelling on their own. It also has a nifty extra bed that you can use for a small child. I really like the Chausson Flash 02 because it has a superb double bed at the rear of the motorhome that you can leave permanently made up. For my summer trip to Southern Italy, with the children, I will probably hire a motorhome like the Chausson Flash 03, which has bunk beds at the rear, which the kids love and a large overcab bed for the wife and I. If you need it, you can also convert the dining table into an extra double bed, but personally I’d rather leave the table set up as a table. This comes in very handy when you need to stop for a bit of lunch or even just a cup of tea.

So where is the best place to hire a motorhome if you are going to Italy? Well to be honest I have tried flying abroad and then hiring a motorhome once you get there, but it never seems to work out right. With all the luggage restrictions they have on flights these days it hardly seems worth it. I much prefer to hire a motorhome in England and then load it up with all our own stuff; our own bedding and pillows, our bikes and all the other stuff that you just would no be able to take on an aeroplane. Sure, if you are travelling a long distance to somewhere like Italy it may take a while to get there. The beauty of a motorhome trip is that you can take your time and really enjoy the actual journey. I believe an enjoyable journey should be part of your holiday.

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