RV-ing in Europe

I hope this post is going to be helpful to many of you who plan to travel to Europe and see a bit more then the "organized" tourist. My wife has been in Spain a long time ago and she wanted to go back ever since. In 2007 we decided to rent an RV in Europe and give it a try. Weeks of planning and the Internet is an incredible help. Whenever we fly to Europe we try to go after the peak season after Sept. 15th. Tickets are much cheaper, same for RV renting and the weather is still beautiful. Since we’ve been living in Germany for years, we wanted to rent an RV in there. Two major rental companies seemed to be the best for us in the Munich area: Hymer (one of the biggest RV builder in the country) and the German Auto club: ADAC. Both have online booking in English; we decided to go with ADAC because of the excellent customer service. After the online reservation they mailed us a DVD introducing exactly the type of RV we rented. From how to drive to the septic system everything is covered in a very simple, easy to understand way. We picked up our RV in Munich at the end of September, they showed us everything again and filled the freshwater tank right there and we were ready to go.

If you go:

RV rental: http://www.hymer-rent.de and www.adac.de

More about the trip next time.


This is the small Motor Home you can rent in Germany for about 8-900$ a week with unlimited mileage.


Here we are at the German-Austrian border. Some countries in Europe do not have toll booths on the highways but you have to buy a sticker at the border; put it on the windshield to prove you paid your fee.


Small Motor Home but has everything to travel in comfort.


In the Swiss Alps.


There are no RV Parks as we know it but many cities have "RV-parking". They are even listed on maps, easy to find and the best part is: they are free. The southern part of Europe has many full timers, some of them moving from one parking to the other. No hook ups at all, just parking but you can not complain about the price. We stayed in some of them for the night, was safer then in a rest area, local cops drove by a few times at night.

A few more words about the favorite trip..

It is amazing what happens in a parking lot sometimes. Free parking at a casino in Coachella, lots of room. Big motor home, worth a few 100 thousands, just wanted to ask the owner if the parking is really free or do we have to register or what to do. As I pull in closer he starts waving: keep going, do not park your "hippy-wagen" next to me. "Thank you sir, very nice from you, hope to never see you again".


A very nice neighbour.


Stopped for some pictures at the Morongo Reservation's Dino Park
We had a very good reason to drive trough the LA area: wanted some really good tacos. Have been there many times, best tacos from a catering truck in Castaic, just north of LA.


1,25 a taco, 3 of them are enough for me, who can beat that?


Last stop for photos on the way home: the Governator's Office in Sacramento.