Driving Horizons

The New Forest is a great place to explore, whether it be on foot, on bike, or visiting all the local villages to explore. There are lots of great campsites, and in this episode, I have gone through a few of our favourites, and also a few on our wish list. From ones with facilities, to ones with not as many, but allowing fires, there should be a campsite among these few to suit all needs. I have even included an Adults Only one...just don't tell Max!! Here is a blog post to the campsites I have discussed. Ii also chat about this weeks news, which includes information about the February NEC Show, and a bit about the AA Campsite Awards 2022. Don't forget to leave a nice review on your chosen platform, and if you have any suggestions for improving the show, then leave me a message! Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchub Social: @drivinghorizons

In this episode, I spend some time discussing what is coming up on the show over the next few weeks, and I drop in a recording of this week's news story. This weeks news story includes a new Sat Nav / GPS from Garmin. I also chat about a ruling that affects insurance companies, and how they price things, and finally, I talk about a story where the DVLA are perhaps not being as clear as they could, and should be. In the second part of the show, I go through some ideas I have for the Podcast, and what may be coming up over the next few weeks, and even months. Stay tuned, and I hope you enjoy this week's episode of the Driving Horizons Podcast. Auto-Generated Transcript of the Show It's Friday, the 11th of November. This is episode 63. And welcome back to Driving Horizon's Hello. Hello. Hello. And a Good morning. A good afternoon and a good evening to whenever or wherever you are listening to this. Welcome back to the podcast. And if you are new here, then welcome for the first time and if you are regular, then of course, welcome back. Driving Horizons is a podcast, website and YouTube channel all about camper van, life travel and generally seen as much of the UK in the world as we can. Bought you weekly by me Richard. So sit back and let us get into this week's episode. So welcome back to another show. And it is going to be a real quick one today. As you know, we are not travelling at the moment. But that is not going to stop me. So this week, I have not had much time to plan the podcast. And I've got loads of ideas that I want to do over the next few weeks. So what I thought I would. Do today. Is a quick, a quick preview, if you like. Of what's coming up over or what's coming up on this podcast over the next few weeks. And as I am hoping, like I said last week, to be a regular feature. I will replay a recording of this week's news. Which has been taken from my camping and camper van news video that I released over on YouTube earlier this. Week. And it is better to watch that on YouTube because you. See the screenshots and the items in the articles I'm talking about. And if you do want to, by all means listen to it here, it will give you the highlights, that's for sure. But if you want to see it with all the screenshots, then head over to Driving Horizons dot com forward slash. YouTube. And you can watch it there with me going through the screenshots and talking in a bit more detail or showing you a bit more detail of what I'm talking about. So first up, we're going to play that segment from this week's Industry News, after which I will. Let you know. What exciting stuff we have coming up over the next few. Weeks. So here's that recording and I'll be right back. This Weeks News Hi, Richard here from Driving Horizons and it's time for the news roundup of all the stories in the camping and campervan world. That have caught my eye this week. So welcome to this week's news. And I have three stories for you this week. And first up, and I am a little bit late to the party on this one, but Garmin Have released. A couple of new satnav's or GPS's Garmin Camper795 and the CamperCam795 The seven inch display should make it easy to see and read while driving. Plus, there are tons of features on these ones, things like. Road warnings, telling you all about steep. Grades, sharp bends and even weight limits. And there is also. An. Environmental zone, which is a. Feature that warned you. About certain restrictions, perhaps a low emission zone in a larger city, something like that that would normally be chargeable. But my favorite and possibly the most useful for me. Anyway, is when, especially if we ever. Bought a bigger van, is. The custom motorhome routine, which among other things, gives you the ability to load in the dimensions of your motorhome or caravan so that you don't find yourself going down small roads like this one in a huge van. A quick snapshot of their features. It is a seven inch screen. You can travel confidently along your chosen route after programing the size of. Your rig, and it gives you a warning. For steep curves, sharp bends, things like that. And it also discovers the best stops, the best spot. Sorry to stop along your route with the inbuilt Michelin Green Guide prices are around £390 for the camper795 or £500 for the camper cam 795. Which, from what I could see, the main difference is that the camper cam has a built in dashcam. And next up, if you are about to undertake a van conversion, then you probably know that you have to let the DVLA know. The primary use of the van has changed from a normal van to, say, a motorhome or a motor caravan, I think they call it. However, it may not be as simple as that. I found a story on Out and About Live where the DVLA has been criticized by the government ombudsman over camper van confusion. The story involves would be camper vanner informing the DVLA. They have converted their normal van to a camper van, only to be told by the DVLA that no they haven't. It was just now a van with windows What's the different then. All vans have windows. Otherwise why would you need window wipers anyway? Having a vehicle. Registered as a van with windows rather than a motor caravan means the owner can face a number of issues, including higher fees on toll road. Costlier MOT's, having to abide by different speed limits and not being allowed on some camping sites that don't allow commercial vehicles I guess After being rejected, they asked the DVLA for advice on what they had to do to to get it changed. And the answer was vague, suggesting that they add Awning rails or stickers to the exterior. So they did. And one of them added a big sticker that said camper van to four sides. I'm not sure that would work. And it seems the issue is they won't tell them exactly what they need to do to satisfy the requirements, because the two people involved said if they did, then they'd obviously do it and they would get reclassified. Now there are two separate complainants in this story and it would appear that David and Mary. May not be alone as the number of successful applicants to the DVLA for a change in body type to motor caravan dropped by 95% from almost 2500 to under 150 between January 2019 to January 2020. The DVLA eventually said this was due to making changes to the way they process applications after realizing in June 2019 they had not been applying their existing vehicle body type policy as originally intended. Now the Ombudsman found that not only communicating about this significant change in a clear way, in a timely way, it was a mistake and administration error and part of the DVLA. They also found guilty of not being transparent about what's required to register a vehicle as a camper van and its processes. And they recommend that they apologize to the complainants and give them £100 in recognition of their distress and confusion and frustration. But they should also create an action plan about how it intends to ensure the applicants have sufficiently detailed information available to them before undertaking a conversion about what elements constitute a vehicle, body or vehicle of body type motor caravan and what they need to do. And they also need to provide the Ombudsman with details of how it intends to make clear to customers the process involved in determining a body type and in particular making a decision on what body type to assign an application for a body type motor caravan. And at this point, I'm still not sure if David and Mary have managed to classify their camper van correctly. I hope you have guys if you're watching, which you probably aren't. And the third article today is all about insurance, and it is a story that I found over on the Caravan and Motorhome Club websites excuse me is an older story, but I wasn't aware. So perhaps some of you are not aware of this either. Now we've all been frustrated when new customers and not just insurance get better deals than those that are renewing with their current provider. Well, the Financial Conduct Authority, the FCA, have brought in their fair pricing initiative, which is aimed at not penalizing those loyal customers that do choose to renew. The FCA found that some existing customers that remained loyal were being punished as new customers were getting better deals, I guess to entice them into signing up with that new insurance company. But from the start of this year, 2022, see told you it was an older story and both new and existing customers must be offered the same price for the same cover, which is kind of a blow for insurance companies, because now that he's going to raise their new business prices or lower their renewal prices so that they match, that is what I have you for this week's Camping and Caravan News and the round up the things that caught my eye. And don't forget, if you did. Like this video, then give. It a thumbs up. And if I carry on getting likes and views, then I'll definitely spend the time to bring you the weekly news all about camping and camper vans. And finally, if. You haven't already. Why not subscribe to the channel that notification bell so that you can see all our future videos on travels, camper van, news and reviews and all things that we do here. If you click here, you will find last week's news video. Thanks for watching and we'll see you in the next video. So there we go. That is this week's news and one of the stories there about the DVLA. There were a couple of comments on my YouTube channel, which I'm going to go through in next week's news. And I've also reached out to three or four van conversion companies to see to try and get their thoughts and their experiences on if they register with the DVLA or is that down to the people they sell it onto when they change the logbook to do it? So I'm trying to understand that in case that might prove helpful for other people. So stay tuned for that next week. So like I said earlier, I am just going to real quickly. Run through the things that are coming up on the podcast over the next few weeks. I have 13. Weeks worth of ideas and all. Of them take a little bit of work. To do before I can actually record it. So I'm hoping to be able to find the time over the next few weeks to do that as well as maintain the website, as well as record videos and edit videos and publish videos and do my day job to pay the bills. So I'm and also practice stop sign all the time, which is the hardest part. Okay. So I have like say 13 things that are coming up and I don't know what order they're going to be coming out in. I am going to read them out in the order they're on my list, which may not be the actual order that they are released in. So don't expect to see the first one. I'm making sure next week, but don't expect to see the last one I mention in 13 weeks time either. And also other ideas might come up other things through the podcast that I want to do. So here we go. Okay, so I am going to we went in. A summer earlier in the year actually it wasn't quite the summer, I don't think. I think it was more spring time to a national park in Devon. And we did a amazing walk around Ludford Gorge and I have a quick video on that. That was part of our vlog series when we went to Devon, and I think that it deserves an amazing it's an amazing place. It deserves probably a bit more time. So I am going to go through that trip. It is not boring as it sounds, I promise, because it was. A stunning. Place and I'm not going to spoil it now. But that's one thing that's coming up. As a creator of these podcasts, I also listen to podcasts, so I have a number of podcasts that I listen to as regularly as I can. And I'm going to let you know where they. Are and I am going to link to those in the show notes and things like that so that I can send to you. So the you may be me may be able to discover them and you may enjoy them as well and see if there's something you'd like to add to your podcast. Your podcast list. I have an idea that I want to share about our campsite wishlist. So these are campsites that I've seen over the years when we've been looking at doing trips and things and that kind of campsites that I really want to visit and I'll tell you why I want to visit them and where they are and things like that, and what appeals about those campsites. To me. We are also. Members of the Caravan and Motorhome Club site and also the Camping and Caravan Club site. And I want to do a comparison on those too, because some people will do I join a website? Should I join, show, join this one, show, join one at all and then have a comparison as to who may help people in making a decision. So but before I do that, I'll only say that one caravan and camping club site. So I'd like to stay a couple more to get a flavor rather than just base my findings on that one campsite. I'd like to stay two or three more so that I have a fair reflection of the state of loads of caravan in my time campsites with not many camping and caravan campsites. So I'd like to I'd like to do that as well. I'm not sure if this one would actually materialize. It depends on how long it takes me to get it together because we did our ten day trip around on or around the whole of Wales, but we saw lots of things in Wales in the summer and there are a few things that we would have done differently. I'm not sure if that's going to justify a whole podcast or not, but I will go through some ideas or some things that I think that had we done it differently, we may have had a better time and maybe experienced more or experienced different things rather than how we did it. So that's our favorite cooking gear. We do lots of cooking while we're out camping in the van. We have a amazing connect stove that I've talked about on here before, I think, but there's loads of cooking gear that we have that makes it easy, quick and convenient to cook inside or outside of the van. So I'd like to share that with you guys. This next one will also turn into a video. I've just got to find the time to do it. We have a Volkswagen, California, which we love, but there are also some little niggles that. Perhaps we don't love. As much. I don't want to say hate, but I want to share those with use that I was thinking of buying a particular 2015 VW California. It might help those in making a decision or looking out for some of the things that we've noticed over the last four or five years. I'm debating whether or not to do it. And go into more detail on the campsites that we visit. For example, we stayed at a campsite called Concierge Camping, and I'd love to explain all about it on the podcast and give you my thoughts on what you can expect when you get there. And the pros and cons and where it is and what's around there and things like that. So if anyone's thinking of going to that area, that might be a good not just for concierge camping, but for all the other campsites we've stayed as well. Caravan cooking. I've mentioned the equipment. What about the. Meals we are going to go through? Perhaps a number of meals that we like to eat while we are in the van. They're easy, convenient, doesn't create much washing up and we have at home just as easily transferable to the camper van as well. Reading. I like reading. I read as many books as I can, not as many as I would like, but I have a list of camper van and travel books. It's also a blog post on the website which I'd like to go through and tell you who they're by and what it's about. And no spoilers, but why we or why I like them and why I've read them and why I keep them on the shelf, things like that. I'd like to share with you more on. The New Forest has loads of great campsites in the new forest. There's lovely places to visit and a new forest. It's a national park. It's over 100 years old. It's been a national park. I think. I think so. I think that I can really go through lots of things around the new forest, which is near where we live, the visitors to Sydney Forest that I find useful. So they are 12 or 13 things that are coming up over the next few weeks. Like I say that the main work in doing it recording only takes 1520 minutes, but the research behind it is where the time is and to get it into a decent format, which I've not been doing. So there we go. We are on 16 or 17 minutes of this podcast. I am going to leave it there for now. It is Friday the 11th. I'm recording this on Thursday the 10th. It will be released on Friday the 11th. If you're listening to on Friday the 11th, have a great Friday. If you listen to it any other day, have a great day. Please leave me a good review on your chosen podcast platform. And if there are things you don't like rather than just give me one star, why not tell me? Tell me what you don't like. Tell me what you'd like to hear and we'll see what we can do. But in the meantime, thank you for listening. Have a great week and we'll see you next time on Driving Horizons.com. Bye for now.

Welcome to this week's episode, where I chat about some news articles that have caught my eye. In addition, I run through all the Camping & Motorhome shows for 2023. News Articles include Facts and figures from the October NEC show, a 200k motorhome, and the MMM Motorhome and Campervans of the year awards. Camping, Caravan and Motorhome Shows are back for 2023, and so far I have found 14 shows happening between January and October 2023. If you are looking for some Top Tips on attending Motorhome shows, then check out a previous Podcast, or this article over on the blog.

Have you bit overwhelmed by the different types of portable camping toilets? What are the different types? How do they work? Where do you empty them? If you are new to camping, or you are just shopping for a new camping toilet, then this is the podcast for you. This show won't tell you which of the portable toilets is best for you personally, but it will help explain what options there are out there. Firstly though, do you even need one, you ask yourself. Again, that is not a question I can answer, but I can sow some seeds of thought, and perhaps ask you to think about the type of camping you are going to do. The type of campsites you will be visiting. Perhaps how you empty them will influence your decision on camping toilets, and the one you choose? Maybe having to deal with your own 1's and 2's will put you off the idea altogether! Accessories for camping toilets Yes, that's right, camping toilets need accessories. Do you choose a chemical toilet? How do the chemicals work, where do you put them? What types are there? A Bucket and Bag toilet? I am not sure I like the sound of that you may be thinking. How does that work? Is it really a bucket and a bag? Where do I empty that? There are a lot of options, a lot of questions, and therefore a lot of answers. I try my best to answer as many as I can, so why not take a listen to the show a,, about camping toilets, and let me know what you think? In the meantime, don't forget to subscribe to the show and leave a positive review if you have enjoyed it. If not, please head over to my contact page, and drop me a message! Until the next time, happy camping, and safe travels! Rich Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @drivinghorizons

It is October, and Winter is fast approaching. That doesn't mean the camping has to stop though! We regularly get away in the Winter months and have visited quite a few campsites. These on this list include sites that are great for families, great for city visits, and also if you want a bit of luxury. Campsites included are: Freshwater Beach: Bridport, Dorset, DT6 4PTCofton Holidays: Near Dawlish, South Devon, EX6 8RPBrighton CAMC Site: East Brighton Park, Brighton BN2 5TSConcierge Camping: West Ashling, Chichester PO18 8DLCarnon Downs: Carnon Downs, Truro TR3 6JJ I explain the facilities on each, and who I think they will be good for. Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @drivinghorizons

Have you ever left a campsite halfway through your stay because it wasn't for you? In this episode, I talk about how we did this for the first time ever! We also embarked on our toughest hike to date, but we loved every minute of it! Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @drivinghorizons

In this episode, I take you on a trip up Snowdown, the highest mountain in Wales, at an elevation of 1,085 metres above sea level, and the highest point in the British Isles outside the Scottish Highlands. We also visit Anglesey, along with a trip to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. Yes, that is the correct name. I have not just fallen asleep on the keyboard!! Enjoy, and don't forget to leave a comment or a review!! Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @drivinghorizons

In today's show, I talk about the start of our Summer 2022 Wales trip, and our journey from Berkshire, to North Wales via Shropshire. We make it to Snowdonia National Park, before settling into our first Welsh Campsite, Bryn Gloch. Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @drivinghorizons

In today's Episode, I quickly announce my return after a bit of an unintentional summer break, and let you know what is coming up over the next few weeks! Thanks for sticking with me!! Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @drivinghorizons

In this week's show, I talk about my Summer 2022 travel plans and what we are getting up to over the next couple of months. Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @drivinghorizons

Camping is all about the outdoors, and what better way to enjoy the outdoors, than taking in an awe-inspiring hike, or a gentle stroll. In this week's podcast, I go through 5 campsites with walks or hikes straight from your pitch. The walks range from challenging to easy strolls, so there is something for everyone. Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @drivinghorizons

Welcome to this week's show, when I recap our fabulous trip to Devon and Cornwall. We stay at two great campsites, hike a gorge, and take a short boat trip to a pretty village where we find a monster crab!! Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @drivinghorizons

Welcome to this week's show. I discuss the possibility of Wild Camping (with consent) coming to England and there was also a poll where Britains Top 30 Dream Camping Locations are revealled. See below for more information, plus links to the relevant website and news articles. Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @RichardChubUK Wild With Consent Wild With Consent article - https://wildwithconsent.com Britains Top 30 Dream Camping Locations - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/camping-uk-best-sites-b2077335.html Top 30 dream camping locations according to UK residents  1. Loch Ness, Scotland2. Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire 3. Robin Hood's Bay, North Yorkshire 4. Durdle Door, Dorset 5. Brecon Beacons, Wales 6. Waterside House Campsite, Lake District 7. Tarn Foot campsite, Lake District 8. Dartmoor National Park, Devon 9. The Needles, Isle of Wight 10. Pleasant Streams Farm, near St Austell, Cornwall 11. Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland 12. St Agnes, Isles of Scilly 13. St Austell, Cornwall 14. At the foot of Ben Nevis, Scotland 15. Glenbrittle campsite, Isle of Skye 16. In the shadow of Stonehenge, Wiltshire 17. Trwyn Yr Wylfa, Snowdonia, Wales 18. In the grounds of Highclere Castle, Berkshire – AKA Downton Abbey 19. On top of Cheddar Gorge, Somerset 20. Croyde Beach, Devon 21. Barra, Outer Hebrides 22. Three Cliffs Bay in the Gower, Wales 23. Isle of Eigg, Inner Hebrides 24. Piel Island, Cumbria 25. Newgale, Pembrokeshire 26. Bon camping, Pembrokeshire 27. Duncansby Stacks, Scotland 28. Turner Hall Farm, Seathwaite, Cumbria 29. Hidden Valley Camping, Worcestershire 30. Lepe Beach, Hampshire

In this week's show, I talk about our impromptu visit to the Southern Motorhome and Camping Show to hunt for a new awning, and also some news stories that have caught my eye. Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @RichardChubUK

Welcome to this week's episode I share some industry news, including Forestry and Land Scotland Stay The Night initiative plus a change for the people at Cool Camping. If you fancy booking via Cool Camping, why not use this code RICHARDC7FD23C. This gives you a £10 credit, and I get a little bit of a bonus which always helps support the show: Finally, we share some travel plans for another 2 counties in our #20in2022 challenge!! Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @RichardChubUK

This week's episode is all about our visit to a great little campsite in the heart of the new forest, within easy reach of a great little village. I am also so close to hitting a major milestone, and need your help to tip me over the edge! Thanks for listening, and enjoy the show Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @RichardChubUK

Welcome to this week's podcast, where I share with you all the different websites we use when looking to book campgrounds. This Podcast also has an accompanying YouTube video, if you want to check it out, head over to www.drivinghorizons.com/youtube. The list of the websites is as follows: https://www.caravanclub.co.ukhttps://www.pitchup.comhttps://www.outandaboutlive.co.ukhttps://www.google.com/mapshttps://www.ukcampsite.co.uk Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @RichardChubUK

Welcome to this week's show, when we visit the Caravan and Motorhome Club site near Brighton, and explore all this part of the coast has to offer. We cycle into Brighton Marina and of course the famous Palace Pier. We also try out our new Cadac 2 Cook 2 Pro, for a delicious one-pot pasta dish, and amazing Breakfast Sausage muffins. Link are below if you want to see them for yourself. Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means we will earn a small commission on the products or services you purchase using the links. There is no additional cost to you and if you do purchase, then I thank you for supporting the website.  Links to the products discussed: Cadac Safari Chef 2 - https://amzn.to/3EFRhfh Cadac 2 Cook 2 Pro - https://amzn.to/37CMaAn Cadac Pizza Stone - https://amzn.to/39b9fL5 Egg Poaching Rings - https://amzn.to/37CI8YX Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @RichardChubUK

Welcome to this week's show, when I visit South Lytchett Minster in Dorset. We take a trip to Upton Country Park, and enjoy tea at a local pub. This episode talks all about the campsite, the surrounding area and what we thought of the campground. All about my #20in2022 challenging - http://richardchubb.com/podcast/episode-43 Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @RichardChubUK

Welcome to this week's show, when I take you to Wilton Windmill, before a night stopover in Henley on Thames, at the Caravan and Motorhome Clubs Henley Four Oaks campground. Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @RichardChubUK

Welcome to this week's show! In it, I discuss a couple of pieces of industry news that has caught my eye, plus, at long last, I talk about our ill-fated and disastrous trip to the Lake District. Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @RichardChubUK

Welcome to this week's episode, when briefly explain all about a little challenge I have set myself. Can I visit 20 different counties in 2022? Have a listen to see why, and what my plans are! Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @RichardChubUK

This week I talk all about the hired van we thought we would try out. Is Bigger Better? Are our days of camping in our VW California numbered? Have a listen to find out! Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @RichardChubUK

On the 25th and 26th of February, we visited the NEC Caravan Camping and Motorhome Show. 5 halls. Hundreds of suppliers. Thousands of visitors. These are my thoughts. Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @RichardChubUK

Welcome to Episode 40, when I quickly discuss our the Best Apps we use when traveling or camping. Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @RichardChubUK

Welcome to today's show, a quick prelude to the week ahead and what we will be getting up to when we visit the Lack District. We are collecting a hire vehicle to use for 3 nights, before exploring the Lakes and around Windermere, and Coniston. Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @RichardChubUK

Welcome to today's show! Today I talk briefly about an awesome touring park I stayed at. Then I talk about a few great sites that are easy to visit, and in beautiful locations in Devon. This includes Langstone Rock, Jacobs Ladder, and Byes Riverside Park. Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @RichardChubUK The transcript below is auto-generated, so apologies if it reads strangely! It is Friday, the 11th of February, this is episode 38 from welcome back to driving Horizon's. And low, hello, hello and a good morning, a good afternoon and a good evening to whenever or wherever you are listening to this. Richard here, welcome back to the podcast. If you are new here, then welcome. And if you aren't a regular, then of course, welcome back. So it's been a busy week, mainly in the office this week. I've been doing lots of editing to get some videos out. Last week show you may have heard me talk about the motor home and camper van show or the now set motor home camping show I went to. So I'm not going to talk about that this week. You can find all about that in last week's episode, but what I am going to talk about this week is some of the amazing things that I did while I was down in that part of the world. So the motorhome and camper van show was in West Point in Exeter and I stayed down there. I saw some sites around Exeter and a couple of places on the way back, so stay with me to hear about the suggestions I've got for the area and the great places that we were that I visited when I was down there. I spotted a couple of things this week in a magazine that I wanted to and I wanted to share with you. I picked up a copy of the Practical Motorhome magazine, which talks about much of homes and camper vans and things like that. I don't think it really touches too much on on caravans, but on one of their pages, they were talking about the site winners that are judged and awarded by the AA. And one of the campsites that they have awarded Campsite of the Year to for Wales is one that we visited a couple of years ago. And just by chance, because I put this video out long before I saw this magazine, I recommended this campsite for one that we would definitely revisit in 2022. So it looks like the AA have good taste because if I can recommend it, then obviously it's good enough for them as well. And the other thing I saw in there was something called night stops. Now night stops is I don't know if anyone's familiar too much with Harvest's hosts that they have in in America is basically businesses, you know, things like wineries, breweries, places that have lots of land where you are allowed to register and all these caravans, motorhomes, whatever they want to call them over there can park for free. But they are expected, I guess, is the word to use the services of the venue at your park here. So if you're staying at a winery, a winery, have a wine tasting or by a couple of bottles of wine, if you are staying at a brewery, maybe have dinner there or try out some of the bears is kind of a Win-Win situation because the Tories can park for free and the businesses get people there to spend money and they're buying their goods and services and just giving up space that would otherwise be sat idle when empty. So they're placing this thing in the UK is called night stops and I've only ever seen in the last couple of months and we have something around Europe corporate stocks, which is quiet, which is quite similar, but this just looks a little bit less. You know, you don't have to sign up for anything you don't have to pay to join it. I don't think I'm going to a little bit more investigation on it, but there are at the moment 34 places around the country, which doesn't sound a lot, but they are, well spread out . I can't see any way on this one in Wales. I'm sorry, I can't see any in Scotland, but there is one in Scotland that is up quite in the north of Scotland. But there's like 34 of them around the country and they all do like their pubs or inns or hotels, places like that where you can, I believe, just stop and park up and camp for the night. And you know, you'll be expected to have dinner in that pub or buy a few drinks or, you know, just show your appreciation by you can have to have dinner anyway or have a drink anyway. Maybe it just means that you win because you can park up and they win because they get businesses they probably wouldn't normally go. So that's the other thing I wanted to mention before I rest a lot about what I did in Exeter. I would try and do a little spot at the start of the show on things I've seen or news I might have that perhaps the listeners here wouldn't have heard about that. I'd buy the magazines or that I read the magazines I see these in, and if I see anything on Twitter and things like that. So I just sort of bookmark things I like to share a couple every week. So I'm not going to take up loads of time on it. But there's a two that I've I've seen for this week, so I'm sitting back in my chair. I've got no notes in front of me. I do have my computer with some pictures on. I may be thinking looking at two for memory, but. Let me tell you about what I did while I was in Exeter, so I it was about a three hour drive and I went to the show first, but then I headed over to a campsite called Coughed and Holidays. Now it does everything. It's got more intense lodges, caravans, holiday cottages. You know, it has all sorts of accommodation. It's a proper holiday park. So if you want somewhere private and secluded and quiet, do not go to often holidays. However, that's actually for sure. There are pictures in there, but where it would be, but there will be height of summer. It will be busy. It wasn't even when I was there, it was quite busy there. A lot of pictures taken around me. But if you want somewhere with a swimming pool, if you want somewhere with indoor and outdoor, by the way, with a bowling alley, with a pool, you know, like the snooker pool, that type of pool and an arcade, I think they've got there. There was a pub, a bar and arrests and a separate cafe there. They had a play park, they had a laundromat, they had a lake for fishing. They had a go. If you don't know what go APIs is where they put ropes and climbing things through to trees. In a word where the kids were not just kids, I guess can go up and climb along and climb down the trees and balance and tight rope, and it's all safe and harnessed and things like that. They got in. But one of those there is a dog walk in park, as well as the usual facilities you would expect in terms of our sand points from washing. The showers were good. It is a really, really good family park for a really good holiday park, particularly for families. So if you are looking for somewhere in Devon and you want somewhere, that's a little bit livelier with things to do in the evening or more places to drink or places to eat or something for the kids, do in particular, check out coffin holidays. There is a review of it over on my YouTube channel, and I'll give you the details for that at the end of the today's episode. But yes, that's why I stayed just for one night and I visited 33 main places I visited. Exeter, Dawlish, Warren and a place called Limestone Rock, I visited a place called Jacob when stopped off to key, I visited Jacob's Ladder and I also stopped it by his Riverside Park. Now, the first thing I did when I left the campsite was I drove into Dawlish Warren, which is just a ten minute drive away. There's a real big carpark there, and it's not very expensive. Let me see if I can find let me see how good Google timeline is. Saturday, the 30th. Uh, that that that that night or Saturday and 30th Sunday, 30th Saturday, the 29th. Let's zoom into. Here we go. Well, after all, that is just called Dawlish Warren Car Park, Big Car Park used to be able to come there, but you can't now. And they've stopped camping there, unfortunately, which is a shame. But it's a short walk to the South West Coast path, and once you're on that path, if you head right, so as you get to the path, as you approach the path through the sea in front of you, you want to go west, which would be right. As if you're heading towards Cornwall along the coast, ten minutes less than five minutes down the line, you come to a place called Lang Stone Rock, which is quite a spectacular rock that sticks out onto the beach. And I think at low tide you might be able to walk around there, but anything above low tide and you can. Or they don't quote me on that because when I was there, you couldn't walk around it. But it's just beautiful. It looks like it's from Mars. You know, it's bright orange rock. It was just against the blue sky. It was stunning. And if this wasn't a podcast, I would show you pictures of this bar is coming up in this Sunday's video, hopefully, but it's taken me a long time to edit, but it should be done in time. But it's really photogenic. Great place to have a walk around. So that's the first thing I did, and I had it back along the coast towards Dawlish, the back of the way I came and had a little quick wander around Dawlish Warren, a small or seaside area with cafes and amusements and things like that. It was a go kart track near as a beach there, which looks quite attractive. I didn't spend too much time there because I wanted to crack on, but as you know, be a nice place to spend a few hours and have lunch, maybe. And I would definitely recommend that part of Exeter to have a look at limestone rock because it is really, really beautiful, especially when the sun is shining and this vibrant sort of golden red rock standing out against the blue skies is a beautiful place. And as the day was amazing for January, like 13 or 14 degrees. So I really did luck out on that on that trip, but I had a long journey ahead of me and some other things to see. So I left Dawlish, Warren and I headed up the coast to the Key West. Stops had a quick look around the key stop for lunch in a pub called Let's hope this is in here Exeter Quay. Let's go to the pub was called QT. Isn't this always the way this Google timeline, which I am kind of testing, is very vague. It just gives me long, straight lines, diagonal everywhere. And so that's why I joined. I parked. I stopped at a pub in, is it obvious I don't plan these podcasts because it should be because I don't. Let's have a quick look. It's a key. I'm sure it'll be on him anywhere. He's just got a, uh, there's the potato crossed. I walked along there, the prospect in there we go. The prospects in. There was a brewery called the top sham. I think it's called Topsham Brewery, Topsham Brewery and taproom. But they didn't do food. I think so. I didn't go in there because I wanted something to eat. At the same time, I was going to be there for half an hour. So I went across the river to the river across into the prospect in fishing sandwich, usual pub stuff and a a quick drink. And I had a walk around the key. There's a little bars and restaurants and cafes and things. There's quite nice bridge to walk over called the Crystal Pitt Bridge, and there's plenty of little shops in that that you could have a wander around. I managed to get free parking on a road called I think it was Maritime Court managed to squeeze on there where you can wait for a couple of hours at weekends, I think. And so that was nice. It was stop off on the way back through because I'm now heading east to go back through Dorset into Hampshire. And then I stopped about an hour later. I think it was I got to a place called Jacob's Ladder, which is on the south coast, on the coast again, right on the beach. It's a big white ladder. It's a clock tower with a ladder or steps going down onto the beach. I've got let me have a quick look. There we go. I've got it. Here I can read you the clock tower, Jacob's ladder. So here we go. Historic Sebelius's This was in the pseudo castle with clock tower was built in the 19th century as the boathouse for a nearby Clifton Cliff Cottage. Boats were lifted up and lower down using Davis. Previously, there was an 18th century lime kiln. Here, the stone was shipped to the beach and brought up by donkeys, using a path cut into the cliffs. And then it goes on to talk about how it got eroded and the steps were cut into the cliff. They too eroded and were replaced in 1871 by state wooden ladder, which is the first Jacob's Ladder. But that didn't prove very popular, and this was replaced by a staircase over time where the damage required further replacements and it was eventually dismantled and removed during World War two. But if you go there, what you can find is some metal steps going down to the beach and also some concrete steps built into the front of the cottage or the clock tower. And I walked up both. You'll see that in the video that's coming up this week. I parked in a place if you are interested because it is a really, really big car park. The car park was called an Irish plan. It's a little bit more Manor Road, long stay car park and massive car park. But they do the paying a little bit way to look out for this. If you are going to stay there, basically what they do is you have to you put in the you've arrived into the app and that's it runs and runs and runs. You don't book for two hours or three hours. He just runs. You have to remember to stop it when you leave. So if you don't, it will just run and run and run for the maximum time. So if you're only there an hour and you drive off and leave it for three or four hours, you'll get charged for three or four hours, I assume. I suppose you could contested what's the risk? Excuse me, quick slurp of coffee. And so be careful of that. You have to register your time when your arrival and then remember to stop it as you leave, and that's what you get charged for. I kind of like it because it means I don't go out on three hours. Union up staying for two. You've wasted an hour. But this way you just pay for use as long as you can remember to stop it. So then was time I was getting on. Now I think it was about 4:00 by this point, and I still had about a two hour drive to get home. And I was thinking to myself, Should I stop anywhere else? And I thought, Yes, I am going to stop somewhere else. I am going to stop. A little garden near is called by Riverside Park, and I will tell you where that is because it wasn't far away. It was only, I think, about 20 minutes away, less than that actually, and ten minutes away from from Manor Road long stay car park. And there's a place like cycled by Riverside Park. I was desperate to see a waterfall. I googled everywhere and in Devon. See a waterfall. And am I the ones I could find with? Too far into devel or into one of the national parks there. But on the way back, I found what was a it. It's really a waterfall. It's all I could wear, but it was flowing water and it was nice to see a few photos, a bit of video there. It was by a place called BI's Fort. I think it's called BI's Mill Street Sidmouth, and it was by a place called as the River Sits, a guy that buys toll house and gates and is a small toll house on the bridge. So I guess in the old days, you had to pay to cross the bridge. These days you don't or I didn't, and it's on the river. Since I parked on a Salcombe Road, there's a few spaces where you can stop at for an hour. I got lucky again managed just to squeeze a camper van in at the end of one of the lanes there. five minute walk back to the river and it was a nice thing to see in the photograph. So maybe a little bit of a hidden gem, according to how I found it now, probably on TripAdvisor say it's probably not that much of a hidden gem, but it's not the sort of place you'd earmark to visit. But it's certainly a good place to stop and have a look at if you are if you are passing because it's just a piece for gardens with a nice, you know, the sound of running water, and that is kind of quite peaceful. And so it was a good end to the weekend. So for places that I can, I can recommend Dawlish, Warren and particularly limestone rock. Again, these are none of these are massive. You could do that in half an hour and stay for lunch or something. Have a wander around Exeter, a Jacob's Ladder, which is near Sidmouth. And you know, again, you could just spend half an hour to an hour there all day if you wanted to sit on the beach. There's a massive car park, you know, probably get busy weekends and in the good weather and stuff and is Riverside Park, which is just a real quick stop off to if you've got a hankering to view some waterfalls and. So that's it, really, that is what I'm going to talk about today is 20 minutes nearly well, I hope you enjoyed that showed you some sights and sounds. Not too many sounds, but some sites there of of. Exeter and a little bit of sorry, they have Exeter and and various different places in Devon, and I just want to read our I had another podcast to come which podcast it was now that that gave out travel quotes at the end of it. And I don't and I'm not going to buy just for one today the. Really sort of stuck with me. And it really sort of made me think and appreciate what I'm trying to do and how I'm trying to do it and how important some things are. And the quote went something like this, and I can't remember who said it. I'm really sorry. I think it was a I don't even think that was credited to anyone who popped up on a picture on Facebook, and it said something like this simply travel. You can get your money back. You cannot get your time back. And that really sort of resonated with me. And as much as anything could happen, you know? And why? Why wait till tomorrow or till you retire or tell you you have the time because you know, anything could happen? And so use the time how you want to use it. People may just be happy when you're doing it anyway. I'm going to leave it there for now. So a couple of things I want to remind you. My website is driving Horizon's dot com head over there. There's a blog post reviews, travel stories, camp site reviews, things like that. And of course, there is also my YouTube channel, which is driving horizons dot com forward slash YouTube that will take you through to straight to YouTube and straight to my videos. I've been really lucky the subscribers have been going up a lot in the last few weeks. So I'm just under 700 now at the time of writing this, or what time of recording this. So head over there and subscribe. It's a real good way to support me and also what I'm trying to do here. And also, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and please do leave me a review because if there's anything I can change to make it better than I will otherwise, I'm just going to keep on rambling. But that's my ramble is over for today. So thank you very, very much for staying. Stick it out till the end. I will see you in next Friday's show podcast. And until then, have a great week and happy travels.

In today's show, I give you a rundown onmy first Motorhome and Campervan Show of the year. I walkd around almost 20 vans, opening and closing things, checking out bathrooms and toilets, fridges and cookers. Link below to all the videos where you can see the walk throughs. Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @RichardChubUK The transcript below is auto-generated, so apologies if it reads strangely! It's Friday, the fourth of February, this is episode 37, and welcome back to driving Horizon's. Hello, hello, hello and good morning. Good afternoon and good evening to whenever and wherever you are listening to this Richard here and welcome back to the podcast. If you're new here than welcome and if you are a regular, then of course, welcome back. Well, another week has passed us by, and if you've been out and about in your vans of hope, you've had as much fun as as I did the weather last weekend, particularly for January. On Saturday morning in particular was it was pretty spectacular on the South Coast anyway. What about 50 degrees, which doesn't sound warm for January in England? It was almost tropical. As you probably heard from previous shows, I have been planning to go to the West Point Exeter Motor Home and camper show, which I did last weekend. Really, really good fun. It wasn't as big as the NBC one's going to be, obviously, but that was still, I reckon, is the best part of 100 vans there on show lots and lots of motor homes and larger campervans. And they also had a smaller selection of the V dampers in the caddies and the Ford Nuggets and other smaller brands on show as well. And what can I tell you about it? Well, I had a good nose around quite a few vans and there was no real new sort of, you know, state of the art brand new of the production line, 2022 ideas and clever things there. This week it was all mainly second hand ones that were being resold. And on that, one thing that surprised me, I got talking to somebody from South West. I think it was Southwest campervans or South West Motor homes, and this was about midday. Maybe now, maybe a bit later there, maybe at 2:00 on the first day, and they told me that it already sold six vans and they were expecting to do at least 20 over the weekend. Now, bear in mind that the Friday was probably going to be the quieter day. Maybe not, actually. Maybe people were going there to have a good look around before we got too busy. I don't know, but you know, six vans in the first four or five hours. I think that just goes to show how much of a demand there is for the motorhomes and campervans and the whole van life and RV and whatever you want to call it, was a bit of an eye opener for me, to be honest with you, you know, thought that have come away from there hoping to sell half a dozen over the whole weekend, let alone six in the first four hours and 20 odd 20 plus over the three days. So I think that goes to show how how in-demand these vehicles are. And if you've been doing it for now, I've done it for very long, very, very since 2017, say, four or five years we've been doing it for. There's something that they've been doing it for decades, but there's a lot of new people going into it. So if you see something you like, I definitely suggest snapping it up because, you know, who knows how long it's going to be hanging around for? So what can I tell you? Well, the one thing that struck me as the most as I was wandering around was how different, even slightly some of the vans and motorhomes are. You know, there doesn't seem to be one perfect layout. I think that the the perfect layout that you want in your head is probably out there somewhere, but you'd probably have to look at a lot of different vans and a lot of different setups to be able to get the exact one that that you wanted. So don't despair. I guess if you look at ten vans and you don't find exactly what you're looking for because there are so many different sizes, shapes and layouts, beds, bathrooms, kitchens, toilets, cupboards, fridges, freezers, you know there's almost unlimited possibilities. I'm sure that the ones that people have thought have already are the obvious choices and the ones that are meeting most of people's requirements. But there are a load of companies as well that will bespoke build for you as well. They have their own layouts. But then also, I'm sure you'll be able to throw together something that meets your requirements as as a person, as a couple, as a family, we think we have found ours. I mean, the California's great, which we've got now, is brilliant. We love it. It's convenient and we probably have that for another year or two at least. But we are starting to get a real good idea what our perfect layout. Is we have a couple of ideas that we don't think we'll be able to get unless we do a self-build. And that's probably we'll need a lot more research in terms of whether it's cost effective to do that ourselves. But you know, maybe buy one off the shelf is the best way to go. So anyway, back to the show. What was there? There was all sorts of stories as loads of people. They're not just selling camper vans and motorhomes, but there was loads of different stalls selling cooking stuff. There was a couple of cooking displays going on. They had pop up awnings. They had clever designs that you put out the back of your booth, holds a barbecue and cooker and gas and things like that. They had things for dogs. They had, you know, there's lots of they're still selling sweets and function, things like that. So it wasn't just the vans, but obviously the vans with the largest part of it. So I got there about I left here about 9:30. It took me just under three hours to get there. I did stop off for ten minutes on the way and I was in awe walking around by mid-day, by about twelve to 15 . I think I think I got there about ten to twelve feet to be about two and a half hours. And the first thing I did was have a wander around to get my bearings. I saw there was an inside area and an outside area. There was lots of vans and the more market stall type stores inside and outside, it was mainly just just vans and motorhomes. So I do wander around. I did a video which I will talk about or touch again briefly at the end. So just stay tuned for that. And by had a wander around, got my bearings, did a bit of filming, and so a few things that caught my eye and then decided to to head back and. Tried to get in a few as many camp vans and motorhomes as I could to have a nose around and do some video while I was doing that. So I think that I'm looking at about just under 20 different vans because there's a lot there that too many to go through every single one, certainly in the four or five hours I had thanks. I decided I don't going to stay there for one day. And you know, there was the the vans, the that we had I saw on, particularly on the inside seemed to be that a while. I think it was probably just a coincidence, but I seem to be more to my, to my liking and the so I'm just walking out of it now. So just trying to find a list of some of the vans that I saw. So they have things like Elder Swift Bailey Auto Trail. There was a Catholic. I think I'm saying that right? They had a company there that was hiring the motorhomes out as well, which is a really good idea, by the way, to try before you buy. We did. I went out for a few nights just to make sure it's for you and just to make sure that what you're going to spend 50 grand on is the layout that you want. And there's a selection of VW transporters and some VW caddies and things like that. But the looking around the motor homes. The thing that you have to look out for as well is just because it has four seat belts doesn't necessarily mean it will sleep for people just because it has two seat belts. It doesn't mean it will only sleep two people. So there's quite a few there that had two births, which means you could sleep two, but it had four belts, so two people can't sleep in the meantime and vice versa. You might have two bouts. But sleep for. But when I say bouts, I mean seatbelts to balance and sleep for people, which will mean that the other two people that want to sleep in the van will have to bring a separate car or when you meet them there or something like that. But the show itself is a really good way to meet suppliers. Get your name, get on a waiting list if you haven't got the exact or if they haven't got the exact model that you want. But it's also a good way to test the layout and to stand in a shower because they're on a couple of occasions . I stood in the bedroom and when I feel myself, I'm one of them. You could see that there was only two inches above my head and I'm only from less than six feet and five, ten, five, eleven. So, you know, things like that are invaluable when you can walk around 20 motorhomes. And you know, the Lao may be brilliant, but you've got to walk around with a hunchback or stooped head for all the time you're in there, then it's no good to you. Excuse me. So my advice for the motorhome shows would be to get through as much as you can. Why that is the only real opportunity you're going to get to see 20 or 30 motorhomes from, I don't know, 5678. However, many suppliers and be able to open things and close things and sit down and get behind the wheel and sit on the toilet and stand in the shower and pretend to prepare a dinner. See how much worktops there are. See if the fridge is big enough, if the microwave work is big enough. And so I did that on all of them. I went around the lot of them and, you know, I was opening doors and looking at the rings and and seeing how high the shower is and checking out the toilets. I didn't do too much sitting on toilets because when we have a better idea of what we want, I will we will do that then. But my point is pretend you're living in a house just for 30 seconds. There's a chance that you will not get to do that for another six months or a year. Even let's say you don't want to travel 200 miles to visit the next time show you only want to do instead. one is down the road once a year, if you're lucky. So make the most of it. Use that time wisely. Take loads of pictures and. She I speak to the speech, to the salespeople, tell them your idea of motor white motor home because there's a very good opportunity that they can strike away. If they know their stuff, they'll be able to say, No, that doesn't exist or that does exist. This is the model you need. We've got one back at the showroom or something. So don't hesitate in talking to somebody. And you know, sometimes I feel bad for wasting people's time when you know you're not going to buy anything, but you know, these guys are going to or gals. If these people are going to look after you and they'll give you all the time they can and hope that you will be there when you're ready to buy that, you'll be there with the person that you call. So that was my quick rundown of the of the motor home show this weekend. It was a fun field for five hours. It's always good to get around things like this. The videos for the walk around and there's two other videos to walk around the actual the actual arenas. If you like the indoor and outdoor spaces where the vans are being held is over on the YouTube channel. If you type in YouTube.com forward slash Richard Chubb, you will find those videos. There's also to further videos. They're a little bit longer there where I go through each motorhome that I visited and show you around inside the motor home. So check those out if you're interested in vans and motorhomes, and it might give you some ideas of what you like, what you don't like and also things that you may , you know, you may see something there that that's perfect for us in the bottom of the put the model in the mike in the in the videos. You know what the model is that I'm walking around, obviously. So coming up in the future in certainly next week's show, I one was down in excited loads of sight, seeing if you like. I saw four or five really, really nice sights along the Dorset and Devon coast, which I will discuss in next week's show. So make sure you subscribe to the podcast on whatever channel or whatever platform you are listening to it on and give me a review. I this is also quite new to me. I'm not an expert at doing any of this. I'm just trying to tell you what to do, give you my thoughts and feelings and suggestions and opinions. So we're off to the NSC in a few weeks. If there's anything in particular the like, why not get a message to me? You know, there's the website and the YouTube channel. You can leave messages on it. Be great to hear from you because without you guys listening, then there's no point in me doing this and I really love doing it. So get in touch because anything that you think I should check out or anything you'd like to hear me ramble on about so quick recap of where you can find myself, the website driving ryzens dot com, blog posts and things like that on anything that I can think of writing about that might find useful. There's the YouTube channel YouTube dot com forward slash Richard jump. Head over there and check out all the videos I'm putting together, and there's obviously this podcast here, so that is a real quick one. This week, my quick highlights of the motorhome and camper van show in West Point, Exeter. Next week, I'll tell you all about the pretty sights and sounds that I saw in in Devon. Sorry, in in Devon and Dorset, there might be a video coming up for that if I can get it finished on Sunday. So check out the YouTube channel. And then of course, we've got a Lake District Lake District trip coming up in February, which is going to be amazing where we hire what we think could be our perfect van. So until next week. Happy travels, everyone. Thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate it. And we'll see you next time.

In today's show, I briefly talk about the first Campervan and Motorhome Show of the year. I also give you a run down of all the things we definitely recommend you should pack, as they are always the first things in our 'van when we head off. Links to my content: www.drivinghorizons.com www.youtube.com/richardchubb Social: @RichardChubUK The transcript below is auto-generated, so apologies if it reads strangely! It's Friday, the 28th of January, this is episode 36, and welcome back to Driving Horizon's. Hello, hello, hello, and good morning. Good afternoon and good evening to whenever or wherever you are listening to this is Richard here, and welcome back to the podcast. If you are new here than welcome and if you are a regular, well, of course. Welcome back, I hope. As always, everyone has had a brilliant week and I've just realized I haven't got myself a glass of water, so we'll have to remedy that in a moment. You may find me talking a little bit slower in today's podcast and hopefully also a little bit clearer because I am trying to transcribe the words on the show so that I can add words over or the transcription to my website, to the show notes, in case there are people that would like to read it, as well as listen to it or instead of listening to it. And I'm also going to try and cut out the ums, but that's the hardest thing, I think. What have we been doing this week? Not too much. I have been getting ready for the first or my first motorhome and campervan show of the year that is happening in Exeter. It is happening today and probably depending on when you listening to this, but certainly when the show goes live, I will be cruising along a south coast road somewhere. It's his anything up to a three-hour drive, so fingers crossed there's not too much traffic. I think I will be spending two days at this show. The first day I will try and see as many of the motorhomes and campervans as I can because I have a feeling it will be a lot quieter on Friday than Saturday. I would imagine that there are many children still at school, so if families are thinking of going, they will probably pick the Saturday to go. So hopefully the Friday will be a bit quieter and I can have a nose around all the campgrounds and motorhomes. I'm not entirely sure how many new models will be there. I think a lot of those will be saved for the NBC show, the month after which we are also going to. But I'm still going to have a look around, get some ideas and try to understand a little bit more about the bigger vans. What's the difference between our California and the bigger vans if we ever decided to upgrade to something slightly bigger? So that is what's happening in happening in next week? And stay tuned or tune in to next week's show because I will be going into everything there in a lot more detail. I will also, perhaps I'm not sure yet, but I may flood my Twitter feed with photos and notes from the show. Have a look over on Twitter. Richard Shelby UK is the Twitter handle, I guess is the right word, and let me know. Follow us over there for updates and bits and pieces on all things complaining. What is today's show about? Well, I think one of these almost two years ago in the summer of 2020, and we've sort of added a few things to the list, and I thought I would go through a few things that we always pack. first, it doesn't matter where we're going, how many days we're going for or how far we're going. There are certain things that we always put in the campervan first, so I'm going to grab myself a glass of water. Stay tuned. And I will run through that list real quick. There's only about ten or so items on there, so see you in a second. OK. So thanks for that, I just grab myself a quick glass of water and I'm ready to go. So what are the first things that we always put in a camper van when we are going off on a trip? Now the first two are no-brainers, really. You need power, you need water. So we pack a hook-up cable, which is no surprise. Most of the campsites that we go to always have. We tend to get electric pitch so we can use the plug sockets. We don't have we have a battery leisure battery, but we don't have any way of converting it to 240 volts, so we have to have a hook up for that. So we always take the hook up cable or the power leave, whichever way you want to call it. And it just means that we can, like I say, plug-ins to power and not worry about draining the battery or running out of electricity while we're on the road. The second item is a way that we get water into the van now. Most people, a lot of people, particularly in the big rigs, would have a hose or they connect to a water point and run into their water tanks. We tend not to do that. The California holds 30 liters, but we never, I think, the most we ever. Putin is about ten liters at a time, so we pop a five-liter water bottle in the car, which can be used as drinking water so we can use it for anything, really. If you just wanted to fill that up and go from there or you wanted to take it to the beach or swap in bottled water to carry around with you. But it means we can fill that up with a tap. And we use a special funnel to get the water. It's kind of like a too flexible hose on the bottom of it, and you can put the flexible hose into the water tank and tip the water into the funnel. And it goes in easily so that the first two things that we always do, we always put in in the van. Oh, by the way, if you head over to Richard Chubb dot com, if you head over to driving Horizon's dot com, you will see a post or and such a search on the blog posts of search for accessories. You will see a blog post that lists everything I'm about to talk about. So if you want to see exactly what I mean, if you wanna see pictures or you want to see, there's also a video, actually, that will be on a blog post as well. And then you just note the website and you can see and there's links to everything that you can find, find the best talk about. Now the next couple of things, and these tend to stay in the van all the time just because they're not very heavy. They took away nicely, and it just means we never forget them. The two things there are a pop up bucket, which is useful for once we finished a meal, we just throw everything in the bucket. Would it throw it? Obviously, but we put it all in a bucket, and it's just there for us to walk off to the washing up facilities we have. When we there was one time when we stayed at our campsite in Bewley last year, where we didn't have washing up facilities that we used, we decided to boil the kettle and do it in the van because it was a pop up campsite and that campground, we used the bucket to fill up with hot water and we did the washing up at the van and it was it was fine. So you could use it to carry stuff to the washing up facilities where you could use it for washing up as a washing up bucket as well. The other second, the next thing alongside that is a dish strainer. Now this is a relatively new addition to our arsenal of camping equipment, and it's again a pop up one bit of an extra item, bit of an extravagant item, if I want to call it that. But it just means that if you get to washing out facilities, you've only got a draining board and you have to power your plates up. This is a real good things. It is like it once is probably down is less than two inches thick. It's about the size of, I don't know, the average size simple tray. So it's not doesn't take up much room. It sits in a drawer underneath our back seats quite comfortably alongside the bucket. But it just means that we can prop our plates up, cutlery, things like that, and it drains better. It is easy to dry, which might sound a bit extreme, but then it just means that your tea towel doesn't get as wear and it is quicker. And all these things, the little things make life a little bit easier. So if the campsite doesn't have one next to the sink, we've got that there in case we need it. The next thing is for a lighting point of view, and there are two things on the list for lighting. We have a Oh, I have, because it's mainly me way. Ways it's a. Beanie hat with a torch on it. It just means if you're going off to the toilet at night time or and you're carrying things or you're taking a dog for a walk and you have to do that wonderful job of scooping poop. And it's in the winter months. It's dark and things like that, or early in the morning and it's dark and the sun's not quite come up. You need a bit of extra light, probably on your head pushbutton and you've got light wherever you look really handy like sites, keep your hands free, see where you go and things like that. The second thing to do with lighting is we have a hanging lantern and it is like a old fashioned, especially an old fashioned oil lamp. I think more modern it Sir Ali, the USB lantern with a hanging handle on it that we put in our driveway awning. You carried around with you as well, like. You know, like you're going down the mines or something, it's that I'm going to hold it up and I'm holding my hand off and showing you, but it looks like that and you can walk around holding it if you want to, but we just tend to use it as a ceiling light if you like. It goes in the driveway warning, and it's easy to turn on just big push button, and it gives us low a light or as much light as we need in the morning. So they added to light so you can carry around with you. It has a different light settings. It flashes, it goes to bright white to a warm yellow light, and it just charges up from a USB port in the van. So really easy, really convenient. And it just becomes a room light for us, basically, because there's no lighting in the driveway, awning talking or driveway awnings. We also have a small pop up tent is a two man sleeping tent. We have never slept in it. We have no intention of ever sleeping in it, but it's super useful. We use it for storing things in to give us a bit more space in a van useful for the car. See, Max is still in quite a big car booster seat, high backed booster seat, which takes up a whole seat in the camper van. He used it when we're driving, when we get to our campground. We put it out and chuck in the pop up tent and we also put dirty shoes. Cohen not so much coats, but dirty shoes and the baby through the barbecue in their safe back, old down and put it in the back of the van and in the box with all our camping gear and with pegs and stuff like that. And we put all that in a pop up tent as well. And it's just really useful. We have chuck a scooter in there. Washing up stuff is like 30 pound. I think this thing and it pops up in a knock joke in two seconds and then you peg it down. That's another two minutes. So within two or three minutes, you've got a little outdoor space that you can use for storage. Great. If you've got a smaller camper van and useful to get rid of those things that you may not, particularly the car, see the ones you're on side, you're not going to use it again. So you might as well get out of the way for a night or two, two or three more things coming up. Microfiber towels. Now these are pretty, and this is probably one of the first things we pack for sure, because they're so they take up very little room, easy to carry to the shower. They dry you easily, they dry themselves quickly. They're perfect for the sort of van life where you want to heat all loads of wet stuff hanging around for hours. And we have a small one that we use sometimes to clear condensation from the windows if we have it in the morning. And yeah, it's convenient again. It's just super convenient because they're small and they are easy to dry. They're not as luxurious as a big, fluffy bath towels you might have at home. Suzanne used as one in the form of a dressing gown, but it is just real convenience and that's what you need. The main thing The main good thing about this is you don't have wet things hanging around. You know, you can hang it on the back and get back from the shower. Assuming it's not raining, hang on the back of the van hanging over a wing mirror or something and within half an hour. If there's a bit of wind or a bit of sun is normally dry and it's good to go again, so super convenient. Definitely recommend the microfiber towels. Another one, which is convenient in and around the van, is a USB extension lead. So we've all got devices, iPads, iPhones, the hanging lantern I spoke about earlier, even the beanie hat with a light on it. They all charge by USB sockets, so a USB extension needs is useful. If you wanted to just put it out of the way, move it to one side, you know, put it further away than you normally would reach. It just means that you can take outside. If you're running out of battery, you want to charge something up while you're sitting outside. So we have a six foot two meter extension lead. We also have a two meter Apple Lightning connector that goes to the USB as well, so that can charge straight to a device so it can go via the where you had to 686 meter. You had the two meter Apple ID and a two meter USB. Essentially that you plug, you can lend it to your neighbor. You know, they can charge their devices from your van if you want it to be that kind. But the point is it just gives you that flexibility. You don't have to be tethered to close to your charging points, and it's just handy, especially to got kids and they've got iPads and things like that. Another thing that we like we are, I'd say, 80% of the time we cook in the van depends on what's on site. If there's a bar or something, we will try the bar in the food out there. But we do like cooking at the van as well, particularly in the summer months. So we. Have a I recommend a compact, like, really versatile barbecue, the one that we've got is the Cadillac Safari Chef. And it's when it's up, it's about the size of a beach ball, no bigger than the probably smaller than the size of a beach ball. A big football, almost. It sits about twelve inches high, maybe 18 inches high, and it's about the diameter of a large, large dinner plate. But it can cook anything on there. It's got a grill which got a hot plate. It has it. It can cook pans. You can do hands on there. It's got a lid that you can pop over the top to keep the heat in. If you wanted to excuse me, if you wanted to make it, you know you cook something slower and keep the heating more like an oven, if you like. And it's just really, really versatile, really small, really convenient. It goes kind of the legs fold up and everything tucked inside itself. Again, I'm demonstrating with my hands for no real reason other than me being strange, and it's just really convenient. If you're looking for a small barbecue that can, it's not going to help if you've got a family of five or six or something like that, there's only three of us. But for us, it's pretty can easily cook three burgers sausages, bacon for breakfast. You know, it's super, super convenient. And if I say convenient one more time, I have no doubt everyone is going to turn off, but it is convenient. Sorry. Anyway, so that's the barbecue. So that's most of things that we always take. There are two things that we don't always take, but it depends on where we go in. one of them was bought out of necessity and the other one was not the camping toilet. We have a porta potty now that we bought when things opened up after COVID, and it made it useful. Well, it made it the only way we could go camping because we had to put the camping toilet in the van so we could prove to the campsites that we had. I don't think that's approved. Then we just had to tell them that we did have a toilet or we're going to go do all necessary, necessary things in a bush somewhere. But it's easy to do. We easy to for easy to empty well, as easy as tipping in no one's number turns into a waste area can be . Excuse me, but it's perfect for us. Is small, not very big. Aboriginal small means, by the way. And oh, I need to have a drink. Excuse me. Again, you may have noticed I'm going to go through this without any edits. Hence the IMing an offering, but is all genuine. I promise I'm OK in a phone call as well. See live live television and not quite live, but they can leave a message. Anyway, sorry, I was also talking about. Yes, the camper toilet. It is a I've been distracted, as you can tell. Excuse me. Okay. The on yeah, we bought because you had to after COVID. And you know, it's not a particularly expensive one, I think is it is is £100, but it was it was like, say, we wouldn't even have to go camping if we hadn't have bought it. So we have that in the we don't take very often anymore and we keep it when we use it in the driveway awning and again, that we don't take that very often unless we're staying somewhere for more than one night. If we're only going for one night, we throw the pop up tent out because it's not worth spending half an hour from the driveway or winning half an hour to take it down there for only there, for one night. But if we're there for two nights, it is worthwhile because then we can spread out more. We can keep that chairs and tables and clothes and get changed in there and and it just makes life in a a little bit easier. And so the driveway awning is something that we pack very small, very rarely, but only when we go somewhere for a couple of nights or more, which we don't do that often as you like to move around and see things. They are the main things and two that are not the main things, but there are a lot of things that always go in our camper van without fail because we use them every day that we're camping and there might be one or two items on there that you hadn't thought of, or you might just be interested to hear what we take. And if you're not, we made it this far. Then hats off to you and I will do the shameless plug again. Don't forget to head over to driving Horizon's dot, where you can see all my blog posts and don't forget to head over to YouTube.com forward slash Richard C.H. YouTube, where you can see all our travel related videos. And as I said before, there are going to be lots of things coming up because we've got the motor home show this weekend, and then in three weeks after that, we are going to the Lake District. We're hiring a motorhome or a camper van, but something bigger than what we have now, and that will all be revealed on my YouTube videos as well. And we're also going to the Big Motorhome show or caravan and motorhome show, the NSA said. Lots coming up. And I thank you as always for listening for making it this far. It's just tipped, I think, 20 minutes, maybe more. So thanks for sticking with me. Have a great week and we'll see you in the next show. Happy travels! See you next time.

In this show, I talk about the things to consider when buying your first campervan. I chat about the size of the van, storage, number of seats, and what might be best for you. This is after owning a campervan for over 5 years, and perhaps about to embark on a new purchase. If you would like to see the Blog Post, then Click Here to read! Transcript (Auto Generated so apologies for any mistakes) It's Friday, the 21st of May, this is episode 35, and welcome back to driving Horizon's. Hello, hello, hello and a good morning, a good afternoon and good evening to whenever or wherever you are listening to this Richard here. And welcome back to the podcast. If you are new here than welcome and if you are a regular, then welcome back. It's been a quiet week. This week we haven't really been too far. We've been spending some time just planning our February trip really. And well, if you don't know where we are heading off to the Lake District, but we are doing something a bit different. We have a camper van, as I have no doubt you are aware, but we are hiring something a little bit bigger with a view to perhaps changing our VW California in the future. So more on that in the future, and it will all be documented over on the YouTube channel. I'm sure I'll mention it here in February at some point as well. And that got me thinking, and you know, what we want to change are our van and what do we what we really want to make it perfect for us. I think it crossed my mind for about 1,000,000,000th of a second to build our own. But I have neither the time and most importantly, needs the skills, so we're not going to do that. So we are going to look to get something as close as we want to achieve what we want to have off the off the shelf, if you like. But it got me thinking that it can be quite an overwhelming process to, you know, to buy a motoring or camper van is a lot of money to spend how it's going to be right? Have you really thought of everything you're going to do with it, how you're going to use it, where you're going to go, how it's going to fit into your life, your lifestyle, your family? Your day to day comings and goings, if you like, so he could be thinking I would write down everything that we should think about . And of course, one thing led to another and it turned into a blog post over on driving horizons dot com. Check out the website over there and you'll see that as one of the most recent posts, and I thought that that would be a great subject for this week's podcast. Have a quick chat and to give you my thoughts on what we need to think about when buying a camper van for the first time. There is so much to consider. There are so many choices out there, so many different alternatives. There's a lot of money to spend. Choosing the right one and getting it as close to perfect, if not perfect as possible, is is going to be your main aim. So I don't want to call it a buying guide because it is in by put together this little guy that's that's over on the website that I'm going to run through quickly here. I'm going to try and again, as always, keep it to a 15 or 20 minutes, but there is so much to think about, so I'm not going to waste any more time offering I am going to crack on with it. For anyone who's buying a camper van, especially for the first time, this podcast is not really going to tell you what camper van is right for you. What it will do, however, is it's going to give you something to think about and hopefully some things to consider that you may know or things to think about that you may not have considered. And that would be an option or an issue or even crossed your mind. So as I said in previous fire podcasts and in various other places, I'm going to cover my time shows he share. The first one is actually next weekend down in Exeter and camping down there, spending a couple of nights, first time going away on my own in the van. So that is going to be a little bit different for me. I'm going to have a great look around that. I'm going to use everything that I have to clean together on this in this guide to to try and sort of narrow down exactly exactly what we want. So let me just start by a bit of an introduction for this buy in a camper van is not is a totally personal experience. It depends massively on so many different things and not least why you want it and how you're going to use it. You know, weekly daily, once a year, just for the holidays, things like that. You're going to wild camping. Are you going to start campsite? And are you going to be in one place for many days? Or do you want to just pick you up for a couple of nights and then can move on somewhere else, which is kind of like what we do, really, which is why we go for a. We went for a California, one of the small vans. So it's, you know, that's the first thing that you need to sort of think about it. I'm going to stress it again because it's so important. It's impossible for me to tell you what camper van you should buy. So everything I'm about to say is merely to give you food for thought and some ideas to consider. And perhaps you own a home first. If you go to our website and look for tips for hiring a camper van, you'll find a decent one of the start menu. There is a decent write up on what you should consider when you're hiring event. And maybe that's a good place to start to know exactly what you're going to need or what you're going to like. Where I am going to start real quick with the different types of vans that you can get now. There are so many choices out there. Minivans are much bigger than a car to full size, 30 foot plus long sort of motorhome RV type vans. The minivan would be something like a VW caddy or an estate car. You know that sort of size. Perhaps a seat fold down is a flat bed, which you know will take up all of the room in the back. Maybe some storage underneath. But that will mean that most other things like cooking, washing out the loo, things like that will need to be done outside or in a shower. Or perhaps the next or van you can get is something similar to what we've got, which is the VW Transporter or Ford Nuggets, something like that. It might have a pop top. If it does, it could sleep up to four people, maybe more. If the children are smaller, it normally has four or five in a few of the wider vans or the few the fans of the smaller kitchen's inside seats, sorry belted seats and generally you get a cooker, fridge and sink less likely to have a toilet, although some do, and it's easy to drive and park and you can use it daily. After that, you go up to the larger vans now, which are a real popular with the van lifers, particularly the ones that do move from a full time point of view because there is more space like a VW Crafter or a Mercedes Sprinter. And it has everything generally that the medium sized van does, but with more living space may have a shower, more of a toilet. But there is a compromise there bigger, maybe harder to drive out its park and not quite as easy to use as a daily van. And then next, you have motorhomes. There is obviously tons of benefits to a motor homes, lots of storage, a garage you can get to from outside. It has a cooker, a microwave, you have a fixed bed, has a shower and a toilet. Has a bigger fridge potentially than your camper van, a smaller camper van a bigger cooker. But on the downside, it's impossible to use is a daily run around. It's hard to park and you know, it's more suited, probably to spending a few days or a week as sites where you don't have to go into towns or venture out to many car parks in case you hit a high restricting. Or you know what I mean, come across a height restriction. And if all of the above, perhaps with the exception of motor homes, when you're thinking about buying a camper van, you can decide if you want one that's come off the manufacturer's production line like a VW California that we have. Or do you want to buy a book standard shell of a van and convert it or have a company convert it? There are so many companies out there that will do it for you, either to your spec or to one of their standard specification, so you might find that they're a little bit more flexible than buying one that's rolled off the production line. Again, all depends on what you want. And the other thing that you need to think about really is the bigger picture, your personal circumstances, and where can you keep it? You know, if you live in a block of flats and you've got one allocated parking space, then you've got to want to buy a motorhome or a massive van. Then where are you going to park it when you're not using it for your trips? And how often are you going to use it? How many of you, how many of you are there that are going to be using the van, sleeping in there, eating in there? And what are your trips going to be like? You're going to use it to take you to the beach as well? Or are you going to stay and live around the campsite? In the bigger the van, the harder it is to to get down those narrow country lanes. We've been we've had some tight scrapes even in our VW California, so it's it's well worth that you give that some thought as well. What is your ideal holiday? What is your ideal camping trip that might tell you would be a great place to start or personal, but it's definitely worth thinking about and to choose the right camper van. What else have we got here? We could? Perhaps, for example, just from thinking out loud here, perhaps you want to fix bed in the back of the van. If you do, if you don't make it up every night and you want a fixed bed, then perhaps a smaller van is good for you because you want to be. I have somewhere to eat and maybe sit around in the daytime because you have a little transport van or California like we've got. You can't do that. Your sitting area is your bed, so it won't be a fixed bed. You have to do keep changing it all these little things that you may not think about. Hopefully, you are finding useful also. What do you do when you're not camping your lifestyle? Do you need to replace a car with a? We had two cars as a family. We've now got a car and a camper van. I use a camper van to go to Tesco's to take my son to his football training, to go see my mom when she needs bread. You know, things like that. And he can do that because you can park in Tesco's. You can park in a car park if it's in a normal car parking space. A motor home. It won't do that. You may have to have two cars and a motor home, which may not is even less practical then than that anything , really. You know, you need those two vehicles that a motor home is not going to be for you unless you want three vehicles. Now all of those things I mentioned and we haven't even scratched the surface, by the way, may have narrowed your choice down dramatically already, but there are loads of other things to consider with comes to a few more details. Now you'll be pleased to know, but I'm going to have a quick drink of water and I'll be back in the five seconds. Sorry about that, I needed to get a bit of a dry mouth, so I needed to get a quick glass of water father detail. Yeah, what I was saying before that short break was. There's more detail that you can think about that will narrow it down even further, apart from how you're going to use it and why and what type of what it is you're going to take. For example, even if you do want a smaller transporter, you can have a short wheelbase or a long wheelbase. And there are pros and cons for both. Obviously, a longer wheelbase would have more room inside, clearly more storage space, things like that. It will have potentially more, you know, maybe a slightly bigger fridge or bigger table, things like that that you can you can enjoy. But will it get into a car parking space? What if you put bikes on the back that makes it even longer again? So don't just because it's a yeah, there will be pros for a long wheelbase van, obviously, but there's some downsides as well. Like, say, our little California fits into normal car parking space. We've managed to get into a multistory car park with it as long as it's under 2.1 meters. Great for going around towns and cities, if that's what you want to do while you're traveling less convenient in a bigger van or a or higher longer van. But I probably won't have or definitely not. Definitely that's not fair. But it probably won't have a shower or a fixed toilet in there. What's your priority? Get into a get into a car parking space or being able to gauge toilet when you like, you know some decisions that you need to think about, really? And again, I think Steve really briefly briefly there. If he's got a high roof carparks, height restrictions, you know, you go to a beach or to some sort of national parks and place car parks in the parks and things like that, they may have high restrictions in place. Don't forget that that will stop you parking there, and if it's one place you want to see, it could be that one that's got the high restriction and you're going to have to find somewhere else to park. Stealth campaign as well out a smaller van might be a little bit less and less conspicuous, but if you're going to be in there for a couple of hours and you want to move around, you're going to be hunched over. A tall van is pulling out all vans on the road now. They look like just normal courier vans or something. If you're in that, you can stand up, walk around and have a lot more space, you know, above your head and you won't have to get out or paper top or anything proper. You know, pop up roofs for your head high and you're less likely to be disturbed by someone tapping on you in the middle of the night wondering what you're doing. And also, if you want to just stop at the side of the road, stretch your legs. It's pouring down with rain, make some lunge with a cup of coffee and a cup of tea. You can stand up and walk around quite easily in a high van, less comfortable doing it in a low van or low top van. So couple of things to think about now. one of the major things that probably deserve to be higher up the list than it is already is how many of you are there and how many seatbelts do you need? How many get to sleep in the van? Obviously, these are all things you probably think of. first of all, with our loads of vans or motorhomes, more than vans or sort of custom custom built boats of the production line, motorhomes and campervans that can sleep for, but they're go to belt. It seems very, very common in the older motor homes where the front area is a lounge with the seats down either side, the newer ones tend to have a contraption underneath the underneath those bench seats that pop up into a into a C that you can sit on facing forward. But they're that sort of occasional seats, and I can't imagine they'd be too comfortable for long journeys, but it's worth considering that as well if there's four of you. You must have four belted seats. What, for example, this is something that we've we've got to think about heavily. I tend to get up earlier than my wife. She likes to be a lion, and if I try and get up and do something, it might disturb her. But in the slightly bigger fans we're looking at. They could have a lounge or a dinette area at the front behind the driver's seat and a lounge at the back that converts into a bed so I can sneak forward to the front of the van, sit at the dinner, comfortably, read, Write, Go on the computer, do whatever I like without disturbing anyone else. So again, another thing to consider how your lifestyle is and if you do those separate things and if you want, if you wants to get up early and make a cup of tea while the other is still catching up on some sleep, here's another one some of the smaller VW campervans they may have for seatbelts for people, but only one of the seats spins round, so that spins around to your dining table in the bank seating for three. But there's four of you as a fourth person save if one of the seats doesn't turn around, consider that as well. Otherwise, you can have three people squeezed up on that bench seat in the back or someone's going to miss out. And it's just little things like that that perhaps until you've used a camper van or a van of some kind, you don't really realize that until it's possibly too late. And another obvious one. But again, think how you're going to use the van, which should help you answer this question is storage is one of the biggest things to consider. It's easy to take a lot of stuff. The van fills up so quickly with all the the closed, the kids toys, the skateboard, the the scooter barbecue table and chairs, you know, deck chair for outside awning pop up. ten. All the other stuff you need to go the pegs to hammer a warning down. And all these things that you take as a as a camping family, he's got to go somewhere. So if you live in a minimally, minimally safe city, many minimal storage won't be a problem. But if you want a few creature comforts, if you want to take your camping stuff, you buy your big stuff in tables and chairs, then consider storage. If you have a lot of gear and you are going to be spending a lot of time in one site and you're going to take those walks to the beach or just hang around the campsite playing games, and you're going to take all that gear with you, then maybe a larger motor home. Is the one for you because it would have a dedicated garage at the back? But obviously we've discussed the the pros and cons about having a larger van as well. So there are vans that may sacrifice the lounge area at the back of the van for raised beds. So you've got a permanent bed and there will be storage sort of a garage underneath the bed where you can access from the rear doors, which might solve your problem. Or for our final California, that rear seat slides forward so that the passengers in the back can come right up to behind the driver's seat, almost like a car, giving you a huge boot at the back to throw everything in. And it can stay there till you get to where you're going. But that does then block off cupboards. The table one slide out, you know, you can't get to the fridge as easily. And you know, it's these things that you don't realize until you've done a two week trip around France and you've loaded given up and realize you can't get your tea mugs out because you said thisif too far forward and. So, yeah, another couple of things to consider. The next thing is food and cooking. Now storage will have very cupboards where you can put quite a bit of food. It's amazing how much food you can fit into a small covered in a small fridge. You know you don't stockpile like you would at home. You don't take big boxes of cereal, you sort of take what you want. We do anyway. We know we're going for five nights. We might take a little bit for a little bit of planning and toast cereal. Just take enough cereal for what you want to eat unless you've got a massive cupboard and then just throw in what you want. And if that's how you want to do it, do not get a small camper van because you will not be able to throw in four boxes of cereal and then bring home three boxes of cereal because you didn't eat. You only get one of them, that kind of thing. If you go for a basic daven, then it may not have the difference between a VW California ocean and a beach. one has a kitchen, the cooker, the fridge, the other one is just white seeds, and it's used for maybe going to the beach surfing furniture beach stuff in. You still sleep in it, but it may not have all those creature comforts that you'd perhaps worn inside. And I know that I'm talking a lot about the VW California because that is what we've got. And that's how I'm sort of relating my my thoughts for our next fan. I'm comparing it to what I have now or what we have now and how, you know, what do we want to change? What would we change? And is that change going to be better for us overall? You know, for example, yes, we would love a fixed bed. Yes, we would love a shower, for example. But that would mean a much bigger van potentially and ice to use a day van. So there the pros and cons we're having to think about, and that's what everyone else is going to think about when they're considering spending thousands of pounds on. This is a brilliant purchase, by the way, as you know, otherwise you put in presents in the first place. Most campgrounds would include some sort of food and cooking options, a fridge to bring gas and a small sink. They're the most common ones. Larger vans will have a bigger fridge and perhaps an and even microwave. And again, personal preference will dictate this. We don't need an oven. We don't need a microwave. two rings on the hobby generally sufficient. If we need a third, we'll get the barbecue out and we don't need a lot of space inside at the moment, but we can pull we around. So we want the heater. You know, these things are things that are all worth considering. And I think I have been waffling on for God over 20 minutes, so I didn't want it to take this long. But there's so much to think about. There's so many considerations to take into account. Not least of all, of course, is the the amount you're going to spend on it, which is probably, you know, bioterrorism is most people second largest thing behind our house, for example. And so, you know, you can go and buy the first house. You you see it, look at a few, you decide whether it would work for you, for your family. And it's the same thing with a motorhomes or camper van, as far as I'm concerned, 100 grand 5060 zero. We now have a box you're going to spend, even if it's only 2530 grand. It's still a lot of money to get wrong, to throw away, to waste. So. So there we are. I'm going to leave you there now, but it sure, because I don't want to bore you any more than I already have. But then my suggestions and tips for buying a camper van a lot to take in. And it's like I say Lowe's that I probably haven't even mentioned, but then the things that we're going to consider to make sure we get it right when we choose the next van. So if you look, perhaps if you've already just bought a van or you've you've just bought a boat home or camper van and you've got it spot on or you've got it wrong, let me know. Contact me on the website! Driving Horizon's dot com, there's a contact page there. Leave a note down here to add a review to the podcast. That would be great, but sorry, jumping ahead there. And yeah, so, you know, send me a message and tell me what you got right? What you got wrong, what you wish you did differently, but also what was the main factor for you choosing what you did? And in hindsight, was it the right choice? Would you do anything differently? So that's a thank you for listening. Next week, when I release the next podcast, I. Will be walking around the motor home shows that is really exciting. The one thing that I'd love you to do for me, please leave me a review on whatever platform you are listening to this on. Tell me if there's anything that you'd like to hear or would like to know about, and I'm sure I'll do my best to cover that. And Head had to the website. We've got a newsletter there that you can sign up for, where you'll get direct links to my blog post, my videos and this podcast. Obviously, it comes out once or twice a week, so don't forget to sign up for that. And then driving horizons dot com forward slash YouTube will take you to my YouTube channel, where you can see loads and loads and loads of content about the motorhome shows about our trip to the Lake District and loads of other campground and travel related bits and pieces, so I find it useful. Whatever you decide. Good luck with your choice. I hope you make the right one. Thanks for listening and I will see you next time. Happy travels!

Welcome to this week's show, where I give you a load of great tips for when you are visiting your next Caravan, Motorhome, and RV Shows. Don't forget, that I am visiting a couple of Shows in the next 6 weeks, and there will be a lot of videos coming up. Head over to the YouTube channel to subscribe and be the first to see all my videos from the Motorhome Show. All of this is in a blog post over on the blog, which you can find by clicking here. If you want to see a list of all the UK Shows in 2022, then you can find this here. Also, don't forget to review the Podcast on your favorite platform! Thanks for listening. Rich

Welcome to this week's podcast, when I chat about some of our travel plans for 2022.

Welcome to this week's show, when I talk briefly about our Pumpkin Picking trip and a few days we spent seeing the sights in Cheltenham. Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means we will earn a small commission on the products or services you purchase using the links. There is no additional cost to you and if you do purchase, then I thank you for supporting the website.  I also thought I would share a quick note about something we find useful on the Campervan, that you may find useful too. This week, it is our Minipresso Coffee Maker. Decent Coffee without needing power for it Here is a link to the Coffee Maker - https://tidd.ly/3sckque Transcript (Auto Generated) It's Friday, the 17th of December. This is episode 31, and welcome back to the podcast. Hello, hello, hello and good morning. Good afternoon and a good evening to wherever and whenever you are listening to this. Thank you for being here. It's great to have you on the podcast again and welcome to this week's show. If you are new here. Welcome. And if you've been here before. Welcome back we are a podcast all about UK travel and generally camper van life and all things to do with campervans and getting out and seeing what is around us in the UK mainly. And we cover things like the trips that we go on. We take you to places that we've been to and I also talk a bit about the van and anything that we're doing to it and some tips and tricks around the van in terms of perhaps storage or the bits and pieces that we like the most or the products that we're using. There is no sponsorship or adverts or anything on the podcast, so it's all me talking from the heart and giving you my truthful opinion on things. So we are going to talk today about a few more things that we did in 2021. We're nearing the end of it now, and this is a quick recap of what we have been doing. I think today I'm talking about what we did in October time, so it's going to be Halloween. Ian walks in the forest and things like that, so stay tuned for that. And at the end of the show, I will. Also, I'm going to give you a quick, some quick feedback or some quick thoughts on something that we use in the van and something that we every now. If you never show my stick at the end, a thing that we use in the van that we like that we enjoy and that we can. It might be something to do with the cooking or something to do with how we set things up or storage or something outside. Just something that my feedback on something that I can't do without, I suppose, or that I'd seen. I think that is a necessity on the van. So if you like we here, don't forget to subscribe to the show. Give me some feedback. If you enjoy the show, then stick a review on your chosen podcast platform. And if you don't, or if there's something you'd like to me to chat about, then head over to Richard Chap dot com. The contact button and send me a message and I will respond to every message. I guess so without waste any more time. Let's jump straight into today's show. So the like I say, we are recapping the bits and pieces that we did this year because the podcast ticks and found time for a few months, and I didn't really talk about what we did. So I'm using the last couple of shows to catch up on that, and I've covered lots of things over the past few few shows ranging from May all the way through to September about all our travels, and today a very quick chat about what we got up to in October.

In this week's episode, we visit East Devon and check out some great sights and things to do around the area. We also take a short trip to Arme, in Dorset, and there is a quick update on the channel's future. YouTube - www.youtube.com/richardchubb Transcription of Podcast - Auto-Generated so apologies for any weird words!! Hello, everybody. It's Friday, December the 10th, this is episode 30, and welcome back to the podcast. Hello, hello, hello and good morning, good afternoon or good evening to whenever and wherever you are listening to this podcast today, it is great to have you welcome. If you're new here. Welcome. And if you are returning visitor and welcome back, it's great to have all of you and welcome to the show is another Friday. Another week has gone by and as you may know, I am still catching up on talking about all the things I've done over the past few months. Today, I'm going to talk about a couple of things that we have done in September with the help of my photo library, because that is how I kind of track and remind myself where I've been and what we did. So I'm going to be flicking between screens. If you hear the odd click, that will be why. What if you are new here, then what is this podcast all about? Well, it is about mainly UK travel and largely in our camper van is done in conjunction with my website, Richard dot com, and also with the few videos that I put out over on YouTube, which is YouTube.com forward slash Richard Chubb. And this week I've made a bit of a decision to really focus on. They're going to stick with UK travel, but I'm really going to concentrate on the campervan side of things and you know, it's tough to get out all the time with a family and school and things like that. So I'm going to be doing a little mini trips, possibly on my own day trips out in the van, sharing tips and tricks that I do when I'm out and about and talking about the gear that I use and any tips or advice I can think of. So if you are a campervan lover, you have definitely come to the right place. If you are just generally a travel lover again, you're in the right place, particularly if that is UK. And if you have some weird fascination with listening to a strange person talk, then you are also in the right place. So we are going to quickly jump to watch a bit of a catch up to take take you around a few places because one, we did a trip in September that it was only one trip, but we got to see lots and lots. So let us transport you on an adventure to East Devon. We had three nights in a campsite called Oak Down Tauren Park or I think is Oak Down Touring and Holiday Park something like that? Really good campsites. It's got a great some great facilities there. Nice big, spacious pitches, award winning according to all the signs they've got everywhere around the park. And so it was a great campsite, great for the kids. There was a play park and a, you know, golf like a little pitch and thing and, you know, nearby lots of places to see which I'll get into. And we it took us about two and a half hours to get there from the new forest. We headed out west to East Devon and we stopped at Lyme Regis first and foremost, which is a great little beach side of COVI type. And there's not really a cove, actually. It's a sort of pebble shingle, beach fishing, lots of fishing boats hanging around and the usual beachside attractions, kayaks and trampoline and things like that. We had lunch in the van and took a walk along the beach as a as a little break up of the journey, and then we got tied down and parked up on a pitch. That was it was very nice. It was very spacious. We were obviously a few tents and camper vans that obviously had come together. He had never quite sure what to expect, but everything was fine. They were respectful. We wasn't noisy. The noise and more

Welcome to this weeks podcast, where I am continuing to recap on our 2021 travels, catching up from when the Podcast was off line. In todays Episode: Exbury Gardens - We visit a Falconry Display Swanage & Corfe - We take a trip on a Steam Train, and visit Corfe Castle Weymouth - We enjoy an inflatable water park on a lake, and blast around the Jurassic Coast on Jetskis Beaulieu - We camp at a CAMC pop up campsite, and spend a day at the National Motor Museum Concierge Camping - And finally we camp at one of the best campsites in the UK, but not without its complications! Don't forget to subscribe to the show, and get in touch if you have anything to share, suggest or say! Transcript of Podcast **Please note Transcriptions are Automatically Generated so may not be perfect 0:00 Hello it is Friday the third of December This is episode 29 and welcome back to the podcast 0:18 Hello hello hello and good morning good afternoon and good evening to wherever and whenever you are. Welcome back to the show we should hear and it is great to see or to have all of your ears for the next 10 or 15 minutes or so. If you're new here welcome if you been here before, welcome back and you may or may not know what this podcast is all about. It is trying to share with you all the trips we take in some great parts of the UK that you can visit and you may have heard of and you want to know a bit more about or perhaps places that you've never even heard of that sound interesting to you. I seem to be getting my tongue in a twist today so bear with me but we are going to crack on or what I'm doing for the rest of 2021 as our travellers kind of slow down a little bit and things are happening at weekends and Christmas is coming and all sorts of things like that we may not be getting to some places that we want to go to but that will that will change but we have been to a lot of places the podcast was down for a few months and I'm just catching up on our previous travels that we've done through the year. You may have caught last week's show when we visited Marwell zoo and Activity Centre The Isle of Wight and lonely safari park well today I am going to briefly take you to a falconry display on a steam train in Swanage. Some fun that we had in Weymouth. We also went camping to Bewley motorhome museum where the caravan and motorhome club did a pop up campsite and we also went to concierge camping and depending on how long I ramble on for, we may save a couple of these for next week's podcast because there is only a couple of things I have to talk about next week. So we may defer one of those but let's see how we get on. So we've recently been to Chichester was our wedding anniversary last week and we celebrated our 10 year anniversary in a beautiful town or city is it I'm not sure of Chichester, there's a cathedral there. So it could be a city where there what there was there is some nice bars and coffee shops and a couple of restaurants we went to there for two nights we were Max free. I'm not sure if I mentioned this in last week's podcast. But I will cover that in more detail perhaps over the next week or two. So let me just crack on with a quick catch up of where we've been in the summer of 2021. So we started off this, this show if you like with a trip to X Ray Now X ray Gardens, which you're going to hear about again soon in a couple of weeks. Because we did I also went to a Halloween event now because really cool. There's a video over on my YouTube channel about that day it was really good fun. But this time we went there when we're friends of X ray members, which means we get to go we pay an annual fee and we can go as many times as we want while it's open and closed for a couple of months in a winter. But it's great there's a steam train there the if your friends have expiry members, you can go

Welcome to this week's episode, I take you on a tour of Hengistbury Head in Dorset, and a few notes all about the Hythe Ferry, and how you can get from the New Forest to Southampton City without a car! Don't forget to subscribe, and if you like it, leave me a review. If you think it could be better, why not pop me an email! Thanks for listening!!

Welcome back to the podcast, when we discuss Cheddar Gorge and a great walk in Hampshire. This week, I embark on a 2021 Recap after not posting an episode for a while. We are covering May and June when we take a walk from Keyhaven to Lymington in Hampshire. We also spend a few days exploring Cheddar Gorge in Somerset.

I have been quiet on the Podcast front. I love sitting here in my office, rambling away. I am not sure where to take it next. Looking for feedback, so after you have listened to this episode, head over to richardchubb.com, click on Contact Richard, and let me know your thoughts. Thanks for the feedback, Richard

Welcome to this weeks podcast, when I share all about our trip to the recent New Forest Motorhome show, 2021. We visited 17 motorhomes, changed our minds, and I tell you about an upcoming change that is going to happen.

In this weeks episode, we check out another Caravan and Motorhome Club site, dodge the rain, fail to dodge the mud, and headed into Wareham on the Wareham Forest Way. Hope you enjoy this weeks podcast.

A short, sharp podcast today. I discuss plans for the next few weeks, and the desires of the next few months.

Welcome to this weeks Episode, where we take a trip to Dorset, and stay in a campsite near Weymouth. We visit the Blue Pool near Wareham, a beautiful pool naturally filled from a man made clay pit. We also head down the Rodwell Trail, a great disused railway that has been surfaced and is suitable for walking, cycling and pushchairs.

This weeks podcast is all about our trip to Wimborne, and our thoughts on noisy campers. Wilksworth caravan park was out site of choice, a Shorefield Holidays site deemed as an alternative for Merely Court. We visited Rufus Stone, and a couple of pretty New Forest ponds.

This week's episode sees us visit the beautiful seaside town of Swanage, and we stay at our first Caravan & Motorhome Club site. It was a good weekend. The weather was perfect for April, that campsite decent, and Swanage was as beautiful as ever. Listen for the great time we had, and a few bits of advice about pubs and parking!!

If you are looking for a campsite in the New Forest, Hampshire, then be sure to check out Long Meadow. It is situated right in them middle of the forest, close to Lyndhurst and walkable / or bicycle to, Brockenhurst. Also, we have signed up to the Caravan & Motorhome Club! We have never signed up to a club before, so be sure to have a listen to find out why!

Another Friday, another Podcast! Today we are talking about how we are going to camp when all facilities are shut, and VW's new Camper Converter scheme. That, and bits about our recent videos make up today's podcast. Enjoy!!

Welcome to this weeks Episode, when I talk about a long-overdue repair that was needed, some new bits for the campervan, and 3 news items that you may find interesting. I also share a couple of walks we did, seeing the sights and sounds of the New Forest.

Welcome to this weeks episode. I have a couple of pieces of news for you this week, including things to check when booking for April and May. Also, we have more campsites booked, and more trips to look forward to.

Welcome to this weeks podcast! News on a recent YouTube video just released, and we have already booked two campsites for when we come out of LockDown.