If there’s one thing that being in the Brownies and Girl Guides teaches you, it’s Be Prepared. And Lend a Hand. And the Brownie Guide Law… but those aren’t important here. We need a plan for our holiday in a couple of weeks’ time, because preparation is the key to success.
Our preparation boils down to four areas:
- route planning
- camp sites
- gear
- financials
The financial part is pretty much sorted. We’ve saved up enough cash for the trip (and for buying our equipment), but we also wanted to make sure that we would get the best for our money in terms of exchange rate when we’re out there. So we’ve opened up a new joint account with Nationwide, who allow you to use cashpoints abroad for free – yay! That’ll make a change to being stung by a couple of quid every time I use my Lloyds card. I also have a Post Office credit card for back-up, which offers similar commission-free transactions.
So to the route planning. The ViaMichelin site is an invaluable tool if you’re planning any sort of driving holiday, be it at home or abroad. I can type in my point of origin and destination, and as well as a map, it’ll give me a breakdown of estimated route time, toll charges and even if it includes any scenic passages. Input your car and fuel type and it’ll work out the total cost of the journey too. You can change journey types from the quickest (and generally more expensive) to the most economical or scenic (‘Discovery’) – but the Michelin Recommends route is always a good bet for a happy medium.
When we drive down to Arcachon after getting off the ferry at 8am, we’ll be taking the Michelin recommends route – so it should theoretically take 6 hours and 54 minutes and cost around 120 Euros. All in all, it’s a great way to work out how much your self-drive holiday is going to cost you so you don’t get any nasty suprises – it’s not always cheaper to DIY rather than go the package route, unless you spend a little time on planning.
In the next installment, we’ll look at how to find a great campsite and discuss the book/not to book question.
