28 Websites by and for Motorhomers, Cyclists & Other Travellers

The following non-commercial websites have been produced by long-distance motorhomers, cyclists and other travellers. Please let us know about any other websites of this type that you can personally recommend. Or perhaps you can recommend your own site! It is very easy to Contact Us!

Website: www.howkatiepulledboris.com      Recommended by: Barry Williamson

How Katie Pulled Boris: Keith Mashiter's book details a 6-month, 3,800-mile tour through France and Spain in an American RV pulling a car. The book's emphasis on humour is based on the largeness of the motorhome (Katie, a 33-ft 9.3-tonner), the car (Boris, an A-Class A140 Mercedes which was towed on an A frame) and Keith's relationship with his wife, Gail.

As the book's blurb itself says, the story will encourage or cure you of your own ambitions to travel in this way. The book was originally published in traditional paper format and sold through Amazon for 8.99 UK pounds. More recently, the publisher was taken to court by authors claiming unpaid royalties etc and is no longer in business and Amazon no longer sells the book.

Following recovery from a life-threatening illness, Keith has decided to make his book freely available to motorhomers and other travellers - download it from the website given above. Entry demands a user name, password and your email address. The book has 283 pages and requires a download of 3.66 MB into Adobe Acrobat.

Website: http://tortoisetales.wordpress.com/  Recommended by: Margaret Williamson

Frances Platman uses the facilities of Wordpress to give a well-illustrated account of her travels with Bernard in their Rollerteam Granducca, bought from a showroom in Toulouse. Starting in October 2003 with a graphic description of coming to terms with motorhoming life, Frances intends to bring the travelogue fully up to date with  travels planned in Portugal and Greece. 'Tortoise Tales'? In her own words, Frances's account is of 'slow travel in a motorhome throughout Europe by two adventurous pensioners'. We echo that!

Website: http://www.motorhometrips.blogspot.com/   Recommended by: Barry Williamson

After his life at sea, Ian Biggar and partner Sue spend a large part of every year travelling in their beloved Rapido 741F motorhome, posting regular accounts of their adventures as well as the occasional article and pictures. Among other countries, they have travelled in  France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia. They have written for the MMM and of particular interest is the description of their own Rapido motorhome and their criticism of the general practices of fashion-led European manufacturers.

Website: http://www.daveandpauline.co.uk/   Recommended by: Barry Williamson

Newly retired Dave and Pauline Whiteman bought a motorhome and set off on a 9-month, 17,297-mile (27,675 km) journey through Europe. Starting and ending in England, they visited France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Italy. Very well illustrated (Dave was a professional photographer in a former life), with useful links and excellent maps, the website gives a regular and graphic account of their travels. The website itself should be seen for its innovative design.

Website: http://www.2doEU.com   Recommended by: Barry Williamson

Paul & Alison begin their new website with a breathless:  "Wednesday 12th December 2007: Having sold up, we headed straight for the ferry at Portsmouth, bound for Bilbao on the north coast of Spain." This sets the style for the following daily travel logs, photo galleries, useful links and videos as they tour Spain, Portugal and France. This is an excellent sharing of experiences and a guide to anyone following in their tracks. We look forward to much more!

Website: http://www.malaysiansinmotion.com/   Recommended by: Barry Williamson

Captain Ghani Ishak, Alison Murugesu-Ghani, 3-year-old Adrian Ishal-Ghani and Tuah, their Nissan Patrol 4WD, are all engaged in a 2.5-year, round the world journey. Currently in Eastern Europe, their website also promotes the Malaysian-based Rainforest Challenge (http://www.rainforest-challenge.com/) and promises two Tourist Adventurer Tickets for the lucky winners of a raffle. Follow this unique family adventure!

Website: http://crete.wordpress.com/    Recommended by: Margaret Williamson

Website: www.tenby-aces.co.uk   Recommended by: Barry Williamson

The Tenby Aces Cycling Club's website has a forum, photo gallery, list of club runs, training schedules, history, links, contact details and a coach's corner with training advice. Of direct use to cyclists in Pembrokeshire, it is an excellent example of its kind for other clubs to follow.

Website: www.2escapees.blogspot.com/        Recommended by: Margaret Williamson

Mike & Judith Annan describe themselves as 2 sexagenarians travelling in a Rapido 972M motorhome, fortunate to be able to travel many months of the year from their French base. Their Rapido is on a Mercedes Sprinter chassis and has been modified to meet their needs for months of travelling to numerous remote locations. So far, these include the Arctic Circle, North Africa and the Middle East including Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Tunisia, Libya and Turkey. There is excellent advice on the preparation of the vehicle and all the paperwork required for such a journey. 

Website: www.honotravels.co.uk      Recommended by: Barry Williamson

Just starting out, post retirement, this is Norma and Howard Cook's website-in-the-making. Their plans are for extensive European travels in their 8 metre Burstner motorhome, so watch this link

Website: www.papillontravels.net    Recommended by: Margaret Williamson

Since April 2007, retired Florida residents Tom and Judy Salmon have toured Europe and Turkey in an imported Winnebago View motorhome called Papillon. Their splendid website is arranged as a series of well-illustrated 'narratives' of their journey, as well as giving background information about shipping from the USA, notes on camping in Europe and an excellent map of their route so far.

Website: www.richardfrancis.com     Recommended by: Barry Williamson

Motorhomer Richard's excellent up-to-date site fully describes and illustrates travels in 13 European countries in a Carthago motorhome. In addition, he has taken his motorhome over to Morocco and spent some time in Thailand. This is motorhoming and travelling as it really happens! 

Website: www.silkroute.org.uk     Recommended by: Stephen Stewart

This non-profit Anglo-French club organises motorhome journeys to distant places, including China. It has over 500 members and was formed in France in 1993. Currently about 60 members are native English speakers. Annual membership in 2007 cost £35 (one van/two people) or £25 (one van/one person.).

Website: Ultimate Truck Park Guide     Recommended by: Ian Shires

This link takes you directly to the download of a 6MB pdf file which lists truck parking in every European country including Russia. This is the detailed 2007 edition and runs to 91 pages!

Website: http://europemotorhome.blogspot.com/    Recommended by: Barry Williamson

Share the travels of Jacqui Young's Australian family as they take a 50-day motorhome holiday around Western Europe. These first timers travel through Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Scotland and England in their rented motorhome. Fully illustrated and with a map. Learning from their experience with France Passion, Jacqui now offers a similar service for motorhomers in Australia. Find out more: http://www.motorhomestays.com.au/ 

Website: www.jimandelle.drives.it    Recommended by: Barry Williamson

Australians Jim and Elle Dover have been travelling and working from their 31 ft Winnebago Explorer motorhome (the 'Bitumen Bunkhouse') since July 2003. When they roam their vast Continent, they always bush camp if possible: they like the freedom, but when they work, it is often as caravan park relief managers. Find out more about their equipment and lives by reading their regular illustrated diaries

Website: www.soultravelers3.com   Recommended by: Margaret Williamson

This is an opportunity to see Europe through the eyes of mature and talented American motorhomers. This family of 3, Dad Da Vinci, Mum Jeanne d'Arc and 5-year-old Ms Mozart (all pseudonyms), are doing a multi year RTW trip. They have been in Europe for the last 8 months (April 2007), with a short trip into Africa with more to come and blogging as they go.

They write: "As Americans we are kind of rare birds on this side of the pond with a motorhome, plus the fact that we are homeschooling as we go including violin and piano via internet. LOL! Add to that the fact that I am mobility challenged and we are learning lots as we go and having a blast too. We have lots of adventures planned for the next 7 months including Greece,Turkey,Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary,Romania, Czech, maybe Poland and a short flight into Russia and 2 months in Italy in the fall."

Website:  Europe in a Motorhome       Recommended by: Barry Williamson

Hazel and Simon Jackson, along with 13-year-old son Jack, took a year out to tour Southern Europe in an American motorhome. Calling it a 'mid-life gap year', they kept a thorough written and photographic record of their journey which they have since turned into a book. The website is mainly a promotion for the book but it does contain lengthy extracts and so can be used as a resource in itself. On the other hand - you can buy the book.

Not least impressive is the way they continued Jack's schooling during this year on the road so that he received a double education!

Website: www.cyclingtoindia.com   Recommended by: Barry Williamson

Thirty-somethings John and Sally Watson are cycling to India as an adventure in  its own right and as a means of raising money for 2 very well worthwhile charities - the sort where your money doesn't go straight into overheads. If they are successful, the route will take them through France, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and then onto Turkey. From there they will head across Iran and into Central Asia, passing through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and then over the Karakoram Highway from China into Pakistan. The final leg will take them from Islamabad to Delhi.

We met them in Esztergom on the River Danube (on Hungary's border with Slovakia) and we later heard from them in Edirne in Turkey, just over the border from Bulgaria. You can read about our meeting and see some images by clicking here. 

Website: http://www.geocities.com/davecarol748/    Recommended by: Barry Williamson

Dave and Carol Hughes, with their teenagers Emily and Ashley, set off last July (2006) in their 6-wheel, 5-ton Burstner motorhome to see where the road will take them. You will find them, in words and pictures, month by month, Somewhere in Europe. 

Website: www.roundtheworldbybike.com    Recommended by: Rebecca Watts

Rebecca is really enjoying this account of Alastair Humphreys nearly-completed round-the-world cycle ride. Living on as little as $US1 or $US2 a day, Alastair writes from Istanbul: "The Guinness Book of Records defines a journey around the world as one that covers 16,000 miles and 4 continents. Now I am doing the job properly: 50,000 miles, 5 continents, 50 countries. Alone and on a bicycle. No buses, no hitching, no support vehicles."

Website:  http://web.mac.com/billinda1/iWeb/Site/  Recommended by: Margaret Williamson

We met Bill and Linda Peckham in January 2007 (we figure briefly in their 'blog') when they briefly visited Camping Finikes, near Finikunda in the Messinian Peninsula of the Greek Peloponnese. They were passing through in the VW motorcaravan and clearly enjoying the life. Linda showed us her extensive sketch pad of pencil drawings, made along the way and talked enthusiastically of her upcoming art exhibition back in the UK. They left us to continue their journey along the winter coast of Greece.

Website:  www.pippins.me.uk                   Recommended by: Keith Dear

This is the Newton family (Andy, Rosemary, Bobby and Charlotte) website and records in detailed words and pictures motorhome journeys in the Pyrenees, Galicia, Cyprus, Switzerland, Romania, Bulgaria and Norway between 2001 and 2006. The website also contains links to Andy's previous career in the Royal Navy with connections to HMS Sirius, HMS Minerva and HMS Bacchante. The site promises much more travel to come with their upcoming retirement.

Website: www.adv-cycling.org                 Recommended by: Barry Williamson

This is the ultimate resource for the long-distance cyclist in America. In business for over 30 years, and among much else, the Adventure Cycling Association (formerly Bike Centennial), developed the great routes crossing and circling the US of A. They claim to produce the finest bicycling maps in North America and you can even download waypoints for your GPS!

Website: www.biketheworld.at                  Recommended by:  Margaret Williamson

We met Austrian cyclists Christoph and Birgit Oberhauser in west Texas on a hot and windy day. They were heading west towards Marathon and into the wind; we were pedalling easily east, towards Sanderson. We had a lot in common and a lot to talk about: we were all on round-the-world journeys by bicycle.

They had started from Austria, crossed Europe and rode down in to Spain. From the north-east states of the US they had followed a long route down the east coast to Florida and then west across the southern states. Later they were to fly to Singapore and on to Japan.

There is an excellent section on the equipment they used and the detailed diary (in English and German) is well illustrated (we appear on 29 March 2001!)

We met Bob and Judi Burns in November 2003 in the Greek port of Patras, on the campsite near the old Rion/Anti-Rion ferry. We thought they were fellow-motorhomers but it turned out they were also round-the-world yachters (they call themselves 'cruisers'). Living and sailing in their 38-foot ketch Long Passages for the last12 years, they have almost completed a leisurely circumnavigation of the globe, starting on the east coast of the US. They have taken time out in many countries, living in some and travelling in others, including Europe, from Spain to Turkey, by motorhome.

This excellent website includes detailed logs and splendid descriptions of their equipment and graphic accounts of their worst moments!

We met the Whitlock family in September 2003, on a campsite on  Hungary's Lake Balaton. We were travelling by motorhome and bicycle; they by train. Lindsay, Nick, Tom (aged 9) and Esther (aged 4) were embarked on a one-year backpacking tour of the more challenging countries of the world. From Eastern Europe, they progressed through SE Africa, S America and Asia, finishing on the Trans-siberian Express Railway. They left us on a local Hungarian train, bound for a week's WWOOF-ing on a goat farm and then on to Romania.

Their splendid website includes maps, photographs and a diary of how to travel round the world by public transport with a young family.

Website: www.greektravel.com         Recommended by: Maggie Bevis

The site is run by an American called Matt Barrett and it grows and grows. It really is comprehensive and I can recommend it for when you're far away from Greece - it'll take you straight there in spirit. Matt responds quickly to emails too, if you want to contact him. I haven't yet met him, but as we're off to Athens in the near future, we could meet him for an ouzo or two.