Advice please, route from Calais to Latvia.

[Tukums]

Hi All
Advice please from any of you long distant caravaners, best route from Calais to Latvia.
Looking to taking the caravan to Latvia for 4-5 weeks next year (2018), if anyone has a good route with a few stopover sites it would be apricated so I can start planning.
Google maps give three choices of routes, one out towards Berlin then on to Warsaw and up to Lithuania and on to Latvia or two routes out towards Dresden then on to Warsaw etc.
We have been to Latvia 12 times since 2003; flight to Riga, then hire a car, staying at a friend’s farm guesthouse in the small village of Juanpils (100km west of Riga) and using hotels.
I now know my way around Latvia and the roads, a lot of unsurfaced roads, also have seen a few good sites to stay at, but will be pitching at our friend’s farm. The guesthouse also has a tent camping area, I can pitch up close to the house and get a EHU lead in to a mains supply.
Thanks folks.

 

[NigelHutson]

Hi Tukums,

On the recent trip to Ivalo in Finland, we went via Latvia. After using the Tunnel, we stayed near Bruges on the first night, and then went via Berlin (night two). Night three was at Torun (a lovely place if you've got time to visit) in Poland. From there it was decided to ignore the sat nav and head across country to Vilnius in Lithuania. The sat nav wanted to stick to the motorway and go via Warsaw, which, with hindsight would probably have been better. From Vilnius, it was north to Latvia. The run from Torun to Vilnius was very long in terms of time as it was single carriageway roads and through many towns and villages, so although longer, the motorway route via Warsaw would probably have been better. Having said all that, the standard of the roads in all the countries mentioned was much better than we're suffering in the UK nowadays.

I can let you have the site details of where we stayed, but we were very much restricted by the few that were open at that time of the year.

Also, you will see that many of the drives were long, but we had the benefit of multiple drivers.

Nigel.

 

[Tukums]

Thanks for that Nigel, very useful info about the Poland route, yes please would like the site details. Our friend will charge us 5 euro a night (inc. electric) on his camping ground next to the guesthouse.

Chris.

 

[NigelHutson]

Wow, that looks a bit rough! (Not)

We stayed at:-

Camping Klein Strand,
Varsenareweg 29,
Jabbeke 8490,
Brugge,
Belgium.

www.kleinstrand.be

Campingplatz Krossinsee,
Wernsdorfer Strasse 38,
12527 ,
Berlin,
Germany.

www.campingplatz-Berlin.de

Hotel and Camping Tramp Nr.33,
Kujawska 14,
87-100,
Torun,
Poland.

www.campingtramp.pl/eng

Downtown Forest Hostel and Camping,
Paupio st 31A,
Vilnius,
LT-11341,
Lithuania.

www.downtownforest.lt

As I said in my previous post, we were somewhat restricted by sites that were open at the beginning of March. The first three were pretty decent (the one in Torun was VERY convenient for walking into the beautiful city of Torun - well worth a visit!), but the one in Vilnius was very much a last resort, and just somewhere to park overnight - we couldn't even get water!

Nigel.

 

[Tukums]

Thanks for that, hopefully we will be going June / July. Our last visit (12th time) to Latvia was March 2016 and the minor unsurfaced roads can be a bit on the muddy side and still snow about, at least the hire car still had winter tyres on. Even in summer, not very good for caravans.

A church we had to find in a small village, 8 of my wife's fathers descendants were baptised there in the early 1800's