Where were the Brits?

[BedfordGeorge]

We have just returned from a 6 week trip to the South of France and were surprised by how few Brits we came across, compared to previous tours. The Dutch as you would expect were all over the place, in fact more than in the past, to a point that I doubt if there were many of their pensioners left in Holland. The Germans were about in reasonable numbers with a sprinkling from all over Europe. I spoke to one or two Bits, but we could not come up with an explanation, can you?
Regards,
George

 

[chrisbee1]

We're all in Germany

 

[intransient1]

And in the Vendee

 

[SwingLowJim]

and indoors waiting for the Germans to go home in September 1

 

[Lawrence1]

We were in Lake Garda in the middle of May and there were hardly any Dutch there compared to previous years. There were the usual sprinkling of Brits, however.

 

[DianneT]

We met quite a few in Germany and Austria but I think lots have gone to Croatia.

 

[LizziePope]

Maybe everyone is waiting for the school summer hols? Or at least those with children are!

 

[macandy]

Just came back from the annual Garda trek in June, same, nothing like the number of Dutch in previous years.

 

[Woody3]

We were away mid May to mid June with two weeks in N Alsace and made exactly the same comment. I think there were only three of us at Kockelscheuer in Luxembourg going both ways, and saw very little in Champagne coming back.
Maybe too involved in the TdF Yorkshire?

 

[NigelHutson]

They'd heard that you were going George! :blink:

Hope everything's well with you?

 

[BedfordGeorge]

You could be correct there Nigel, my reputation must have proceeded me. Does that mean there will be no Brits in Germany, when we are on the Black Forest Rally in September?

Trust you and Kaye are also keeping well.

Regards,
Georghe

 

[NigelHutson]

I have a good friend who's a German Police Officer. I'll let him know you're coming, so I'm sure the natives will stay away just for you!

I continue to send Kay out to work, whilst I struggle along as a pensioner!

All the best.

 

[bertieboy1]

Staying at home,we decided not to go to the continent this year because of the high ferry fares (£450.00 to £800.00) for us depending on crossing,OK if you live in the SE and use these cheap Dover/Calais crossings.(500 miles drive to Dover for us)
Before the Rosyth/Zeebrugge crossing was discontinued we were quoted over £1000.00 return for car/caravan - no wonder it stopped through lack of interest.
I'm afraid the ferry companies have now priced us out of their market.Ypu can have a better holiday in this country anyway.

 

[eribanaut]

Yup we were in Croatia, +Bosnia, +France, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, Luxemburg, Then France and home

 

[MichaelE]

We have normally done the west coast and south but we have stopped going to France in the summer now as its just too expensive for the 2 of us.

 

[meath1978]

Hi I would have to agree with the last poster to a degree,
we have just returned from a 2000 tow through fance and into spain, with the bulk on the holiday being spent at las dunas.
the return from dover to Calais is cheap £90 return ,tolls for the whole trip in france cost us £160 and about £20 in spain, fuel costs where nudging £600, then you add site fees approx. £600 and then red pennant breakdown cover ,good service on the car and caravan before and it soon adds up.
we would have loved to do Portsmounth to Santander but with costs of approx. £1200 return was way out of our price range, the holiday wasn't overley cheap but where could you go in august, abroad in a plane on a package deal for under 4-5k??
richard

 

[intransient1]

The joys of touring in Europe.
We frequently tour in Europe and use every method at our disposal to save money..
1 we use a post office credit card to buy diesel because we get the bank rate without any charges we can pay it off while we're away over the net.
2 we only do Europe in the off peak seasons and use both Acsi card and camping cheques.
If we only want a single night stopover we try to find the nearest site that is at the cheapest end of the Acsi priceband of 12 euros.
We never rush and the difference in fuel economy at 60 mph over 50 mph can be as much as 10 mpg.
If we are any where in the region of Luxembourg I will make a short detour to tank up as it is the cheapest place in Europe.
You don't have to use toll roads especially in France as the older main roads frequently run close by and are usually dual carriageways this can save a fortune and can be just as quick.
We travelled to the Vendee this year and using the old roads saved 100 euros on the return trip and as in this country the fuel costs are cheaper when not on motorways, we actually found the cheapest fuel in France at 1.20 euros a litre which combined with the post office card cost me 98 pence a litre.
We did Lake Garda 2 years ago like this and had 2 fantastic weeks there and the site was San Francesco right on the lake for £12.95 a night.
There are always ways to do it cheaper.

 

[MichaelE]

The problem we have is there is normally 4 of us traveling on Holiday, so we cant risk not getting us all on the same site .
We spent nearly £2k the last time we went to France, didn't use toll roads either if we didn't have too.
The following year we did 10 days in Egypt and 2 weeks in Turkey for much less than £2k.