whitewine

Hi. I am moving in Feb. Any advice on buying a motor home? Pitfalls to watch for? Thanks!

Mitzyboy

Welcome to the forum

You are going to live in a motorhome?
All I can tell you is they are very expensive over here

chulo

Pitfalls to watch for.


Pot Holes.

Roads are horrendously bad in most places unless you go on a new Autopista.

Valdepenas is very very very bad and I don`t recommend cruise control, especially in the middle of the night, very little compares to the adrenaline rush than a hairpin bend at 130 kms at 3am on an unfamiliar unlit road.

Mitzyboy

Valdepenas?

chulo

Do you drink red wine ?

Valdepeñas is a municipality in the Spanish province of Ciudad Real, in the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. It is also head of the judicial district that covers the localities of Moral de Calatrava, Santa Cruz de Mudela, Viso del Marqués, Torrenueva, Castellar de Santiago and Almuradiel.

Valdepeñas is a Spanish Denominación de Origen (DO) for wines located in the province of Ciudad Real in the south of Castile-La Mancha (Spain). It is almost completely surrounded by another DO (La Mancha) but is an independent DO due to its long history of producing a distinct style of wine known aloque or clarete which is made by mixing white and red grapes.

Yes I did cut & paste.

But I have almost had the pleasure of dieing there, thanks to cruise control and bad pot holes.

mikelincs

But the OP asked for information about TORREVIEJA. There are, as far as I know, few camping sites round there, there is one at Punta Prima, BUT, are you going to be one of those motorcaravanners that park on supermarket carparks and pay nothing for the privilege. because there are a lot of those, and we used to hate it as they paid nothing for the privilege. but I think that the supermarkets are trying to clamp down on them.

Mitzyboy

Yes I know where it is, I was there last week. I bought quite a few bottles back with me.
I was only suprised because it has absolutely nothing to do with the OP's question

agoreira

Yes, we know, there´s no spelling mistakes!

chulo

Oh, my mistake, you see when I read Motor Home I assumed that it was a touring vehicle and that as such the touring vehicle would move around Spain, too which one of the pitfalls is pot holes and I added a little bit of experience of pot holes around Valdepenas.

When I wrote "most places" that meant in Spain and isn`t Torrevieja in Spain.

And I'm the one distracting the thread, 8 replies and only 2 relevant the rest I''ll leave commenting on, the content is enough.

Mitzyboy

I think we all know why the thread is being distracted Chulo, give us a break! I'm sure the OP will be headfing straight for Valdepenas, that was very helpful

To the OP, as an ex motorhome owner of many years, if its touring you'll be into you wont have too many problems with the roads especially if you have a coachbuilt. As you'll most likely be parked up at night I doubt you'll be hitting too many bends in the dark at 130 kph . Some of the sites are a little bit iffy I've noticed, probably not what you will have been used to on Motorhome Club sites, especially as you tend to park much closer together. I've done a lot of long drives over here, Seville, Santiago de Compostella for instance and the drives have been easy.

But you didnt make it clear if you were contemplating living in a motorhome, or touring.

As regards buying, I'd really take a spanish speaking person with you if you dont speak it, someone who is good at negotiation. Ive noticed they are quite expensive out here and indeed when we were thinking of buying another we thought of going back to the UK and buying a LHD from Newark, but we were dissuaded by Certificate of conformity issues

chulo

Oh come on.

So you can mention these places, why can`t I mention Valdepenas.

I copied this advice.

"Defects in road surfaces and road maintenance can make driving on some roads hazadours - especially in parts of south-west and northern Spain. Although road maintenance has improved over recent years, the quality of road surfaces is still very variable and drivers should be prepared to deal with uneven surfaces, narrow lanes and frequent diversions or hold-ups due to roadworks".

From this site

http://www.euroresidentes.com/eurore...g-in-spain.htm

big wheels

If you are going to live in it you will not be alone around Torrevieja.
On our one, and thankfully only visit to nearby Orihuela there must have been 20-30 motor homes parked up complete with families living in the local Mercadona car park.

valenciatim

What? Even with all those empty properties going spare?

Mitzyboy

To help the OP, does anyone know the average cost of a night on a motorhome park here in Spain

mikelincs

Park on the Mercadona car park in Playa Flamenca, and it's free, as has been said there are often up to 30 parked there every night, or were when we last went past a year ago. People of all nationalities park there as well, plenty of German and Scandinavian motorhomes.