Here are our tips for a successful, active motorhome holiday with children.
The whole of Sweden will remember this summer, which will go down in history as one of the hottest and driest ever. It was also a summer when we had the opportunity to have a dream holiday with the family. It went so much better than we had hoped. The Sun Living S75SL was the perfect size for the five of us, and the flexibility it gave us, meant we stayed at so many nice places, beaches and campsites, and were really able to experience large parts of beautiful Bohuslän. A holiday that has given us a taste for motorhome life!
There are a few things that we experienced and learned during the week that we would like to share with anyone who plans to travel in a motorhome with young children.
TIP 1. Choose the right motorhome. Are you going to stay out in the countryside or in campsites? Do you need a small and versatile motorhome to be able to drive in town or park in a small area? We were very pleased with our choice of motorhome, considering the amount of space it had inside. We had plenty of room for everything a family needs for two weeks and yet we had lots of storage space that we didn’t need. With a little luck and an easily manoeuvrable motorhome we even managed to fit in small climbing area car parks as well.
TIP 2. Choose a destination that has something fun for everyone in the family. For us it was good to be able to go and swim or visit a playground when the children had been with us at the climbing crag all day or we had been driving long distances. It was also good to holiday in a place that had both small towns and woods very easily accessible. It meant we could be flexible and adapt when necessary to what the kids needed.
TIP 3. Take your children’s favourite toys with you. We noticed how important it is for children to feel like at home. Before we went, we got the children to each pack their own bag with some favourite toys. These were important and were much appreciated when the children needed time to unwind or wanted a moment for themselves. But the best things to have along were their bikes and scooters. Everywhere we stopped with the motorhome there were flat, child-friendly areas where they could get some exercise and play on their bikes. We are really pleased that we managed to fit them into our Sun Living and they already have their own special place reserved in the luggage compartment for the next trip.
TIP 4. Stay overnight by the sea. Sleep where you want to wake up.
It’s hard to beat that feeling and freedom that your home is where you want it to be. To go and park the motorhome by the seashore, and during the evening meal point out the window and say, “that’s where we will fish for crabs when we wake up”. That really is the essence of quality of life. And it gives children a lively and exciting holiday where they can be involved in decisions on where to sleep and what things to do.
TIP 5. Mix activities. Everyone should get to do their own. It’s easy to set out a plan for what might be fun for children on a holiday. And of course you have to do activities where the children are the focus. But we also believe that it is at least as important for adults to be able to live their dreams together with their children. This makes parents happy. And happy parents mean happy children. And children learn about passion, and through that, are able to find their own.
TIP 6. Have the courage to mess about with routines. The motorhome makes everything so easy. The fridge is always within arm’s reach, so make meals when it suits you. Not just because it’s lunchtime. It was a very exciting time for our children. Normally our little bundles of energy wake up at five in the morning. But in the motorhome we sometimes got to experience some of our first lie-ins as parents of young children. Perhaps partly because the children were allowed to stay up later in the lovely summer evenings. But also just because we slept so incredibly well in our Sun Living.
TIP 7. Be spontaneous and dare to leave the campsite. Campsites are so easy and fantastic in many ways. And every now and then you need to empty your waste water tanks and fill up your freshwater tanks. But the real gems are to be found beyond the regulated life of the campsite. The most amazing things happened when we dared to leave the familiar behind in favour of the unknown. To just go and suddenly find a quiet place by the sea. Completely free, with a view and environment we would have been prepared to pay a lot for. You can’t get better quality of life than that. Enough for us to decide that we will actually buy our own motorhome.
