Since my retirement at Christmas I have been busy making preparations for our forthcoming European trip. I’ve had list as long as my arm, mostly buying essentials for our journey and preparing our house for our eight month absence.

In this post I shall address the issues we have had to tackle which may be of interest to other motorhomers considering a similar trip.

Motorhome Insurance
Insuring the motorhome was one of the easier tasks. I just checked with our existing insurer, Comfort, and they confirmed that we would be covered in all the countries we intend to visit and they did not have a problem with 8 months out of the country. They did mention that they would not cover us if we were “full timing”, but we do not intend to go down that route. We want to spend time at home with friends and family.

Household Insurance
Obtaining insurance for a house which is going to be empty for up to eight months was much more problematic. Several insurers which are supposed to specialise in unoccupied home insurance, wouldn’t not even give us a quote. I think 6 months may be the limit for some. Others insisted on unrealistic conditions such as having an adult visit the house every week and keep a diary of their visits. Getting someone to visit most weeks would not be a problem, but just imagine if a week was missed, the insurance company would use it as an excuse to not pay on a claim.
Finally Towergate Insurance came to the rescue. They are brokers which specialise in unoccupied house insurance. The underwriter makes some conditions, such as keeping the central heating on at 15 degrees celsius, but they are not too onerous. It is worth noting that the premium is twice our normal rate, but it seems the best we can achieve.

Prescriptions
Like many people of a certain age I have to take prescription medication. I have mild asthma (since childhood). I also take Statins to keep my cholesterol low. The NHS is not supposed to issue prescriptions for many months at a time. I’ve heard a 3 month maximum mentioned and our practice has a two month limit. Luckily our doctor was very helpful. He agreed to issue a private prescription for the balance of the medication and the price of buying it privately was actually lower than the price of an NHS prescription. But note, many GPs charge for issuing a private prescription. Ours was very nice and waived his fee, but it can be £10 or more per prescription.

The Dogs
Luckily the dogs did not need any update to their vaccinations. Their pet passports were all up to date. We have bought them each a Scalibor collar, which is supposed to be effective against sand flies and South European ticks. Melek will also have a short back and sides just before we leave!!

Telephone and Satellite
BT and Sky were their usual unhelpful selves. They would not countenance suspending our accounts and left us with the only option of cancelling both. It will save us plenty of money but we will have the inconvenience of getting re-connected on our return. It is very short sighted of these companies because it is very possible that when we survey the market on our return some other companies many get the benefit of our patronage.

This is just a brief overview of some of the things that will need to be addressed if you take a lengthy break in your motorhome.

With regard to ensuring that you don’t miss anything I would recommend the packing list on Ourtour’s blog as an excellent starting point.