Planning a trip abroad.....

Camping Laredo has pitches and rooms. Great location near to sports bar and a 7km long beach. About 30km west of Bilbao on the coastline

I'm gonna bookmark this list.

Health insurance / travel policies often exclude anything except small scooters so make sure to check that. I used to get AA 5 Star back in the day but you already have the breakdown aspect covered (check how long for though).

You should be able to pay extra on a travel policy to get health cover for motorcycling included. You would be covered for treatment with an EHIC but not for getting home.

Sorry for dragging this out, but it was actually quite difficult to find... Most travel insurance available on the Irish market will be invalidated if you are travelling on a bike greater than 125cc... I had lengthy conversations with both VHI & AA and was advised against taking one of their packages as they wouldn't honor a claim if it was discovered the bike was more than 125... That includes claims that don't even include the bike, like missed ferries or stolen cards...

I was put in touch with www.trailfinders.ie and while they don't specifically provide motorcycle touring cover, they do mention motorcycles in their terms and all seems to be above board...

You have CN breakdown and you have EHIC. VHI won’t do much for you unless something unthinkable happens. I remember getting a fairly expensive one trip policy in 2018 that covered everything- can’t remember offhand but will try to find it and edit post later

As I found out with a Motorhome on an autoroute last summer it can be pay now and claim later. ( but without any hassle in doing so )

Hopefully nothing goes wrong and biking in most of Europe is such a stress free and safe thing hopefully you’ll not need to use any of it. One thing I noticed is the claim lines answer instantly any time of day or night. They know you’re in trouble if you call.

I ordered my luggage from Louis.de in mid May... They had to cancel the first order because they confused the details, and told me to place a second order... They then cancelled the second order instead of the first, but told me otherwise... Had to faff around to figure out what happened... Then placed a third order on 26th May... Got worried a couple of weeks ago, so made contact to find where it was... told it was arriving in week 24 (last week). Last week I got a message to say that it was landing on week 25 (this week), which is okay... still time to make my ferry on week 27...

This morning I got a new message to say that they weren't honest about the previous details and they had placed the order and it would arrive on week 28 (in germany)...

I'm now fooked. Have placed a new order with the manufacturer, which they say will dispatch in 3-4 days and at an additional €110 cost... Will it arrive on time... will it not... it all just adds to the excitement.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a throwover set that I can get quickly? in case it all falls apart... I actually sold my Givi CRM throwovers to buy this set...

Bike is a Moto Guzzi V7 and the luggage is SW Motech Legend. If theres anything to take from this, it's 'don't order anything important from Louis'... at most you could trust them with a logo print t-shirt...

Louis.de refunded the money after a long struggle... They are a nightmare.

I ordered a new set on Tuesday direct from SW Motech and apparently they've arrived in the country already. I should have them tomorrow!

Just back from a week in Normandy, first trip on the Continent bar one, in years. First trip ever for the SO on her bike.

We did it on a whim: saw weather here was going to be shite, so Thursday 3rd August looked on AirBnB and Irish Ferries and booked both and sailed 5th August. Sailed back 12th August.

Costs: 2 bikes, with cabin, Dublin-Cherbourd-Dubln €1300-odd. Gites in Normandy with a pool, for a week, €1100. All expenses in the week: fuel for both bikes, food, attractions etc €1200. So the entire week for everything: €3600. Just to give you an idea of how expensive peak time ferries are: I did the same route in Oct 2021 when I came back from NL with my new bike and the ferry was just €178 including cabin, so we did travel on probably the most expensive week of the entire year. I think it shouldn't be hard to half those ferry and accomodation costs at another time of the year.

Petrol varied from €1.84 - €2.10 a litre depending on where.

For any trip abroad I create a folder on my Google Drive and I drop copies of our passports, vehicle logbooks, insurances, E111 cards, accommodation and ferry bookings, travel insurance etc.I can then access them from anywhere out on the road.

We didn't do huge mileage : it was supposed to be a holiday : no more than a couple of hours a day. Travelled on backroads mostly, the odd ring road, and filtered. Was religious about not speeding : thank God for cruise control ! When we hit mad traffic (e.g. at Mont St Michel, we filtered (her for the first time) and found french drivers actually pull in an wave you on. Bliss)

Each day was - not - planned. We literally followed our nose. Saw something, somewhere nice and: just stopped right there.

Did find lots of places closed (N. France goes to S. France for their holidays that week), so we even came across petrol stations, hotels and supermarkets that were closed for holidays. LIDL, however, doesn't. Met a couple in Fougeres shopping LIDL : their Dunnes Store bag gave them away. And yes, they were shopping in the middle aisle. :)

Weather was fab. Nearly too fab tbh. Wore all the heavy gear on the way out, and once it was packed away on the bike at the ferry it never came out of the bags again until we got as far as Athlone on the way home on the 13th. Temps started off around 20 degrees, but hit 27-29 degrees by week end. Too hot for me tbh, and I always ATGATT.

I brought 2 big locks and one smaller one and I used them everywhere, locking the bikes to one another. The SO's bike being an NC750, she could lock here helmet in the 'tank' when we got to parking - If i packed my jacket etc on the bike, I used the small lock to lock my helmet to the seat.

We also made a special effort to travel light. She had the top box on here bike, and I had one on mine, and I had 2 panniers. Which, despite it being a behemoth (GoldWing), are useless. And i carried locks, puncture repair kit, first aid kit etc. That basically took up one entire pannier (yes, they're that small, and stupidly-shaped). I haid raingear in the other. France has washing machines & driers. Launderettes too. No reason to carry piles of clothes around, half of which you'll never wear.

We're definitely doing it again next year, but will try to avoid peak travel dates (for cost reasons).

It's a long aul' trip so you'd have to factor that in - also no easy alternative route like there is going IRL - FRA

I paid €203 for Rosslare to Bilbao for 19/05/2023 for a chair, no cabin