Motorhomes are all about possibilities. There is the possibility to go anywhere and to have any type of holiday.
There is also the possibility to take anything, pack whatever you want. You can travel light or you can take every possible home luxury.
What should you take, though? What are the essentials, what are the items worth considering and what might be a left-field choice that actually serves to make your motorhome trip or holiday that bit better?
Let’s get started – you’re thinking about your next motorhome trip, what gets packed?
What type of person are you / what type of trip?
Everyone and every holiday is different, what might be the perfect list of items to pack for one scenario might be terrible at other times. Problems would arise if the lists for a couple going on a ski trip versus a family of four heading to the south of France for summer sun were accidentally swapped.
Travelling light? There’s no need – you have a motorhome
When thinking about what to pack you need to be realistic.
Can you live without your electronic devices or do they need to come?
You’re thinking about taking the mountain bikes or the blow up dinghy – great, but will you actually use them or will they simply stay unused, filling space for a week?
How much washing are you actually going to do? Do you like to have a tonne of clothes and then worry about washing when you get home or are you efficient enough to do regular washes during the holiday, meaning you can pack far fewer clothes.
What about food? Are you planning on eating out lots or will you be cooking family meals from scratch every night. We love doing that, motorhomes have a great kitchen so why not use them, however, again, the more you intend using the kitchen, the greater number of utensils you might need.
The big point here is that you need to visualise what you think your holiday will be like, what will be the vibe when you’re just relaxing in or around the motorhome, will you be happy with a good book and glass of wine, or will you be itching to get people to play cricket?
If you’re going to be trekking or surfing or any other activity from which you’ll need to clean up, what will you need back at the motorhome? You’re arriving back cold, wet (and full of great memories), what would it be very annoying to suddenly realise you haven’t packed?
The best tip – start early
When planning what to pack for a motorhome trip, always start early. If you leave it to the day before you will forget something, that is guaranteed. The best you can hope is that what you forget is something easily replaced or managed without – batteries perhaps – rather than skis ahead of your winter holiday.
Starting early enables you to break the packing into chunks – you can sort entertainment one day, kitchen necessities another, the bathroom and cleaning another. You get the idea.
Starting early also gets the brain thinking about packing and the holiday, the process of starting to pack will make you remember or think of other things you need, sometimes things that need to be bought.
You might be packing swim stuff and realise that you can’t find the snorkle you’re sure you bought two years back in that little shop on the coast… That said, packing snorkles is getting into the realms of things you can probably live without!
Break it down by person
Starting early – our number one tip – also allows you to then do a second sweep. This might all sound like overkill, but it is better to spend a bit more time packing and thinking about what to take than to later on regret those things you forgot.
You’ve started early, you’ve maybe gone virtual room by room or scenario by scenario and got the bulk either packed, or at least listed.
What you can now do is think about the people going. If you’re a family, think about every member and what they will want and any additional needs that creates. If you’re taking your daughter’s tablet make sure the charger is packed.
This sweep also throws up wider wins, think how your partner can’t live without their coffee, well what about your hot chocolate? Better add that for those cold evenings.
So, what gets packed?!
What we haven’t done so far is list actual things, we haven’t once said ‘pack this for your motorhome holiday’.
That’s kind of the point. The great thing with a motorhome is that it allows you to have any type of holiday – you can have luxury, you can have adventure, you can travel with next to nothing. It really is up to you.
If you follow someone else’s list, it won’t be right for you. Rather than think about things, think about people, and rooms and situations and what you think you’ll be doing on holiday. Also think about the weather, you might be going on a summer holiday, but what if the skies remain grey, what are those things that you hope won’t be needed, but will be great if the weather is poor?
One final tip
Talk to people. Do you know other motorhome owners? What would their one piece of advice be, what do they think is always worth packing.
The motorhome community is knowledgeable and friendly, there is a lot of experience to be tapped into.
There is also your own experience, if you go on a trip and realise halfway through that there’s something you really should have packed, make a note of it, keep that note in your motorhome, look at that note before your next trip.
When thinking about what to pack, don’t follow someone else’s list, that is what works for them. Think about yourself, your holiday, your lifestyle.
ABout Emm-Bee Motorhomes
Emm-Bee is a leading UK family-run motorhome dealership based in Bury, Greater Manchester.
As well as stocking the latest models from leading makes such as Burstner, Chausson, Bailey and Laika, we also have an unrivalled stock of used motorhomes for sale.
We pride ourselves on customer satisfaction and offering unmatched levels of service – we have been in business for 25 years and have flourished on word-of-mouth recommendations.
Please have a look round the site to check our range of used motorhomes and do get in touch with any queries, or just to pick our brains.
