I’m just back from a three-week tour of Portugal, Spain, and (unexpectedly) France. I wanted to try out my theory that a combination of motorhome and scooter makes for an ideal way to explore mainland Europe just as it does in the UK. This blog is about the prep and the practicalities.

 

Given that I was travelling solo I converted the back seats into the bed and stowed the scooter underneath.

In terms of scooter accessories I took the combo lock as I didn’t risk the keylock in case I lost the keys (I’ve got form for doing that). The action camera , coat and gloves – which were needed when scooting in the north, and a hi-vis jacket which is a legal requirement for scooting in Spain.

Before leaving, I had a new 360-watt solar panel fitted to the camper roof, with a new battery and inverter. The high wattage provided enough charge to enable me to stay off grid for a couple of days and still keep the fridge running.

The inverter plugged into the cigarette style socket allowed me to recharge the scooter from the leisure battery whilst off grid.

 

The ferry trip to Santander proved uneventful, Brittany ferries do ask (just for information apparently) on the booking form if you are “travelling with an electric vehicle”, but I took this to mean your car.  There’s no extra cost packing a scooter in your vehicle, but of course, taking a vehicle by ferry rather than a flight is a lot more expensive, even before you add nearly 3000 miles worth of petrol and toll fees.

The map shows the route I took, the Algarve was the main destination, but I wanted to check out northern Spain too, so took my time travelling down…

The next blog will give the lowdown on how well the scooting went at the various destinations…