Self drive holidays and breaks in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria & more... 

Selectcamp specialise in luxury mobile home and camping holidays in France, Spain, Croatia, Italy, Sardinia and Holland. This is the only company we know of who offer tents with both kitchens and bathrooms - that is luxury camping!

Canvas Holidays for quality family self drive or fly/drive camping holidays and mobile home holidays. Canvas have handpicked the finest sites in France, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Germany and Holland. Canvas Holidays provides self-catering accommodation to suit all budgets, offering flexibility on dates, duration and travel arrangements...

Camping & Mobile Home Holidays with Leisure Direction in Austria, Croatia, France, Holland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain & Switzerland

A note from the Editor about self drive holidays

We have had some fantastic self drive holidays over the years here in the UK, some in Spain, the Black Forest area of Germany, but most of them have been spent in France because after the ferry trip you're virtually there - all that remains is to drive to your chosen holiday destination.

Some of our self drive holidays have been a little nearer home though, and we would like you to take a look at this website  for Last minute holidays Devon. We have stayed in St Anns Cottage several times. The boiler has been replaced earlier in the year, so the cottage was delightfully cosy and warm, even though the temperatures outside were really cold. 

All this means that over the years we have been able to amass lots ofcommon sense tips for having a good holiday. We never fly/drive and always take our own car because you can take so much more with you - that's what cars are for isn't it?                  

Now you either plan your self drive holidays or you don't, but personally I'm a planner, and have derived countless hours of pleasure going over the routes with our kids when they were younger, explaining to then what we should see on the journey and how long it would take. On the other hand, I know of several couples who get off the ferry and toss a coin to decide which direction they take. They all seem to enjoy themselves with most drivers seeming to fall in between the two, and by that I mean they at least take a map with them!

We have a page about European driving laws which you may wish to take a look at. There is a link through to the AA and also a few snippets of ours regarding essential equipment you need to carry in your car these days. Yes, things are a changing and the French road police are becoming less and less lenient (as if they ever were), so anyone embarking on self drive holidays now needs to have a checklist of things to take with you in the car - and by that I mean things to take with you which are immediately available to the driver without him/her getting out of the car. The latest in this list is of course the high visability vest/jacket (they are cheap so take one each) which the driver must be able to don in the car if so requested by the French Flics who love to dole out the mandatory 90 Euro on the spot fines for non compliance.

All this sounds rather grim but you have to remember with self drive hols that you are in charge, that you are the driver and possibly the navigator too. You are responsible for your holiday rather than an airline or a package holiday courier so it makes sense that if you do a little bit of planning and forward thinking, get your car serviced and up to scratch. Do that and you will have a seriously good holiday!