Driving in Europe
- Consider a pre-trip service for your car to minimise the risk of an annoying and inconvenient breakdown abroad. Check the condition of the tyres, including the spare, and consider replacing them before the trip if the tread is down to 3mm or less.
- Make sure you are covered by breakdown assistance cover. It’s not a legal requirement, but is common sense. Comprehensive Europe-wide breakdown cover is available from Saga Breakdown Assistance.
- If your car has a satellite navigation system, check whether it has mapping for outside Britain. If it doesn’t, it is probably worth investing in the appropriate additional CDs or computer software before you go.
- If you don’t have satellite navigation, consider hiring a system – it makes navigating abroad a lot less stressful. Alternatively, check out some of the excellent route-planning sites on the Internet that let you pre-plan a door-to-door route across Europe, and print it out to take with you. Pack up-to-date maps too, just in case you need them.
Take the right documentation
- Anyone driving abroad must carry their driving licence. If it is a photocard licence, you will need to take its paper counterpart with you as well.
- Insurance green cards are no longer necessary for EU countries, but may be required for some non-EU countries – check which ones on the Association of British Insurers website at www.abi.org.uk. Your UK motor insurance policy gives you legal cover to drive in other EU countries. However, it only ensures third party cover, and even with a comprehensive policy some insurers may not cover accidental damage that occurs abroad. (If you have a Saga Motor Insurance Comprehensive policy EU-wide accidental damage cover is included, and can be extended to many non-EU countries.)
- Take your insurance certificate and the vehicle registration document (V5), or good copies. If it is a company car, or a leased or borrowed one, you also need a letter of authorisation from the owner stating that you have their permission to take it out of the country.
Your driving checklist
- Driving licence
- Insurance certificate
- Vehicle registration document (V5)
- GB identification
- Headlamp beam converters
- First aid kit
- Warning triangle
- High visibility reflective jacket
- Spare set of bulbs
Tips for touring with a caravan or motorhome
- Stow everything as low down as possible and distribute the weight evenly. Carry heavy items in the car or over the caravan axle, ensuring they are well secured.
- Beware of overloading. Check the car’s maximum towing weight (including passengers and luggage) in the handbook. The laden caravan’s weight should not exceed 85% of the car’s weight.
- Consult the car handbook for the correct ‘nose weight’ of the caravan (normally from 50kg to 75kg). Check it by placing bathroom scales, with a flat piece of wood on them (to spread the load and prevent damaging the scales) under the caravan’s towing bracket. If the nose weight is too high, shift or remove items stowed in the caravan until it is right.
- Minimise the risk of a puncture by rigorously checking tyre condition and pressure (see the vehicle’s handbook).
- Fit extensions to the car’s external mirrors to see safely down the sides of the caravan. Several countries, including Germany, Spain and Italy, require them even if you can see adequately without.
- To avoid problems with height barriers and width restrictions, attach a note to your dashboard listing your vehicle’s total height, length and width in metric measurements.
- Make sure you have adequate and effective insurance cover.
How Saga can help
Saga Caravan Insurance and Saga Motorhome Insurance offer special policies that allow you to include year-round cover for travelling in the EU. Motorhome breakdown cover is also available.