your domestic drivers license

The minimum age limit for the motorhome and campervan rentals presented by IdeaMerge depends on the vendor. (Many vendors require that drivers have posssesed a valid domestic drivers license for at least a year prior to the rental.) In some cases there is a maximum age limit. See the relevant Payments & Policies page.

Drivers must of course possess their valid domestic drivers license, valid especially relative to the rated ("total permissible") weight of the rental vehicle. Most domestic drivers licenses suffice for operation of the vehicles presented on the IdeaMerge Website. Relative to some vehicle and rental country combinations, however, our online software will rather precisely note to the user that this sufficiency is less common (most notably relative to vehicles rated over 3500 kg rented in the European Union). To research the limits associated with your drivers license, please check the back of your license and visit the Website of the governmental agency that issued your license. You can also see the following Wikipedia articles: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver's_license and, say, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_Driving_Licence_codes.

international driving permit

Many countries require of you, the foreign driver, no license apart from your domestic drivers license. However, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzogovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Ukraine, and Vatican City do, by law at least, require non-Europeans to carry an International Driving Permit (IDP) along with their domestic license. (See the country listings posted on the New Zealand Automobile Association's Website. EU residents should reference the relevant page on Britain's Automobile Association Website.) Basically an IDP is a means by which police in a foreign country can know — in terms of translations in nearly a dozen different languages — that your domestic driver's license is indeed recognized as being valid by the proper authorities in your country. (See the excellent article at Drivers.com.)

The local office of your auto club (AAA, CAA, etc.) sells IDPs for about US$10. If you need an IDP, take your license, two passport-sized photos and the requisite cash to the club office. (Though for about US$6 the club may snap Polaroid photos for you.) Ten minutes later you'll be able to legally drive on any European road—assuming you're at least 18 years of age. If you plan to operate a motorcycle in Europe, be sure to have the auto club certify your qualification to do so. The USA's AAA now has a Webpage whereby drivers licensed in the USA can obtain an IDP: AAA's application for IDP. Web searches will bring up a host of Websites selling documents that conform to the model delineated in annex 10 of the United Nations Convention on Road Traffic (1949); but according to Article 24 of that convention, a truly valid IDP is one which is "issued .. by the competent authority of another Contracting State or subdivision thereof, or by an association duly empowered by such authority ...." The US State Department says it has empowered only the American Automobile Association (AAA) and the American Automobile Touring Alliance (AATA) to issue IDPs. (The AATA offers IDPs through the National Automobile Club.)

portable GPS navigation solutions

Which if any portable GPS navigation offer on the market is best for you?

See IdeaMerge's analysis of portable GPS navigation solutions.

maps

Good printed road maps are not provided with your rental motorhome or camper van. We recommend that you invest in a top quality map or maps, or a very good atlas. You can buy your map(s) domestically, from the likes of Amazon.com, or once abroad from a bookstore (present in most airports) or service station. Everyone wants a free map, but in addition to death and taxes at least one further fact will always be generally true: free maps are not good maps. And no matter what map you get, remember the words of Thomas Ottavi: "There are lies, damned lies, and then there are maps."

books

travel insurance

cell phones

Many cell phones (i.e., mobile phones, handies) now work overseas. Check with your service provider in this regard. Otherwise, consider the following rental vendors:

motorhome propane, water, waste, electrics, etc

satellite tv and the tour de france

online driving directions & route planners

fuel

BEWARE: A diesel fuel pump nozzle (for cars and motorhomes) is considerably wider than either a leaded gasoline pump nozzle or the even smaller unleaded gasoline pump nozzle and indeed will not fit into either such tank. Consequently a gasoline nozzle will fit into a diesel tank. Therefore, be careful not to put gasoline into a diesel tank!!! Even a liter of gasoline added to the tank of a modern diesel campervan or motorhome can cause irreversible damage to the injection pump and other components due to its relatively low lubricity. (Diesel in a gasoline engine — while creating large amounts of smoke — does not normally cause permanent damage if it is drained once the mistake is realized. Similarly, older diesels using completely mechanical injection can tolerate some gasoline, which has historically been used to "thin" diesel fuel in winter.) A green pump holds unleaded gasoline or else diesel, a blue leaded gasoline. Diesel pumps are sometimes colored black, sometimes green. Diesel pumps are chiefly signified linguistically, either with the very word diesel or with one of the equivalents: gas-oil, gaz-oil, gasolio, gasóleo, dieselolie, mazot, motorina, or nafta.

automotive conversions

camping

especially relevant campgrounds

miscellaneous resources

The best place to begin further researching your journey may be our Moto Europa Website at www.ideamerge.com/motoeuropa. The Moto Europa site is a full and free online guide and Web portal devoted to the topic of European motor travel.

Some highlights from that Moto Europa Website include the following:

And some very useful links include:

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