Buying a Casita 17 ft. SD very soon!

[Jo Agrafojo]

Hi everyone, I've been reading posts in the forum for the past couple of days and am so happy to have found such a great place for learning about and sharing info. about FG TT's! Hubby and I currently live in northern Spain, but will be spending more time back in the States in the near future. We have a tiny little Dethleffs TT (here called a "caravan") and have traveled all over Spain and along the southern coast of France with it. Our plan is to now buy a Casita 17 ft. Spirit Deluxe and do the same thing in the States. I am originally from the East Coast (USA) and there's so much of the country we haven't seen! So many beautiful places. We are former sailors and had much more fun with our small sailboat than we ever did with our big ketch - thus, we are keeping with the same philosophy --- a small TT is much more fun and better suited to our needs! Hope to be able to contribute to the forums. Nice to "meet" you all. Jo

[Robin G]

Welcome Jo! Glad you joined us! So your planning on a Casita for Spain and a Casita for the States? Have you seen American molded glass in Spain, such as Casitas?

We have several members from other area's of the world. Love reading of their experiences....... So how does camping/rv-ing in Spain differ from camping/rv-ing in the States?

[Jo Agrafojo]

Hi Robin, Thanks for the great welcome! Sorry if I wasn't completely clear. We have a small Dethleffs (brand) TT in Spain. Dethleffs travel trailers are made in Germany. We are able to pull it with a 4-cylinder Citroen Xsara Picasso (diesel). We'll be coming back over to the States in November, at which time we plan to drive to Texas to pick up a new 17 ft. SD Casita. Can't wait! We're really excited!

In answer to your questions, we haven't seen any small American molded glass TT's here in Spain. There is small TT made in Holland (called Eriba Touring) that is very similar in looks to the small fiberglass campers in the States. TT's and mobile homes are much, much, much smaller than in the States. Whenever we see a BIG American RV here, we wonder how the owners are going to get around in it. Everything is SO much smaller and tighter here - old towns and cities with narrow streets, small campsites, etc.!!

We first got interested in the Casita's when we saw one a while back at the annual Florida Folk Music Festival in northern Florida. The owners were camped near us (we were tent campers back then) and were nice enough to invite us inside to see it. We've been looking at them and reading about them online and have decided it will be perfect for us.

As I said before, RV's are much smaller here and, likewise, the campsites are much smaller. I have never seen any "pull-thru" campsites here. Campsites are too small to include picnic tables, so everyone brings their own. Most everyone has a screen room on their TT and people have tables, chairs and all kind of things in their screen rooms. I do all of our cooking outside in the screenroom. Some people even have another second small screenroom just to do their cooking in. Another thing I've noted is that campgrounds here all have big rooms full of kitchen sinks and laundry sinks where everyone washes their dishes (hardly any campsites have their own water).

We have been spending 2 months a year in our TT (one month in the Spring and another in the Fall). In summer, the campgrounds are packed and the prices triple. When we camp here in Spain --- most campers are Dutch (80%); German (10%) and English, Belgian, French and Spanish (the rest).

If you have any further questions regarding camping in Europe - please ask!!! I'll be happy to answer them as best I can.

[Robin G]

Sorry, I mis-understood about 2 Casita's. I was wondering why you would get rid of your lil spain travel trailer.



Since you like small travel trailers, you should love a new Casita!

Love your Spain camping experiences! Thanks for sharing! Unfortunately we don't see a lot of european travel trailers here. I wished, cause they are so darn cute! Again, glad you joined us! Congrat's on your future purchase!

[theresa p]

welcome, jo! your future touring trip sounds wonderful.....i am certain you will love your new casita.
i am intrigued by your camping experiences in spain. we are considering a month in spain in the andalusian region, this spring. is the camping good?
would we be better off renting an apartment instead of camping considering the cost of campgrounds and gasoline>???

[Carol H]

Welcome Jo! Great to hear about all your experiences!!! Have no doubt that like Theresa some of us may me bugging you from time to time for advise as to the hows and where's..... I have always wanted to head over an explore Frances with a caravan..... one of these days I am going to do it!!!

[Jo Agrafojo]

Originally Posted by theresa p

welcome, jo! your future touring trip sounds wonderful.....i am certain you will love your new casita.
i am intrigued by your camping experiences in spain. we are considering a month in spain in the andalusian region, this spring. is the camping good?
would we be better off renting an apartment instead of camping considering the cost of campgrounds and gasoline>???

Hi Theresa! We did a trip a couple of years ago to the south of Spain (we live in the Northwest on the Atlantic Ocean) with our little caravan and had a wonderful time. We crossed over to Valencia, then Murcia on the southeast Mediterranean coast, and lastly, down by Malaga in Andalucia.

There are some very nice campgrounds in Andalucia and some of them are located right on the Mediterranean. An option that would probably be great for you (since you are only coming for a month) would be to rent a bungalow at one of the campgrounds. This would give you the opportunity to experience a European campground (I don't know of too many caravans (RV's) for rent here).

We use discount "Camping Cheques" (for camping with TT) off-season (July and August are the high season here) and camp for 15 Euros/per night, including electricity, showers (really nice facilities!), washer & dryers, a "kitchen" comprised of sinks for dishes and washing clothes, supermarkets, pools, jacuzzi's, entertainment at night on weekends, restaurants, etc., etc. There are some beautiful campgrounds with all of the amenities. Then there are also some more rustic ones for those who don't want all of that.

There are some similar discount coupons for renting bungalows at the campgrounds called "Holiday Cheques". You can get a substantial discount using these!

Even though fuel is twice as expenisve here - if you were to find a caravan (TT) to rent - I wouldn't worry too much about the cost of gas/diesel because Andalucia is not that big and the caravans tend to be small and can be towed with a 4-cylinder (low-gas consuming vehicle). The problem would be to find a rental car with a hitch, etc.

Renting an apartment is also very "do-able". Andalucia is an area where there are lots of options for tourists, as it is Europe's "Florida" and there are a lot of northern Europeans (especially lots of Brits!!!)

Hope this information helps you out.

[Jo Agrafojo]

Originally Posted by Carol H

Welcome Jo! Great to hear about all your experiences!!! Have no doubt that like Theresa some of us may me bugging you from time to time for advise as to the hows and where's..... I have always wanted to head over an explore Frances with a caravan..... one of these days I am going to do it!!!

Hi Carol! We traveled with our caravan all along the southern coast of France as far as Saint Tropez. We stayed in a couple of campgrounds right by the coast - one near Beziers and the other in Sanary-Sur-Mer. We really loved it. The little coastal towns are so beautiful and clean! The one thing though - is that France is much more expensive!!!! We used our camping cheques (see post to Theresa) and that helped a lot! It was a relaxing, beautiful vacation.

We are headed to Paris in a couple of weeks, but this time we are flying and not camping. Its a trip to celebrate my upcoming birthday (one of those un-fun landmark kind of birthdays ) and make it a little "better". We got a special all-included flight/hotel deal. We were supposed to take our caravan up to Paris a couple of years ago and meet my niece at a campgrounds outside of Paris (taking the convenient train into the city for sight-seeing), but my Mom got sick and we had to cancel the trip).

France has some lovely campgrounds, so I hope you follow-thru with your dream and do it!!!!