0044 7481 479 057
Dear Fellow Motorhomer,
Despite the weather changing in the UK as the seasons move into autumn, there remains good motorhome touring available in more southern areas. Our Sicily tour continues and this year’s Portugal and Spain Discovery tour is just getting underway, with participants having this week arrived in northern Spain for the start.
Picos de Europa – Portugal and Spain Discovery tour – October 2025
In Sicily the tour has now moved into its final week.
Sicily tour – September 2025
As well as enjoying ideal touring conditions at this time of year when travelling in southern climates, it is also lovely to see flowers thriving and in bloom at completely different seasons to those experienced in the UK. The best example of this is during our Canary Islands tour; enjoying an eternal spring climate with coastal temperature remaining upwards of 20 degrees all year round, UK summer flowers can be seen with an abundance of colour throughout the tour, spanning January to April.
Touring in the Canary Islands during February
If you would like to experience great weather for touring during the winter whilst also enjoying flowers in full bloom, there currently remains availability on next years Canary Islands tour, starting in southern Spain on 26th January 2026, or from the UK on 20th January if choosing to travel from the UK with the Tour Directors on the optional package. For full details of the tour and optional package, click Canary Islands 2026 tour itinerary.
During September, four GB Motorhome Tours were completed; spanning from Scotland in the North to Croatia in the South, along with Germany and Switzerland in-between. A customer review from each of these tours follows, with further reviews from these and all our tours on the GBMT website at www.gbmotorhometours.com/reviews.
‘Scotland is a wonderful country full of spectacular scenery, breathtaking views and welcoming people. There’s so much to see, walking to enjoy, nature and history side by side – marvellous. Our Tour Guides Michael and Sarita made sure we all had a lovely time, they were always on hand to speak to, arranged everything perfectly, we really appreciated all their efforts. It’s been FAB, thank you.’ Bill and Gell Knight – Scotland Highlands and Royal Deeside – September 2025
‘The Croatian Highlights was our first GB Motorhome tour and hugely surpassed our expectations. Ron and Sue are extremely friendly and knowledgeable about the trips they run and went out of their way to help their group. A truly amazing holiday which we will always remember. Thank you Sue and Ron for making this tour so memorable.’ Tracey and Charlie Searle – Croatian Highlights – August/September 2025
‘This is our first tour with GB & definitely won’t be our last; we’ve already booked another two! It’s been a fantastic way to explore some beautiful parts of Germany & Jenny and Brian have been excellent tour leaders; knowledgeable, kind, caring, fun but always professional. Chris and Sara Mead – Moselle, Lahn and Rhine – September 2025
‘Mountains, Glaciers, Lakes, Cable Cars, this tour has it all. Add in group meals and amazing excursions all with great camaraderie and excellent tour leaders we had a wonderful time.’ Chris and Bridget Neighbour – Swiss Magic – September 2025
Before the end of this year, there is our Christmas themed tour still available. Enjoy the build up to the festive season on the Amsterdam at Christmastime tour, starting 6th December 2025. Also available to bring in the New Year, celebrate in style the arrival of 2026 on the Scottish Hogmanay tour, starting 31st December 2025. Both tours are available for booking with a few places remaining.
For next year, two further tours have recently been added to the 2026 tour programme, both of which currently have availability. These are
• June/July – Rhine in Flames 11 nights – Follow the river Rhine through beautiful wine growing scenery. Explore picturesque Germany towns along the way, to finish up with the spectacular Rhine in Flames evening cruise with dinner, wine and fireworks upon the river.
• September – Austrian Alps 16 nights – Enjoy breath taking scenery as we travel through the very best of the Austrian Alps, including driving the stunning Grossglockner High Alpine road.
Also keep an eye on the GB Motorhome Tours website where it is planned one further tour for next year will be added soon. This will be the Romantic Road to Octoberfest tour, covering mid-September to early October. If you would like to pre-register your potential interest in this all new tour, send us a simple email and this will be done for you. The full tour itinerary will then be emailed to you in advance of it being made generally available, giving you first opportunity of requesting a tour place if you wish.
For travel into Europe going forward, it is now looking likely the long anticipated EU electronic entry-exit (EES) system will start partial operation this week. Having been delayed many times over recent years, the start date is now set for 12th October 2025. For motorhome travel into Europe, you may not notice any difference for several more months. Each EU country has 6 months to fully implement the new system. Spain have announced they will start implementing it at a few of its airports, then roll out over the following months to all airports, then to its land borders and finally to its sea ports. So arriving in Spain by motorhome on the Portsmouth to Santander/Bilbao ferries is unlikely to see any change for many more months. Where the system is in operation, it will do away with the need to have stamps in passports when entering/exiting the Schengen zone, future monitoring will be done electronically. To facilitate this, personal bio-metric data (finger prints and facial recognition) will be stored and linked to passports by the system. This information will be gathered at the first point of entry into the Schengen zone where the system is in operation. For leaving the UK from the port of Dover, this will be at the port itself, as the French border control is located there rather than in France. In relation to EES, there is nothing that requires completing in advance of travelling, UK citizens should continue to travel as now, with just their passports required for entry to the Schengen zone countries. This will change at a later stage when the next phase of the system is introduced. This will require the completion & purchase of a visa, which will be known as The European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS). For now however, this is not in place and there is no definite start date for it, so until then, nothing needs to be done before departure for UK citizens to enter the Schengen zone. We will keep you updated on this as details becomes available. Information can also be read on https://etias.com/what-is-etias/etias-key-facts. If you are unsure about how the new procedures will work or wish us to check your 90 out of 180 days entitlement, feel free to contact us and we will answer any questions and make a calculation for you.
GB Motorhome Tours operates 12 months of the year, with tours taking place all year round and we can be contacted anytime throughout the year. If there is something you wish to ask feel free to contact us, we are always happy to assist. Don’t hibernate your motorhome over the winter, keep enjoying your touring on a GB Motorhomes tour; just because it is winter don’t stop travelling and having fun.
Kindest regards,
Tel. 0044 7481 479 057
Info@gbmotorhometours.com
www.GBMotorhomeTours.com