Skip to content

Motorhome travel in hot weather

  • by
Staying cool in Provence
Staying cool in Provence

Next week we will be leaving for the Western Motorhome show in Malvern and are hoping that the weather will be warm and sunny so that visitor attendance is high. We also hope that the weather is good for our last two summer tours for this season that take us to the “Breathtaking Black Forest” and then to the “Impressive Italian Lakes and Cities”. If you are not one of the lucky ones that were able to secure a place on these two fully booked tours for this year, you can look if the dates for 2020 suit your time schedule.

According to data from the European Copernicus Climate Change Service, July 2019 was the warmest month ever recorded worldwide and we therefore thought it might be a good idea to talk about some ways of keeping your motorhome cool in this type of weather.

What is the best way to stay cool during hot weather? Of course the simple and obvious solution is to park your motorhome in the shade to avoid it heating up and if there is some wind it might be enough to keep your motorhome cool. What would also help is to cover your windscreen, windows and skylights with insulating aluminium covers, ideally installed on the outside.of the motorhome. You could also use a rescue blanket and cut it to the size of your skylights or windows, but do not forget to replace it if you take it out of your first aid kit ;).

These days most motorhomes have a wind out awning installed, which is a great help in keeping the sun away from one side of the motorhome. But unfortunately sometimes you have to park in a direction where the sun comes in from the sides or the front, especially when it is very low. For situations like these there are some really good sunprotectors that will attach to the side or the front of your awning keeping the sun out of the space underneath your awning. Of course, a very flexible solution is the good old sun umbrella, which can be moved to any position around the motorhome or can also accompany you when on the beach.

Air conditioning is the best way to get the temperature down in a motorhome but it is often very expensive and unfortunately uses a lot of energy and can normally only be used on campsites with sufficient amperage. As many campsites in Europe only have 6 AMP it might not be of too much help. There are also many other points to take into consideration. For example, you are adding 25-30kg of additional weight to your motorhome and if you go for a roof mounted version, which has the advantage that the cold air will sink, you will move the center of gravity of the moho up and add additional height to your vehicle. As they are normally installed where there is usually a skylight you are also losing light inside the motorhome. If you are thinking of buying a new motorhome and have enough storage space, we think the best solution is to go for a built in air conditioning sytem which will then distribute the cool air via specific cooling tubes to different areas of the motorhome.

Another possibility are cooling fans, for example, in the kitchen and/or the bathroom. Once the temperature has dropped in the evening, the windows in the motorhome should be opened, the cooling fans turned on and as a result the hot air will be sucked out and replaced with the cooler evening air. As they are also often equipped with a temperature sensor they can be left on at night and will turn off once the temperature has dropped to the desired level. For a cooler feeling you can also use a little trick by putting a wet towel or cloth over the vent (or a portable ventilator). Blowing the air in the direction of the towel will also have an “air-conditioning” effect using the evaporative cooling power of water. This effect can be improved if you have a recipient with ice cubes directly in front of the ventilator. This trick however will not work, if the air is very humid, for example before a thunderstorm.

But soon it will be time to think about the colder weather. If you have not yet planned a winter break, come and join us on our “Europe’s Best Christmas Markets” tour. This tour takes place from Thursday 5th December to Saturday 14th December and gives you the chance to see the most beautiful Christmas Markets in Belgium, Holland, Germany and France and to buy those last minute gifts and decorations. The tour will not be available in 2020, so if you have been thinking about joining the tour in previous years, don’t miss your chance now. We have also uploaded on our website the tour impressions slide show from our 2018 Christmas Markets tour.

If you would like to get a feeling for any of our past tours, you can visit our Facebook page where we have uploaded lots of photographs.

If you are interested in a specific tour for 2020 download the PDF of the Overview Tour Dates and Prices, or any of our tour flyers:

Touring Season 2020, Overview Tour Dates & Prices

Tour Flyers:
Europe’s Best Christmas Markets
Exciting Eastern Germany
Germany’s Romantic Road
Impressive Italian Lakes & Cities
Spectacular Spanish Northern Coast
Majestic Rhine & Moselle Rivers
Breathtaking Black Forest
Delightful Danube
Captivating Croatia

If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact us directly, we are always happy to answer your questions. 

Safe travels!

Audrey & Michael