The Big Smoke

Big cities in the UK are rarely motorhome-friendly places. Carparks, park & rides, often have height barriers, require you to buy two tickets as you occupy two spaces, and can be difficult to get to because of busy city traffic and small roads.

All this doesn’t mean that motorhomers don’t want to visit these cities. In fact, from conversations on facebook forums, it’s clear that people often look for places to stay to visit cities, and sites with good public transport links are very popular suggestions.

We visited London this week for our wedding anniversary, and we had a great time! We saw Les Miserables and Aladdin in the West End, we had cake and hot drinks to warm up in one of London’s opulent, glamourous cafes while a snow blizzard raged outside, and we ate a delicious meal in China Town.

We were able to see two shows as we recently learned that some theatres have ‘day tickets’ available at the theatre’s own box office. This means they sell unsold tickets for that day’s shows for about £20 each. They might be single seats, so you are not seated together but this isn’s necessarily the case. We had great tickets for Aladdin, bought on the day at the theatre itself. We sat next to a couple who had paid £75 each for their tickets. So if you’re flexible about what you want to see, and happy to take a bit of a risk, you can get a great deal on the theatre in the West End.

If the show you’d like to see doesn’t do day tickets, like Les Miserables, the theatre box office will often still have tickets, or you can try the ticket booths around Leicester Square for a good deal.

So where to stay? Well, a simple google search for campsites in London will reveal a good selection of sites, including Camping & Caravanning Club (C&CC) sites and Caravan & Motorhome Club (CMC) sites. We have stayed at Horsley C&CC and Chertsey C&CC sites before, and found both to be very good sites, nicely situated with good transport links into central London and with plenty of walks and countryside so you don’t feel like you’re in a city completely.

So London, at least, is one big city you can quite easily visit with your motorhome or campervan.