Lake Garda 2012

[blued]

Hi all,

I haven't been on the forum for ages, we were away for a while in sunny Australia where we did an embarassingly small amount of boating!! Anyway we're thinking about a Lake Garda trip this year and have been trying to get prices from the campsite Le Palme in Lazise. However 5 or 6 emails have exchanged and I still don't have a price because they either have no vacancy for my dates or keep asking the same questions! Are there any other campsites to consider that a forum member may have visited?

I have my ICC, boat insurance and will register on the small ships register. Is there anything else boat related I need? Something I have noticed is that you need to prove VAT has been paid on the boat - how can I do this on a boat I bought second hand? It is nearly 20 years old now!!

[jokaboat]

We stayed here

http://www.eurocamp.co.uk/sites/italy-l ... garda.html

Which is close to the main town and the marina.

They also accommodate trailers for boats that have been towed down.

[blued]

Thanks joka, they are coming out quite expensive at the time we want to go and the accomodation seems to be better suited to a family (double bed, plus bunks). There will be 4 adults in our party, 2 couples.

Here's another couple I've sent price enquiries to. Zocco has reasonably priced apartments.

http://www.campingbergamini.it/struttura.php?lang=en
http://www.campingzocco.it/en/

[Capn Jack]

Where in Australia blued?

[blued]

We based ourselves in Sydney and worked there for while, then we spent a month before we came home travelling up the east coast as far as Cairns to do what we didn't have time for in 2010. Highlights were Rainbow Beach, Fraser Island, The Whitsundays and The Great Barrier Reef where we did a scuba dive and lots of snorkelling. I'm seriously considering applying for a visa so we can go back again for a few years, we stayed on the Sydney's Northern Beaches and I can't think of many better places to live!

Is it normally the west coast that you visit Capn? We were looking at some photos a friend took on their trip along the west coast and it is somewhere we'd visit if we found ourselves back over there. We did consider flying into Perth this time round but there didn't seem to be many IT jobs.

[Centaur]

I'm not sure about when the VAT rules came into force but, if your boat is 20 years old, it may be outside the scope of the regulations.

An original VAT receipt is the obvious answer but nobody realistically expects that to be available so far down the line. However, as I understood the rules, a purchase receipt from a non-VAT registered EU citizen was adequate for a used boat - the theory being that individual EU citizens can no longer avoid VAT on purchase so, if buying from the genuine owner, the VAT must have been paid. This has supposedly sufficed for UK VAT officials but I would be wary if going abroad nevertheless!

There is another alternative, although it's a bit dodgy! Simply fabricate a VAT receipt on some company's headed notepaper - either for the original sale or for a subsequent owner. This is somewhat fraudulent though, so I would absolutely not suggest that you adopt this strategy...

[blued]

I don't even have a purchase receipt for the boat, I rarely think to ask for one when buying a car either. I think I still have the number for the guy I bought it off so I could maybe get in touch with him and ask him to knock something up.

Is there anything else boat related that I need?

I'll need to work out a good place to stop half way, I'm guessing those that have been wouldn't have started their journey as far north as me!

[jokaboat]

We stopped just outside of Strasbourg as it was about half way but with hindsight we should have made the most of the French roads which are good quality and quiet.

The journey through France is a doddle if you take a few short stops. It gets harder in Switzerland as the roads are narrower, more winding and you have the tunnel which inevitably with be the cause of a long queue, we queued fro about 3 hours . You also want to be fresh when you hit the Italian roads! Before you leave Switzerland there is a huge service area which is good for a break.

Will you be taking the Tunnel or will you grab an overnight ferry from Portsmouth? That's a good way of getting some rest.

[blued]

I think Strasbourg would be about 6 hours too far for us!! Was it easy enough to find a stopover that could accommodate the boat?

Are the Italian roads similar to those in Switzerland? They sound great if we weren't going to be towing a boat!

So far I have only priced the tunnel but will price the ferry as well. We were originally looking at taking the Rosyth to Zeebrugge ferry but it no longer operates a passenger service. I've got some prices from the campsite now so hopefully we can get something booked and then do some serious work on planning the journey.

[betty boop]

We stopped just outside of Strasbourg as it was about half way but with hindsight we should have made the most of the French roads which are good quality and quiet.

The journey through France is a doddle if you take a few short stops. It gets harder in Switzerland as the roads are narrower, more winding and you have the tunnel which inevitably with be the cause of a long queue, we queued fro about 3 hours . You also want to be fresh when you hit the Italian roads! Before you leave Switzerland there is a huge service area which is good for a break.

Will you be taking the Tunnel or will you grab an overnight ferry from Portsmouth? That's a good way of getting some rest.

not sure if u can get a boat on the seacat from pompey/cherborg but I got mine last week on special for 1/2 price in august,

no boat though 2 weeks in St Nasarre - was thinking about a blow up n out board but would have to borrow one/rent one.

[blued]

Portsmouth > Caen return for 4 adults and car with caravan (no option for boat) would be £788

It's a shame because it is pretty much the half way point for us so would have saved having to arrange accommodation for the night.

The Seacat is from £123 - 140 Dover - Calais return so that could be worth a look. I can't seem to get a price for Portsmouth - Cherbourg online, it says to call. I'll try to call over the weekend.

There seems to be a fair amount of inland water around St Nasarre (Saint Nazaire?) so it could be a good recce mission!

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

[blued]

Does anyone have any suggestions for European breakdown cover that would get the car/boat and us home if it was necessary? Do any fly you home? Having been recovered by the AA from Alton Towers to Inverness at max 55mph by 3 different drivers (4 hrs max each) I would gladly pay the extra for a hire car to be included or cover for flights! I had hire car cover on the AA but only had one part of my drivers license with me

[Centaur]

If you take out breakdown cover, read the small print very, very, very carefully.

I was in central France with the boat last summer and the car suffered a breakdown - not total failure but it went into a 'limp-home' mode. It was towed away and I was given a hire car - so far so good. However, I was later advised (over a week later) that the part was on back order and wouldn't be available until at least September. I would therefore either have to go home with the car on a flat-bed lorry or take the hire car home and come back when the car was fixed! Then they hit me with the really bad news - the boat/trailer was too long to be covered under the breakdown recovery insurance. They could not / would not provide a hire car with a towbar, so the boat would have to remain in France until they could get around to fixing my car. Worse still, if I took the hire car home, I could not take it into the UK but would have to stop at a ferry port (I was booked on Eurotunnel), go across as a foot passenger (presumably with all my suitcases and heaps of boating gear...) and then collect another hire car at the UK ferry port. Furthermore, the car was only to be provided to get me home and would not be available whilst my car was off the road. Goodness knows what would become of the boat after it had been abandoned in France for a couple of months.

Fortunately, I managed to obtain the part number for the unobtainium part and sourced it from my local dealer at home. They posted it to the French dealer, who fitted it and got me mobile the day before I was due to leave - they had had the car from the day after I arrived on a two week holiday...

The moral of the story - be very careful about restrictions over the length, width, height and/or weight of your boat / trailer combination when you arrange insurance and ask what they will do about getting you home in the event of the breakdown of the towing vehicle.

Have a nice trip!

[petevolvo]

Hi. I picked my 'new' boat up from France a couple of weeks ago. DFDS £100 return boat and motorhome but Dover - Dunkirk. Was worried about the VAT (although I did manage to get a copy of original invoice) but, as usual, UK customs where nowhere to be seen
I'm pretty sure there's a gulf between what you're supposed to do/have and what you actually need in reality. Have a great trip!

[Gazjen]

what about Newhaven to Dieppe? we use this crossing when going to lemans fairly cheap too

http://www.transmanche.ferries.org/