Top 6 cities in Europe to visit in a motorhome

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I will start with specifying that we were advised to park outside the actual cities as it is generally speaking safer and we could just take public transport to get anywhere we needed to. And without further ado, here are some of my favorite cities that we have been to:

Ljubljana, Slovenia

We parked along the river Ljubljanca, at around 30 min walk distance to the city center. A beautiful walk along the river with many nice restaurants. The actual center is for pedestrians and cyclists only. Their recycling system is very efficient. They have electric cars transporting people for free. They have milk machines where you can bring your own bottle and buy unpasteurized, fresh milk. No, there is no cow inside the machine (that was the guide’s joke). They encourage people to drink tap water for its amazing quality and they have plenty of spots around the city we’re you can refill your bottle (for free). They have a lot of green spaces. A lot of alternative energy. In fact, they produce solar panels and trying to make them more efficient (at the moment they are only about 20% efficient). No wonder why they were voted the greenest capital in Europe in 2016!

They have amazing wine, but they don’t export too much of it, because they prefer to drink it themselves. Fair enough. Especially for a population of only 2 million people (Slovenia, not Ljubljana).

We went on a free guided tour and we have been to quite a few different similar guided tours in other cities, but honestly we have never seen so many people. We are usually one group. In Ljubljana we were nearly 200 people waiting to be divided in different groups for a guided tour of the city. Plenty of interesting and funny facts. One of them is the unofficial slogan: come to Slovenia, we will make a president out of you, or at least first lady (Melania Trump is from Slovenia).

When you’re there, try their traditional cake called Prekmurska gibanica.

Vienna, Austria

Elegant cafes, beautiful buildings, opera could describe Vienna. But did you know that Vienna is oscilating between first and second place for the City With Highest Quality of Life in the world for many years now (and see here why).

Coffee is indeed a culture there and you must know the type of coffee that you want to order before you go inside a cafe, as there are so many types that you never heard of. Although, being a touristic city, it has been adapted and you can find menus with exact explanations and translations into English. You can just buy a coffee and stay there for hours, reading, chatting and nobody will show you the way out. That’s where great masters of the art world would spend time to exchange ideas.

Vienna is the place where Mozart’s career flourished and also the place where a potential career for Hitler was dissolved as he was rejected twice by the Art Academy.

Talking about Art Academy, Vienna’s education system is considered to be as one of the best.

There are a lot of museums to visit and of course the famous opera house. Apparently, a lot of elegantly dressed ladies love to have hot dog and champagne after going to the opera.

We had a lovely brunch at the Ansari Cafe, went for a guided tour and of course, had to go for coffee and cake and tried the famous Viennese chocolate cake.

Dresden, Germany

In Dresden, I had the biggest brunch ever! It was a cafe with an industrial modern look, we had to wait an hour for the food, but when it was ready, I could’t believe it! I had to put some bread and jam and a croissant in a napkin and put it in my bag for later as I couldn’t eat it all and I don’t like waste 😛

We crossed the river to get to the city center and although there was a lot of construction going on, I couldn’t stop but be amazed by the beautiful architecture and by the very impressive mural (Fürstenzug): a mosaic that it is known as the largest porcelain artwork in the world. We were so lucky as well to be there during an art exhibition with the biggest masters of painting of all time.

Berlin, Germany

We parked the motorhome just on the outskirts of Berlin in the woods and took a train to get to the center and spent a whole day exploring. We came back late and walking through the woods, saw a lot of wild boars. I was a bit scared of them, but then – they were more scared of us and kept running around. We spent the night there and could still hear them around the motorhome. It became funny and I will always remember how we were surrounded by wild boars in Berlin, although it seems that they cause a great deal of trouble to the locals. 

I had mixed feelings about Berlin. It was probably an amalgam of pain, sadness on one side and hope on the other side. The city echoes a painful history that we must learn from, but we must never forget it and never repeat it. And for that purpose, there are a lot of exhibitions, monuments, museums dedicated to the Holocaust, but also ruins of the checkpoint Charlie that reminds us of what’s left of the Berlin wall – a wall that separated families literally overnight. (I would recommend to listen to this narrated story to get a clearer picture of the realities that people had to face during that time, it is called Tunnel 29 on BBC Sounds). But, Berlin also means hope to me, because families were reunited, the city has flourished, it is now a very trendy place with fancy bars and amazing restaurants, it’s a vibrant city, multicultural, with a lot of interesting events and a very creative place overall. Even so, I was surprised to learn that the city itself is actually in deficit, so it is losing money from the allocated national budget. But Munich is compensating for this loss, especially during Oktoberfest. 

So we had one full day of getting to know Berlin a bit and the second day of me taking the train back to Berlin just to buy a slice of cake that I saw in the window of a shop while we were on a guided tour so obviously couldn’t stop for that so I had to go back. And while there, I spotted a specialized tea shop so I ended up buying a few of my favorite loose leaf tea. We also went for dinner at a nice Lebanese restaurant, where we discovered a really amazing cardamom coffee and since then we have been adding cardamom to our coffee or to the milk that we put in the coffee (just while it’s heating up). 

San Sebastian, Spain

We had a huge breakdown in Spain, on a mountain, just outside San Sebastian, long story short (I will keep this for another post), we ended up staying at a hotel for a week in San Sebastian and for 3 weeks in an Airbnb in France (Pays Basques) while waiting for the repair. And the reason why we had to go to Airbnb was that San Sebastian was getting way too expensive for our budget. But the one week that we spent there was very special. With more Michelin Star restaurants per capita than anywhere else in the world, San Sebastian is THE place to go to for a gastronomical experience. But, because we didn’t want to spend a year’s budget on top restaurants, we spent instead a month’s budget on bars! Because there are bars at every corner, they open at 11am and they are well known for pinxos, small bites, usually around 2.5 EUR each and all you do is go from bar to bar, try the pinxos and the wine, and some cava, and more wine and you keep going like that all day long. Maybe mix it with a stroll along the seaside, it’s absolutely beautiful and relaxing watching the waves and breathing in the view. 

San Sebastian (aka Donostia) is also well known for fashion.

All signs are written both in Spanish and basque, a language that has no common roots with any other language. It is still unknown where the language originated from and how it survived for so long. 

And while you are in San Sebastian, you should visit Getaria (we took the bus there). It is the place of birth of Balenciaga, a place where he could find peace and quiet and I could see why. The beauty of the place, the nice little restaurants with local barbecued fish (as fresh as you could get). A place where you could enjoy the simple ways of life and listen to the sea. 

Montpellier, France

We parked the motorhome in a vineyard, called Chateau de Fourques. I love this concept, when certain wineries or farms offer free parking spaces with free tasting and no obligation to buy and of course, the right thing is to buy at least something as a gesture of appreciation, but it is also a good way to encourage local produce from the area that you are visiting. From there we took a bus to the center of Montpellier. It was about 15-20 min to get there. It’s a very beautiful place, you can take a tram to go to the sea, there are a lot of cultural events happening (of course, I am not talking about the current time when the pandemic affected all businesses), they have really nice little vintage boutiques and amazing restaurants of course. I would recommend you to go to a restaurant at lunch time in Montpellier (or anywhere in France really), because they usually have a very good meal deal at lunch and you get a set menu for a very good price and good quality produce and of course the delicious French cooking on a plate.