Short trip Europe: From Allgäu to Istria Short trip Europe:
From Allgäu
to Istria

Valerie is a photographer and influencer. On her Instagram profile @valeries.welt, she lets her followers immerse themselves in her visual worlds, in special moments and moments. As a self-proclaimed "lover of words, pictures, stories", she provides insights into her life and her travels. On her last trip with the Carado T338 motorhome, she showed three friends from Canada a wonderful part of Europe in one week: from the Allgäu to Istria.

In contrast to our last trip in the Carado, where the tour planning was very spontaneous, this time we thought about which spots we wanted to see beforehand, as the time was limited to one week and I wanted to show my friends from Canada a few favourite places. Here from Germany, we have the opportunity to see an incredible range of Europe within a few hundred kilometres. Our route went from the Allgäu region to Bavaria's capital, through the Alps and the embedded city of Innsbruck, and down to Pula with its incredible sea. Finally, there was a side trip to Venice, where I fulfilled a long-awaited dream.

Definitely: the water in Pula, which from the jetty looked as if we were in the Maldives! We fly all the way to the Caribbean, to the most distant countries on earth - and have such beautiful spots so close to us. Europe has so much to offer, as this trip proved again.

The "Caravan Park Sexten" in the Dolomites has a super nice wellness area that you can also visit if you park somewhere else. I found that a nice discovery, because it still feels like camping trips are often accompanied by cutbacks in terms of sanitation and wellness. So much is happening here. Wellness and camping can now be combined without any problems. My second tip is "Camping Stoja" in Pula, Croatia. Here we could park right next to the crystal-clear water - that was also fantastic!

1

Wine tasting in Pula at "Vina Benazić". This is more of an insider tip for authentic Croatian wine tasting: not a beautiful location in nature, but a totally friendly operator and great wine and food.

2

Wellness day in the mountains at "Caravan Park Sexten

3

Gondola ride in Venice - simply a must

A ride on the gondola in Venice has been on my bucket list for a very long time, but it never happened until now. Somehow, I had it in my head that it was priceless. But divided by four people, it was 20 euros per person. My dream was fulfilled. And it was really worth it.

We actually managed to always miss the supermarket opening times; on Sundays and after 6pm it becomes difficult to buy food in some places. Luckily, especially in Italy, there are really delicious restaurants where we could enjoy Italian cuisine to the fullest.

There were actually three things on the trip that will stay in my mind for a very long time:

1

Waking up surprised by the snow in the Dolomites, walking through the cold into the whirlpool in the spa and thawing out in the sauna.

2

The sunset after wine tasting in Croatia.

3

Mornings and evenings at the campsite in Stoja: the starry sky in the evening over the sea and waking up in the morning with a view of the sun glistening in the water.

The second bed, which you can simply pull down from the "sky", really excited me. A fold-down bed like this is a real miracle of space and gives you so much more room during the day. Ideal for trips with more than two people. And in principle, I was really positively surprised at how much storage space and clever features are built in. For example, how the toilet can be converted into a shower and the front seats can be turned into a four-seater.

It was the combination of the different options within a comparatively short distance. My friends from Canada were really able to see a lot thanks to the camping trip, also from the landscape, from the Alps, from the diversity to the sea. For me personally, it was once again a big highlight that you can virtually fall out of bed into the sea if you have caught a good campsite.