The Truth About Camping on a Ferry with Your Motorhome

In this video we share the truth about camping on board with your motorhome.
We may have been unlucky and hit a few issues, but its not an experience we wish to repeat.
We took the longer crossing from Igoumenitsa to Ancona and found that the experience was not the best we had hoped for and our two excellent traveller dogs, were not happy at all.
So sit back and let us show you our experiences with Anek Lines and 'camping on board'

[@FieldviewAdventures]

I thought Paul was winding you up corrin and making you walk through 😂😂 what an odd set up .. we love those dogs of yours ❤ they look so cuddly 😊

[@redsgotravels]

😂😂 yes I was expecting a wind up! Random eh? Aww thanks, we love your little Boo too! Pips is getting a bit wobbly on her old legs so we are looking at buggies soon… she’s FAR to heavy to carry, although she would love that 😂

[@elenbarnett5389]

😂😂 you have to get out my bus & walk over 😂😂hilarious!! I thought Paul was taking the piss 😂😂

[@redsgotravels]

😂 nope ! It was all comedy gold from start to finish 😂😂

[@ScottJayne6567]

To add, the dogs were allowed all over the ship. Lovely ship called MV Igomonitsa with Grimaldi lines. We sailed both ways on this same ship. No complaints at all it was fab. Also free Aire in Brindisi round the corner from the port.

[@redsgotravels]

Thank you so much!! Desperate to go back to Greece, so we will be using your recommendation 100% ❤️❤️❤️

[@anewlifeinthevan]

Another great video guys ❤ We were so surprised you couldn't go on the ferry together... really unnecessary..!! Poor dogs, bladders like a couple of camels! Can't wait to see the cost this week x thanks for giving us an insight into that crossing, that door would have drove us mad...roll on our next fix Xxx

[@redsgotravels]

Yes, those two needn’t try ever getting us up early again because they need a wee! It’s all lies 😂😂 After getting on the ferry I could of cried when they waved us into our parking spot and I saw those doors. They banged at least every 5 minutes for about 18 hours! Grrrr Thanks for watching and commenting all the way from the USA!! Xxx

[@anewlifeinthevan]

@@redsgotravels oh my life you need a door banging medal 🥇 what a dreadful experience x we love watching you guys and really hope to retrace some of your steps in the future 💕 Xx

[@Endurofilms]

informative and entertaining as usual, keep em coming..

[@redsgotravels]

Thank you!! Hopefully that lasted the full beer? 😂

[@ScottJayne6567]

We did Igomanitsa to Brindisi, 8 hour sailing. Much better 😊

[@denisscott3073]

Hi corrin and Paul 👏👏👋🚌 thanks for this video update. Den and sue. 👋 keep safe say well and enjoy your travels 👍👍👍🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🚌🚌🚌

[@redsgotravels]

Hi Den & Sue! Thanks for watching both ❤️ and taking the time to leave us a comment. Our best wishes Corrin & Paul

[@TheHillsExplore]

genuinely thought that it was a joke you had to walk through!!! Great Vlog

[@redsgotravels]

😂😂 I seriously thought he was having me on ( not unheard of) Still no idea why I had to walk it though 🤷🏻‍♀️

[@josephinedobbins6451]

Hello Corrin and Paul. We watched this video tonight, the weather in Italy looked horrendous. I saw that your dogs wouldn't do any business on the ferry boat. When we moved back from France our Fendi was the same. she went all night without a pee then waited until we stopped at the services on the A34 before she would do anything. It was great meeting you both at Unity last week. I hope the weather is better there than it is here. It is tipping down with rain outside at the moment. Have a safe journey home and love to Pippa and Dolly. Bye for now, Jo.

[@redsgotravels]

Aww, thanks Jo, we both enjoyed meeting you too, Fendi was a little sweetie ❤️, we enjoyed unity , took the girls to the beach , yes the ferry can be traumatic for dogs , we won’t be doing that again … the rain came so we left unity on Saturday morning, but it was getting quite busy too, so we decided to come home , we wish you safe travels for the future and hope you enjoy our vlogs and continue to leave us your lovely comments x

[@merylturner2220]

Wish I had as efficient a bladder as your dogs!! Really enjoying your films. X

[@redsgotravels]

😂😂 I know!! We couldn’t believe both of them held on for so long!! Thanks for watching and taking the time to leave us a comment x

[@anniewhelan2789]

Having caught quite a few ferries between Italy and Greece with our campervan plus 2 dogs, we have a different opinion. We actually love the Anek Camping on Board option because of the ease with our dogs. We have had experience with dog friendly cabins and the areas where the dogs have to wee is similarly not conducive and the dogs have often gone on the way on the many yards of carpet. We have also on one occasion had to take the dogs and bags in our arms up to the cabin deck via an escalator. The camping on board option we found much less stressful and the key to getting our dogs to wee seemed to be to take them out when the deck was being sprayed.

[@redsgotravels]

I think for us it will be the shorter crossing, if we didn’t have the dogs I think we would have found it much more stress free

[@davidowen3393]

Hi just watched your video from your return trip from Greece. We have dogs aswell and we always use the land routes. Because I live near Bremen I travel via Dresden- Prag- Belgrad I fine it's more comfortable especially for the dogs , but we never stop learning. 😅 All the best in your future travels, best regards David a Welshman in Germany

[@redsgotravels]

Thanks David, yes always a learning curve through life and the countries we visit, in hindsight we would’ve stuck to land routes , but as we said, never again… nice to hear from a fellow Welsh person ! Enjoy Germany , we loved our travels over there ! ❤️

[@Eurosully]

Feel your pain, the Italians made us reverse a caravan all the way onto the ferry to Barcelona, pitch black, early hours of the morning in a thunderstorm. At least we could drive straight off in the morning though!!

[@redsgotravels]

Oh you win! We saw big trucks being forced to reverse all the way off, but a caravan!! Nightmare!

[@wanderinwilds]

Really didn’t know you could camp on board the ferry 😮 no wonder you are not wanting to do that again 😂 we have the same problem onboard the ferry with our dogs who just won’t do it when you want them to 😂 any wait for the next one x Debs and Mark xxx

[@redsgotravels]

It was all we could think of and we were just counting down the hours! I’ve no idea how they both held it in so long! Thanks for watching guys and leaving us a lovely comment as usual ❤️❤️❤️ xxx

[@aureltanasan1413]

Superfast all the time, book online, pick the tickets at the office, where they do the check in and add camping on board. Job done, just drive in.

[@redsgotravels]

Thank you! I will make note of that! Sounds so much better

[@dghnortershausen6045]

@ 16:20 min. --->> "Squeeking door" ??? Your vehicle has an oil dipstick. When you pull it out, small drops of oil form. You can use them to lubricate squeaky door hinges. As my grandmother used to say: "Help yourself, and god will help you."

[@redsgotravels]

I had a tin of WD40 in me bag, but Granny was spot on there 👌

[@qwertysds]

Feb 2019 did Ancona to Patras and back. The Ancona Tickets/Check-in office is 1.2Km from Ships and was a scrum to get onto the Ship. On return in Patras change tickets for new sailing. In the office had Passport,Insurance,V5 for the van and old ticket 10 min had a new booking.

[@redsgotravels]

Thank you for watching and taking the time to share your experience. It’s a chaotic route from Greece to Italy isn’t it!

[@qwertysds]

This March from Villa San Giovanni to Messina in Sicily on The Caronte & Tourist Ferry automatic pay machine booth did not work in Villa San Giovanni had to use manned booth for a 3 month open return. I think italian ferries are just chaotic.

[@danellis7386]

Wow, every since we heard of this crossing it was something we wanted to do. I don't think we will bother now!

[@redsgotravels]

Yes it sounded great to us too! Perhaps go for the shorter crossing 👍 Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment

[@DianeNomadz]

That's pretty funny... we've done this route several times (both Greece to Italy and Italy to Greece) and never had the problems you did. Always take your passport as ID no matter where you are checking in - that is just kind of a given when traveling internationally. We love camp onboard so much better to have our own comfortable bed vs a stuffy cabin and cheaper too.

[@klisurski]

I asked for a camping deck but they told me that not possible and only a cabin "with window" is available and it costed us 100euro extra :(

[@DianeNomadz]

They don't do it in the winter - the weather can be too dangerous. We did that route in November (in a Cabin) and it was so rough we could barely stay on our feet. But the cabins are comfortable and we got there ok. @@klisurski

[@redsgotravels]

@bzbdewd 🥶🤮wow cold and rocky , no Thankyou 😬

[@mbd6054]

Yikes. That ferry was a bit of an ordeal. Definitely to be avoided by anyone with disability, or mobility issues. Thanks for the heads up.

[@redsgotravels]

Thanks for watching, yes it’s definitely NOT accessible friendly

[@outandaboutmd]

To be honest it is better to let people know what they are in for, so go for it moan away…..i for one would not be putting my fur babies in those kennels and to be honest I’m not so sure I would do the sailing, so thanks for a very useful vlog guys.

[@redsgotravels]

Hi! Thanks for watching and taking the time to leave us a comment. We are glad you found it useful, if it manages to stop people booking those ‘kennels’ it will be worth it. My poor girls would of been so distressed if we had left them there, not that it would ever happen!

[@brianpeters6650]

Hi, we did Barcelona too near rome last year. It was a trip from hell, dirty cabins, fag ash everywhere and having to turn around our 8mtr + in the ship with lorries doing the same. Just no organisation so I feel you both. Hope you come in under budget. Good luck

[@redsgotravels]

Hi! Thank you so much for watching and leaving us a comment! Oh no! Not you too. I couldn’t believe it when I saw them forcing a great big grey overlanding vehicle to reverse all the way off! It’s crazy they expected you to turn a big motorhome round! Not an experience you would want to repeat I imagine

[@elenbarnett5389]

What a mare!! Not moaning, that ferry is shite 😳🤷‍♀️

[@redsgotravels]

Can’t argue with that 😂 ⛴️💩💩

[@DevonDevas]

Oh dear. We went with 'Superfast', simple check-in, very helpful staff at the terminal, no problems with boarding or disembarkation. We did, however, arrive in a very flooded Bari!

[@redsgotravels]

Thanks for watching! So glad to hear you had a good experience, we should of gone for the Bari crossing too, Ancona was too long for the dogs. We wonder if the chaos with the floods had created the extra issues we had

[@DevonDevas]

@@redsgotravels Maybe the ferry company? I know that some have better reputations than others . . . .

[@redsgotravels]

@@DevonDevas ahhhh right so superfast are different to Anek… that probably does explain it

[@annettemills-xx7jw]

Hi Paul and Corrin. Just watched your video about the ferry. I was interest as we are thinking of getting that ferry, but you have put us off a bit now! I didn’t even know you could camp on board until you said. Now is the camping on board that is a problem or just the whole thing? Are the people who are camping on board put in a separate area? And can you still go up to the passenger lounge? We might actually book a cabin. We are in Romania at the moment in Sighisoara, we are loving Romania. We were talking to some one last night, who told us that Bulgaria is “dodgy” and to be carful! He was almost carjacked, and he has heard of people who have been broken into! It’s out us off quite a bit, I know you enjoyed it. Did you have any bad experiences or know anybody that did? Thanks Annette and Pete x

[@redsgotravels]

Hi Annette & Pete First of all thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. I think with the camping on board if you haven’t got a dog and you are not located in front on the bangiest door ever, you might be alright. You are free to wander around the ship, but we didn’t as the dogs worried us by not weeing. I imagine a cabin would be a FAR nicer experience. It’s a long ferry trip. If we do it again it will be the shorter route. As for Bulgaria, we LOVED it and like you had been told a couple of horror stories about corrupt police etc. We never had a single issue, the people were the friendliest we have ever met. You do see police pulling people over on the roads to check for vignette’s, but they weren’t remotely interested in us. Go to Bulgaria, I promise you will be very pleasantly surprised, we loved it so much there we are looking to buy a property in the Plovdiv area in next few years. Happy travels xx

[@annettemills-xx7jw]

Hi Paul and Corrin. Thanks so much for your reply. You have put our minds at rest, I just hope everything is ok. We always have a little trepidation every time we cross the border into another country, with the currency, the people, the driving etc etc. great news about your decision to buy a house in Bulgaria, how exciting. I’ll let you know how we get on in Bulgaria and the ferry from Greece. At the moment we are in Bran, Romania. Going to the castle tomorrow. On Saturday the bear sanctuary. Kind regards Annette and Pete x

[@ambydaly5713]

Looks like you both should have gone for the tickets and avoid this problem

[@redsgotravels]

Unfortunately didn’t know it was going to be a problem… until it was 😂😂🙈 Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment 👍 Corrin & Paul

[@ambydaly5713]

We sailed from Dover years ago and were able to queue on standby for an earlier ferry?

[@redsgotravels]

Unfortunately this wasn’t an option for us as they had cancelled all earlier ones, so our booked crossing was the only one that day

[@GrahamGphotoParker]

Dont you have any wd40 for the door

[@redsgotravels]

Keep watching …

[@mucows]

WTF is that about you not going in the Motorhome. Wouldn't it make more sense to keep you all together for checking things! Well at least you made it, well done. Poor dogs. We have wee wee pads that our dogs will use, especially our smaller dog, very useful things.

[@redsgotravels]

Hi Pam! Thanks for watching ❤️ I know! We’ve never had that before, we were very confused 😂 Our two are stubborn mares you may have noticed in previous vlogs 😂 Neither will lower themselves to pee on anything less than perfectly tended grass (on a fine sunny day 😂😂) I wish they would learn to use pee pads as that would of saved us a lot of added stress!

[@ambydaly5713]

What about the new EU food regulations?

[@redsgotravels]

Sorry what regulations do you mean?

[@brianmason9803]

I'm guessing that you found yourself on a potential illegal immigrant route into Italy. Everybody is really touchy down there, making passengers go through extra checks. Wouldn't be my choice for holiday, but great escapade!

[@redsgotravels]

Our whole trip was definitely an escapade 😂 We landed in Italy on the day of the huge floods and had to navigate our way out. It was a brilliant trip though