Head to Ikea to equip your motorhome for your trip

July 4, 2018

If you have ever been to Ikea in any country, the thought of a heading there again will probably make you twitch slightly and reach for a gin and tonic. Ikea seem to have a policy of making you walk about three miles past many things that don’t interest you before you get to anything that does so if all you want is a wooden spoon or a mattress cover, I’d give it a wide berth! However, if you need to equip an entire motorhome with everything from tableware to towels, Ikea is convenient and inexpensive.

If you are arriving in France by plane and buying a new motorhome or a second hand one that has been stripped of all of its kit, you need to buy pretty much everything you would to equip a house, just on a smaller scale. Painful as a trip to Ikea might be, you will be able find everything you need there and it is all good quality, durable stuff. We know this as we have been equipping our rental fleet with bedding, bed linen, towels and kitchen kits for the last eight years and everything we buy from Ikea gives us great service.

The nearest Ikea to us is an hour to our north at Evry or if you are heading south, there is one about two hours away at Dijon. Last week we handed over a new Benimar motorhome to Jo and Jose from Australia (pictured) in Dijon and they headed straight to Ikea to buy everything they needed. They have promised to share their travel blog with us as their adventure unfolds so we’ll add that as soon as they start updating it with motorhome travel entries.

In the meantime, if you don’t have the patience or energy for an Ikea trip, there are other good options such as the hypermarkets all over France and a there is one that sells just about everything you could need (albeit without quite the vast choice available in Ikea) just a five minute drive from our depot.

Download our checklist of things we think you will need – it’s split into
1). First night must haves
2). Stuff you’ll need pretty quickly
3). Things you might like to add later

If you are like most of our clients, you will be living in your motorhome for quite some time so it’s worth investing a little time equipping it with pleasing things but don’t spend too much because you won’t get anything back for the contents when you sell up at the end of your trip. If you do finish up buying the odd Provençal linen table cloth or an 18th century wine decanter, you can always ship them home before you leave though!