Matilda on Tour — 28 Days In 🇪🇺

After 28 days on the road, I’m starting to understand what this kind of travel really is for me.

A week mostly in Croatia has given us a bit of everything — beaches, storms, amazing scenery and some memorable drives.

What I really enjoy is not the busy places or the big-name resorts.

It’s the quieter ones.

Being out in the wild.

Walks straight from the van.

Beautiful scenery all around.

A slower pace of life.

That is the part that really feels right.

The holiday resorts have been good to visit, and quite strange out of season too.

You can see how lively they are in summer, but right now they feel almost suspended between seasons. Interesting, but not quite where I feel most at home.

Where we are now, on the edge of a national park, feels different.

Raw. Peaceful. Very beautiful.

Apart from the wind.

The bora wind — a strong, cold, dry wind that comes down from the mountains — has been rocking the van on and off through the night.

A good reminder that this isn’t always the calm little corner it first appears to be.

Food has settled into a simple routine — easy meals, one-pot dinners, and the occasional lunch out if something catches our eye.

With 90 days away, we’re keeping things fairly simple.

Campsite life has been interesting too.

Most sites start around €25 a night, rising to €40–€45 in the bigger resorts.

We’ve now got an ACSI card, which is saving us around €10 a night. It all adds up.

We’re also noticing more stellplatz and camping car parks — cheaper, and often closer to towns rather than out in the sticks. Something we’ll explore more as we go.

We’ve also realised that something we’ve had for years — a small inverter — is actually far more useful than we thought.

One of those things we already had… just not fully using.

One of the biggest realisations so far…

We probably set off a little too early.

If we were doing this again, early April might have been the better call. More sites open, a bit more warmth, and places feeling slightly more alive.

But that’s part of it.

After 28 days, I think I’m starting to understand what kind of trip I want this to be.

Less rushing - more time in nature. - simpler days - places that feel real rather than polished.

And maybe that’s one of the best parts of travelling like this. Not just seeing new places… but learning more about how you actually like to live.