Vanlife 4×4
Here’s our on the road guide to doing the laundry. Call me strange, but I just love a good wash day. So much so that it’s become a bit of a standing joke in our household!
Whenever we’re out on the road I’m on the lookout for a laundrette. It’s almost a sort of weird fascination, a bit of an addiction that I just have to have my weekly laundry fix!
I can’t resist a visit to the Laverie, as I tend to call them. Following on from many years of French travels where my obsession began.
I guess, for many though, the laundry is a bit of a chore, so fear not! So I’m here to guide those new to the Laverie through my favourite ritual of the camper touring week!
I’m not one for hand-washing, so turn away now if you’d rather spend time scrubbing those smalls in the bathroom sink!
The King of the Laverie, most towns have one and many actually have outdoor or portable types!
Often they’ll be found at fuel stations or supermarkets, particularly in the more Southern regions and sometimes next to the Aire de Service de Camping-Car or Camper dump/fill area.
This means, we can fill up with fuel, empty the waste, fill with fresh and use the outdoor laundry at the same time….Genius!!
I’m not sure why but our German friends just don’t seem to like doing their laundry in public! With little in the way of a Laverie on offer, we resort to having to book into a campsite or hope that a private Stellplatz (camper parking) has one on offer which can sometimes be the case.
Hot off the press…on a recent trip through Germany, we did actually manage to find an excellent laundrette! Although I have to say it took a while!
Wow! The Italians love the Laverie as much as I do or should I say Lavanderia!
They are super clean, super modern and very reasonable.
Not a laverie in sight!!
When asking at the tourist office, I was told that there was no need as everyone has a washing machine!!
These have very few camper stops or Aires. So at some point we have to use campsites and make full use of the campsite laundry room.
There are plenty of Private aires and Marina’s to stop at which are reasonable and often have a washing machine or actual Laundry for campers to use.
Spain is very similar to France and Italy, including having some laundry’s at Fuel Stations. Overall they are just brilliant and often situated next to camper stops….The Lavanderia are just great!
Laundrette’s are found in most towns. Otherwise the campsite laundry room is usually an excellent way to wash those clothes.
Due to not having an Aire type system in the UK, we’re usually on a campsite at some point.
They just love a laundrette in both Australia and New Zealand, but they can be any age or condition.
They often only have a cold water option – but who cares!
Expect the machine to take 35-40 mins.
Very often yes, it’s automatically pumped from the back of the machine but not always.
This varies from between €4-€8 for Europe, $3-$5 in NZ & Aus and £4-£7 in the UK, depending on size and type of machine.
Anything from 6kg-11kg+.
Often 7am-10pm for a Self-Service Laundry.
It’s a laundry or outside wash centre with machines & dryers of various sizes, a pay station which is often coin operated, put the money in, select the machine number & programme required on the actual machine e.g temperature then press the start button!
Various sizes and costs and varying effectiveness! Often a set time of 10 minutes, e.g €1 per 10 mins, which takes 40-50 mins to dry fully, so expect to pay around €4 0r €5, some do have a set fee though for usually 40mins drying time. Clean the fluff out before & after using too!
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