Hello, I’m Tammy, the alter ego of a global traveller and UK wild wanderer called Sue from Newcastle in the UK.
Long, long ago in a land before time, Sue discovered that having an imaginary friend called Tammy to help with her travel plans was a huge bonus and dramatically helped life on the road.
First, friends and relatives could praise Tammy for any stupendous travel success stories on holiday in the UK, Europe or beyond.
She could be held up as a paragon of virtue when discovering hidden places, pinpointing stunning hotels not found in the regular brochures, and researching sites off the tourist track.
Alternatively, she could also be used as a whipping post whenever plans went awry or completely wrong!
As a result, Tammy Tour Guide was born ..
My blog is no-for-profit and does not carry any adverts or advertorial content. My aim is to share the best and worst of my travel experiences so others can benefit and enjoy their travel and days trips to the full.
Tammy Tour Guide 
Loved your reassuring comments on the Vantage motorhome. We’ve just put a deposit on one and can’t wait to get on the open road again. We’ve had ten excellent years in our VW T25 and it’s now time to move on to a van with a bit more comfort. The photographs taken from your van look great and really ‘sell’ motorhoming. Regards, Ian
How exciting! We love our van and have been out on the road most weekends. It also performed brilliantly on a trip to Scandinavia over the summer – we drove from Esjberg to Copenhagen over the bridge and then 6 hours to Stockholm. A breeze. Even the customs officers on the border muttered in Swedish (we translated from our extensive viewing of Scandinavian thrillers!) – “sweet, lovely van” when they did the customs search. We have loads of other pics of the van – must send you a few choice ones to whet your appetite! Let us know how you get on and happy to drop you a few tips if you need them.
Hi Tammy! Thoughts on planning a 2 week trip around California? love Susie x
I’ll write a longer post about this shortly as I’ve been away on the road. But I’d suggest thinking about flying to San Francisco and spending three days there as it’s such a great city. There’s some lovely boutique hotels too. You could then hire a camper van (you can’t hire one straight off a long haul flight due to driving rules) and drive up to Sonoma and Napa Valley via Sacramento (cool railroad museum and old town). Wine tasting in Napa is a must! Thee are then several alternatives but I’d recommend the Gold Country, Yosemite National Park (another must), the quieter end of Lake Tahoe, Mammoth Mountain and Joshua Tree National Park. LA is big and sprawling but fun if you’re a huge film fan – studio tours, theme parks, Hollywood and movie star houses are some of the highlights. San Diego is another lovely city but may be too far to squeeze in. The sensational 10 hour coastal drive from SF to LA is also brilliant – Big Sur and the Hearst Mansion are super-impressive. So much to see, hard to narrow down! More soon. Tammy x
I didn’t see a contact page, could send me an email?
I’ll be in touch shortly. I’m also on Twitter @tammytourguide
Hi Tammy! I´ve come along your blog and love it..
Hi Paco. Welcome on board – hope you enjoy the travel ride. And please feel free to share your stories! Tammy x
Hi Tammy,
I hope you’re well?
Your blog is fantastic, and we’ve listed you as one of the Best Blogs for the North East. I’d love to be able to get in touch with you. Could you please email me?
Thanks very much!
Kathryn
Hi there
Can you give me and my boyfriend some advice? Although not the ideal time of year to do so, we are getting a ferry to Bilbao from the Uk late December or January…. The plan is to stick to the coast of northern spain and head west along the coast, then going south. I know many if not most campsites will be closed but can you recommend any that are open and as many wild camping spots as possible 🙂
Sammy
Hi Sammy,
Sounds like you have a great trip planned although be aware that the weather can be wet in northern Spain in the winter – and the Picos mountains can be snowy. That said, if you get lucky, head to Galicia where it’s slightly less rainy. Watch out for shorter daylight hours in winter if you’re looking for camp sites later in the day when it gets dark earlier. We hate trying to reverse the van in total darkness when you can’t see what you’re doing!
A lot of the official camp sites advertised in recent Euro camper van guides and on official leaflets seemed either not to exist or have limited seasonal opening times. Some were hard to find too. We visited in early spring when it was quiet but the downside is that quite a lot of motorhome and camping sites were shut. Guess that the same will be true of winter.
More sites were open around the coast just west of Santander in places like Santillana del Mar (has a car park where you can wild camp) and nearby coastal areas which have a decent number of tourists passing through year round.
Be aware that some of the coastal resorts have no parking overnight signs on the most scenic sections of their sea fronts… and you’ll get clamped, if unlucky.
I found a few sites here – mowgli-adventures.com/wild-camping-locations-in-northern-spain/
Leon – there is supposed to be one overnight site next to the supermarket but we didn’t find it.
I can recommend a town centre site in Astorga for overnight camper vans, ideally placed by the bull ring and heliport! Luckily, the bull fighting wasn’t on the night of our stay.
https://tammytourguide.wordpress.com/2017/02/27/camper-van-diaries-northern-spain-the-picos-bierzo-leon-and-astorga/
Wild camping is allowed in many places, even some car parks – there was a good one just outside Santiago della Compostela slightly up a hill. The best wild sites we found were at Las Medulas near the Roman mining museum and UNESCO heritage site but again I’d be wary in winter as this is higher up and in bad weather, it might be exposed!
https://tammytourguide.wordpress.com/2013/05/31/las-medulas-what-did-the-romans-do-for-us/
Around A Coruna there are a fair few small camping and motorhome sites off the main roads but check before you go if they are listed on the internet.
If you go to Bilbao, there is a great car park at the top of town – about 3 miles out – with panoramic views. From the car park road, there is a 20-30 mins bus service into town which takes about 15-20 minutes. Or you can walk if feeling energetic! I can’t remember its name but I seem to remember finding it on Google by doing a search.
Another option – of course – is to keep driving down through Burgos – then divert south towards Spain’s east side of Zaragoza and then onwards to Valencia. Some friends make this trip every winter and they have wild camped very easily. Like us, they have solar panels which helps (even in winer) as it means you don’t need a hook up. The weather is also much better.
I hope this is helpful and I look forward to hearing about your adventures!
Tammy x