Newbie Here wanting to be there :)

Hi all, just thought it was about time I registered and started hopefully getting some good ideas about what I want to do over the next year or so.

We are currently over here in the great old UK, just enjoyed a quite spectacularly terrible winter and looking forward to a quite dismal winter coming our way :)  Oh the Joys.

So here it is, family of 5 wanna take to the road for a while and explore something a little more interesting than the streets of Manchester.  The Van is bought, currently decking her out into a mobile sleeper and making sure that she will last the trip and back.

We want to spend about 12-18 months away from the UK and will probably look into renting a very cheap house somewhere and enjoy some freedom of the open roads, Spanish culture and other things.  We'll start off travelling down through France, taking our time of course and taking in the sights.  Before arriving in Spain and searching for a place to set up camp for 12-18 months.  Who knows, maybe longer.  We'll put the children into a school and see how they adjust to it all, teaching them Spanish atm.

Going to be doing it the sensible way by not having all the eggs in one basket, keeping a little security back here just in case it all totally wrong.  Money is being saved as I type and come the start of Spring we will be ready.
 

Road Trip of a life time!! 

What are you going to do about health care for your family, as your EHIC card won't cover you for so long-will you take out travel insurance for 18 months? Will it disrupt your children's education? Also, how does it affect your income tax situation, as once you've been in Spain over 183 days you are tax resident! How will you tax, mot  and insure your vehicle? It sounds a nice idea, travelling round and you seem very relaxed about it, but you must do more research. It sounds as if you would be better waiting till your children have left school. Don't under estimate the amount of money you will need!