Hi
Can anyone give a broad spectrum or costs for a large van. Merc 814 size for overnight stays in france. I imagine costs drop if you book a week
Would need power and wi fi
Probablt some larger more organises places with washing machines
Impeding doom, mate with van doing nowt, no need to wprk for a few years, o level french, road bike, mountain bike, windsurf kit, riden Pyrenees on road bike, Alps on mtb, like to do more
Not reslly looking at wild camping for safety and security reasons
Picos appeal, bit od skiing too.
Then head north ad the weather improves
We have stayed in France and Spain all over the place in a big motorhome. Campsite in San Sebastian which was lovely was about 35.00 euros a night but for a longer stay i'll bet you could negotiate some discount. Campsite in Versailles near Paris was about 45 euros a night. We stayed on a municipal site in a small town in France and for a month the guy running it offered us a price of 9 euros a night with electric and spotless showers and a pass for the swimming pool next door.These were both at the expensive end. We have stopped on beautiful sites for 10 euros. When we go now we tend to wild camp on Aires etc. Never had any problems as there are always other vans. Try park4night and campercontact app. We use these when we wing it and don't know where we are going til we set off in the morning. Very jealous...exactly how we plan to live in a few years time.
If you're going out of season, it's worth getting an ACSI card; loads of sites in the scheme, gives fixed-cost pitches at a discounted rate across Europe, plus all the sites are reviewed regularly. We used it a lot when we spent six months going around Europe in our camper.
https://www.campingcard.co.uk/
If you are travelling around in France and not worried where you stay or get caught between places you can stay in the Aires overnight for free.
Three years ago we spent 3 months in France and spent a grand total of 140 euros on aires worked out at 1.50 euros a night. The following year 3 months again this time a mix of aires and campsites, some of the new aires with leccy 10 euros a night, some campsites 10 euros without. The campsites run by the local council out of season are usually the cheapest, but lots of them close out of season.
You can camp for 10euros a night at most in France and Spain if you choose carefully, some people make a holiday of paying nothing and it can be done , but that’s not for me .
We quite comfortably camp for 10 euros a night most places in Europe, except italy !
Using municipal aires is the key, but a lot of these are basically glorified car parks, we usually camp on a few of those then have a few nice sites to even it out .The beauty of the municipal sites is that a lot of them are right in city centres and that was the main reason we used them not cost.
If you get the nkc app there is a comprehensive list of european sites with reviews that is fantastic
google "all the aires" and buy the guidebook. Dead useful if you're a self contained motorhome or camper van with a toilet. Free sites aplenty for overnight stays. some will charge 10 euros or so for an overnight Aire at the local campsite but a lot of lovely freebie spots in places that are better locations than a lot of campsites. theres a also a farm stay type scheme you can use if you have the guidebook. buy some of the guys cheese and stay overnight sort of thing.
a lot of the local municipal campsites in France are good, low key and in nice little villages next to the sea etc. we used to pay something like 13 - 18 euros for 2 of us and our camper van per night for nice sites next to amazing beaches. a lot of the sites near the coast close during sept for the winter though.
Try Looking at France Passion website as well. Some beautiful sites and lovely people all for 30 euros a year
As above aires are good, not always in the places you want to be and not always 100% safe, bumped into a swiss couple who had been gassed in an aire, they broke into their van robbed their valuables and 2 ebikes from their garage.The guys woke up in the morning and wondered why the door was open..
Having said that i've stopped in quite a few with no issue but I always park up as near as possible to the shops/services, can be noisy - but safer. I wouldnt stay on the basic 'picnic bench' ones.
In terms of campsite costs France around 30E mark for all singing/dancing site, we stayed in Huttopia in Bourg St Maurice, basic ones less, Spain is cheaper we stopped in Camping Pena Montenasa just outside Ainsa and that worked out around 24E for a fully serviced pitch, restaurant, bar, pool etc. I guess you'll find budget sites cheaper if you shop around. Try park4night or searchforsites.co.uk for reviews, freestops and info.
bumped into a swiss couple who had been gassed in an aire, they broke into their van robbed their valuables and 2 ebikes from their garage.
Holy crap that's terrible 😳
Stayed in one once on the way to the Alps, 3 of us in pop up tents. Got robbed in the night, someone rummaging inside our tents as we slept. Mate lost his passport and wallet and all sorts. Lucky they didn't get my van keys 😳
I think people are confusing motorway service style ‘aires’ with aires in town centres and the like which are set up for campers. I’d not stay in the former but the latter are no problems.
Blazing saddles is right. Different thing entirely.
The gassing thing has been talked about as not being possible by anaesthetists who do it for a living. How could you as a layman, gas someone or an unknown no of persons in a van of unknown leakyness (windows may be open) and volume enough so they’re knocked out but don’t wake up or die whilst you rob the van. How come the robber isn’t gassed as well? Is that sort of thing worth investing time and money in, not to mention the risk of killing people or being killed all for a couple of passports, some duty free and a handbag of travellers cheques?
If I mastered gassing people I’d be going after a bigger reward for the risk I reckon.
More likely got pissed, fast asleep and forgot to lock the door or just got robbed whilst they slept.
More likely got pissed, fast asleep and forgot to lock the door or just got robbed whilst they slept.
Possibly, but they struck me as being level headed normal people, the robbers tried to force 2 (locked) doors before they got in, that would cause a significant disturbance. You would have to be spark out to sleep through that and them gaining entry then searching through everything. I appreciate that some aires are more secure than others but it doesn't hurt to be careful.
We've stayed in the motorway services aires two or three times now. Works really well for us as it means we can get the late ferry Friday, get to France about ten, drive for a couple of hours to knock off some mileage, have a kip, then grab a coffee and croissant in the morning and be on the road again, easily getting to 'pretty far south' by lunchtime Saturday.
Wouldn't want to, you know, holiday in one, but as a place to get some kip to break up a journey they work out great. And I'm convinced the gassing thing is an urban myth.
The gassing trick is real and rife among lgv's/hgv's. The gas is most commonly put near the intake for the night heater systems which draws it in. A few drivers I know that spend time across the water have resorted to using ratchet straps around their door handles to stop them from being forced open whilst asleep.
The night heater air intake for the air that is to be heated on our van (same in lorries etc, usually eberspacher or webasto) is inside the van at the lowest point where the cool aiR collects. The combustion side air intake is outside with the heater exhaust and the air that gets heated is inside The van, the other side of a heat exchanger, the two don’t mix. These units have a heat exchanger so that air inside the van is recirculated and isn’t drawn in from outside.
The vents you see on the side of a lot of vans are for the fridge.