Ease Of Finding Stop Off Point In France

[Grumpy Mike]

Previously I have done Spain in a car or on a motorbike. Loved the journey but stayed in Hotels.

When the new baby arrives, off to Spain in her. Dont want to plan when and where to stop. That limits the journey both to specific days and mileage. Any thoughts on best way to find campsites on the backroads (Never motorways for me). I dont remember noticing specific signs in the past. Perhaps I wasnt looking.

So has anyone any ideas on maps, apps or just how to find nice sites with showers, bars ,, getting excited thinking about it... Only eight weeks or so now...

 

[Erbster]

Get the Aires book from Vicarious Books. Huge range of (mostly free) places to stop. I don't think you'll have much problem. Our experience was that the places off the beaten track were the nicest. All have gps numbers so easy to find


Charles

 

[bigmac77]

You have an Ocean on order just put some beer in the fridge. The Michelin camping book is good too.

 

[Hotel California]

You have an Ocean on order just put some beer in the fridge. The Michelin camping France book is good too.

Think the title was meant to be "...stop off point "
Taking your own pints does makes it aesyer....

@Grumpy Mike , do you want me to change the title ...?

 

[bigmac77]

Think the title was meant to be "...stop off point "
Taking your own pints does makes it aesyer....

@Grumpy Mike , do you want me to change the title ...?

Maybe but he might just love a beer.

 

[TwoDogs]

Use the ACSI camping app, or the books. And actually if you're on backroads many many towns and villages in France have municipal campsites, which are usually pretty good.

 

[Skylark2.0]

We found back roads of Spain camp sites a bit tricky at the end of the season.
We had booked a site over the phone but when we got there it was shut! We recalled seeing a sign and drove about 20 mins back to it with the dark on the way.
It as a really nice site, that's where we found out about Acsi. ACSI have an app too that we have used too.

 

[B J G]

As previously mentioned get ACSI but you need to get it all done at least a month before holiday as it takes 3 weeks for card etc to arrive. I got caught out with no card to show for discount.
The App is brilliant as it doesn't need to be online so no phone bill racked up when over there. All the info you need including reviews of sites, check review dates as owners can change.
Get the ID card as well as it makes booking in easier and replaces passport use.

 

[Grumpy Mike]

Think the title was meant to be "...stop off point "
Taking your own pints does makes it aesyer....

@Grumpy Mike , do you want me to change the title ...?

I noticed that, its a genuine Freudian slip I think... Its fine..

 

[Grumpy Mike]

Thanks everyone. Now ordered ACSI card and books. Remembered to buy some glass pint pots to put in the bottom of the fridge..

Does everyone put something in the bottom of the fridge to stop things sticking??

 

[WelshGas]

You want Campsites - Here you are - over 32,000 covering Europe. POI files for many SatNavs and an App also.

http://www.archiescampings.eu

 

[Jukebox70]

park4night app. Simply brilliant .

 

[Alpy Days!]

Have you heard of France-Passion?
https://www.france-passion.com
The listed sites are not camp sites per se, but local farmers/wine-growers etc. who allow campers to park on their properties for free for one night at a time. You can sample their wares - fruit, cheese, olives, wine (recommend some of the sites in Chateauneuf-du-Pape!) and buy if you like, but there is no obligation at all. Usually no facilities, but some do have toilets/shops/restaurants etc. Basically a nice alternative to campsites, or if you get stuck en-route with no-where to sleep and want to get off the road for the night somewhere safe and quiet.
Check the reviews written by other campers on the website to help make good choices - we have not yet been disappointed.

 

[viking]

Previously I have done Spain in a car or on a motorbike. Loved the journey but stayed in Hotels.

When the new baby arrives, off to Spain in her. Dont want to plan when and where to stop. That limits the journey both to specific days and mileage. Any thoughts on best way to find campsites on the backroads (Never motorways for me). I dont remember noticing specific signs in the past. Perhaps I wasnt looking.

So has anyone any ideas on maps, apps or just how to find nice sites with showers, bars ,, getting excited thinking about it... Only eight weeks or so now...

We found because of the huge distances in Spain and France we had to use the paying and non paying Motorways in many cases in order to reach our destinations in time and to complete the 2000 mile round trip from Santander to Dieppe in under 7 weeks. We did though prefer the 'N' roads in the less populated areas of Spain when we could. We were mostly the Lone Californians on the Acsi sites we chose. We don't like the Aires that we've seen, people with £50K - £200K motorhomes too mean it seems to pay 15 - 19 euros a night for a campsite and would rather park side by side, like in a supermarket car park, on asphalt or concrete is not my idea of a holiday or even camping. We liked Camping playa Mazarron at Bolnuevo, Didota Camping nr. Oropesa, Camping La Llosa Cambrills,all in Spain and Camping Cala-GoGo nr. St Cyprien and Camping Beauregard at Marseillan Plage both in France. All of which were on the Med Coast. I'm only mentioning these sites here because I want to see more VW Calis on them. Do not let on to anyone else with a vehicle in excess of 5 metres there's too many already.

 

[briwy]

Generally found the opposite in aires. People friendly and chatty. We use them a lot and so far have never had any problems unlike some campsites. Some are a bit grotty but for a quick night stop they are ideal.

 

[viking]

Generally found the opposite in aires. People friendly and chatty. We use them a lot and so far have never had any problems unlike some campsites. Some are a bit grotty but for a quick night stop they are ideal.

Another reason we don't use the aires is we don't carry any toilet facilities on board and that's why most, if not all of your neighbours would be big white vans with their own sanitation.

 

[sidepod]

Don't forget, everybody gets gassed in Aires

 

[fido]

I think it's working for all europe, but in France, I oftent use park4night android app. the info is 90% of the time accurate. I never use aires because I prefer lonely places. sometimes I found very pleasant surprises, but never been really disapointed.