Help would be greatly appreciated, plan a road trip in our cali taking in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and northern Italy should we book ahead?

[Coopsontour]

Planning a road trip in our cali taking in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and northern Italy, this will be our first big trip. We are travelling in the last 2 weeks of August holidays with our 2 boys and we would really like to do a few 1 night stays and they have a longer stay before we start our route back, should we be booking ahead? Can you stay for 1 night or is there a lot of minimum stay sites? What should we expect to pay per hook up pitch (probably too general question as level of sites and location will vary but just an idea as we are really new to this)? Many thanks

 

[kave]

There are huge amounts of experience here, search.
I can recommend one thing, dont just stay one night, make it at least two of rather 4-5 one location. Its easy making the hole holiday just a drive with packing up and down between. Nothing funny for the boys. Normally young kids like to stay in just one place and return there every year.
On the popular sites its way too late to book now, they will say they are full. Your best option is to arrive before 11am and ask.

 

[JakePeg]

We're doing pretty much the same, Holland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal with an 11 year old boy. Have only got somewhere sorted for Holland so far - winging it! We're in the UK now but live in Portugal, kids get 3 months summer holiday!

 

[SanderR72]

The same regarding kids holidays for 3 months is the case in Italy, I was told by the guy that bought my Landcruiser and we visited him in June with my Cali.

However, I don’t travel with kids, but I can imagine that moving from one place to another for just one night’s stay isn’t fun for them.

But if that happens along the trip, why not use apps like CamperContact, Park4Night etc?

Although in high season there is more checks being done regarding wild camping, there are plenty of possibilities, but no guarantees.

In northern Italy I saw prices for camping sites ranging from 30€ to even almost 60€ per night. For the latter, I would stay in an Airbnb…

 

[bigmac77]

Germany has a lot of campsites plus you can find places to stay on park4night.

Switzerland are pretty strict on wild camping and it’s pretty much a no no, if you look to book its peak season and many campsites have a minimum stay but you can often turn up and get a night you just have to be prepared to maybe visit a few which is maybe not ideal when traveling with children.

Not sure about Austria or Italy but I do know that the French alps are very easy to find either wild park up or campsites even in August. Last year we did Vosges, Black Forest, Interlaken, Morzine, Briançon, Embrun, Verdon gorge and Annecy over the last three weeks of August and didn’t book anything ahead. We did roughly a 50-50 split between campsites and park ups from park4night. Set the search criteria in park4night to ‘in nature’ and found some amazing locations.

 

[beforecolour]

We are taking in those countries as well plus France. We’re doing it for the duration of August, spending approx 4-5 nights per site. We are a family of 4 (kids 9 & 14). Were staying at campsites with pools, probably the higher end type of site. Once you factor in kids, hook up, the average cost per night is 75€. From experience, I wouldn’t recommend less than 2 nights per stay. I also rarely find there is a minimum stay.

 

[PJ500]

We are currently at Lake Como having travelled down the Romantic Road in Germany.
We pre-booked sites, mostly staying 2 / 3 nights. Sites at Rothenburg and Fussen were full but others had availability. August will be much busier.
Here at La Riva on Lake Como it’s minimum 7 nights when you book but apparently they are flexible if you want to stay fewer.
It’s a great site by the way…