How to Find Motorhome Overnight Stops in Europe
No cars, no caravans. Motorhome only
Your recently-acquired motorhome is sat outside ready to go, but where do you want to sleep overnight and how are you going to find places to stay?
This page is about overnight camping places in Europe, not the UK. The UK campsites have not yet woken up to the fact that motorhome sales are booming. Europe has recognised the value of motorhome tourists and provides overnight stopping places.
One problem is how to refer to staying overnight in a motorhome to avoid confusion with overnighting in a caravan or a tent. In much of europe ‘camping’ is prohibited within towns and cities, to clarify what is meant by ‘camping’ and differentiate between camping and staying overnight in a motorhome there is a generally-accepted definition of ‘camping behaviours’.
The easy test to decide what is camping behaviour is to ask the question ‘Is anything touching the ground except four tyres?‘ if the answer is yes, then you are camping!
What name is used for motorhome overnight stopping places in different countries around Europe?
The name that is commonly associated with motorhome overnight locations differs depending on the country, but the French word ‘aire’ which means area or place, has become well-know and is often used, the full name in French is aire de camping cars.
- In Spain the name is Área de Autocaravanas
- In Italy the name is Area Sosta Camper or Area di Sosta
- In Germany the name is Stellplatz (or Reisemobilstellplatz)
- In Sweden the name is Ställplats
- In Denmark the name is Stellplads (often us the German Stellplatz is used) or Autocamperplads
Mobile Phone Apps, Printed Guides and Google Maps to Find Motorhome Stop-overs
We use several sources to find new motorhome overnight stops . . .
- Mobile phone apps, CamperContact, Park4Night and Camping-Car Park
- Google maps
- The Camping-Car Park app
- All The Aires printed guide book
Let’s take a look at each of these ways of finding an overnight stopping place and see what are the benefits of each. Screenshots and photos are copyright by their individual users and appear as part of a review and critical evaluation.
CamperContact
Mobile phone app available of both iPhone and Android. There is an annual charge for access to the database of 38 thousand stopping places when you use the mobile phone app. If you want to evaluate the usefulness of CamperContact without paying then go to their website where you can use all the facilities free of charge. CamperContact used to be our preferred mobile phone app, but in the last couple of years we have found Park4Night more useful.
Screenshots from CamperContact on iPhone
Park4Night
Mobile phone app available on iPhone and Android. Annual fee to unlock the full features, can also be paid monthly. Paying removes the adverts and gives access to many facilities that are not available on the free version. Park4Night is now our first choice because it has so many sites and is low cost.
Camping-Car Park
Camping-Car Park with and without the Privilege Pack.
Camping-Car park is an organisation that has dozens of campsites in France and other countries, Camping-Car park uses a website and mobile phone apps. We have tried to use Camping-Car Park, but found that it doesn’t always meet our needs as independent travellers. First, you have to read the website carefully to understand how the Camping-Car Park system works. If you like your holiday planned in advance with reservations at particular locations then it may be exactly what you want. We plan as we travel and don’t know where we will be in 48 hours, so for us, Camping-Car Park is good, but has limitations.
How Camping-Car Park works at the time of writing (Aug 2025).
- You need an account to be able to use the website or app on your phone. This part is free.
- Next you need to pay €5 for a Pass ‘Etapes access card, this is needed to enter Camping-Car Park sites and use the facilities. You only pay the €5 once, it lasts a lifetime. Think of it as a digital wallet where you store some credit to pay for sites and facilities.
- What happens next depends on whether or not you purchase the Camping-Car Park Privilege Pack for €29 per year.
- without the Camping-Car Park Privilege Pack:
- You turn up at a site and if there are available spaces you can book a 24 hour stay. Your stay is just that, up to 24 hours provided that you stay on the site during that time and don’t leave. When you leave your time ends. If you overstay you will have to pay for another 24 hours to be able to leave the site.
- If you want to stay another night and there is space available you stay without leaving the site.
- You can not book in advance.
- with the Camping-Car Park Privilege Pack:
- You can book your stay from 72 hours (3 days) in advance, to 6 months in advance.
- You can cancel without charge up to 48 hours before the start of your stay.
- You can leave and re-enter the Camping-Car Park site during your stay.
- Your reservation guarantees your spot for a 24 hour period.
For us, the Camping-Car Park Privilege Pack is not value-for-money because we don’t know where we will be in 3 days. Having to book at least 3 days in advance is not how we operate, all we want to be able to do is check whether or not there is a pitch available when we are a couple of hours drive away. We can do that with the Camping-Car Park app without the Privilege Pack.
During our September 2025 trek through France we tried Camping-Car Park sites and were very happy with the locations, facilities and prices. Bear in mind that September is the shoulder season, so there were not many motorhomes on the sites, we avoid the hot summer months. You can read our experiences as we stayed on 4 Camping-Car Park sites, more details including photos here.
Google Maps
Google maps has one of the largest databases in the world, it’s not surprising that it contains camping and motorhome sites. Two problems using Google maps to find overnight stops, the first is knowing what to search for because sites are indexed by name the second is that in the UK all the sites from the Caravan Club and the Camping and Caravanning Club are shown, if you are not a member of these organisations then you pay a large premium on top of the already high prices. Google maps also shows all the sites that are for seasonal or residential static homes, so Google maps can be frustrating to use.
There is no standard way of naming aires, motorhome sites and caravan sites. In France it may be aire, in Spain ASEA and Germany Wohnmobilstellplatz. The reason is that the site is named by the person who adds it to google maps and they are free to call it what they want.
Google maps is a good place to try.
Printed Guide Books
Whether you are a mobile phone user or not, printed guide books are a great way to access information about aires. There is something concrete about a book that cannot be reproduced by the small screen on a phone. Turning the pages and looking at photos is really interesting and often we discover new places this way.
Vicarious Media produces a series of guide books to aires for european countries, ‘All the Aires Spain and Portugal’ etc. Each book comes with a large map showing the location of each aire, on the other side of the map locations of LPG (GPL) stations.
The format of information in the books is three photographs, showing the overall layout of the aire and facilities. Facilities are identified by symbols. There is a description and directions to each aire.
Presentation of aire locations on overview map
Other guide books and mobile phone apps
There are other mobile phone applications and printed guide books, the ones shown here are those that we use regularly and are our personal choices. We do not receive any payment for showing these.
Aires Areas Stellplatz Sosta Pernoita
No parking – reserved for motorhomes
Aires – the French word for an area, or stopping place, has become associated with motorhome overnight stops throughout europe even though each country and language has its own word. Some of the words – stellplatz, aire, camper stop, area de sosta, area de servicio para autocaravans, pernoita areas and others.
One important thing to remember about aires is that they are for motorhomes, NOT caravans.
Motorhomes are self-contained and have their own self-contained facilities. When a motorhome is stopped on an aire the only thing that is touching the ground is the tyres. In many places in Europe if there is anything other than the tyres in contact with the ground then you can be considered to be camping and may be moved on by the police.
Any of the following is camping behaviour.
- Winding out an awning or sunshade
- Putting up a tent
- Sitting on chairs outside your motorhome
- Putting up a table outside your motorhome
- Lowering ‘steadies’
Our guide is that they only thing touching the ground or tarmac is the four tyres of your motorhome.