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Camperstop Europe is a multilingual motorhome stopovers guide that includes English; other languages featured are German, French and Italian.
Camperstop is a translation of a Dutch guide Camper Gids also published by Facile Media.
Camper-stops (Motorhome Aires) are places exclusively for motorhomes and campervans. They provide overnight parking and servicing, often for free. Motorhome Aires can be in Idyllic locations, nestled in quaint hamlets or in the suburbs of capital cities. Many camper-stops have waste-water and toilet emptying points, some even have free electric.
Click the Click to zoom link under the cover picture to look inside the guide.
How CamperStop Europe works. Maps at the beginning of the Camper Stop Europe guide identify the stopovers by town name the symbol used identifies the type of motorhome stopover (community aire, daytime parking, campsite, restaurant, or farm). The stopover is looked up in the alphabetical index at the rear of the publication or in the regional sections of each country. Within each region the stopovers are listed alphabetically. Generally the listings start with the street name, and many have GPS coordinates in the format n52,39185 o7,05025 (1 in 3 of the listings for Portugal have supporting GPS coordinates). Then brief directions is given such as ‘Parking at Marina’ or ‘Parking next to parking for buses-indicated’, then opening times and the number of motorhome places, costs, facilities identified by symbols. Some entries have supporting tourist information mentioned, which may include museums, markets, buildings, etc, ‘Modern port city and seaside resort with casino and horse race track’. Postcodes are not supplied in this publication.
Camperstop Europe lists motorhome stopovers for: Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece and the UK.
Camperstop Europe also lists what it describes as ‘Tolerated Parking’ areas. No explanation is given and although they are listed with the ‘motorhome stopover’ symbol they are unofficial parking places. There are about 1000 unofficial parking areas in the 2010 edition of Camperstop Europe. Across much of Europe you can get away with stopping overnight in your motorhome away from a campsite or official parking area. As long as you keep your chattels inside your camper and don’t park somewhere that causes offence or contravenes any laws you are unlikely to be disturbed. Problems arise when lots of motorhomers descend on one spot and make themselves at home and this is exactly what happens when you put these unofficial places into print.
Motorhome Aires France, Spain and Portugal. Camperstop Europe 2010 lists 1232 true Aires plus 338 parking areas in France, 68 in true Aires Spain and 8 in Portugal. If you are looking for official Aires in these countries then buying All The Aires guides for France AND Spain and Portugal will provide you with details of more aires and far greater detail. All The Aires France lists 1600 Aires in France, All the Aires Spain and Portugal lists 85 aires in Spain and 38 in Portugal.
France Camperstop 2010 listings Disseminated
Portugal Camperstop 2010 listings disseminated
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336 entries, 99 have GPS coordinates.
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174 campsites listed, many without descriptions or directions.
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108 listings are parking areas only, (probably tolerated but not marked as such).
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36 parking areas with public toilets or a water tap (described as serviced)
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17 parking areas described as having full motorhome services, and 1 service point only.
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8 of the above ‘serviced areas’ are listed in All the Aires Spain and Portugal or are known by Portugal’s official motorhome body.
Stellplatz in Germany 2009: Camperstop Europe lists 1037 stellplatz and 272 farm and restaurants stopovers. In Germany Aires are known as “stellplatze. If your destination is Germany the guide Bord Atlas with 3260 listings is a much better buy.
Area de Sostas in Italy 2009: Camperstop Europe lists 646 stopovers in Italy known as “aree de sosta” in Italian. If your destination is Italy the guide Guida Camper with 1500 listings on a 1:300,000 map is a much better buy.
Previous editions of CamperStop have recieved mixed customer reviews
CamperStop Europe could be described as a Marmite guide, some people loved it and others didn’t. The publishers have told us they sent 53 couples out to visit stopovers. Facile Media, the publishers of Camperstop, say that 4000 camperstops have been visited and photographed. They also say that a lot of out of date listings have been removed from the guide. Unfortunately the listings are not dated so it is not known when a site was last visited. Camperstop Europe remains the cheapest all of Europe motorhome stopovers guide. |
