[Closed] Continental-style stopovers planned for camper vans.

It makes a lot of sense. Hope the forestry commission keep the park a night idea too (though no waste disposal at those).

Good stuff.

We can't keep having more and more folks coming every year, and not giving them somewhere to stay.

Mega! Our motorhome arrives tomorrow. Hopefully there's some up and running in time for Summer next year.

@Tom-B - you'll need to start a new thread with LOTS of photos !!

Yes great news. We've been amazed by the ease of travelling Europe using aires. Lots are provided free or very cheaply to bring tourist money to areas where it's much needed. The uk is so far behind the trend on this. A very slight positive of the pandemic as motorhoming becomes even more popular due to it's safety during an outbreak.

This is good news, I really hope they manage to make them a success. The FC stop over seem to have gone down well I think, this is surely the next step.

Although there’s already been people (motor home owners) moaning about them on fb pages and saying they won’t use them.

We’ll try and test them out next year once we finish building the new van.

Motorhoming is safe? Safer than what? A single location break? Multi location visits? Spread a little happiness a little bit more?I'd have a word with the residents of the Highlands, and their views of "Motorhomers" in lockdown.

Motorhoming is safe? Safer than what? A single location break? Multi location visits? Spread a little happiness a little bit more?I’d have a word with the residents of the Highlands, and their views of “Motorhomers” in lockdown.

You understand that this is not just for the pandemic? It's about longer term infrastructure to help boost the tourist economy.

I’d have a word with the residents of the Highlands, and their views of “Motorhomers” in lockdown.

Er, that's one of the issues this is an attempt to address.

? It’s about longer term infrastructure to help boost the tourist economy.

Got to say, I am deeply sceptical about this. Providing free places for people to park their self contained pods which are stuffed full of most of the items that they need to ensure that their interaction with the local economy is as small as possible.

B&B sir?
No thanks, got my motorhome.
How about a nice meal?
No thanks, got my cooker in my motorhome.
Ok, well you'll be needing some nice food to cook then..
No thanks, got my huge fridge in my motorhome that I filled up at Waitrose before we left.
Ah well, cup of tea then....
Nope
But I'm sure you'll be visiting Ch....
Nope got a telly.
Ah well, at least you'll be paying for a campsite.

Ermmm

Don't get me wrong, I don't fully believe what I've written above, but there is a huge element of truth in it.

I can see that point.
but then how many people would stay in their metal box if there was a lovely looking cafe or pub nearby.
It's more giving the opportunity of having more customers than forcing them to come in I guess

B&B sir?
No thanks, got my motorhome.
How about a nice meal?
No thanks, got my cooker in my motorhome.
Ok, well you’ll be needing some nice food to cook then..
No thanks, got my huge fridge in my motorhome that I filled up at Waitrose before we left.
Ah well, cup of tea then….
Nope
But I’m sure you’ll be visiting Ch….
Nope got a telly.
Ah well, at least you’ll be paying for a campsite.

Ermmm

Whilst I'm sure that will sometimes happen, I was planning a trip away next days off, which would have involved buying tickets to Longleat safari park and lights show, an overnight stay at the caravan club site, followed by a day at Windhill.

Most Aires/stellplazte you have to pay for.

I'd imagine that >95% of people would happily pay £5-10/night for hard standing, fresh and waste water facilities

but then how many people would stay in their metal box if there was a lovely looking cafe or pub nearby.

Sadly there are some people who do that but not the majority.

I've seen people in €200k motorhomes in Europe staying in the stellplaze/aire outisde the campsite paying €15 rather than the €25 inside the site with access to all the facilities. Madness!

Yup it'd be mega for us. We plan on using CL style sites where we can, with some Wild Camping in Scotland if we can find somewhere suitable....access to fresh water and waste disposal would be the main reason for us using any campsites really and something that we're more than happy to pay for.

I don't think they'll fix the problem. Unmammed will be full of issues.

People will still "wild" park for various reasons.

I wild park and use campsites. I like quiet. So groups of woble boxes with noise will never be my 1st choice

B&B sir?
No thanks, got my motorhome.
How about a nice meal?
No thanks, got my cooker in my motorhome.
Ok, well you’ll be needing some nice food to cook then..
No thanks, got my huge fridge in my motorhome that I filled up at Waitrose before we left.
Ah well, cup of tea then….
Nope
But I’m sure you’ll be visiting Ch….
Nope got a telly.
Ah well, at least you’ll be paying for a campsite.

Ermmm

Assuming it's meant to work like Aire's do in France.... having using them extensively with our camper. It actually works like:
- Arrive. Get out and stroll round the town. Normally buy some food
- Go and do whatever it is that has attracted you to the aire - go and look at a nice church, rustic village, whatever - normally spending some more money.
- Go out for dinner / or buy something from the local shops. Camper fridges are normally not massive.

It's very rare that we just turn up, sleep, and then drive off. There's a reason why so many maire's have decided to build one in their village...

I think combined with a scheme like in the Trossachs where it is permit camping only could eventually stop the less considerate of people "wild camping?" in a van.

Who is going to police it? Colleague was a ranger in the Trossachs and they were able to do the square root of naff all as they rarely got police back up. I don't think it will change a thing among the people who seem to think others clear up behind them. I was at a few campsites after lockdown and there was loads of space. Laybys on singletrack roads;not so much.

Assuming it’s meant to work like Aire’s do in France

Hopefully not the motorway ones that stink of truckdriver wee, with the drone of refrigeration units keeping you awake all night.

Something needs doing so I'm glad they're looking at options. We have to recognise that this isn't going to decrease and people are going to come whether there is space for them or not, so we need to provide somewhere for them.

Motorhomes annoy me so much in the summer, not just this one past. They're slow, take up way too much space, don't know how to use passing places, take up 3 parking spaces, don't understand that for some people this is our home and maybe you shouldn't sleep outside my front door because the carpark is full.

But saying that - I'd bloody love one for myself and recognise that tourism is good for us, I've had plenty of jobs in the past that relied on this tourism and I love that people people appreciate the beauty of our country. Generally when you speak to people with any issues it's nearly always just ignorance rather than malice

Basically I think Scotland should make a rule where only me and my friends have vans and we can park wherever we please but no one else

Scotland has the additional problem of the traditional but slightly naughty  off-grid camping. You know what I'm talking about... 6 blokes from Dundee descend on a beach/glen/loch and then pitch their tent next to the 64 slabs of Stella they've brought with them and just sit there all week.

It's not just naughty people in vans causing problems

Great idea, but it really needs to be backed up in law such that those manky campers can be moved-on or prosecuted. Also, a permit system such as they have in US National Parks to help pay for it all. I can only see it getting worse now that driving to Europe (particularly with pets) is going to be such a ball-ache / more expensive. Permits don't need to be complicated - like the Swiss Carnet - buy online or at the border. Get caught without one, big fine or we'll clamp your vehicle. I'll qualify this to say I've a camper van and I'd happily pay for improved services - but as I live here, I'd like an exemption please 😉

Living in NE Spain is a great location for making use of the hundreds of places that have been allocated for use by camper vans. We bought a 6m Benimar 3 years ago which is completely self contained with decent shower/toilet, large water tank, solar panel and gas fridge so we can live off grid almost indefinitely. Most little villages, especially inland allow free overnight parking, some even have electric hook-up for a couple of euros. We've stayed in some spectacular locations. Clearly it's a different story at the coast, you can't sensibly pitch up on the seafront for a week but there are plenty of proper campsites to chose from. We use an app called Park4night which seems pretty accurate and up to date, there's a Spanish one called Furoperfecto but some of their locations are very marginal and only suited to guerilla camping with a VW T4 or similar. Most towns have a place to empty grey water tanks and chemical toilets, there's an official list of those as well. France has a similar network so with a bit of planning and imagination, the smelly, noisy aires can easily be avoided.

Oooh what Benimar @pistonbroke? We almost went for a 6m Benimar....gone with a Rollerteam t590 though.

Basically I think Scotland should make a rule where only me and my friends have vans and we can park wherever we please but no one else

Well said

Mate.

😁

Sounds like a good idea, hopefully they follow the European model of Aires, stellingplatz etc staying a max number of nights and having some standard facilities available. Could be useful for the small towns and villages who could use a boost of income and job opportunities.

We used them quite a bit on our travels around Europe in the camper in the past, some were amazing value. Some were quite basic and really were just a car park but still had everything you needed. They were very useful stopovers on the way to a site.

Our camper doesn't have a shower so we would often stay near a town with a leisure centre style place, pop for a swim in the morning, quick shower and then off to somewhere new.

I bought the books All the Aires online years ago it's an excellent guide.

Tom, we have a Tessoro 481 which is built onto a Transit chassis with a 170hp motor. The electric operated bed is pretty funky and allows a big sitting area around the table. Being 6m allows parking in normal carparks and improves access to mountain roads. Our first big trip was watching the 2017 Vuelta when we were asked to drive it to the top of the Angliru by a guy from the UCI where they used it for Chris Froomes post stage medical test so our claim to fame is that he pee'd in our toilet, thinking that a blue plaque would be appropriate.

Haha yep!

That was the one that we were looking at. Ours is a very similar layout. Only on a 120bhp Ducato though....170bhp sounds nice!