EUROPE Travelling in 2025 - ?

[Stanski]

Curious what experiences members are now finding when travelling around Europe, compared to 10 - 15 yrs ago.

Our last trek was in 2022, a short and quick excursion to the Dutch/ German border for a weekend race meeting.

Prior to that we were one of the early trekkers after Covid restrictions were lifted for a trip to Spain via France.

With just a few years passing I feel (maybe incorrectly) that the free spirit of wildcamping is more elusive, with restrictions limiting access or payments more prominent for aires /sostas / MH parking etc.

In addition enforcement appears to be more aggressive.

What opinions do you have?
Or am I over-feeling the situation!

 

[REC]

We have been travelling round Europe ( to stay in Portugal) for eighteen years now. Tbh I don't think the attitude has changed that much when compared with how motorhomers are treated in UK. Whether it is that there are more vans in Europe, or a legacy of europeans feeling rejected from b***** there are certainly more restrictions and there is more enforcement. And UK has also many restrictions and fewer Aires, with an attitude to motorhomers which can be quite negative. But the European restraints apply and affect not just UK motorhomes, the French, Dutch and German etc travellers are also subject to the rules. France still seems easy, Spain & Portugal seem fine away from the coast or nature reserves. We have only ever been moved on once in all these years ( near Calais after a couple of migrants tried to get in the van) so we are maybe wild camping in the right places....
Haven't been to Germany or Holland though.

 

[Drover]

Not a lot of change in Europe except a lot more motorhomes around in summertime. Only noticed a couple of pay aires so I must be going to the right places.. used a couple of campsites last year in italy and the charges were outrageous..had grandchildren with us so the options were limited.
The uk is on another level with limited aires around 15 to 25 quid a night...and campsites more expensive than hotels..
I will add that I won't use them and wildcamp or free aires is our choice.
Never had a problem in Europe finding anywhere to stop.

 

[alcam]

Not a lot of change in Europe except a lot more motorhomes around in summertime. Only noticed a couple of pay aires so I must be going to the right places.. used a couple of campsites last year in italy and the charges were outrageous..had grandchildren with us so the options were limited.
The uk is on another level with limited aires around 15 to 25 quid a night...and campsites more expensive than hotels..
I will add that I won't use them and wildcamp or free aires is our choice.
Never had a problem in Europe finding anywhere to stop.

Yes think things in Europe are still pretty good . Camping Carparks are a concern though .
Managed to avoid them totally this trip . Sometimes difficult if you want to go to a particular place .

 

[Stanski]

Nice to have some thoroughbred travellers respond positively.

Camping car parks were most noticeable in the south of France, we used them twice.
Since then we received many emails regarding new sites they established thus gave us an idea that towns were being encouraged to establish these to recoup costs.

The intense take up of motorhoming after both Covid and our departure from the EU, has in my opinion hurt UK travelling/exploration with our limited infrastructure and councils hastily erecting height barriers or imposing other restrictions.

Curious also for me is how easy is it to travel Eastern Europe, obviously Ukraine is to be carefully planned.