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European Site guides

These are some campsite guides we have used for Europe recently. We normally take a selection but have found the French Guide Officiel and All the Aires books get used most as we never book ahead when in France (even in August) and have rarely had problems finding a pitch, at least away from the main coastal resorts.

Note Quoted prices for publications may not be up-to-date 

NEW All the Aires France
published by Vicarious Books - 4th edition published in December 2012
A guide to motorhome aires in all regions of France giving details in English of the location and directions including longitude and latitude, the services provided, and for most a photo of the aire or locality. The format has been revised for the 4th edition with larger pages, re-organised numbering within regions and a useful fold out map of France (optional extra). Over 2,700 aires have been inspected mostly by the the authors with contributions from other experienced motorcaravanners (including us!). Also a useful guide to the types of service points (bornes) has been added and now over 500 GPL service stations are listed. 

Additional guides are available:
All the Aires - Spain and Portugal published in 2010
All the Aires - Benelux and Scandinavia published 2009
All the Aires - Mountains published in 2010  

Obtainable from Vicarious Books for £21.99 including P&P

see link below

BordAtlas
  published annually by Reisemobil magazine
A guide to stellplatz (and some campsites) in two volumes listing 5,800 places in Germany and over 1000 in most other countries in Europe. This is a large format illustrated guide, unfortunately all in German but with an English guide to symbols used, with locations listed in alphabetical order. We used it in 2011 and found it to be accurate and up to date. M
aps are included to locate towns. Each location has address, postcode and GPS co-ordinates, also prices, brief directions, amenities, and nearby attractions are included.
obtainable from Vicarious Books for about £23.50 inc P&P

see link below

Caravan Europe 
 published by the Caravan Club  
Entries for 7,500 sites, detailed but brief and based on members' reports so sometimes are conflicting with lots of cryptic abbr's such as: quiet and poss cr. A few motorhome stopovers are listed.
Lots of other useful information including touring advice for each country, mountain pass details and other tips, in three volumes.

Volume 1: France (+ Andorra)

Volume 2: Spain, Andorra and Portugal 

Volume 3: Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Benelux, Scandinavia, Greece and Central Europe.

obtainable from the Caravan Club and selected bookshops
about £8.99 + p&p each (available to non-members for £15.99)
Guide Officiel Camping Caravanning
 published by the Federation Francaise de Camping et de Caravanning.
Lists virtually every campsite in France (about 11,000) by department including private, municipal sites with star grading for amenities (number not quality), Aires Naturelle and "Camping a la Ferme" (which are usually larger than UK CL type sites) Also lists parking places for motorhomes in towns. Includes good maps which are helpful for finding the nearest towns.
Obtainable in French hypermarkets, caravan dealers or from the UK clubs for about €14 

 Guide Officiel des Etapes Camping-cars
 published by the Federation Francaise de Camping et de Caravanning.
Lists all Aires de Services for motorhomes in France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy.
These can vary from free parking places in towns and villages to areas in or outside campsites costing the same as a pitch.
 

Obtainable in French hypermarkets, caravan dealers or from the UK clubs' European touring brochures about €10

Michelin Camping Guide France
About 3000 selected sites in France with a more detailed rating system than the Federation book and based on quality of amenities. Good general and local maps. Sites are listed in alphabetic order by town. Includes an English introduction and glossary.
available from main UK bookshops, French hypermarkets and the UK clubs for about £15
Vacanze in camper in Italia
A guide in Italian published by The Touring Club Italiano and PleinAir magazine listing most of the Aree di Sosta  but mainly a guide to twenty detailed suggested touring itineraries. (the aires list is almost identical to those listed for Italy in the French guide officiel) Listed by region and maps only show aires on the itineraries
Available from some larger supermarkets in Italy for about €20
 Links to campsite and aires websites for France

For Aires in France we like this website mostly in French: Campingcar-infos which has useful comments on aires from camping-caristes, The complete website can be purchased on a memory stick or as a download for €8 via Paypal and is updated twice a year. POI's can also be downloaded as .ov2 for Tomtom and .csv for Garmin and other satnavs.

Other websites:

Comprehensive list of all French Federation sites:  CampingFrance

Selected French campsites (mainly larger ones):  Camping-France

We have recently found this website i-Camping Car which also has many aires listed and is regularly updated by camping-caristes.

 

A useful
place to buy the latest European and UK site guides is Vicarious Books who offer free P & P to UK customers
page updated 20 Dec 2012

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