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MOTORHOME AND CAMPERVANNING IN EUROPE:

In this post, you’ll find everything you need to consider when motorhoming or campervanning in Europe.

An enormous amount of planning, research and learning occurs on a campervan or motorhome road trip and this advice will help you in preparing for your Europe road trip adventure. 

This Europe motorhome trip of 12 months covered 22 countries.

What’s Included in this Motorhoming in Europe Article? 

  • Interactive Europe map with ALL 12 months of campervan and motorhome stops, routes, places visited and when.
  • Links to Road trip Guides
  • Access to Free PDFs and Europe Travel Guides
  • How to plan a motorhome and campervan trip in Europe
  • Top Tips for a Europe campervan trip
  • Safety precautions for campervanning in Europe
  • Details on campervan and motorhome hire in Europe
  • Road trip route planning in Europe
  • Cost of campervanning in Europe

The freedom and spontaneity of travelling across Europe in a campervan or motorhome, guided by the landscape and attractions of foreign lands is an experience that awakens you like no other. Not quite knowing what may be around the next corner, what new sights and sounds may greet you or which road to take.

These are the joys of a European motorhome road trip.

“But that is the joy and the flexibility of it all. You can go where you like, change your plans on a whim, rest, revisit, wander aimlessly, plan meticulously. Whatever you feel, you can do.”

shelley sat by a motorhome
Our campervanning journey in France — tough life;)

EUROPE BY MOTORHOME OR CAMPERVAN

Our original travel plan was to drive around Europe in a motorhome or campervan for five months. However, that was just one of the very many things that changed on the journey.

Eventually, we ended up doing 12-months of campervanning in Europe. We drove through 22 countries, covering 31,500 km and camping overnight at over 200 different spots.

To travel around Europe was a shared dream of ours. However, it was one that had been reserved for ‘One Day’, not something we were specifically planning.

That all changed one afternoon, (you can read about that on our About Us Page), and nine months later, we set off on this road tripping adventure.

The freedom, to explore when and where the mood takes you, is just so liberating. We now intend to keep road tripping around the world for as long as we can.

“The road must eventually lead to the whole world.”

Jack Kerouac

READ MORE:  Inspirational road trip quotes for Your Journey Ahead

You may also be interested in our Overlanding Africa Roadtrip and how we went about buying a Hilux camper to 4×4 South Africa and beyond.

MOTORHOME ROUTE THROUGH EUROPE

Europe Campervan route Map key

This map includes our 12-month motorhome route across Europe. If you click on the coloured pins marked with a P or a star, you will see the exact motorhome and campervan sites that we stayed at, with links to CamperContact so you can check recent reviews, price and available facilities.

On this interactive map, we have also included many of the places we visited along the way and links to posts that may be helpful. The route is discussed more at the end of the post.

ON THIS EUROPE BY MOTORHOME TRIP, WE VISITED THE FOLLOWING 22 COUNTRIES:

Germany, Liechtenstein, Italy, (inc. Sicily), Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Holland, Czech Republic, Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Spain, Morocco (only non-European country on this trip) and Portugal.

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DETAILED EUROPE MOTORHOME / CAMPERVAN ROAD TRIPS TO INSPIRE YOU

Find more Campervanning, RV and motorhome trips here.

HOW TO PLAN A MOTORHOME OR CAMPERVAN ROAD TRIP IN EUROPE

We arrived in Europe from Australia, so we had to consider a few factors that you may or may not need, depending on where you live.

1. PASSPORT / VISA FOR TRAVEL IN EUROPE

Luckily we both held dual nationality European passports so we were able to stay in Europe without having to worry about the 90 day Schengen Visa rules. However, you can check out the European and Schengen rules and how they apply to you here.

2. TO BUY OR RENT A CAMPERVAN/ MOTORHOME?

The big decision for a long campervan road trip is whether to rent or buy a campervan/motorhome. There are pros and cons to both.

In the end, it will very much depend on your own personal circumstances.

You’ll find that most European countries require you to show evidence (bills with your address etc.) that you live there, in order to buy and register a vehicle. In the UK however, you just need a UK address (no proof of living there).

We could have bought a motorhome in the UK and used a friend’s address for registration and insurance purposes, (as we did to buy a car after the trip). However, the campervan would have likely been a right-hand drive. Additionally, we would have had to try to sell the camper afterwards and be responsible for any mechanical failures.

Unfortunately, I had prior experience of buying a motorhome to travel around Europe, and it needed a whole new engine a month into the trip. Therefore, that experience played its part in our decision to rent.

motohome on road with hills beside

7 REASONS WHY WE RENTED A MOTORHOME

  1. We wanted a relatively new motorhome to reduce the possibility of breakdowns on our campervanning trip and the outlay to buy a new or modern motorhome was too expensive for us.
  2. By hiring the motorhome the rental company would be responsible for the repair of any breakdowns/problems.
  3. The choice of vehicles we could hire was expansive. As a result, we could pick and choose the exact layout and facilities within the campervan.
  4. We didn’t need to bother ourselves with insurance, registration, road tax etc. as all were included within the campervan hire cost.
  5. We had the option of hiring additional accessories, such as a camping set (chairs/picnic table), kitchen set (cooking pots/cutlery/plates etc) and bedding kit.
  6. The cost of renting a campervan was still much cheaper than paying for transport plus accommodation.
  7. We also had the added bonus of being able to prepare our own meals and therefore saving on the costs of having to eat out.

For the ultimate guide on hiring a motorhome read our thorough article link below.

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READ MORE: Everything you Need to Know About Hiring a Motorhome or Campervan

Campervan parked at a campsite in Europe surrounded by trees
Road Trip in Bosnia and Herzegovina

3. WHERE TO HIRE THE MOTORHOME OR CAMPERVAN

We did an enormous amount of research and found the best deals were from German motorhome depots. Our first plan was to hire a motorhome for five months but then we changed that to 12 months while on the road, hiring the second van through a different company.

The first van we rented direct from McRent and the second we rented through the Motorhome Republic. 

Motorhome Republic was able to source the best deal for us and was able to beat the rates that we were getting by going direct to the rental companies. They also managed to get extras thrown in with the price.

We were so impressed with the help they gave us that we now are an affiliate. Motorhome Republic uses a variety of depots, (including McRent) with thousands of locations around the world. The customer service we received from them was excellent.

Therefore to save lots of calling around to individual companies and to feel secure in knowing that you are likely getting the best deal possible we would highly recommend the Motorhome Republic.

Once you have a quote, check with them to see what they can get included in the price for you.

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Campervan parked by the Ocean in Greece
On our Peloponnese Road Trip in Greece

4. CAMPERVAN/ MOTORHOME HIRE IN EUROPE: QUESTIONS TO ASK & POINTS TO CONSIDER

Which countries are covered by motorhome insurance? 

We asked for some excluded countries, such as Bosnia, Serbia and Albania and these were added at no extra cost. However, we could not visit Bulgaria, Romania or Morocco with the campervan.

What is the excess payable on the motorhome insurance in case of an accident? 

The amount of the insurance excess is often held as a deposit by the rental company. But also check with your own travel insurance company as to whether they cover the excess payable on motorhome hire insurance. Ours did, and we had a couple of bings on our travels and our 1500 euro excesses were covered both times.

What type of heating/cooling does the van have?  

Our first motorhome only had heating, whereas the second had both heating and cooling. The cooling was fantastic when the days were really hot.

Does the heating/cooling work with electricity or gas? 

As we were often at free sites or wild camping with no electricity, we needed the heating to be run from gas. Sometimes it was more economical and speedier to put the gas cooktop on for a bit to warm the van (with a window cracked). Our cooling system in the second camper could only be run on electricity.

How many gas bottles are there? 

Having two gas bottles will give you a buffer until you are able to refill the other. We had two 11kg bottles.

What is the layout of the beds? 

Are they drop-down beds? Is access easy? Do you need a ladder? It’s important to consider how agile you are when choosing these options. Also making the bed can be difficult if you don’t have easy access. 

Do you get camper chairs/picnic tables included?

If they are included, are they proper camping chairs and in good repair?

Is bedding supplied?

If you are hiring the bedding, check that it is relatively new. We asked for a fresh mattress and bought our own sheets and pillows.

Are plates and cookware included? 

You may want to buy some additional plastic containers for food storage as they won’t be included in a kitchen pack.

Does the van come equipped with levelling blocks? 

These come in very handy when you are parked on a slope. 

Is there a bike rack attached? 

We bought a couple of bikes on our travels which were great for exploring the local areas, so a bike rack was included in the deal.  

If travelling in winter, do you have snow tyres on the van? 

Also, are snow chains provided? Some areas in winter stipulate that you must have snow tyres and in some, you must have snow chains.

Does the campervan have the necessary equipment legally required by most European countries? 

Reflective vests, a warning triangle, and a first aid kit are required by most European countries. Check out the RAC page for their Driving in Europe Checklist.

EXTRA TIP: Video record the handover of the campervan so that you have a resource to refer to for when you invariably forget some of the instructions.

campervan in the snow in Spain, Europe
Snow in Spain on our Europe road trip

5. WHERE TO BEGIN YOUR EUROPE MOTORHOME ROAD TRIP?

Where to start your Europe campervanning trip in Europe will depend on:

  • Where you live,
  • How long your road trip will be and
  • Where you are renting your campervan from

It’s usually cheaper to pick up and drop off from the same point, so planning a circular route would be more economical in regards to the campervan hire costs.

As Germany was where we got the best daily rate, we began and ended our trip in Germany.

Another factor to consider is the time of year and the expected weather conditions of the European countries you would like to visit. If your campervanning trip expands over several seasons you may wish to be further south in the winter to garner the warmer weather and explore the northern European countries in the summer months.

6. CAMPERVAN AND MOTORHOME ROUTE PLANNING IN EUROPE

Remember that if you are not used to:

a) Driving a motorhome and

b) Driving on the opposite side of the road to which you are used to,

then the first few days will likely be quite tiring and perhaps stressful.

Try not to plan to drive into big cities or do too much in the first few days. Give yourself time to adapt to the new driving situation.

When we first started our journey, we’d plan on heading for the places we wanted to see and then looked later in the day as to where we would camp overnight. However, we learnt quite quickly that it worked out much better if we had one or two options for where to stay that night and planned our route accordingly.

Although this sometimes changed if we came across a better spot, it took some of the last-minute stress out of finding a camper stop for the night.

If you find yourself stressed in the campervan or in need of a smile, check out our 120 + SMILING CAPTIONS, QUOTES & IMAGES to put a smile on your dial. 

smiling caption on a baby elephant

POINTS TO CONSIDER ON YOUR CAMPERVANNING ROUTE IN EUROPE

  • Driving and navigating a large motorhome into the heart of big cities can be stressful so it is often better to find a campervan/motohome campsite in the suburbs. Find one near to public transport and catch the train or bus into the city.
  • Try to avoid popular European destinations in the high season — we mistakenly hit Rome in peak season and it was unbearable. I’m not a lover of cities at the best of times, but I had been looking forward to Rome. Unfortunately, it was so busy that it ruined our experience and sense of the place.
  • If you are travelling off-season, check that the motorhome campsite is open, using the campsite apps we mention below will help.
  • Plan your campervanning route around expected weather conditions and season. For example, if you prefer warm weather head south, to perhaps Greece in the winter months. That way, you also get to avoid the crowds.
  • Have a campervanning route plan, but do be open to change. (We planned a route around Hungary, but decided after two days that we weren’t too impressed and headed into a different country instead).

This FREE Motorhome/ RV Travel Planner is perfect for planning, and recording your travels. With 23 pages, including travel journal pages,  budgeting, checklists and so much more. Instant Download for you to print and start your next road trip planning now…

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Motorhome Travel Planner images

*** SIGN UP FOR A FREE DOWNLOAD HERE ***

7. TRAVEL INSURANCE

Make sure you have travel insurance to cover you while you are campervanning in Europe.

We would recommend ensuring that your insurance covers you for the excess you will have to pay for any damage to the hired campervan. This cover alone saved us 3000 euro in costs when we had ‘bings’ on both of the vans.

We also used our insurance to cover some medical issues we had and to replace two bikes we had stolen in Rotterdam.

Road tripping in Austria

TIPS FOR MOTORHOMING AND CAMPERVANNING IN EUROPE

CAMPERVAN AND MOTORHOME TIPS

  • It is best to travel with two gas bottles so you have time to find somewhere to refill the gas bottle and still have gas in the meantime.

READ MORE: Campervan/Motorhome Accessory and Gadget Suggestions

  • You can set up your GPS Navigator, (we used a TomTom) with the size of your campervan to help prevent the navigator from taking you on small roads or under small bridges. (Note: this doesn’t always guarantee you won’t end up on a goat track though ).
  • The navigator can also be set to avoid toll roads which can save you money and take you on scenic routes instead.
  • Create a checklist of things to check before driving off, eg close all cupboards, and turn the water off. Grab a free checklist as part of the Free Travel planner here.

READ MORE:  Motorhome tips for Beginners

  • Know the rules for each country regarding road tolls and vignettes. You can check out the various prices and rules here. Some vignettes can be bought at a road toll but in some countries, you need to buy them in a gas station/shop. Pay careful attention to this – we had to do a detour which took us very briefly into Austria (10 minutes) and we were stopped by the police and issued a 120 euro fine for not having a vignette. Similarly, in Hungary, we hadn’t realised we needed a vignette and faced another 120 euro fine waiting for us when we dropped the van back at the rental depot.
  • Have all your motorhome papers to hand, such as insurance, emergency contact details, Green Card (a green piece of paper showing registration and insurance details). The last thing you need in case of an accident is to be searching high and low to find the numbers/papers that you need.
  • Consider installing a VPN if you use the free wifi. It encrypts your Internet connection to secure it and protect your privacy.

BONUS: Click here for many more Travel Tips

CAMPERVAN AND MOTORHOME CAMPSITE TIPS

  • Use an app to check for local campsites. We mainly used the Camper Contact app and sometimes Park 4 Night. Specifically for Greece, we used an excellent resource called, Peejays Greece Stopovers.
  • There is a huge range in the types of motorhome and campervan campsites you’ll come across. From free camping, with little to no facilities, to those with amenities such as onsite restaurants and pools. As we travelled on a tight budget we tended to stick to free or low-cost sites.
  • Some countries do not allow wild camping (just pulling up where you like) so check the recent motorhome wild camping laws in each country. Currently, these countries do not allow wild camping: Belgium, Croatia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, Iceland, Czech Republic and Denmark.
  • Check that the motorhome campsite is open in the season that you are travelling.
  • Always check recent motorhome campsite reviews left by other campervanners, because what might seem a serene perfect stopover in daylight hours, may just happen to be the local teens’ hangout spot at night. We had a few moments like this with loud music and car engines revving late into the night.
  • In busy times you may need to call ahead. Of the whole 12 months campervanning in Europe, we only did this on one occasion, in Southern Spain (it gets busy there in winter!).
  • If you arrive before 10 am at most campsites, you are likely to get a spot. Check campsite reviews to see if there is normally an issue with availability.
Motorhome parked in a campsite in Slovenia with mountains in backdrop
Zgorne Jezersko campsite in Slovenia

SAFETY TIPS WHEN CAMPERVANNING IN EUROPE

  • Avoid leaving your van in busy built-up areas.
  • Leave any expensive jewellery at home and don’t bring it on your trip.
  • Trust your gut — if a place seems dodgy, move on.
  • Close curtains etc. so that would be intruders aren’t sure whether you are inside the van sleeping or not.
  • If possible take valuables with you, such as laptops and iPads, but if not practical (we were hiking a lot and didn’t want them with us), then find secret spots in the van to hide them or secure them in a special anti-theft backpack, which can be secured by a stainless steel cable to a secure fixture. We did that and it gave us a bit more piece of mind.

GENERAL TIPS FOR CAMPERVANNING IN EUROPE

  • Remember that not all countries use the euro
  • For each country that you are travelling to, learn at least the words for ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’ in that language. They can go a long way when trying to get help.
  • Most of the countries have open borders but be ready for those that don’t. Border control may inspect your campervan – as happened to us between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. We didn’t have any really thorough searches – more like opening the bathroom door to check we didn’t have anyone else onboard.

For great motorhome deals, check out Motorhome Republic today

COSTS OF MOTORHOMING / CAMPERVANNING IN EUROPE

Costs to consider when campervanning in Europe include:

  • Campervan Fuel – petrol/diesel
  • Food
  • European Road tolls
  • European vignettes
  • Campervan campsite fees
  • Gas bottle refills
  • Launderette Costs: washing/drying
  • Admission Fees to churches/museums and other venues
  • Local transport (buses and trains into cities)
  • Ferry costs if applicable

Below is a breakdown of our costs for the 12 months of campervanning in Europe. We have provided an average monthly and daily figure to help you plan your own campervanning trip in Europe.

Note the following in relation to our expenses:

  • We tended to cook our own meals and rarely ate out.
  • Admission fees and local transport costs have not been included because that will be determined by your own interests.
  • The majority of the campsites we stayed in were free or low-cost.

AVERAGE MONTHLY AND THE DAILY COST OF CAMPERVANNING IN EUROPE (2018)

EXPENDITUREITEM AVERAGE PER/MONTH (EUROS) AVERAGE PER/DAY (EUROS)
Campervan Hire 2000 66
Food 600 20
Fuel 300 10
Campsites 207 7
Road Tolls/Vignettes 40 1.30
Laundry 22 0.73
Gas Refills 10 0.33

EUROPE BY MOTORHOME: THE REALITY

When you study the whole route (found at the start of this post) there will be times when our road trip logistics may seem crazy.

We may have backpedalled and missed certain cities you believe to be spectacular.

We may have seemingly gone around in circles; indeed we did stay at a couple of sites more than once.

But that is the joy and the flexibility of it all.

You can go where you like, change your plans on a whim, rest, revisit, wander aimlessly, plan meticulously. Whatever you feel… you can do.

And remember;

Not all who wander are lost

J.r.r Tolkein
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Campervanning in Europe … That’s a Wrap

We really hope that this article helps you plan your Europe motorhome or campervan trip. Please let us know if there is any other information that you would like to know and please don’t hesitate in contacting us with any questions you have.

Please drop a comment below and tell us about your European campervanning trips.

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