Search for a parking space
The daily dream of a parking space with a view
There are many reasons why you travel in a camper: the spontaneity of driving off without booking, the connection to nature, staying overnight in the parking lot on the mountain and being the first at the summit, constantly having the opportunity to make coffee or the house on the lake, etc to have the cabin in the mountains. And we have to admit, all these pictures and photos on Instagram are too tempting, no hotel can keep up. But is it really that easy and satisfying to find these places?
To be honest, no. No it's not! Looking for a parking space takes a lot of time in most of the regions we travel to in Central Europe. This is of course primarily due to the fact that many people live where it is beautiful and therefore there is a lot of built-up space. So you don't even get there or there's a "No Camping" sign on a tree. If you move away from civilization it becomes easier, but here too you often come across private paths, pasture fences or parking spaces that are directly on the road. Sometimes you come to a place where you don't have a good gut feeling and it's better to leave it again. Of course, it's also important to know the rules beforehand, in which country am I allowed to wild camp or sleep in the car, but in most countries that's not a problem, you limit yourself to one night and don't leave anything in front of the door, you behave like that unobtrusive.
But no matter how we get to our parking spaces, isn't that what vanlife is all about? If you weren't on an all-inclusive vacation again, would you know where you're going to end up tonight and what exactly it looks like? It's just part of traveling in a campervan that you don't know where you'll end up in the evening and where you'll wake up the next morning.
But we still love apps like “Park4night” or “iOverland” that show us possible parking spaces with reviews and search Google Maps for possible stopping places. Sometimes you are happy with the result and sometimes you share the space with a bunch of other motorhomes and would like something more idyll.
We have already traveled to many countries with our camper and have to admit that choosing a particularly beautiful pitch has lost a little of its relevance for us. Maybe it's because we always want to be particularly safe with children on board and don't want to be chased away by the authorities at night with sleeping children. We currently like to stand where it's easy to move around the next morning; both the dog and the children love being out in the fresh air in the morning. That's why we usually prefer a walk on the beach, a forest path or a stroll through the old town to the view.
And we find a good parking space every evening, be it in Germany, Italy, Holland, France, Spain, Austria or Switzerland.
And do you know where we have had the most beautiful pitches so far? In the Yukon in Canada, we stood at a different lake or in the middle of the forest every day, felt safe and it was so incredibly quiet! So the circle closes: the most beautiful pitches are where the fewest people live. In Europe we found the most beautiful pitches in Scandinavia, of course. Where are you going next?
