Park4Night is an excellent user-input based app, which allows you to locate (and share information on) free camping spots all over the world. In addition, paying campsites, car parks, picnic areas and even farms are listed, making this an invaluable tool for travellers who, like us, don’t like to stick to a definite plan of where they want to be the next night.
There are literally thousands of spots and whilst some aren’t ideal for a larger vehicle like our 6m home, advice and reviews are given about this sort of thing, so it’s rare that you end up somewhere you can’t actually stay. Some of our favourites so far have been:
Staying on a snail farm! Guess what we had for dinner that night??!! Just €10 for the night, including electricity.
Relaxing by the Saône river. For free! Our neighbours for the night were on a boat, called, er, ‘Le Boat’…
A peaceful fishing lake. Again, no cost! Beautiful weather, very pleasant.
On the ‘Route Napoleon’ just after Castellane. Great dog walk, great scenery, no cost. Parfait.
Admittedly some countries don’t have as many free sites, for example, we struggled in Italy, but we still found farms and vineyards where you can stay for free, but you are expected to buy some wine, honey or other produce… which is no great hardship really!
So far, we’ve only used it in Western Europe – will update after we get to Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and Scandinavia.