How to find Aires de Campingcar

[Bill]

Anyone know any good websites, apps, nav friendly (Copilot) POI database thingys etc for finding Aires? Off to France in a few weeks...

[smegmore]

Not sure what you're looking for, Bill.

All the aires are well signed on French motorways, some are only a rest stop with toilets and seats for a picnic, the aires that sell fuel and have a restaurant are also well signed. A Michelin guide may be a help.

[donaircooleone]

Bill said:

Anyone know any good websites, apps, nav friendly (Copilot) POI database thingys etc for finding Aires? Off to France in a few weeks...

Aires de services? or just Aires?

There are loads of books covering Aires de services e.g. Camperstop Guide, Le Guide Officiel Aires Camping Car and a few apps

[size13]

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[Bill]

smegmore said:

Not sure what you're looking for, Bill.

Aires de campingcars... Freebie/cheap motorhome parking with services.

Found the official guide on amazon and looking at the link above, ta, now going app hunting.

[GlenMH]

Bill said:

now going app hunting.

How are your data roaming charges?

[Bill]

£3 a day to use my plan with Vodafone

[AstonTony]

Bill

Just got back from France with motorhome. Was first outing over there and learnt a hell of a lot.

Main things are don't sleep over at Aires on motorway and most importantly make sure you have enough gas. You can't buy calor gas or any bottles with uk fittings.

You can purchase Aires books and would recommend that you do this.

There is an excellent site at Calais, you can see it on RHS as you enter on the boat. There is another excellent site at Honfleur, well worth visiting.

[BigBob]

Aldi, Lidl, Carrefourre and E LeClerk all do downloadable POI's - handy when you need to find somewhere for those odd bits and pieces.

BB

[GAjon]

I've just downloaded a free iPhone app called
All motorhome parkings, Campercontact
It's untried but appears to have camping aires on it. Might be worth a try out?

[Bill]

Brilliant, cheers. It seems a bit clunky but I'll see how I get on with it.

[GAjon]

Bill said:

It seems a bit clunky but I'll see how I get on with it.

Wonder if the version you buy is any better?

As an aside I was in need of a new satnav so got the Snooper Ventura which has camping car aires in its POI's.

[Vladimir]

Just go somewhere; there will be one nearby! We had no problems with 907 bottles for our camper and cheaper than here too.

[Bill]

True, but if you're arriving late with three hungry kids and a fractious wife it's good to minimise the faffing.

[Vladimir]

Bill said:

True, but if you're arriving late with three hungry kids and a fractious wife it's good to minimise the faffing.

We have two young kids but always found a campsite before we arrived (mostly in the ACSI book); we need showers and a loo! But everywhere we went, there were Aires everywhere.

[Lunablack]

AstonTony said:

Bill

Just got back from France with motorhome. Was first outing over there and learnt a hell of a lot.

and most importantly make sure you have enough gas. You can't buy calor gas or any bottles with uk fittings.

You need the Alugas refillable bottles. fitted mine 2 years ago and they've paid for themselves twice over...

Basically you can fill em with LPG at any petrol station that sells it, (loads in France) and a fill works out at just over half the price of calor..

My last 11kg fill worked out at £14 quid..... Compare that to a 13kg calor bottle...

[Vladimir]

Well, our 907 campinggaz bottles were available everywhere...

[Bill]

Campingaz is butane, so no good at low temps and a refil is £20 for 2.75kg, vs 18 kg of propane for £30ish iirc. Last trip was a fortnight over Easter and we used most of an 18kg cylinder due to the heating...

[Vladimir]

Our heaters (for some reason a Cali has an Esper...thingy and a Webasto) are very frugal on gas. One is diesel, the other works by fairy magic.

Gas for cooking only; lasts us a month or so with multiple daily use.

[Bill]

Yep, we used to use hardly any when it was just cooking and had an eberspacher in a T4 but now we have a 6 berth motorhome with a gas fueled blown air system.