# Finding campsites



## 117389 (Oct 12, 2008)

hi there,im new to the camping scene.we we went through france down to the end of spain but had a problem finding camp sites.
could any one help me.


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## DABurleigh (May 9, 2005)

Perhaps if you gave information such as what method(s) you used, and what methods you are aware of, we might fill in the gaps.

For starters, subscribers have full map access to the MHF campsite database. What book guides do you have?

Dave


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## GypsyRose (May 9, 2005)

This reminds me of our very first trip...we looked for aires throughout France and found very few .....a good friend put us right plus all the wonderful info on here......personally, we love the "All the Aires" book which we purchased from Vicarious Books....all the best!!


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## billym (Dec 17, 2005)

Google


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## 117389 (Oct 12, 2008)

*finding camp sites.*

thanks for the replies
All i had was sat nav which didnt help.we found a few signs to camp sites but they turned out to be old signs,
the few we did find charged 30euros a night.
we stopped at services where we could but were put of as we had all our money stolen as the van was broken into while we were asleep.
now that im on this site i will look for maps as suggested. 
naseem


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

You did have bad luck !

There are POI's of campsites and aires that can be down loaded onto your satnav. These are wonderful. You can select a campsite ( or aire) along your route, near your destination or near to your present position and the satnav will guide you there.

There are some of these POIs ( free) on MHF - see the downloads section or you can google and find lots of other sites.

Worth buying too are the Caravan Club Europe books 1 for France and Spain and 2 for most of the rest of Europe.

There are numerous other campsite guides too - see your local bookshop or the excellent Vicarious Book online.

When you are abroad next go into the local tourist offices and pick up a copy of their local area campsite guide. We have some very good ones- especially one for Brittany.

Look on the internet for national tourist board offers. Recently I posted up a very good, free German campsite guide. Other countries do similar freebies.

G


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## phil4francoise (Jun 21, 2008)

Most towns in france have what is known as "camping municipal".They are owned and run by the town,very reasonablly priced an very well looked after.As a general rule you will find them next or very near to the towns Stade ( sports stadium )You will not find them in your POI on your sat nav


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

phil4francoise said:


> )You will not find them in your POI on your sat nav


Oh yes you will !

I've got a huge number of them on 2 of the POIs I downloaded and there is one already in place on the new Western Europe maps for TomTom that has many of the municipals on it.

We are noticing that many of the municipals have been taken over by private concerns - or perhaps franchised. The numbers seem to increase each year.

G


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## phil4francoise (Jun 21, 2008)

where did you download them from.Yes my tom tom 910 has loads of campsites in the POI and I am aware that you can download extra POI'S but I have yet to find a camping municipal which we know and use among them.


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

phil4francoise said:


> where did you download them from.Yes my tom tom 910 has loads of campsites in the POI but I have yet to find a camping municipal which we know and use among them


I've got two lots Phil. One is from John Harrison - I think via his jollyinteresting website and the other I downloaded from somewhere - but can't remember where. It might have been the MHF one.

PM me an e-mail address and I'll send them.

G


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## 117389 (Oct 12, 2008)

Grizzly, thank you for your help. Could you email the POI's to [email protected], very much appriciated in advance!


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## Grizzly (May 9, 2005)

naseem said:


> Grizzly, thank you for your help. Could you email the POI's to [email protected], very much appriciated in advance!


On way.

G


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## 108717 (Dec 12, 2007)

I have a Tom Tom with POIs on it and a laptop. But I find by far the best way to find campsites on the fly is via my Blackberry. I have one with a GPS reciever in it and google maps downloaded. What's great about it is that while J drives I can get my GPS location really quickly, select 'search nearby' then type campsites and it lists them. What the Tom Tom won't let you do is link to websites for an idea of where you are going which google maps will. Granted many of the sites are commercial with paid listings but in France this summer I found many municipals listed for stopovers.

Obviously you could do the same with a laptop (and a GPS reciever if you wanted to) but I rarely take the laptop on a family trip (go to get away from the damn thing!) and who wants to sit in the back waiting for windows to boot up? Youre on holiday!!  My Blackberry 8820 is the first handheld device out of several PDAs and smartphones that actually delivers the dream it promises. I use it when away on business to find everything from cashpoints to walking routes through cities and so on.

Obviously it comes at a price as overseas data access can be expensive and Google maps downloads maps in realtime. You can get an overseas data bundle from your provider if it helps. Plus because I can email, browse the web, find places etc I would argue that you could survive without the laptop and put the several hundred quid you saved towards the bill, which will be a fraction of that. Far from being a toy for some suited city high-flyer I find it invaluable for my leisure time. Plus it's got wi-fi but I'll come to that later.

And for those of you with i-phones or smartphones the difference is that the fee you pay for the Blackberry service on top of your monthly bill is for the fact that it's whats happening at the other end that counts not the device. The Blackberry service takes your email and web access and compresses it for your handset so data useage is MUCH less than say a PDA (I speak from experience). Just thought I'd add that before everyone starts surfing the web abroad with other devices based on my info!!

For those of you taking laptops away for Skype (which I love dearly! but not lugging the lappie) be aware that if you have a Blackberry with Wi-Fi in it (as mine does) you can switch off the mobile network, switch on the wifi and make calls using something called UMA which uses the wifi to accept and make calls as normal. Quality is reliant on the connection but I've had good results in many hotels and airports. There seems to be some confusion as to whether it's free to call so be warned. Obviously you can surf and recieve emails too at much faster speeds. for anoraks look here: http://www.umatechnology.org/overview/

I see this is in the wild Camping/ Parking section so all this may be irrelevant since I've never searched for wildcamping spots. Sure it's possible though if you know the word for it!

BTW I don't work for Blackberry but I know a good thing when I see it (god knows I'd had enough gadgets!) and wanted to share with you lot.


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