Road trip ideas › By campervan
Your first campervan trip in Europe: rules, costs, 3 easy routes
A campervan trip is simple once you know five things. Here they are, then three routes that are hard to get wrong.
Plan this trip1 3.5 tonnes is the line
Vehicle weight is a measurement of wheeled motor vehicles; either an actual measured weight of the vehicle under defined conditions or a gross weight rating for its weight carrying capacity. Wikipedia
Under 3.5 t you drive on a car licence and pay car tolls in most countries; over it, rules and tolls change. Know your plated weight, loaded.
Written about in 5 languages
2 Vignettes and tolls
Vignette is a form of road pricing imposed on vehicles, usually in addition to the compulsory road tax, based on a period of time the vehicle may use the road, instead of road tolls that are based on distance travelled. Wikipedia
Austria, Switzerland, Czechia, Slovenia, Slovakia and Hungary sell a vignette for motorways; France, Italy, Spain, Croatia and Portugal charge by distance. Roadlegs lists which apply to your route.
Written about in 19 languages
3 Where you may stop for the night
Campsite, campground, and camping pitch are all related terms regarding a place used for camping (an overnight stay in an outdoor area). The usage differs between British English and American English. Wikipedia
Campsites everywhere; aires in France and Stellplätze in Germany; wild camping only where it is explicitly allowed (Norway, Sweden, Scotland). Portugal, Croatia and most of Italy fine overnight parking outside sites.
Written about in 36 languages
4 Easy route 1: the Netherlands and the Rhine
Photo by Lucas Hirschegger, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. The Netherlands, also informally known as Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Wikipedia
Flat, perfect roads, campsites everywhere. Amsterdam, the Veluwe, then the Rhine to Cologne and Koblenz.
Written about in 302 languagesStart a trip here
5 Easy route 2: the Black Forest
Photo by MWolf89, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. The Black Forest is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. Wikipedia
Stellplätze in every town, the B500 high road and the lakes. A week with no stress.
Written about in 88 languagesStart a trip here
6 Easy route 3: Slovenia
Photo by Canadianhockey91, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Lake Bled is a lake in the Julian Alps of the Upper Carniolan region of northwestern Slovenia, where it adjoins the town of Bled. The area is a tourist destination. Wikipedia
Small, cheap, green and friendly, with campsites on every lake and river.
Written about in 53 languagesStart a trip here
Riding or driving it
Enter the van's height, weight and length in Roadlegs, choose Relaxed, and start with 150 km days. The plan shows the countries, the vignettes and the campsites near each night.
Open the plan in Roadlegs How the planner handles this vehicle.
About the facts and photos
The descriptions in italics are the opening sentences of the Wikipedia article for each place, used under CC BY-SA 4.0, fetched on 6 October 2026. Photos are from Wikimedia Commons under the licence named beside each one. "Written about in N languages" counts the Wikipedia editions that have an article, from Wikidata; it is a measure of how well known a place is, not a rating. Everything else is the author's own opinion. Roads close with the seasons: check before you go.
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