All the Aires Benelux & Scandinavia

One of the greatest things about motorhome travel in Europe, for me, is the aires system.

Aires have different names in different countries, but the principle is always the same – approved overnight parking for motorhomes where you can cook and sleep. Some aires also provide service points (fresh water, waste water and toilet disposal) and some even provide electric hookup. Cost ranges from free to hourly pay-and-display parking, but it’s usually pretty affordable compared to a campsite.

In some countries, finding a suitable aire for the night is as easy as driving into a reasonable-sized town and following the signs – German stellplatze are particularly well signposted, for example. However, some of them can be much harder to find and having a comprehensive guide that allows you to plan overnight stopping places is very useful.

France and Germany, again, are very well organised in this regard. Both countries have established books that are the definitive guides for each country – in Germany it’s the Reisemobil Bordatlas, which I have used and which is comprehensive and excellent. It is in German, but the minimal translation required is fairly easy to work out.

All the Aires Spain & Portugal

For other countries in Europe, the leading English-language publisher of aires guides seems to be Vicarious Books. I have two of its guides:

• All the Aires Spain and Portugal
• All the Aires Benelux and Scandinavia

In 2009, I toured Spain and Portgual for a month and used the Spain and Portugal guide most nights. Some nights, we wild camped, but we didn’t need to use a campsite once – we always managed to find a suitable aire whenever we needed to service our motorhome.

In addition, many of the aires are in great locations – either very rural or centrally located in pleasant towns and even cities. One particularly memorable location was in the Spanish city of León, less than 15 minutes walk from the city centre.

The guides themselves contain details of aires around each of the countries covered. All aires have been inspected and include photographs, directions and GPS coordinates, as well as a comprehensive guide to the facilities that are available. Having multiple photographs of each location is especially valuable – you know what it’s going to be like before you get there, unlike some of the other guides on the market.

In our experience, the descriptions of the aires are accurate and reliable and the additional background information included in each guide is also very useful. This tends to include information about the types of service points found in each country, codes of conduct, driving information and various other useful topics. A guide to LPG filling stations is also included – useful for those with refillable gas cylinders.

Vicarious Books also publishes a number of other guides that I haven’t used, including an English-language guide to French aires, unsurprisingly called All the Aires France. Unlike the popular French guide, this is in English and only lists true Aires de Camping Car – not other motorhome stops, such as France Passion locations and municipal campsites. From what I’ve heard, people seem to be divided over whether this, or the French Le Guide Officiel Aires de Services Camping Cars is the best bet for French aires. I’m planning a trip to France later this year and will purchase one or both of these books – I’ll let you know what I find.

Most Vicarious Books publications are only available direct from the company’s website – visit www.vicariousbooks.co.uk to learn more. A preview facility is available allowing to you see a few pages of each book before you order – very useful.