Aire de Camping Car.

fatbelly
fatbelly Forum Participant Posts: 438
100 Comments

Hi Guys,

We aim to tour France for 5 weeks in June or September in our motorhome. We have never used Aires de Camping Cars before but did come across a few last year. They varied from nothing more than a car park with water to quite pleasant sites in good locations. What are peoples experiences of using Aires? Is there a guide or book you can recommend. our friends said we should get the books "Aire de Camping Cars" but they cost £25 which we would pay if they're worth buying.

So guys what do you think about Aire de Camping Cars? Are they safe, what are the facilities on them like. We have never used them so any advise would be good.

 

P.S. I don't mean the motorway Aires we wouldn't overnight in one of those.

Comments

  • DavidKlyne
    DavidKlyne Club Member Posts: 14,068
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    edited March 2018 #2

    FB

    You could have a look at Keith's YouTube site here https://www.youtube.com/user/KeithChesterfield where you can get a good impression of what motorhome Aires are like. Also shows access.

    David

  • InaD
    InaD Club Member Posts: 1,733
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    edited March 2018 #3

    As you say yourself, they vary from nothing more than a car park to quite pleasant sites in good locations.  They all have water and water disposal facilities, and waste disposal.  Apart from that some may have toilet and possibly showers.  There is a wide variety of them.

    Our thumb of rule is that if for any reason we don't feel safe, we don't stay and move elsewhere.  Saying that, we don't use a lot of them, but have used some pleasant ones both in France and Germany.  On one occasion we looked round a campsite in the NE of France which was rather tired looking to say the least.  We left and less than a mile down the road was a most delightful Aire where we stayed the night instead; it was free into the bargain (not all Aires are free and they increasingly use barriers which can be unlocked by creditcard).

    We got a guide from Vicarious Books a few years ago, but weren't too impressed with it.  You can get good info online at http://en.airecampingcar.com/

    They are very much like campsites, they can be really nice or really not nice.  Or just ok for an overnight stop if you need somewhere.  All you can do is try one or two, and see whether you like them.

     

  • eurortraveller
    eurortraveller Club Member Posts: 6,853
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    edited March 2018 #4

    Campercontact.com is a useful website. It gives photographs, gradings, prices, opinions and comments for just about every Motorhome Aire there is - about 6000 of them in France, and as Ina has said, tremendously varied. 

  • Philnffc
    Philnffc Forum Participant Posts: 317
    edited March 2018 #5

    I've been Motorhoming for about fifteen years and for most of that time I have used this French web site: http://www.campingcar-infos.com/ which is easy to use even if your French is not up to much, tried all the books and guides but always return to this site which has a downloaded able POI for all aires with co-ordinates and with comments from users, it is also free which always helps.

    It also as the location of aires from other European countries which I've found very useful.

    Phil 

  • Unknown
    edited March 2018 #6
    This content has been removed.