17 articles
Campervans, motorhomes and road trips: converting, travelling, overnighting and keeping the power on.
On paper, a campervan promises freedom, the kind where you stop where you like and leave when you like. In practice, that freedom takes some preparation, and this section deals with everything that makes it possible. Choosing between a panel van conversion, a campervan and a motorhome, hiring before you buy, planning a layout that works, understanding what registration, payload, licence categories and insurance involve: we take the questions in the order they tend to arrive.
Power deserves special treatment. Leisure batteries, solar panels and inverters are bought on figures, and those figures are worth a second look. Let’s do the sums on what a fridge, a diesel heater or a laptop really draws, then on what your system can actually supply. We help you size your set-up, with calculations laid out step by step and every assumption shown, and we tell you which questions to put to the professional who wires it.
Then comes the question of where to spend the night. Sleeping in a parked vehicle and camping are often treated differently, and the rules change from one country, council or national park to the next. We take them from the official texts and date them, and where there is doubt we name the authority to ask. You will also find the everyday routines on board: fresh and grey water, emptying the toilet in the right place, bottled gas and its precautions, electric hook-up, and driving something heavier and taller than a car.
These pages are written for a first trip in a hired campervan as much as for owners who have been fine-tuning their conversion for years. Figures always come with their unit and their starting assumption, because a claimed run time with no test conditions tells you very little. Our comparisons rest on published data and on the relevant standards, and a first-hand account, when there is one, is signed by the team member who lived it. And because conversions rarely go exactly to plan, we also cover the classic mistakes, from a payload that runs out too soon to a leisure battery that gives up on the second evening.
CampervansPractical guide
A French motorhome aire can be free or cost €30 for 24 hours, limit your stay to 48 hours or not limit it at all. What counts is written on its sign, not in a national law. Nine aires recorded on 8 November 2026 show what you find there, what they cost, how long you can stay, and what the apps that list them are worth.
Julien de Jurquet··15 min
Diesel, gas or electric: fuel per night, leisure battery draw, noise, prices, type approval and carbon monoxide, to choose the right campervan heater.
Julien de Jurquet··14 min
How much water to carry, how to keep the tank clean, where to empty grey water and the cassette, which products to use, and what dumping can cost.
Nolwenn Bastide··15 min
Lambda, thickness, thermal bridges, vapour barriers, condensation on bare steel: the figures for choosing a van’s insulation and keeping the damp out.
Julien de Jurquet··13 min
Headline prices and the fees on top, an excess of £1,250 to £2,500, deposit, card cover, cancellation, condition report: what UK hire terms say.
Julien de Jurquet··18 min
Payload is the maximum authorised mass minus the mass in service. What the empty weight counts, the 5% tolerance, how to weigh, and the fines by country.
Julien de Jurquet··16 min
Which Crit’Air sticker for a UK motorhome, even over 3.5 t? What your V5C shows, the only official site at €5.11, the French zones that restrict, the passes.
Arnaud Couderc··18 min
Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal: when a parked campervan is still just parked, and when a town, a coast or a protected area changes that.
Joséphine Garand··11 min
On the road, a motorhome parks like a car: a €35 fine, 7 days at most in one spot. Off the road, it counts as camping. The French rules, one by one.
Arnaud Couderc··11 min
Butane stops vaporising near 0 °C, propane keeps going to -42 °C. The 30 mbar regulator, French cylinders, hoses, adaptors and checks: a campervan gas guide.
Julien de Jurquet··12 min
A campervan costs about £9,100 to £10,900 a year to run before finance, on Ford, DESNZ, HMRC and Quotezone data. Every line priced, with its source.
Julien de Jurquet··15 min
From November 2026 to March 2027, winter tyres or snow chains on board in mountain areas of 34 French départements. The decree setting a fine is still missing.
Arnaud Couderc··5 min
What a solar panel lying flat on a campervan produces, month by month from Marseille to Edinburgh, according to PVGIS: 200, 300 or 400 W, and the battery.
Julien de Jurquet··12 min
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