Over night stops

[DavenGill1]

Hi all,

We are travelling to Berlin in September and would like some information about stopping overnight. We are leaving home Thursday morning, catching the 7.30 ferry and driving all day towards Berlin, as it is almost 600 miles from leaving Calais we are looking at one night stop over and arriving Friday evening. Our questions are is it ok to stop at one of the motorway stops or is it safer to stay at a campsite? has any one stopped over night at one of the rest areas in Germany? We know it is a long way and as we only are only going for 9 nights we want to get there as soon as possible to spend as much time sight seeing as we can.

 

[intransient1]

We regularly travel across Europe and stop on motorway services, but we do take care where we park.
Always in view over the main building pile up the aquaroll with the wastemaster on top in the door overnight.
A personal attack alarm can be tied to the door handle and a cupboard handle makes a great door alarm.
Hitchlock the van to the tow car and put the wheel lock on.
We never stop on the small rest areas only the main ones and having done this for the last 6 years without incident.

 

[RayS]

I don't use aires etc. but if I did I would also remove any extension towing mirrors. Far too easy to take off without disturbing the sleeping travellers.

 

[SwingLowJim]

A few years ogo we stopped for the night at a large service area on the French autoroute very close to the main building, we were reassured to see security guards driving around , it was a big area. We were disturbed at 2.00am and peeped through the curtain to see two figures trying to open the door.We turned on the lights and they ran off into a wooded area but did not vanish , we could still see them seemingly waiting to have another go. We wound the legs up and cleared off. .......that was the first and last time we had a free night in France. Be warned !

 

[Jim_374334401]

We have travelled extensively across Europe for 25 years and in our early days we used service areas as overnight stops. We thought the scare stories were just that, something which always happened to someone else. Until that is we woke up one night to find an intruder in the caravan who had forced the lock, cut through the fly screen we has pulled across the door and subsequently made off with our mains lead which was on the seat behind the door. Very scary and needless to say we no longer overnight this way. There are many local option en route, if you work out a place then find a site on the Internet that works best.

 

[DavenGill1]

Many thanks for the replies, we will be looking for a site en route. We will be looking at about 300 miles from Calais.

 

[BedfordGeorge]

Hello Dave,

As you are travelling in September why not look at joining ACSI at a cost of about £10-00 you get their book with 2,940 camp sites in every European country, all offering pitches at 12/14/16 or 18 euro's a night, depending the facilities or position of the site. With the savings offered you normally recoup all your money with just 3 nights pitching. I personally would never stay anywhere other than a proper site, the extra security and peace of mind is worth the cost involved. The books alone are worth the cost, look for them on ...
www.campingcard.com or www.campingcard.co.uk

I am also hoping to visit Berlin later this year as part of a 6 week tour, lets hope it is as interesting as it seems to be.