Small sites and overnights

Published in Campsite Reviews, Motorhoming Top Tips on   - 8 Comments

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  1. Nicola Heath says:

    Hi, this serms to recommend Britstops for Caravans but their website states it’s for Campervans only?

  2. Terry Shaw says:

    First of all let me state that I drive a camper-van, I can however, understand why I would not be allowed to “overnight” on a HGV area. Come on, those boys have a job to do and are only allowed to drive set hours, where as I am pursuing a leisure activity and have no legal restriction. . How long would the HGV areas be available to truckers If we were allowed access? I would guess it would not be long before you had to book the ones near London.

  3. Andrew Harcourt says:

    Actually what I did in the end was to use Google Maps, look for a likely looking dead-end street near a railway station, go to street view, ‘drive’ down the road and I found a free public car park near a recreation ground and railway station. We went there and spent a couple of quiet, free nights. Isn’t Street View wonderful?

  4. Andrew Harcourt says:

    That is very interesting Liz, thank you for spending time finding it! I am actually impressed that they write these things in English, not gobbledegook. I note that they continually use the word ‘caravan’ and so far as I could see there was no reference to motorhome / motor caravan / camper van nor anywhere did I see any reference to a definition of a caravan and whether ‘caravan’ also includes motor home / motor caravan / camper van.
    You can tell that a lot of it is written with a very close eye kept on the activities that ‘travellers’ might get up to.
    There was nothing there that would prevent a lorry park from taking a motorhome for a night or two. Indeed some motorhomes are HGVs specifically adapted for habitation and not carrying loads at all. I guess that if I said I had a 15 ton Scania then I would have been OK, even if the Scania had a table, chairs, bed, washroom and wardrobe in it.

    • Liz @ Caravan Guard says:

      Good luck with your overnight stops in the future Andrew – you’re now armed with some extra information!

  5. Gordon Pomfret says:

    Informative and helpful with suggestions for further research.

  6. Andrew Harcourt says:

    I think I have found an anomaly in the overnighting laws. Are they laws, I am not sure? The law, or theory, is that a farmer or other land owner can have up to five caravans / and presumably motorhomes? parked on their land overnight with occupants. No more than five, so far as I know. Recently I wanted to overnight somewhere close to London centre without paying a hotel price just to park for the night. I found a truck stop where you can park your HGV articulated lorry, enjoy the lounge with TV and food machines, showers, washroom and kitchen /diner, and sleep in your cab, for £15. That was fine until I phoned to book in, and when I said I had a small motorhome they refused me. No Motorhomes, with no explanation. When I asked why they just said we don’t allow motorhomes. I suspected it must have something to do with a law about caravan parks. So it is OK to drive your 35 ton HGV in there and park with all the facilities of a camp site and pay a small fee, but it is not OK to do the same with a motorhome. I don’t understand why. Do you think this was a peculiarity of the owners of this HGV park, or is it because of an anomaly in the law that says it is OK to run a lorry parking site but not ok to run a camping site without a licence?


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