Customer Reviews

Traveler's Guide to European Camping: Explore Europe with RV or Tent (Traveler's Guide series)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My husband and I have used this book on numerous camping excursions while living in Europe this past year. The guide is well written, with good descriptions and useful information. Camp-sights are easy to find with clear directions. Prices and ammenities are listed, using easy-to-read symbols. A brief section also outlines nearby sights and recreation, as well as access to public transportation into cities. European camping is a wonderful way to explore the continent on a budget and the campgrounds are unlike anything in the States. This book is an essential tool for camping in Europe!

Traveler's Guide to European Camping is an excellent resource for RV travel and camping in Europe. The writers of this book have done a lot of work researching campgrounds, which made planning for my European vacation so much easier. The authors are the experts on European camping; the introductory chapters explain the options available for camping in Europe including possible ways to obtain an RV, describe what to expect in European campgrounds, and provide details on related topics such as money, electrical appliances, laundry and fuel. They also provide an excellent website, www.rollinghomes.com, which has links to many other sites concerning European travel.

The remaining chapters provide informative introductions for each country or region and detailed information on at least one campground for each major city. The authors have selected the best campgrounds for tourists and have described the facilities and amenities, provided detailed directions for locating the campgrounds, and also have suggestions for sightseeing. I especially liked the information provided for using public transportation from the campgrounds, and the directions allowed me to easily locate the campgrounds even with inadequate signs.

I used this book to travel for four months while staying in campgrounds and will use it again to travel in Europe without the frustration of reading foreign-language campground lists, getting hopelessly lost trying to find campgrounds, and not knowing the approximate price and campground amenities before arrival.

Using campgrounds is a wonderful way to travel in Europe and this book, packed with information and travel tips, is indispensable.

We decided to try and motorhome it Europe with two families this past summer. We rented our motorhome through DRM in Dusseldorf and got started on our European vacation with the help of the Church's book "European Camping". Our first stop was in Heidelburg and we camped at the site they recommended, camping Haide. Well this book turned out to be our "bible" as it had excellent and accurate descriptions of the campgrounds around Europe. They describe what could be found at the campgrounds and what there was to see at that location. The book always gave excellent directions on how to get to each campsite and the estimated cost of the campground. This is an excellent book and a fantastic way to see Europe. This is my third time to Europe and it was my most enjoyable trip, thanks in a large part to the help of this book. Our only problem on this trip was we left the book in the campground at Antibes, France. this was one of the nicest campgrounds we stayed at, the washrooms were very clean and the pool was great! We didn't discover the loss of the book until 5 hours outside of Antibes and we then decided to go on and try the local pamphlets and tourist info's to camp in the remaining week that we had left. What a mistake!!! It was then that we truly discovered how wonderful this book was and how difficult it was to find a "good" campsite using local information. We did remember the campsite that the Church's listed for camping while in Paris, at the park right inside Paris. It was a wonderful campsite but it was very difficult to find without the book in our possesion. Whoever finds our book at the Antibes campsite recommended by the Church's has truly found a "pot of gold", a book that is the can be considered a camping bible for European camping. Our family thanks the Church's for a great book and we recommend that you don;'t leave home for Europe without it!
Rob Murphy
PS If anyone finds this book I would love to have it back.

The book is nice, with accurate information and reviews of the campgrounds with good information on how to find them.
However, it's of no use for snowbirds and winter campers, due to a total lack of information on all-year camps and winter activities. Also, the book points usually just one campground in each location, not giving you room for alternatives.
Anyway, if you plan a trip from March through October, it's a good buy.

We used this camping book matched with Rick Steves and it worked like a charm. While there are many other campgrounds around. This book highlights the nicer ones. We used it for places along the Rhine, Rothenburg, Vienna, Venice, Florence, Sienna, Chamonix and other places. Each time the campgrounds were nicer than when we did not use the book. The campgrounds were easy to find, even without a detailed map.

The only addition I would like is sightseeing and restaurant recommendations close to the campsites.

Camping is a great way to go in Europe!

First, the pros: This book does provide a comprehensive list of camping sites within Europe. However, more care needs to be taken regarding the research and actual descriptions of the campsites. As a former officer in the Marine Corps, I believe my map reading skills are accurate. However, the poor map descriptions and often just wrong details were a never-ending source of frustrations. Inaccurate map with incorrect street addresses, map not pointing north, etc., were just one of many examples we discovered. I know the authors recommended GPS but I did not feel it was necessary to skimp on actual accurate directions or maps. Melk, Austria was a perfect example of this. Another example was the section on Amsterdam. We chose a recommended camping ground because the description said it provided free warm showers and laundry facilities. Upon checking in it turned out that the showers were cold (no hot water option), they had to be paid for (as was the laundry) and there was no toilet paper provided! To be fair there are accurate descriptions as well, but I would forewarn buyers that not all camping grounds are accurately described and I have doubts whether the authors had personally visited them in a number of years. It was almost a joke between my wife and I by the end of our trip for when we would have our `Mike and Terry' argument in the process of finding our campground! To summarize: a good list of actual camping grounds but take the descriptions and directions with a grain of salt.

ok quide but doesn't have gps coordinates - they help so much - would be especially nice to have in european countries

I found this book to be big waste of money. It is huge, but big print and with relatively very few campsites reviewed. If you want to take the same trip the author's took, maybe you can use it. but if you want a comprehensive list of campsites in each country with recommendations, this is NOT it. Maps are poor and infrequent and information is generally sparse. Check out Michelin guides for more comprehensive info.

We did a car tour of Europe, and to save money, we did a little car camping. This book was very helpful in locating camp grounds and descibing what they had and the sights around them. Pretty handy, but a bit large to take with you on your trip. European car camping is very popular over there. They had showers, and often a place to do laundry. Traveling by car in Europe was a lot of fun too. It allowed us to find some great spots outside of the main urban areas and gave us more freedom to travel. I loved driving in Italy, it was hilarious that they just sort of go with the flow and the traffic laws and lines on the road are just a general guideline. Its a bit shocking at first but we went with the flow and had a lot of fun.