Campercontact

[Tincataylor]

We have just arrived in southern France for the first time and before we came we subscribed to Camper Contact for information for the aires. We drove from Bilbao to Biarritz whe it showed several aires. The roads to all of these were blocked off and the parking in the town had height barriers. Undeterred we pressed on to the next likely looking spots and following the co-ordinates exactly to find that there were, and as far as we could see v=never were, any aires there. Is Campercontact unreliable or have we been unlucky?

The Tincas

 

[Robert Clark]

Did the aires have any recent reviews?

I don’t tend to visit aires that have no feedback.
Hopefully your next one will work out better

 

[keithchesterfield2]

Have you got the co-ords and address of the non existent Aire ?

Someone else might have been there and could help.

Campercontact is not always totally accurate, it usually relies on Members putting in the correct info, but its rarely 'lost' an Aire.

 

[Just smiffy]

I always check the aire on google maps satellite, you can usually see that there is an aire there and it’s surroundings...

 

[wizza]

Make sure you put the correct co-ordinates in I forgot to move the decimal point once and ended up no we’re near the aire.now I use directions in the app. And a sat nag

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[Guigsy]

We've been using it for months in France, Spain, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium and Switzerland. Never had any issues.

Our plans do normally have a nearby backup site just in case. We've only needed it when the primary was full though.

 

[WynandJean]

Yes we've been caught out by co-ordinates in the past. There are three different formats in which they can be entered!

Wyn

 

[Lenny HB]

Camper Contact is probably the most reliable source we have been caught out a couple of times. Rember one where there was space for two vans outside a campsite, the campsite had put there big waste bins in it.

I've stayed at the Brarritz municipale Aire CC 1822.

 

[ChrisL]

If your using campercontact on a phone or tablet and using the same device to navigate, you can tap on the route button in the lower right corner of the Aire description and depending on what navigation software you have on the phone it will take you to your destination, you don't have to enter the coordinates in separately.

 

[adonisito]

Camper Contact doesn't have as many new daily reviews as Park4Night, we find the latter more up to date.

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[Spawn_e_git]

We stayed a few years back at an aire up the road from Biarritz in Anglet. Was right next to the beach with bars etc a short walk away. Was great.

Motorhome parking | Sitecode 9792
Aire de Camping-Car des Corsaires
Anglet / Aquitaine [24-33-40-47-64] / France

 

[jongood]

Ondres plage just north of biarritz is good cant miss it.

Plage de milady at biarritz but noisy and pricy.

 

[DBK]

We have just arrived in southern France for the first time and before we came we subscribed to Camper Contact for information for the aires. We drove from Bilbao to Biarritz whe it showed several aires. The roads to all of these were blocked off and the parking in the town had height barriers. Undeterred we pressed on to the next likely looking spots and following the co-ordinates exactly to find that there were, and as far as we could see v=never were, any aires there. Is Campercontact unreliable or have we been unlucky?

The Tincas

I've checked the reviews of the two aires just south of Biarritz and both had recent reviews from this year.

My guess is you might be using the wrong co-ordinate format. CamperContact shows two formats. It doesn't matter which you use but make sure your satnav is set to the same. The decimal one is perhaps the easier to use so choose the ddd.ddddd option in the satnav. However, don't confuse this with the ddd mm.mmmm option which CamperContact doesn't use.

 

[Clarky]

We stopped at Aire de Camping-Car Gabrielle Dorziat at Biaritz (Camper Contact 51886) just over a year ago and found it easily.
Just had a look on CamperContact and the co-ordinates are spot on.
Last review on CC is from just a few days ago.
Think the OP must have been entering the incorrect info into the sat-nag as @DBK says.

Richard.

 

[monzer]

I've checked the reviews of the two aires just south of Biarritz and both had recent reviews from this year.

My guess is you might be using the wrong co-ordinate format. CamperContact shows two formats. It doesn't matter which you use but make sure your satnav is set to the same. The decimal one is perhaps the easier to use so choose the ddd.ddddd option in the satnav. However, don't confuse this with the ddd mm.mmmm option which CamperContact doesn't use.

I was actually going to dig out one of the old co-ordinate threads but this one will do.

I prefer to use ddd.ddddd format but an example of a stop on park4night gives 36.439499 - -5.1012 so what do you enter in the sat-nav that needs a value in all 5 of the digits after the decimal point?

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[monzer]

Oh and it's good practice to compare the maps on your app and sat-nav once you have entered the co-ordinates just to see that they both look like they are sending you to the same spot.

 

[jongood]

Oh and it's good practice to compare the maps on your app and sat-nav once you have entered the co-ordinates just to see that they both look like they are sending you to the same spot.

I couldnt agree more. I also route by map, I cannot understand the mentality that is happy to blindly follow an electronic device, IMO they are an aid and no more.

 

[DBK]

I was actually going to dig out one of the old co-ordinate threads but this one will do.

I prefer to use ddd.ddddd format but an example of a stop on park4night gives 36.439499 - -5.1012 so what do you enter in the sat-nav that needs a value in all 5 of the digits after the decimal point?

If you want to really precise then 36.439499 should be entered as 36.43950 if there is only space for 5 digits. This is called rounding and the rule is 0 to 4 is rounded down and 5 to 9 is rounded up. However, in reality it isn't really necessary, you can just enter as many digits as there is room for and you will still find the aire. For example, by ignoring the last digit above you will still be no more than ten metres from the aire as 0.000001° is about a metre, depending where you are on the globe.

 

[Allanm]

I think it’s best to have a couple of these apps and maybe a book or two if you rely solely on aires, which we do.
Our favourite app so far is Camperstop.
We recently spent a few weeks in the South of France Spain and Portugal and had no trouble finding any of the aires.

 

[emjaiuk]

If you want to really precise then 36.439499 should be entered as 36.43950 if there is only space for 5 digits. This is called rounding and the rule is 0 to 4 is rounded down and 5 to 9 is rounded up. However, in reality it isn't really necessary, you can just enter as many digits as there is room for and you will still find the aire. For example, by ignoring the last digit above you will still be no more than ten metres from the aire as 0.000001° is about a metre, depending where you are on the globe.

Thanks, but @monzer was asking how you find/create a 5th digit after the decimal point.

I must admit I try to always check a destination road name or map layout when using POIs or coordinates

Malcolm

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[jockaneezer]

If you need a fifth digit on the end, just chuck a zero in.

 

[rod_vw]

Thanks, but @monzer was asking how you find/create a 5th digit after the decimal point.

I must admit I try to always check a destination road name or map layout when using POIs or coordinates

Malcolm

Simply add a 0 after the fourth digit. As @DBK says the difference in the location is a matter of a few metres.

 

[rod_vw]

With many of the on-line apps accuracy of description is up to us the users to report changes both good and bad.

The more accurate reviews we give the better the resource is for all to use.

Rod