French Passion or Park 4 night ?

[paulhelenwilko]

Do people join French Passion anymore ?
Aren't all the stopovers covered by Park 4 night/searchforsites ?

Paul

 

[dunnah01]

You're not really supposed to stay at France Passion sites if you're not a paid up member. The little windscreen sticker is a giveaway to the owner although whether they'd turn you away if you didn't do their little tour is doubtful although it would be a bit rude.

 

[treblid]

We haven't rejoined since 2018.

For us SearchforSites is the go to place for all stops. It does a good job of aggregating all the options.

 

[denisejoe]

We generally use Camper Contact to find aires. Not keen on P4N.

 

[chaser]

When we first started we used fp a lot and really enjoyed them but at that time they were a bugger to find ( better now ) and could cost a bit if you used their shop and stuff like britstops.
But haven't used them since 2015 we now don't use anything but p4n now and as a matter of fact have even used some stops out of there that are actually fp but nothing has ever been said.

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[cliffanger]

We’ve used P4N all the way to Greece and and throughout the Pelleponese, and are now in Italy on the way home - it’s been brilliant.

 

[treblid]

We use P4N as a back up but some of their locations are very out of date, not somewhere I would feel safe or they no longer exist!

 

[Lenny HB]

We haven't rejoined since 2018.

For us SearchforSites is the go to place for all stops. It does a good job of aggregating all the options.

Problem with search4Sites the places it list are limited we often find it will list 2 Aires in an area when there are 5 or 6
Camper Contact is much better although S4S is easier to use.

 

[Lenny HB]

We generally use Camper Contact to find aires. Not keen on P4N.

Us to.

 

[vzac]

I joined/ purchased french passion this yr. Then realised 99% of the sites are vineyards. Don't like wine. Think it was a mistake.

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[LesW]

I would never rely on just the one app..

 

[scotjimland]

Have never joined France Passion.. so never used, and never found a need. In over 20 years of travelling to France and beyond we have only used aires or municipally sites, but sadly many of them have been sold to private companies , as is the case with many aires that were once free or very cheap, sold to Camping-Car Park.. who to be fair have improved them but have also raised the price.

Back to the question
I have never found one app that covers ALL aires and stopovers..
You need at least a couple or three ..

In no particular order are the ones I use..

1. Search For Sites .. pro version ..
good all round app, with the most comprehensive listings, but not all aires ..
downside, it can be a slow to load if you are on mobile data .. each time you open it syncs points , reviews and then initialises.
Also found issues with the app on Android tablet.

2. Park 4 Night .. free version ..
haven't used much.

3. Campercontact.. pro version ..
my go-to aires app..worth the annual subs If I recall correctly , £5.99

4. Camping-Car Park..
for use only with Camping-Car Park aires ..
We have used several and they have been good. You can pre book if you pay an annual fee... more info on their web page..
Downside they are buying up once free aires, 'upgrading' and now cost circa €14.50 .. inclusive of water, dumping and a 6A EHU ..

5. Archiescampings.. For campsites all over Europe .. so not much use if you prefer aires and stopovers
this has been going for 16 + years, used to have a web page but it has been closed.. only an app now

 

[David BW]

We joined France Passion this year and have spent five and a half weeks in France over two visits. We've used their locations almost exclusively and her been more than pleased. There were a few times when we couldn't find one that sounded appealing to us nearby (we don't do foie gras) and we then reverted to S4S and CaraMaps.

 

[chaser]

Problem with search4Sites the places it list are limited we often find it will list 2 Aires in an area when there are 5 or 6
Camper Contact is much better although S4S is easier to use.

Have you got filters set up on s4s.
That is why we reverted to the free p4n as you can't put filters in that .
We were finding paid for p4n was missing some Aires that we knew were there , then realised it was because we had filters set up that we didn't realise was on it.
So we now have the free version that lists them all and then do our own filtering.

 

[Imala615]

I prefer to use search for sites and also have campercontact preloaded on a Tom Tom camper i bought in France and also use the app. Caramaps is another with all the stops (i use it to log my trip) but it is sometime hard to navigate but it does have up to date reviews.

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[Lenny HB]

Have you got filters set up on s4s.
That is why we reverted to the free p4n as you can't put filters in that .
We were finding paid for p4n was missing some Aires that we knew were there , then realised it was because we had filters set up that we didn't realise was on it.
So we now have the free version that lists them all and then do our own filtering.

I leave everything on, I find it's more of a problem in Spain.

 

[Lenny HB]

Another thing with S4S is you have to take a lot of the reviews with a pinch of salt. Lots of them seem to expect site facilities on an Aire & complain about road noise when the Aire is on a main road.

 

[treblid]

Search For Sites .. pro version ..
good all round app, with the most comprehensive listings, but not all aires ..
downside, it can be a slow to load if you are on mobile data

Not normally that slow. Have you got the 'Sync on start up' ticked in settings?

 

[treblid]

Problem with search4Sites the places it list are limited we often find it will list 2 Aires in an area when there are 5 or 6
Camper Contact is much better although S4S is easier to use.

We always did use Camper Contact as our main app. We still have the subscription as we still refer to it as required.

Shame there is not a single reliable solution.

 

[suavecarve]

Theres a couple of FP sites we use that if we stay there for a couple of nights then in our minds we have made our money back

The Lavender farm where you stay in a gated truffle orchard near to lac de st croix and the vineyard in the entre of ile d'Oleron.
Both now check membership.
Anything extra is a plus.
I also pay for campercontact and am in the process of being converted to it from S4S which I use for free. Campercontact by a very long way superior in Germany and I will pay for it next year for Spain and France (but dont really need it for France as we think Provence is our port of call (again))

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[treblid]

Another thing with S4S is you have to take a lot of the reviews with a pinch of salt. Lots of them seem to expect site facilities on an Aire & complain about road noise when the Aire is on a main road.

The thing that frustrates me most with S4S is that when you have all options showing (i.e. no filters), the map is obliterated by icons! This is most annoying when doing advance planning of an area you want to visit. You can not see any town names, etc. to get your bearings.

With Camper Contact (and P4N) you can navigate the app map easily to the area in question you are researching and then click 'Search this area'.

 

[VXman]

We use P4N as a back up but some of their locations are very out of date, not somewhere I would feel safe or they no longer exist!

It's a real problem with P4N. They should have someway of allowing reporting of changes to sites, closing down of places, parking banned, changes in prices etc. Generally the descriptions are way out of date.

 

[Pappy]

We have had mixed experiences with FP. We have stopped at some lovely places. We always posted positive reviews. However, when when we had a couple of appalling experiences they wouldn’t allow us to post negative reviews saying we could harm their business. I found this worrying.

 

[Shrimp]

We have several apps, the Vicarious books, the French Aires book and I have Aire se Camping Car app-French.

 

[treblid]

We have several apps, the Vicarious books, the French Aires book and I have Aire se Camping Car app-French.

We find the books very hard to navigate and when you do find a place, you have to try and manually add the details to your navigation system!

We have given up with the Vicarious range. They are too archaic to use Vs the apps that seamlessly integrate with navigation apps.

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[JockandRita]

We use P4N as a back up but some of their locations are very out of date, not somewhere I would feel safe or they no longer exist!

That was our experience with P4N too. S4S is the No1 App for us with Camper Contact being the No2.

Cheers,

Jock.

 

[Lenny HB]

We have had mixed experiences with FP.

FP?

 

[chaser]

We have had mixed experiences with FP. We have stopped at some lovely places. We always posted positive reviews. However, when when we had a couple of appalling experiences they wouldn’t allow us to post negative reviews saying we could harm their business. I found this worrying.

When we couldn't park at one of our favourite Aires in blaye because it has been closed because they have now got a CCP type thing we drove just out of town to a retired wine grower who is in both FP and p4n, and he was telling us a lot of the fp places are giving up on fp now as they have to pay to be in it whereas he is getting far more visitors out of p4n.

 

[chaser]

FP?

France passion.

 

[jumartoo]

It's a real problem with P4N. They should have someway of allowing reporting of changes to sites, closing down of places, parking banned, changes in prices etc. Generally the descriptions are way out of date.

You can go onto any particular site and send an edit. I did it myself a week or so ago. A place we've used for years that has four parking spaces was on the app as grey water emptying only. It's now updated, with photos.

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