Germay fun......oh and Stellplatz...... What an absolute PITA system

[Taff015]

Just back from a 15 day jaunt round southern Germany. Attempted to get into Stellplatz as follows:

Rothenburg - Chock full of German & Italian vans (realised it was a bank holiday weekend!!) found brilliant off grid spot at the swimming pool 100m further down road
Fussen - Full of (Mostly) Italian units badly parked and reducing the amount of parking. Ended up off grid at a parkplatz on the autobahn
Garmish - got into a spot (off grid) at the Olympic stadium 6Euro for 24 hours, really good although the public toilets shut at 2200. Luckily my toilet wasn't too full!!

On then to Bernau am Chiemsee. Found a campsite just off the A8 basic but had electric and water. Stayed 5 days there and used it as a commuting point. 1 hr drive to Berchtesgaden parked in p3 carpark near documentation centre. Top tip, if you want to go up to the Eagles nest, arrive at the ticket office by 0800, first bus up is 0830. By the time we came back down at 1100 ish, there was massive queues.

Then 3 days in Munich using the train from Bernau 90 min train journey. Utilised the 9Euro per person rail tickets for a month. Awesome value

Off then to Nuremberg. Again Stellplatz full (Italians seriously cant get enough of southern Germany!) but found a free carpark near the Documentation Centre off grid but 5 mins walk from the bits I wanted to see.

Then off to Bruhl to go to Phantasialand. No Stellplatz that I could find but found a quiet carpark about 1 mile from park. Next morning, arrived at park and the first 2 vehicles into the carpark was us and another N&B Flair!!

Off then towards Gent and stopped at motorway services just outside Brussels. Free but no amenities

I bought a German book listing all of the Stellplatz in Germany but ultimately is was of very little use. The Park 4 Night app however was an absolute godsend.

In retrospect, I am actually glad the Stellplatz were all full as every one we looked at was just a mishmash of humanity with electric cables and and rubbish everywhere!!

All in all we spent most of the time off grid and the van was great. I did however realise on the last day that my van has a heat exchanger that takes engine heat and heats up the water and the central heating!!! Didn't I feel an arse after the van was bouncing with heat for 2 weeks in a heatwave in Europe.......

Takeaways from trip.....

1. My budget was off by 100% I spent double what I had thought.
2. Take a spare cassette for toilet as I was dangerously close to full quite often (3 people off grid will do that!!)
3. You can never have enough Hubi battery packs!! I only had one but could have used 2 to run 2 fans at night!
4. If you haven't ridden a bike in 20 years, get a softer saddle!! In all honesty though riding bikes in Germany and Belgium was so much easier that the UK
5. If you want to use Stellplatz, use the force to figure out the best time to arrive and find a space
6. If the German Government do the 9 Euro travel cards, use them. Public transport in Germany is plentiful, efficient, clean and safe.
7. Motorway park areas are generally full of trucks even during the week
8. Belgium was very quiet (Ypres & Bastogne) campsite were good and bookable online!!
9. There are 2 museums in Bastogne, don't make the mistake I made and book tickets for one and turn up at the other!!! (101 Airborne museum is in town and very good. Bastogne museum is about 2 miles out of town also good but bit of a drag when walking!)

Its a shame Germany doesn't operate some sort of system like the UK clubs where you can book in advance. I can recommend the campsite at Bernau am Chiemsee (Campingplatz Mariengrund). Its a sort of turn up, find a spot, plug in and at 1800 go and pay sort of place but the staff are great and sell awesome currywurst!!

 

[jongood]

Just back from a 15 day jaunt round southern Germany. Attempted to get into Stellplatz as follows:

Rothenburg - Chock full of German & Italian vans (realised it was a bank holiday weekend!!) found brilliant off grid spot at the swimming pool 100m further down road
Fussen - Full of (Mostly) Italian units badly parked and reducing the amount of parking. Ended up off grid at a parkplatz on the autobahn
Garmish - got into a spot (off grid) at the Olympic stadium 6Euro for 24 hours, really good although the public toilets shut at 2200. Luckily my toilet wasn't too full!!

On then to Bernau am Chiemsee. Found a campsite just off the A8 basic but had electric and water. Stayed 5 days there and used it as a commuting point. 1 hr drive to Berchtesgaden parked in p3 carpark near documentation centre. Top tip, if you want to go up to the Eagles nest, arrive at the ticket office by 0800, first bus up is 0830. By the time we came back down at 1100 ish, there was massive queues.

Then 3 days in Munich using the train from Bernau 90 min train journey. Utilised the 9Euro per person rail tickets for a month. Awesome value

Off then to Nuremberg. Again Stellplatz full (Italians seriously cant get enough of southern Germany!) but found a free carpark near the Documentation Centre off grid but 5 mins walk from the bits I wanted to see.

Then off to Bruhl to go to Phantasialand. No Stellplatz that I could find but found a quiet carpark about 1 mile from park. Next morning, arrived at park and the first 2 vehicles into the carpark was us and another N&B Flair!!

Off then towards Gent and stopped at motorway services just outside Brussels. Free but no amenities

I bought a German book listing all of the Stellplatz in Germany but ultimately is was of very little use. The Park 4 Night app however was an absolute godsend.

In retrospect, I am actually glad the Stellplatz were all full as every one we looked at was just a mishmash of humanity with electric cables and and rubbish everywhere!!

All in all we spent most of the time off grid and the van was great. I did however realise on the last day that my van has a heat exchanger that takes engine heat and heats up the water and the central heating!!! Didn't I feel an arse after the van was bouncing with heat for 2 weeks in a heatwave in Europe.......

Takeaways from trip.....

1. My budget was off by 100% I spent double what I had thought.
2. Take a spare cassette for toilet as I was dangerously close to full quite often (3 people off grid will do that!!)
3. You can never have enough Hubi battery packs!! I only had one but could have used 2 to run 2 fans at night!
4. If you haven't ridden a bike in 20 years, get a softer saddle!! In all honesty though riding bikes in Germany and Belgium was so much easier that the UK
5. If you want to use Stellplatz, use the force to figure out the best time to arrive and find a space
6. If the German Government do the 9 Euro travel cards, use them. Public transport in Germany is plentiful, efficient, clean and safe.
7. Motorway park areas are generally full of trucks even during the week
8. Belgium was very quiet (Ypres & Bastogne) campsite were good and bookable online!!
9. There are 2 museums in Bastogne, don't make the mistake I made and book tickets for one and turn up at the other!!! (101 Airborne museum is in town and very good. Bastogne museum is about 2 miles out of town also good but bit of a drag when walking!)

Its a shame Germany doesn't operate some sort of system like the UK clubs where you can book in advance. I can recommend the campsite at Bernau am Chiemsee (Campingplatz Mariengrund). Its a sort of turn up, find a spot, plug in and at 1800 go and pay sort of place but the staff are great and sell awesome currywurst!!

i honestly don't recognise this as the same Germany I visit. Never ever booked, very rarely have a problem getting on and stayed in some superb stellplatze. yes there's the odd scruffy one, but lots of lovely ones.

 

[Taff015]

i honestly don't recognise this as the same Germany I visit. Never ever booked, very rarely have a problem getting on and stayed in some superb stellplatze. yes there's the odd scruffy one, but lots of lovely ones.

Its highly likely that this was down to a Bank Holiday in Bavaria and the fact that it was mid August. I also hadnt planned anything and sort of pointed in a direction and went for it. There were a lot of vans about especially near Neuschwanstein Castle and Garmish.

Its also possible that we hit them all at the wrong times. However, there was never really an issue as I found alternatives al be it without power or water but that was never an issue as I can be self sufficient for easily a week if I had a second cassette. I'm also 8.5m long so that made things slightly more awkward. Especially when I had to reverse out of one place and my reversing camera decided that was the time to break down!!

The best thing we did was do everything early. Partanach Gorge in Garmish for instance was amazing and empty as we were there by 0800. crowds didn't usually appear until 0930 onwards. The Partenach lodge Cafe does a fantastic breakfast for 15 Euro

 

[CazPaul]

i honestly don't recognise this as the same Germany I visit. Never ever booked, very rarely have a problem getting on and stayed in some superb stellplatze. yes there's the odd scruffy one, but lots of lovely ones.

Yes me too, wonderful country to tour in a Motorhome, the Stellplatze system is brilliant.

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

Moral is,don't go during a bank holiday or last week of school hols,everywhere is busy.even in Italy with most of the italians in Germany .

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[Brains]

We found Germany very full this summer, mostly Germans and Dutch.
The 'staycation' is not just a british thing, it's the same over most of Europe this summer
(and due to the economic situation, the next few summers as well)

The number of Brits we saw, in 9 weeks, could be put on one hand.
Several sites commented that since 2019 they have only seen 2 or 3 British vans all season.

We went to several of the same places as you, Fussen has three stellplatzes, all within 100m of each other, all full all the time.
But I thought very well run, we were on the last one down the road, they actually had a member of staff asking badly parked vans to move.

Rothenburg, we stayed in the campsite below the town, we got very fit walking up each day!

Bike riding, we did over 350 miles in our time there, soooooo much better infrastructure than the UK

Spare cassette: We considered buying one before we left, could not find one to buy. With the benefit of hindsight, I'd not bother with a 2nd one, we always found somewhere to dump it.

Costs: We had most things about right, however the cost of the Campsites surprised us, we were working on about €20 per night, we needed to more than double that.
Not that we stayed there, but at Fussen in July, the local (very nice) sites were all over €70 per night !!!! (one was €84!)

 

[Taff015]

Moral is,don't go during a bank holiday or last week of school hols,everywhere is busy.even in Italy with most of the italians in Germany .

I hadn't even considered it and didn't actually realise that there was a bank holiday in Bavaria until the shops sere shut on the Monday!! I was expecting to get into Stellplatz as I have not had issues before. As I said above, in the end, I used the park4night app and always found a space somewhere. Those are the breaks I guess. It didn't up nor down us in the end, it just felt pointless to try by half way through.

Next time, we will go out with the School holidays as eldest will be in Uni next year and youngest gets left at home!!

 

[Brains]

I hadn't even considered it and didn't actually realise that there was a bank holiday in Bavaria until the shops sere shut on the Monday!! I was expecting to get into Stellplatz as I have not had issues before. As I said above, in the end, I used the park4night app and always found a space somewhere. Those are the breaks I guess. It didn't up nor down us in the end, it just felt pointless to try by half way through.

Next time, we will go out with the School holidays as eldest will be in Uni next year and youngest gets left at home!!

We got caught out by the holidays as well!
Ascension, Assumption, Corpus Christi, there were loads of them!
And every site is full a week before and a week after each one!

 

[Taff015]

We found Germany very full this summer, mostly Germans and Dutch.
The 'staycation' is not just a british thing, it's the same over most of Europe this summer
(and due to the economic situation, the next few summers as well)

The number of Brits we saw, in 9 weeks, could be put on one hand.
Several sites commented that since 2019 they have only seen 2 or 3 British vans all season.

We went to several of the same places as you, Fussen has three stellplatzes, all within 100m of each other, all full all the time.
But I thought very well run, we were on the last one down the road, they actually had a member of staff asking badly parked vans to move.

Rothenburg, we stayed in the campsite below the town, we got very fit walking up each day!

Bike riding, we did over 350 miles in our time there, soooooo much better infrastructure than the UK

Spare cassette: We considered buying one before we left, could not find one to buy. With the benefit of hindsight, I'd not bother with a 2nd one, we always found somewhere to dump it.

Costs: We had most things about right, however the cost of the Campsites surprised us, we were working on about €20 per night, we needed to more than double that.
Not that we stayed there, but at Fussen in July, the local (very nice) sites were all over €70 per night !!!! (one was €84!)

My overspending was mostly on fuel and coffee/cakes!!! Strangely fuel was 1.74 Euro in Austria and over 2.0 Euro (mostly) in Germany. I did save on campsites when off grid however and I can highly recommend the campsite in Bernau even if the way of dumping grey water and getting water onboard was by using the chemical toilet drop point and its associated tap!! takes a while with a 40litre water roller and a 200 litre on board tank!!

 

[jongood]

lots of Germans in Croatia and Montenegro

We found Germany very full this summer, mostly Germans and Dutch.
The 'staycation' is not just a british thing, it's the same over most of Europe this summer
(and due to the economic situation, the next few summers as well)

The number of Brits we saw, in 9 weeks, could be put on one hand.
Several sites commented that since 2019 they have only seen 2 or 3 British vans all season.

We went to several of the same places as you, Fussen has three stellplatzes, all within 100m of each other, all full all the time.
But I thought very well run, we were on the last one down the road, they actually had a member of staff asking badly parked vans to move.

Rothenburg, we stayed in the campsite below the town, we got very fit walking up each day!

Bike riding, we did over 350 miles in our time there, soooooo much better infrastructure than the UK

Spare cassette: We considered buying one before we left, could not find one to buy. With the benefit of hindsight, I'd not bother with a 2nd one, we always found somewhere to dump it.

Costs: We had most things about right, however the cost of the Campsites surprised us, we were working on about €20 per night, we needed to more than double that.
Not that we stayed there, but at Fussen in July, the local (very nice) sites were all over €70 per night !!!! (one was €84!)

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[Rob Turner]

You have to arrive early at most Stellplatze, mid afternoon most are getting full especially in July/August and areas like the Romantic Road.
I’ve never struggled tbf.

 

[Coastal Cruiser.]

Just the time of year, been over 3 times in the last 12 months and off again next week and never had any issues with Stellplatz and a few stops where the towns you mention.
Fussen in May was busy and we were lucky with the last few places, Rothenburg in October was not to bad but due to thr size of our van it limited the spaces we could use.
Now if you had have gone to Croatia or Italy you would have struggled as most of Germany are there on holidays

 

[Jim]

Just back from a 15 day jaunt round southern Germany. Attempted to get into Stellplatz as follows:

Rothenburg - Chock full of German & Italian vans (realised it was a bank holiday weekend!!) found brilliant off grid spot at the swimming pool 100m further down road
Fussen - Full of (Mostly) Italian units badly parked and reducing the amount of parking. Ended up off grid at a parkplatz on the autobahn
Garmish - got into a spot (off grid) at the Olympic stadium 6Euro for 24 hours, really good although the public toilets shut at 2200. Luckily my toilet wasn't too full!!

On then to Bernau am Chiemsee. Found a campsite just off the A8 basic but had electric and water. Stayed 5 days there and used it as a commuting point. 1 hr drive to Berchtesgaden parked in p3 carpark near documentation centre. Top tip, if you want to go up to the Eagles nest, arrive at the ticket office by 0800, first bus up is 0830. By the time we came back down at 1100 ish, there was massive queues.

Then 3 days in Munich using the train from Bernau 90 min train journey. Utilised the 9Euro per person rail tickets for a month. Awesome value

Off then to Nuremberg. Again Stellplatz full (Italians seriously cant get enough of southern Germany!) but found a free carpark near the Documentation Centre off grid but 5 mins walk from the bits I wanted to see.

Then off to Bruhl to go to Phantasialand. No Stellplatz that I could find but found a quiet carpark about 1 mile from park. Next morning, arrived at park and the first 2 vehicles into the carpark was us and another N&B Flair!!

Off then towards Gent and stopped at motorway services just outside Brussels. Free but no amenities

I bought a German book listing all of the Stellplatz in Germany but ultimately is was of very little use. The Park 4 Night app however was an absolute godsend.

In retrospect, I am actually glad the Stellplatz were all full as every one we looked at was just a mishmash of humanity with electric cables and and rubbish everywhere!!

All in all we spent most of the time off grid and the van was great. I did however realise on the last day that my van has a heat exchanger that takes engine heat and heats up the water and the central heating!!! Didn't I feel an arse after the van was bouncing with heat for 2 weeks in a heatwave in Europe.......

Takeaways from trip.....

1. My budget was off by 100% I spent double what I had thought.
2. Take a spare cassette for toilet as I was dangerously close to full quite often (3 people off grid will do that!!)
3. You can never have enough Hubi battery packs!! I only had one but could have used 2 to run 2 fans at night!
4. If you haven't ridden a bike in 20 years, get a softer saddle!! In all honesty though riding bikes in Germany and Belgium was so much easier that the UK
5. If you want to use Stellplatz, use the force to figure out the best time to arrive and find a space
6. If the German Government do the 9 Euro travel cards, use them. Public transport in Germany is plentiful, efficient, clean and safe.
7. Motorway park areas are generally full of trucks even during the week
8. Belgium was very quiet (Ypres & Bastogne) campsite were good and bookable online!!
9. There are 2 museums in Bastogne, don't make the mistake I made and book tickets for one and turn up at the other!!! (101 Airborne museum is in town and very good. Bastogne museum is about 2 miles out of town also good but bit of a drag when walking!)

Its a shame Germany doesn't operate some sort of system like the UK clubs where you can book in advance. I can recommend the campsite at Bernau am Chiemsee (Campingplatz Mariengrund). Its a sort of turn up, find a spot, plug in and at 1800 go and pay sort of place but the staff are great and sell awesome currywurst!!

My advice, get up earlier. We arrive at the SP we have chosen by 10am. Never have a problem even at the busiest times.

 

[Taff015]

My advice, get up earlier. We arrive at the SP we have chosen by 10am. Never have a problem even at the busiest times.

Yeah. I figured it was our timings. However I was doing the tourist thing in the mornings and then driving in the evenings.

To be honest, I probably won’t change that either as that suits us. I’ll just need to take it on the chin with regards to campsites!!