Camping insider tips: Use these tricks to get hold of the most beautiful pitches in nature
The holidays are just around the corner in many federal states! Do you love camping and still want to spontaneously spend a relaxing, quiet holiday in nature? We’ll show you how to use the right tools to find hidden pitches – far away from crowded campsites and mass tourism.
Labrador Tristan lies relaxed at the feet of his owner and pants away the early summer heat in the shade of the trees. The dog veteran has already gotten used to the large birds that strut across the meadow just a few meters away.
“I was looking for peace and seclusion. That’s what I found – and a sight that you wouldn’t have expected here,” says 38-year-old IT programmer Hendrik, stroking his dog’s dark fur.
The IT specialist from Saxony stopped off at the Riederfeld ostrich farm in Lübz, Mecklenburg, with his mobile home. From his comfortable deckchair he can watch the hustle and bustle of the ostriches in the paddock surrounded by high fences. Like Hendrik, more and more travelers with motorhomes and caravans use offers from farms, wineries or animal farms to make a short stop there.
For route planning, many use the suggestions of the “Landvergnügen” app, a nationwide parking space broker, which is now available in the 2023 version.
Over 1,400 farms are included in the “Landvergnügen” app
At the beginning of the app, the catalog listed around 230 companies that gave travelers with mobile homes free parking spaces for one night. In return, it is expected that the guests will also shop in the farm shop or in the wine shop. In this way, a network of hosts was created that now includes around 1,400 farms of various types nationwide.
Herbert and Sabine Wisböck also observe the activities of the freshly shorn llama-like animals on an alpaca farm. On the way back to Bavaria, they made a stopover in Gerbstedt, a small town in Saxony-Anhalt, with their self-converted mobile home. About the paid provider Alpaca camping you have booked your pitch in the great outdoors.
“It is the contentment and peace that you feel here. You can switch off from work and enjoy the sunset in the evening,” said Herbert Wisböck. On an area of around 18 hectares, Alexandra Scheffler offers her meadow as a parking space – right next to the alpaca farm on a hill with a sweeping view of forests and fields.
The concept is similar to that of “Landvergnügen”: Instead of shopping in the farm shop, guests pay a fixed price per night. “We want to offer the campers a nice experience of being able to spend the night outside in the great outdoors, and at the same time hosts can earn something for their unused space,” said one of the founders of the platform Dominik Quambusch. Around 3,000 places are offered throughout Germany.
Camping in Austria? “Look at the countryside” shows free parking spaces
If you are more drawn to Austria during the holiday season, you should take a closer look at the “Look at the Country” app. For a one-off fee of 40 euros per year, members can stay overnight on organic farms for a whole year free of charge.
Wineries, apiaries, alpine dairies or farms: the app now provides 1,100 parking spaces in almost all of Austria. After registration, the service uses a practical traffic light system to show which pitches are still available for tents or mobile homes.
The German Tourism Association sees this development with great benevolence. “The offer is thus broadened. And we don’t see any competition with conventional campsites. The places have a good booking situation and the operators have a lot to do,” states association president Reinhard Meyer. Around 36 million overnight stays are counted in the squares every year, and the trend is rising.
Monika Helfrich, who set up an ostrich farm with her husband on the flat land between Schwerin and Waren an der Müritz, offers parking spaces in the paddocks. Around 100 animals, from chicks to veteran roosters, romp around in various enclosures on the extensive grounds.
In particular, day trippers from hotels in the lake district come to visit more often in summer to admire the ratites, which can be up to 2.5 meters tall, and to shop in the farm shop. Caravan travelers were initially more of an exception, but the corona pandemic has increased the focus on vacationing at home again.
You and a View Camping: Legal camping in the middle of nature
Many legal parking spaces in nature and away from the hustle and bustle can also be found via the online portal ” You and a View “. Simply enter your destination in the free web app and you will be shown private properties where you can legally stay overnight for a fee. Not only will you be shown features, photos and ratings, but you can also book the pitch directly online.
In Oberheimbach am Rhein in Rhineland-Palatinate, winegrower Tobias Korn also offers caravan travelers space to stay overnight on his farm. “We also have two parking spaces for smaller vehicles directly in the vineyard. People don’t want to leave,” says Korn. The parking space offers would also attract visitors to places that tourists usually drive past.
“It’s mainly city dwellers who discover farm hopping for themselves or simply go on a discovery tour at the weekend,” says Ole Schnack from “Landvergnügen”. The restrictions during the corona pandemic, in which travel abroad was hardly possible for a long time, would have strengthened the trend towards traveling in the country. “Without Corona, I would be traveling in Norway now,” says computer scientist Hendrik, as if in confirmation.
And the Bavarian couple on the alpaca farm, who have been camping for 30 to 40 years and have traveled through every country from Scandinavia to Italy, originally had other plans: “We actually always put off going on vacation in Germany because we said so we can do that when we’re older,” says Sabine Wisböck. Since Corona, however, they have been traveling a lot more in Germany.
According to the Caravaning Industrie Verband e. V. has been increasing steadily for years. The association refers to surveys by the market research institute GfK, according to which almost every fourth adult in Germany is considering going on a caravanning holiday in the next five years. The number of new registrations is increasing, slowed down only by the manufacturer’s supply bottlenecks. According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority, around 76,000 mobile homes were registered in Germany in 2020, an increase of a good 40 percent over the previous year.
Hinterland.Camp: 2,000 bookable accommodations far away from the tourist spots
Also worth a look is the hinterland.camp platform, which is being launched this year for the first time with a free app for Android and iOS. Private tent and parking spaces, tiny houses, cabins & Co. throughout Europe can be booked conveniently and spontaneously while on the go.
park4night: parking spaces all over the world
If you are also traveling with your camper outside of the DACH region, you can use the free park4night app to search for a parking space. In addition to (free) parking spaces in nature, you will also find offers from private individuals or public parking spaces that are suitable for campers.
The app’s database is maintained by an extremely active camper community. A look at the comments often reveals whether a place is worth heading for and which shops and services you will find in the area.
dpa