Books – no more
It is amazing how times have changed since I first wrote this page about the books we have purchased and used during our travels. We no longer buy books as they have been replaced by Apps. So much easier and some updated on a daily basis. We used to enter a country and buy a detailed map but now we have all the maps in our Apps. Likewise we spent money on books about where to stay, now there are numerous Apps which give more information and have current reviews updated by people who have been to the sites. We used to bring books to read but now they are all on our tablets taking up no room and keeping down the weight in the motorhome. So instead of having a book page it is now replaced by an Apps Page
I have still kept the original books page below for those of you who still prefer hard copies.
Books
Apart from our book readers we have a library of books that help us as we travel. Most of these books can be purchased at Vicarious Books a UK based company specializing in books for motorhoming. Check them out as they have many more books other than the ones listed here.
ACSI Camping Card Book
This is a camping book that is for off season campgrounds. The book is not valid for most places at the end of July and the whole month of August. It encourages people to use their campgrounds out of the busy season. It is was the 12/14/16 book and in 2014 will be the 12/14/16/18 book. The numbers are for euros and in the book the campsites state which price they charge. Included in the price is a campsite, electricity and showers for 2 people. Sometimes campsites charge for showers and you are given a token to use, in this price the showers are included so be sure to ask for your token if they use this system. The sites have all been inspected by ACSI and are generally of good to excellent standard. We went to one which had 3 swimming pools outside an indoor pool, sauna, spa, waterslides and excellent facilities.
In the book they have descriptions of the sites, a map and GPS co-ordinates. The map is not great but you can download POI’s of all the sites from the Archies website and load them on to your sat-nav or mapping program. The cost of the book is around 13-14 euros and after 2 stays the book has paid for itself. You can buy the book in Germany and Holland but then you can only get it in their language, if you order it from Vicarious books it is in English. A german man told us about it on our first trip and we have bought one every trip since.
Camperstop
This is a dutch book but has information in 4 languages. It was the first book we purchased and we have used it so much that the pages are now falling out. It lists numerous camperstops / aires in Europe with details of the facilities and the approx. costs. There are GPS co-ordinates and a map with locations. You can download the POI’s from their site but they are not free and we paid 3€ for each region. We have found numerous places to stay over the years using this book and for the cost of about 14€ it is well worth buying.
All the Aires
These are put out by Vicarious books and they have Aires books from France ,Benelux and Scandinavia, Spain and Portugal and Mountain Aires. There are photos of the sites, approx. costs, facilities and GPS co-ordinates. When they say ALL the aires they really mean some of the aires as there are many more in each of the countries they have books for. They come with maps which gives you an idea of where they are located. For more information about aires our page ‘Aires’ in the where to stay tips could be helpful.
Bord Atlas
This is a German publication and we have it in two books. One is for Germany which is very thick and the other is for the rest of Europe which is thin. For traveling in Germany it is great and also usefull in other parts of Europe. It has the GPS co-ordinates as well as information on the facilities and costs. You can also download POI’s from their site. See our download page on our home page. There is a slight drawback and that it is written in German. I don’t know if it is available in English.
Passion Books
We have only used the French Passion book twice, we stayed on a couple of very nice farm sites, but for more info on the passions read our article Passions and visit our Download page.
