Camping
Your own shelter on a pitch, with shared washblocks.
What it is
Camping means you bring the accommodation with you and rent the ground it stands on. A campsite gives you a marked pitch, a shared washblock with showers and toilets, and usually water and power. Everything that would make a room a room — the bed, the walls, the roof — is in your bag.
- A pitch for a tent, a van or a caravan
- Shared toilets and hot showers in a washblock
- Drinking water, and electric hook-up on many pitches
- Often a laundry, a small shop and a place to wash up
- Everything you sleep in and on — tent, mat, sleeping bag, pillow
- Any way to cook, unless you brought a stove
- Light after dark, beyond what you carry
What this means for your bag
This is the only stay where forgetting something means not sleeping.
The sleep system is the trip
Tent, sleeping mat, sleeping bag rated for the actual night temperature — not the daytime one. Cold ground, not cold air, is what ruins a night.
A head torch
The washblock is a walk away and campsites do not light their paths. A phone torch works until you need both hands.
Flip-flops for the showers
Same reason as a hostel, more so. They also save you putting boots on to walk fifty metres at 7am.
The cheapest way to stay anywhere, charged per pitch plus per person. The gear costs real money once and then costs nothing for years.
- Electric hook-up, charged per night
- Showers, coin-operated at some sites
- Tourist tax, charged per person exactly as at a hotel
- Are travelling by car or van and have room for gear
- Want to be in a national park rather than near one
- Are travelling long enough that nightly costs dominate the budget
Plain links, no referral tags — we earn nothing if you book. They are here because they are where this kind of place is actually listed.
Questions people ask about this
The pitch and the shared facilities: toilets, hot showers, drinking water, usually electricity and often a laundry and a small shop. They do not provide anything you sleep in — tent, mat and sleeping bag are yours to bring.
Almost all do, in a shared washblock, and hot water is standard in Europe. Some sites charge per shower with a coin or a token, so keep small change for the first evening.
No — wild camping is illegal or restricted in most of Europe and rules change by region and even by park. Campsites exist partly because of this. Check the local rule for where you are going rather than assuming a general one.
The calculator already asks where you're staying. Start with this answer filled in and it will size the list around shared bathrooms, kitchens and laundry.