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Stops & Stays

What your van did, where it slept, what it cost.

Five kinds of entry, one timeline: overnight stops, service points, fuel, tolls and ferries. Score the parkup, log the tanks in and out, and let the money add itself up.

How it works

Handbrake on. Open the app, and the cockpit screen is already pointed at the right trip and the right vehicle. Slide the noise, views and signal scores, set the slope and tilt so future-you knows which end slept high, note the tank levels, add a line about the farm dog.

The best parkups sit in signal blackspots, so the app is built for them. Everything is saved the moment you tap it, and it goes into your account on its own once you're back in coverage.

Fuel stops, service points, tolls and ferries get their own entry types, so at the end of a trip the money adds up by itself: fuel in pounds or dollars, péage in euros, a two-leg ferry with the total where you can find it.

What it's for

Two things. Tonight: a quick record while the details are still true. Next February: your own map of verified stops, real costs and real notes, which beats anyone else's reviews because you wrote them and you were there.

Two kinds of reader

Most people here are logging trips: the fortnight, the tour, the weekend with a start date and a way home. Some are logging a life. If the van is the house, the pitch fee is the rent and the gas, water, laundry and elsan are the bills, and the app keeps a separate line for each of them. How full-timers use it.

Stops & Stays night stop screen: arrival levels for leisure battery, power station, fresh water, grey water and the toilet cassette — Journey complete: the full picture

Stops & Stays trip summary: 516 miles, 5 days, total spend and service breakdown — 516 miles, 5 days, every pound accounted for

The essentials

Works with no signal

Log the whole stop with no bars at all. It goes into your account once you're back in coverage.

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Five entry types

Stops, services, fuel, tolls and multi-leg ferries.

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What it all cost

Pro summaries and charts, plus CSV export with GPS coordinates on every stop.

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Levels, in and out

Fresh, waste, cassette, LPG, leisure battery and power bank, recorded twice a stop.

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Living in it full time

Ten cost lines, any currency, charts and a spreadsheet. What the month actually cost.

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Electric campers

Set the vehicle to electric and the charges log the way fills do.

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See all features What's free, what's Pro

Sensible questions

Before you ask

What does it cost?

Your first 10 stops are free, no ties, nothing to cancel. Pro removes the limit and adds trip analytics and data export. Current pricing is shown in the app. Free vs Pro in detail.

Does it need signal to work?

Logging doesn't. Score the parkup, record the levels and put the costs in with no bars at all, and it goes into your account once you're back in coverage. Map tiles, buying Pro and looking a place name up do need a connection. The full story.

Android or iPhone?

Both. Stops & Stays is a phone app: Android on Google Play, iPhone on the App Store. One account covers both, so a new phone picks the logbook up where the old one left off.

My van has no toilet cassette / no LPG / no leisure battery.

Tell the app once, in your vehicle profile, and those controls disappear. It only ever asks about systems your van has. Vehicle profiles.

I live in the van full time. Is this for me?

Yes, and the money side is the reason. Pitch fees, electric hookup, wifi, laundry, elsan, fresh water, waste water, rubbish and both kinds of gas each get their own cost line, in whatever currency you paid. Then Reports totals a calendar month, or any dates you choose, across every trip in it, so a month adds up properly instead of vanishing into contactless. Full-time vanlife.

I'm not in the UK. Does it still work?

Yes. The map, GPS and logging work anywhere, distances switch between miles and kilometres, and every cost is logged in whatever currency you paid. We're a UK outfit, so the examples on this site lean British, but nothing in the app cares whether you're on the A82, an American interstate or a New Zealand gravel road.

Can I get my data out?

Yes. Pro exports the whole record to CSV, ready for any spreadsheet, and the file is yours to keep. Summaries, charts and export.

Who builds it?

Vanlife Stuff, founded by Ed Palmer after a paper logbook got rained on once too often. About Vanlife Stuff.

Reading this on a laptop?

QR code that opens Stops & Stays on the App Store or Google Play

Stops & Stays is a phone app. Point your phone's camera at the code and it'll take you to the store, or search Stops & Stays in the App Store or on Google Play.

Try it on the next trip.

Ten stops free. No ties. If it doesn't get used, delete it.