Home / Guides
Field guides
Seven guides. All checked this year.
We deleted two hundred auto-generated wild camping posts and replaced them with these, researched against primary sources and honest about where the answer is "it depends". The law guides cover the UK and Europe; the systems and craft guides apply wherever your van is parked.
Where to start
New to motorhoming entirely? Read them in this order. Your first motorhome trip assumes nothing and stops you learning about payload limits from a roadside check. Then water and waste on the road, because that system runs your trip whether you respect it or not. When Europe calls, planning a European tour and the legal kit list pair together. Everything else here you can read in any order you like.
What none of these tell you is what to buy, which is deliberate: kit lists date faster than law does. That side of it lives on the gear pages, eleven categories of what is actually in our van with a note on each thing about why it earned its space. If you are starting with the first-trip guide, start there with the ramps, grip mats and water kit. If Europe is the plan, it is the Europe kit you want, and the legal guide above tells you which bits are required rather than merely sensible.
Law & access
Overnight parking & wild camping in the UK
What Scotland's access code actually covers (not vehicles), the Dartmoor ruling, camping management zones, and the etiquette that keeps spots open.
Read the guide → FG-02 · Law, checked 2026Driving to Europe: the legal kit list
Angles Morts, beam benders, Crit'Air, UK identifiers, and what Spain changed in 2026: what's required versus what's merely sensible.
Read the guide →Planning & systems
Your first motorhome trip
A checklist that assumes nothing: payload and weighbridges, the shakedown-trip rule, and the classic day-two failures.
Read the guide → FG-04 · PlanningPlanning a European tour
Ferries versus the tunnel, French toll classes for tall vans, the aires system and what a day on the continent really costs.
Read the guide → FG-05 · SystemsWater and waste on the road
Finding drinkable water in the UK, where grey and black waste can legally go, and the consumption maths worth knowing.
Read the guide → FG-06 · SystemsOff-grid power for ordinary vans
What runs out first, why the fridge dominates the budget, and the real trade-offs between solar, hookup and power stations.
Read the guide →Craft
Keeping a trip log you'll actually use
What's worth writing down in the moment, what isn't, and how the habit pays for itself the second season.
Read the guide → Living in itWhat full-time vanlife costs to run
Pitch fees, hookup, gas, water, laundry, elsan and the miles between them. The ten lines that make up a month when the van is the house, and how to keep them straight.
Read the page →Reading this on a laptop?
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.
The best guide is your own logbook.
Stops & Stays turns this year's trips into next year's route plan. Ten stops free. No ties.
