Van Spots


Wild camping spots for those with Vans
Now in Beta


About Latest Updates How To

About Van Spots

A simple, easy way to find spots to camp in your van.

Van Spots is free resource, with no ads. The aim is to keep it that way.
It takes some clever engineering in order to do this. You may notice at times the site takes a long time to load, this is because it turns off when no one is using it.
We're working at the moment to try and improve performance across all areas of the site.

Van Spots is an open-source project built by one person in their spare time using Ruby on Rails.
It is still in development so let me know if anything isn't working as expected.
All the core functionality is now live; you can sign up, add, find and review spots.
If there are any features you would like to see, any feedback you would like to give, or any bugs that you find please get in touch.

If you want to keep track of progress (or contribute with a pull request) you can see what needs doing on the Trello Board and the codebase lives on GitHub . If want to use the data, then we also have an API. G et in touch and we can talk to you about usage.

If you want to get in touch with suggestions or just to have a chat, drop me an email.
More information coming soon!

Latest Updates

20/02/2025

The app has been rebuilt from scratch to improve speed, performance and security.

If you have an issues please drop me an email


26/11/2019

Update the front page to add most recent spots and reviews


08/11/2019

Updated the default sorting of spots on the index page, so the best rated spots are now at the top.
Added loading icon to increase descriptiveness of background processes.


01/11/2019

Van Spots has had some performance improvements and a load more spots added.
Please let us know if you have any issues!


25/09/2019

Update to front page


23/09/2019

Lots of little background updates and a major change to the design of the Spot Finder page


Latest Spots

Car Park west of Kilcoahan.

Free spot - 0/10
Created By: Patrick72 on Jun 29, 2025
Great lochside location. Even has portaloos. Brilliant beach and great for wild swimming.

Barden Moor

Free spot - 0/10
Created By: Patrick72 on Jun 29, 2025
I have seen plenty of vans in the layby. Great views of Wharfedale down to Bolton Abbey.

Binn Green Car Park.

Free spot - 0/10
Created By: Patrick72 on Jun 29, 2025
Barriers were open at 0700 and two vans in that had been there all night. Good area for walking around Dovestone Reservoir.

Tomatin to Farr 1

Free spot - 0/10
Created By: pchattington on Jun 23, 2025
out of the way and only suitable for smaller campers (LWB transit etc )

Hiding Spot

Free spot - 0/10
Created By: Raffles1961 on Jun 08, 2025
Room For a Small Van

Latest Reviews

5/10

Burry Port, Factory Road

factory road

nice spot if you dont mind the boy racers doughnutting in the early hours

10/10

Madeira Drive, Brighton

The best place to stay in Brighton

5/10

Porthkerry Country Park

Porthkerry 2025

Many changes and not just the cafe ownership. What was once a beautiful spot has now been ‘updated’: the 2 bbq spots have been dismantled and so people use the ground...

1/10

Llyn Aled, Wild Camping Spot, Unnamed Road, Abergele LL22 8UY

llyn aled

llyn brenig have taken over this lake,it was ok but now bit iffy, so it is patrolled regular they will not allow overnight parking,parking for anglers only ,they will ...

8/10

Pretty Corner Ln Sheringham NR26 8TW

Great walks

Ideal spot for family walks. Easy going and lots of routes to choose from. Clean and tidy however plenty of signage stating no overnight stays. Worth a visit but look ...

10/10

Wild camping Beach Stop, Beach Rd Holt NR25 7XW

Amazing Site

Amazing place, a little hidden gem. Clean and tidy. Lots of Dog walkers around and very friendly people. Didn't overnight stay but wish I had. 5 minute walk to the sea...

How to use Van Spots

More details coming soon

Finding a Spot

There are two ways of finding a spot to camp in, you can either browse the Map or use the Spot Finder to browse for a spot.
There are some basic filters on the spots index with hopefully some more coming soon.

Signing Up

Click the link in the nav bar and sign up

Adding a Spot

Either find the location on the map and click or tap on the map or enter the latitude and longitude yourself on the create spot page

Rating a Spot

View the Spot and click Rate Spot

Editing a Spot

If you are the person who created the spot then you can edit it. There should be an Edit Spot button next to the Rate Spot button

Editing your profile

From your Profile page, click the Edit Profile button


P.S. How To is also a great book by Randall Munroe