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

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

Grassmoor Country Park

Free Spot - 6.0/10
Created By: rodd1000 on Mar 21, 2023
Parking area for the local country park which is a large open space with short dog walks around several ponds. Car park is very large, enough for dozens of vehicles. Free to park and stay overnight. No facilities but a good phone signal. Some teenagers at night but quiet after 11pm.

Caldecott arms carpark

Free Spot - 0/10
Created By: DKgoesWild on Mar 19, 2023
Nice little pub carpark, lots of spaces, busy all week, dog walkers, joggers etc but spent a lovely night parked up. Pub is ok, check out the Youtube Video

MK Stadium

Free Spot - 0/10
Created By: DKgoesWild on Mar 19, 2023
Great spot for Cinema and food, next to a MacDonalds so breakfast is also sorted. Walking distance to Asda if you need a spot of shopping. Parking was busy on a Saturday night but very quite if you park away from the road. We had a great night there. Check out our YouTube video of the spot.

Fearnoch Forestry Car Park

Free Spot - 7.0/10
Created By: FatBerta on Sep 06, 2022
Forestry commission car park, lots of space, no height bars, quiet, nearest toilets at Taynuilt (2 miles).

Herringfleet Hideaway

Free Spot - 6.0/10
Created By: PDKODUDE on Aug 25, 2022
This spot is just off the road between St. Olaves and Somerleyton. It’s in a grass car park for the church. No signage at all and quite difficult to see from the road. Very quiet and peaceful. There are no views to speak of apart from the church which has fascinating history, Saxon built tower to look out for Vikings moving up the River Waveney! Nice quiet spot for a stopover where you’re very unlikely to be distrubed.

The Struggle

Free Spot - 0/10
Created By: Fangio1985 on Aug 14, 2022
Small lay by on “The Struggle” Road. Amazing view on the Windermere Lake.

Latest Reviews

8/10

Wild camping Beach Stop, Beach Rd Holt NR25 7XW

My stay at Salthouse beach

Overnight stays are welcome here .... But there are no amenities such as bins or drinking water so bring your own and take your rubbish with you. It's smack in the mi...

10/10

Robin Hood's Bay

Lovely spot

Lovely quiet spot overlooking RHB. Donation box. Nice walks nearby. Easy to get the bus into Whitby or RHB.

5/10

Nash Point

2023 new prices

Lovely spot with own cafe, can get windy as on cliff top, new prices now £15 per night from April 1st 2023

8/10

Unnamed Road Duns

Quiet secluded lay-by near a ford across the river.

6/10

Herringfleet Hideaway

No view but no trouble either!

Lovely spot, no views to speak of apart from the church but hidden from the road, very quiet and peaceful.

7/10

Force Lane

end of the road

Small spot. Some road noise, you are right next to the A-road. Great for an overnight, but not really the most chill spot. A few dog walkers in the morning. Nice and f...

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