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 Reviews
9/10
Cromaty point, Unnamed Road Cromarty IV11 8XH
Beautiful free spot overlooking the Moray Firth
Really quiet spot up a dirt road (you’re going the right way). Can walk to Cromarty from here along a wooded coastal path (approx 1.5 miles). Amazing sunrise! A coupl...
1/10
A836 Thurso KW14 8XD
... continued.
If you absolutely must park here (rather than the carpark with toilets a mere 50 yards away!) then please, please, stick to the layby itself.
1/10
A836 Thurso KW14 8XD
Parking in this spot blocks disabled access to the beach!!
Disabled beach access that's almost permanently blocked by campervans during the NC500 season meaning people with mobility issues can't get down to the beach. If you a...
5/10
Carding Mill Valley
Not allowed but if you are just parked no issues
I had no issues here , made sure we had cleaned up after our selves and had a fun stealth camp
1/10
Black Rock Cafe
No longer available
Site no longer offers overnight parking due to people not clearing up after themselves.
1/10
nr Norton Hall Farm
Avoid
Stayed overnight 24/08/2024 - Overnight parking allowed. Lovely spot, but awoke to back tyres slashed. Other vans in the area experienced the same. Apparently its an o...
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