Park4night - don't leave sleeping to the last minute
The number one rule when camping is - don't look for a place to sleep just minutes before you want to go to bed. The excitement of travelling will quickly be replaced by frustration. Without a thorough researche of available campsites before your trip, finding a place to sleep can be quite a chore, even more so if you don't plan your travels in advance and prefer to go at your own pace. Of course, with freedom comes the risk of not finding a suitable place and being condemned to look for a campsite or a place to stay at the last minute. But where you don't know what to do, an app will help, the most downloaded among campers being Park4night, which solves exactly this problem. In this article, we'll take a look at how it works and what it can do.
What is Park4night?
Park4Night is a mobile app for both iPhone and Android phones that shows you and gives you information on where you can park your caravan, motorhome or even camper van for the night. It's basically a database of parking spaces created by the users themselves, updated and evolving every day. The app is very user-friendly and you can use it not only to get information but also to add to it to help other travellers.
If you're not that experienced with finding a place to sleep, or don't want to spend hours looking for a place to park only to soon find out that it looks a bit dodgy or is even unsafe, then Park4Night can take the stress out of where to lay your head in the evening.
Can you rely on it?
The whole app works in a peer to peer style, meaning that nobody manages the marked spots, so the whole job is up to the users themselves. But can they be trusted? When looking for a suitable place to park, we recommend looking for places that have a photo attached from other reviewers. This will give you an idea of what the place actually looks like and whether it is close to your requirements. There's nothing worse than pulling off the main road onto a forest road, only to find the spot is overgrown, you don't back out, or you get stuck in the mud.
Park4night is free in the basic version, but you can pay for the full version at a very friendly price, so whether you go on holiday once a year in a caravan or spend a substantial part of the year in your motorhome, subscribing to the app is definitely worthwhile. Currently, you can buy the full version of the app for €1.99 and pay €9.99 for a year's use.
How to start using the app?
First of all, of course, you need to download it from the Google or Apple store, and once you open it, it's important that you give the app access to your location, because that's how it can help you find a suitable place near you. Then you just need to agree to the terms of use of the app and you're ready to start looking for a place to stay.
Features of the app
- Search for a place to stay by location - using location services on your mobile phone, you can click to see all the places near your location.
- Search near a specific location - enter the name of your destination in the search box, then search around it
- Search for places along your route - this is one of the features of the app that you can use if you get the full, paid version of the app. Searching for places near your route will show you all suitable places to stay overnight, but only on your chosen route.
Top bar
- Favourites - you can add places you like to your favourites so you can return to them later. However, you can't do this without creating an account in the app. To create an account, click on "create account" and then choose your username and password. You will also need an email address to create an account
- list / map - in the top bar you can also choose whether you want to see the locations on a map or as a list
- map type - in the premium version you can choose whether to use a graphical or satellite map
Filtering
Particularly if you're going to more touristy areas, it's likely that there will be many places that the app will show you. To avoid wasting time, you can use the filter to find the places that best match your requirements or needs. After checking the specific filters, just click on the "apply filters" button .
All camping sites in the app are colour-coded and marked with different symbols. You can filter by the following criteria :
- type of site - the app lists several types of sites, from car parks to rest areas to picnic areas, including campsites and paid pitches for caravans or motorhomes
- Vehicle height limit - here you can set the height of your vehicle, so you won't see any places where you can't fit because of your height
- rating (only in the paid version of the app) - you can choose to only show sites with a rating greater than 3/5, greater than ⅘ or greater than 4.75/5
- Services (only in the paid version of the app) - want to stay in a place with clean water, electricity or need wifi? All this and more can be checked in the app's filter
- Activities in the area (only in the paid version of the app) would you like a playground on site, do you like to wake up with a beautiful view or are you looking for a place where you can practice a specific sport? The last filter, which is again only in the paid version, serves just these needs
Have you chosen a place for tonight?
Have you found a great-rated place close to your current location or where you are going and like it in the photos? Then all you have to do is drive to the place. Simply click on the "itinerary" option with the arrow icon on the place, then just choose the app you use to navigate.
Help others
Remember, it was the reviews and photos of other campers that led you to a place where you can park in peace, even for free. So don't forget to rate the place when you leave (click on the number of stars in the details of the place and write your own verbal rating). Of course, you can also add completely new places (in the menu bar, "add places" tab), but for this you will need your exact location.
Is the paid version of Park4night + worth it?
Unanimously yes. With the paid version of the app you get a number of benefits:
- the possibility of more perfect filters
- satellite map
- the biggest advantage is that all the locations will be available to you offline
- the ability to add places to your itinerary
- the ability to contact campsites directly from the app interface
- the ability to use the app on multiple devices
- the version is ad-free
