Driving, buying or renting a campervan in the Netherlands is a great place to start to explore Europe by motorhome. The Netherlands is well set up and easy to find your feet if you are just starting out exploring Europe by campervan or motorhome. The Netherlands is a great place to start!
If you really are starting your Great Big Adventure travelling Europe by campervan (as we were) you will still be learning. And there is a lot to learn to begin with.
However, we have compiled a quick list of our most wondered questions when we started out. And what we found that really helped us traveling by campervan in the Netherlands.
Here goes…
But wait – first we are assuming you already have a campervan for Europe?
If not, we are creating an entirely separate guide to buying and selling a campervan in the Netherlands as overseas visitors. (And spoiler alert; it is not as hard as you may think).
Then you are ready to explore!
Getting your campervan in The Netherlands ready for Europe
I’m going to start with supermarkets and shopping as its likely that if you’re planning to travel by campervan in the Netherlands, you might be starting here. (We bought a campervan in the Netherlands!).
And if you are; you’ll likely need to start out by stocking up your campervan and getting all the bits and pieces (linen, towels, bedding, crockery) you need for your European campervan adventure.
Petrol stations will have a small convenience store, but prices are (obviously) high.
- Read our guide with 10 questions you will want to ask before buying a campervan in Europe.
Shopping and setting up your campervan in The Netherlands
The Netherlands has many familiar (European) chains of supermarket that also usually have parking for larger campervans.
- Aldi: Discount supermarket chain operating in 20 countries.
- Lidl: Huge chain of discount stores in every member state of the EU and Serbia, Switzerland and UK.
- SPAR: A Dutch chain of supermarkets, grocery stores and hypermarkets all over the Netherlands.
- Hema: The equivalent of a Kmart of Warehouse for NZ/Australian travelers! A good option to buy bedding, towels, kitchenware etc. for starting out your Europe roadtrip by campervan.
- IKEA: The famous Swedish department and furniture store. And also a good option for setting up your campervan with everything you need for a Europe motorhome roadtrip.
We started out in Noordscheschut, a village in the north of the Netherlands and on our first outing to get set up we went to the huge IKEA store in nearby town of Zwolle.
IKEA was a good choice to stock the campervan with good quality items.
It does have a range of cheaper options too (like pillows, for example). But it isn’t particularly cheap (especially if comparing to NZ/AUS prices at somewhere like the Warehouse.
We later discovered ‘Hema’ which is more like a Kmart store and also a great choice to get stocked up with linen, warm clothes, towels, crockery etc.
I’d recommend checking Hema and IKEA as your first ports of call to get stocked up.
Refuelling your campervan in the Netherlands
There are multiple options to refuel with petrol and diesel (and even electric vehicle charging stations) and they are easy to spot around the country.
The main big fuel stops in the Netherlands are:
- BP
- Shell
- Essa
- Tinq
- Total
- TanGo
- Tip: Most of these larger gas stations have a toilet for customers to use.
In the Netherlands it costs between 50c – 1 EUR and you get a small voucher which you can redeem when you pay for your fuel or gas and receive 50c EUR off your bill.
Getting LPG for your motorhome in the Netherlands
There are several options for LPG and gas in your motorhome in the Netherlands.
- Standard LPG gas bottle/swap-a-bottle
- Autogas
The difference between these two can add to the feeling of overwhelm when you are newly arriving in Europe to start travel overland as an antipodean. However, it can be simplified.
Basically, the two options are:
- (1) you have a bottle in your motorhome that you take out when empty and swap at store in the Netherlands; or
- (2) you have a semi-permanent gas bottle that is connected to a filler on the side of your van.
With a standalone gas bottle, you can swap the entire bottle for a full bottle of LPG while in the Netherlands.
However, you cannot swap this bottle in Germany or France or other European countries.
In other European countries you will need to purchase a new bottle.
It is difficult (and not like in New Zealand) but not impossible to take your standalone Netherlands gas bottle and have it refilled in a second country.
Setting up your campervan in The Netherlands with a fixed LPG filling point
The other option is to use Autogas and fill your motorhome LPG bottle through a fixed filling point.
You can have one of these fitted in your van for 150 EUR. And what this means is that you can just pull into a service station and fill it up yourself with LPG (it is as if you are pulling in to fill up a car that runs on LPG).
We found it very straightforward and friendly at our first BP stop where although it is self-service to refill your LPG through the filling point on our van, the staff were happy to help.
Connector as shown below; just pull up to the pump and hook up to LPG. No need to carry gas bottles inside or anything like that.
You can drive right up to the pump.
Where to find toilets…
An essential piece of information! (Even if you have a chemical toilet). Travelling as a family does mean flexibility and a bit of planning ahead (and timing) to find toilet stops around the way.
- Tip: There are toilets at most large supermarkets and chain stores like McDonalds, Decathlon, Bauhaus and IKEA.
More about emptying your motorhome toilet cassette below.
Motorhome service areas (emptying your cassette toilet in the Netherlands)
Motorhome service areas to empty your toilet cassette and grey water in the Netherlands are readily available.
It’s not a huge country size-wise so distances between the cities aren’t huge either.
Campgrounds cost around 30 EUR per night for a motorhome and two people (possibly slightly more with children). But the upside of staying in a campsite is that it will have all the motorhome services you need (as it should for that price!).
We didn’t stay in campsites in the Netherlands however we did use a couple of paid motorhome parking areas. We have a great one in Rotterdam that we recommend for 15 EUR for the night and views – all night long – over the massive shipping canals of this famous Dutch city.
At the motorhome service areas in designated parking areas or on motorway service areas there is a drive-over grate system to empty your grey water and in the same area you will be able to empty your toilet cassette and refill with fresh water.
A bit more about emptying your cassette…
Seriously? Yup. These are the things we wish someone had told us!
There are a few points to learn about emptying your motorhome cassette toilet in Europe.
Firstly, you do need to plan in the Netherlands to find these service areas as there aren’t as many as in France or Germany (where there are heaps, and they are free on the motorways).
Make sure when you pull up to a service area that it does in fact have a designated drain for emptying your toilet.
A fixed grate on the ground is likely NOT the toilet emptying drain. This will clog up with toilet paper and other such things if you tip your cassette into the grate. (This is likely the grey water gully).
- Tip: The cassette drain might be labelled with ‘WC’ or ‘Cassette’ and it is normally a raised drain of some sort.
It might have pull-up trap door (like a toilet seat). And it should have a tap with fresh water for rinsing your cassette out.
- Tip: This is likely to be a tap without a hose-thread on it. And this is for good reason. The water from this tap is not potable. And not fit for drinking so do not use this tap to fill your campervan.
But rest assured there will be a separate fresh water tap nearby – and this one will have a thread on it – to attach your hose and refill your campervan fresh water. See below.
Refilling with fresh water (and drinking water)
First things first about fresh water and refilling fresh water in your campervan in the Netherlands; use your own hose.
You know where your own hose has been (and to put it bluntly you don’t want to use the hose that someone else has put inside their toilet cassette to rinse it out!).
Yuck. Sorry; but had to get that useful tip out of the way.
A hose is a solid and cheap investment in your health on arriving in the Netherlands to pick up your campervan.
Fresh water in the Netherlands is readily available. The water is beautiful, and you can pretty much guarantee that if you fill your campervan freshwater from a service station or motorhome service area (or any garden tap) you can drink it.
The water is clean and – if you know where your hose has been – it should be potable.
You can ask at a service station in a smaller town, or you can use the motorhome service areas (paid or free) to refill freshwater in your motorhome.
Freedom camping in the Netherlands
The Netherlands is not quite like it’s larger neighbors which are set up with designated motorhome service areas and free auto-caravan camping areas.
However, Netherlands is a country in which motorhomes, campervans and caravans are almost as popular as cars. (They are everywhere!).
There are many, many campsites (paid campgrounds) to stay the night in the Netherlands and there are a few paid motorhome areas (see our tips above about a cool motorhome parking area in Rotterdam).
And then there are the odd wild-camping spot and freedom camping parking spot that you can find on Park4Night and have a go at free camping before you leave for Europe with your campervan.
Useful apps to download
Definitely download Park4Night before you arrive in the Netherlands for your campervan adventure.
- Tip: It is worth activating the paid version of the app (its just a few dollars per month) before you arrive so that you can filter your searches and see all the best parking spots.
Driving your campervan in The Netherlands – and beyond…
These are our favourite companies we use in our travels.
They consistently have the best deals, offer great value and we have found they always manage to offer better deals than their competitors.
These are the companies we use while traveling fulltime as a family and that we would recommend to anyone planning and booking travel.
- Booking.com – The best all-around accommodation booking site that constantly provides the cheapest and lowest rates. They have the widest selection of budget accommodation and it’s easy to filter and sort into price and availability with all the extras you are looking for personally.
- Hostelworld – The largest inventory of hostel accommodation in the world.
- Skyscanner – This is by far our favourite flight search engine. They are able to search small websites and budget airlines that larger search sites often miss. We book all our flights through Skyscanner.
- GetYourGuide – Get Your Guide is a huge online marketplace for tours and excursions offered all around the world including everything from walking tours, to street-food tours, cooking classes, desert safari’s and more!
- SafetyWing – Safety Wing offers convenient and affordable plans that can be tailored to digital nomads and long-term travellers. They have cheap weekly and monthly plans that are possible to book even when you have already left home.
