These are quite common and simple rules, you will be able to follow them playfully. It’s nothing special, or something that limits you. You’ll gain respect from both motorhomers and non-motorhomers and you’ll make friends.
It doesn’t make a mess
I find it a bit ridiculous to write this here, but it’s true. Amateur motorhomers leave rubbish behind. Sometimes they put them in a plastic bag and think that someone will dust the bag after them. I don’t know who. The garbage bags are often blown around by the wind and all the plastic bottles are all over the place.
“The expert motorhomer tries to leave the place he’s been to in better condition than it was before he got there”
He takes all his rubbish with him and dumps it nicely in the bin. Many times we have messed up the parking lot by the beach along with others. We were in a nicer parking lot and showed the locals that the motorhomers were not the ones who made the mess.
Used the toilet
Amateur motorhomers, or rather #vanlife-ers, think they don’t need a toilet
I’ll give you a math problem. Imagine there are 50 vans in a car park, with 2 people in it. How many white pieces of paper will be at the car park at the end of the season? The season usually lasts from May to the end of October, which is 6 months.
Now you know why sleeping in a motorhome or van outside a campsite is banned in Portugal from January 2020. It looked awful there. The area around the beach was then regularly cleaned by local surfers and kids from surf clubs.
“The expert motorhomer uses the toilet, leaves no landmines or any toilet paper behind the bushes”
A speciality of amateur motorhomers is pouring out a toilet cassette somewhere in the woods. Such amateur motorhomers should be retrained as experts as soon as possible and pour out the toilet cassette at the campsite, at the motorhome service point or at least in the rest area toilets
If an expert motorhomer needs a larger toilet, he or she will buy another toilet cassette for the reserve. The expert motorhomer has the money for it, having already bought a huge 60k motorhome. A spare toilet cassette costs up to €100, doesn’t smell and doesn’t spill.
It doesn’t clog
A motorhome is a great means of transport. Especially in length. However, the amateur motorhomer thinks that this entitles him to 4 parking spaces in the very first row of the car park overlooking the sea. Not so.
“The expert motorhomer still parks so as not to cause a nuisance”
The expert motorhomer tries to make sure that he takes up as few parking spaces as possible and does not overhang the pavement or cycle path with his rear end. The expert motorhomer prefers to park at the rear of the car park where he will be less obtrusive than at the front.
Don’t camp in the car park
The amateur motorhomer thinks the car park is a campsite. He puts up an awning, a table, chairs and a barbecue. An ordinary car park is for parking, the law defines it as such. motorhome parkings have their own restrictions and rules. These rules are determined by the local law in that country.
The amateur motorhomer hangs out his laundry around the motorhome and leaves the garbage bag to stink up everyone around.
“An expert motorhomer stands in a car park as if he were parking”
In most cases, a motorhome parked like this can stay in the car park overnight and you can sleep, cook or eat in it.
If you want to eat your spaghetti and ketchup outdoors, use the rest area for that, or throw a blanket on the beach. Even a camping table and chairs OUTSIDE the RV site is usually defined by law as a picnic, i.e. not a campsite
The expert camper dries his wet laundry in the bathroom of the camper, uses the campsite or laundromat for laundry. That’s how any decent expert motorhomer does it.
He doesn’t start a fire
The amateur motorhomer fires up a barbecue half a metre from the next motorhome in the motorhome parking, makes a bonfire in the evening in the beach car park and takes Instagram photos while doing so.
“The expert motorhomer only uses the prepared fire pits for barbecues or open fires”
You might find this section a bit ridiculous, but we’ve experienced a two-metre-long bonfire set up by German #vannaifers right in the middle of a beach car park, or another German #vannaifer right next to our motorhome firing up the grill so much that I had to parry so we didn’t burn down.
