Accommodation - Free camping versus all other
 

When we set off on our RTW trip (mid 2013 hopefully) we’ll have our own very comfortable accommodation and which I expect we’ll use extensively in lots of Central & S/America, Africa, and Asia, and I presume (= hope) that lots of the time we can basically “pull up and camp” somewhere rather than have to go into what we call in Oz a “Caravan Park”.

I also imagine that in the USA the opposite will apply and we’d mostly have to go to Trailer Parks. And as for Europe, well, we very recently lived in Switzerland for 3 years and think we have a pretty good feel for the options in Western Europe. Eastern Europe is an unknown though.

Having said all this, however, we will frequently opt to stay with locals in B&Bs / Pensions etc for how else can one really get close to the feel of the place. And I'm sure the boss will regularly want to stay in a hotel with a proper shower etc.

Nevertheless, I would like to ask of those 4wd-ers who have travelled with on-board accommodation, what proportion of their trip saw them staying in Free-Camping vs Caravan Parks vs B&Bs vs Mud-Huts/Yurts etc vs Hotels/Motels etc. If replies could be broken down by Continent then that would be even more helpful.

With thanks,
DickyBeach

Hi,

Of course its allways nicer to camp in the wild far away from the next city

Offroad extrem: Im 4x4 LKW durch Afrika

but sometimes there is just no wild place or its to dangerous and specialy in some more civilized countrys it is somtimes even illegal to camp outside of campingplaces.

Have fun, Tobi

Hi,
Over two seperate 5 week trips in north west Africa (Morocco - Mali), i reckon we're running at about 80% wild camps, 20% cheap local option (often still camping, but with at least basic facilities).
I expect our trip to Cape Town later this year to be a similar ratio.
It's the wild camps, their visitors & the nights with local families that always stick in the memory.

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Happy travels
Sam

USA
In the USA You can camp in most any campground with a 4x4.
In most states you can use a "rest areas" for 8hr. No tent but other than that you are good. You can wild camp in most National forest and BLM land free. It was all free at one time but now there are more laws as people left a mess still most are open. In some sates you can gust pull off the road to sleep. Gust get well off the road. If no one sees you pull off on to a side road and there are other cars you can spend the night there such as a suburb. Gust dont set up anything and no one will know or care. Many camping areas have shower some little to nothing.
There are few campgrounds in the USA that are tent only. You can see some one on a push bike with a small tent next to 40 foot RV. There are some campgrounds that do not alow tents at all.

For hotels there is motel 6 cheap and clean most of the time. But for about $40 to $60 there not bad. The nice places can run much more.

B&Bs in the USA can be run from not to bad at $100 or so to a few $1000 a night

Sleeping ..............
 

Many thanks for the replies, just what I was hoping to hear actually.

In Morocco there are areas that are great for "dry camping" which is a phrase that means no facilities, just a patch of ground. They are often somewhere really nice, and they may have a guardien, which is a guy that collects the nightly fee, and sort of keeps an eye on things. No walls or fences, but there is an unwritten rule that your stuff will not be touched. We're using them a bit as you can still be over 100 metres from your nearest neighbour, but they are often within walking distance of a town. Tafraoute in Morocco is a great example where it works well.

there are even guys that cycle around in the morning selling fresh bread etc, so it makes it nice to stay there.

the cost: 10 dirham. That's less than a Euro.


we would be wild camping (meaning way out there, no one else involved, somewhere private) about 50% to 70% of the time. It depends on where we are, hard to wild camp in a city, and almost mandatory when crossing long stretches of desert etc.

What I would say is that now we are set up as we like, we PREFER to stay in our truck than the idea to go into a hotel. almost 3 months on the road and loving it!

wild camping
 

In 6mths we stayed in 3 Hotels, Bishket ,one night inHotel, awful, so slept in car park in the pop up tent on vehicle, a great night sleep, needed motor bike ear plugs, which we take all the time. ,Uzbekistan, Russia(Magadan)expensive ,and bad mattresses, all where noisy ,the rest of the time traveling the Stans , wild camping in Forest ,etc, well away from the road, absoulutley brilliant, often local people would bring us milk and yougart for breakfast, home made bread.We thought no one knew we where there!
Have a great time where ever you go!