It has to be one of the questions we’re most asked about motorhome touring: which are your favourite countries in Europe for motorhome travel? Depending on how you count them, there are about 44 countries in Europe, and we’ve been to 33 of ’em in a van, so there are plenty to choose from.

In turn, we’re curious about your view on which are the best countries too, so please don’t hold back in the comments section on this one folks – lets us all know your preferred countries, why you love ’em and any favourite spots. While we’ve access to tons of other motorhome blogs and your cracking road trip maps, it’s not always easy to work out where the very best places are to visit – help us out!

We’ve limited ourselves to three countries here. That wasn’t easy, as we’ve enjoyed every country we’ve travelled in, each for different reasons. These decisions are very personal things too. What is it you’re looking for? For the more adventurous among you, we’d suggest Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Ukraine (if you’ve a bullet-proof suspension). For those loving winter sun, Spain and Portugal are hard to beat. For mountains, the Italian Dolomites are a pure joy, as are the Swiss Alps (or any part of the Alps for that matter). For off-the path mountains, head to the Spanish Pyrenees or Slovenia. To hide away in the woods, Finland or Sweden are hard to beat. The choice is huge. This is one hell of a continent we live in folks.

Our travels have taken us across a fair chunk of Europe, from the North Cape in Norway down to the Peloponnese in Greece. The map below shows all of the places we’ve stayed overnight (currently around 930). If you click on a few of the dots and scan the associated blog posts, you should get a flavour for each country and how we were getting on there at the time.

We’ve not been to every country, so we can’t comment on Turkey, Russia, some of the Balkan countries and a few others. If you want to get an idea of every single country in Europe, check out The World is Our Lobster – Catherine and Chris visited everywhere, including Iceland.

We’ve also travelled to Morocco and around Tunisia, spending almost six months in total in these eye-opening countries, and Morocco would easily feature in our list below but for the fact it’s in Africa (we even wrote a book explaining how to take your motorhome there)! Click on any of the coloured dots below to read more about our stay at that location:

OK, let’s get into it. Here are our three all-time favourite European motorhome countries.

Nowhere’s perfect though of course, and here are some of the downsides of touring France by motorhome, compared with other countries in Europe:

• The country’s popular! There are tens of thousands of ‘camping cars’ travelling France, and the more popular aires often fill up in the evening, even out of season. Arriving at your intended overnight spot between 10am and 2pm is usually a good tactic to ensure you get a place.
• Unlike in Germany (another very easy country to travel by motorhome), many of the motorways in France are toll. There are free alternatives if you have the time and patience, and all of France’s roads are in good condition.
• Although the opportunities to avoid campsite fees can bring your tour costs down, diesel, GPL and food all costs more than neighboring Spain.
• The weather in France isn’t great in winter (unless you’re going skiing!), and again southern Spain easily wins in this regard.

For more information, have a look at our Guide to Touring France by Motorhome.

Norway’s just spectacular! The fjords, mountains, waterfalls, islands and glaciers are wonderful to live among. Time a long tour right (we managed this, purely by accident) and you might get both the midnight sun and the Northern Lights a few weeks later. If we haven’t already given the game away, here are some of the reasons we loved Norway:

• Did we mention the landscapes? We loved the rugged islands in the far North (Senja, the Lofotens and Hillesøya), the epic swirling waters and incredible fishing at Saltstraumen, the glaciers and thundering waterfall at the wonderful Melkevoll Bretun campsite, the Dalsnibba viewpoint over Geiranger fjord, the mind-blowing (and argument-inducing) Pulpit Rock, the list goes on.
• The ‘on the edge’ sensation in the far north was a real attraction too. It felt both safe and incredibly remote at the same time. Norway’s freedom to roam is enshrined in law, and up north (above Trondheim) there are thousands of opportunities to get off the beaten track and be utterly alone, but for a few reindeer for company that is.
• There are still plenty of campsites so you can get your washing done, smoke a fish and have a fire in comfort every now and again, and service points are often free and easy to find – petrol stations, lay-bys etc.
• We really enjoyed Oslo too, especially the Fram Museum, which allows you to stand aboard the ship which took Amundsen to Antarctica in his race with Scott to the south pole. Arm-hairs-stood-on-end stuff folks.

Again nowhere’s perfect, even Norway has a few downsides to be aware of:

• They say Norway’s for the eyes, not for the stomach. Outside of the cities the country doesn’t feel like a gastronomic one. There’s a limited range of food in the supermarkets and eating out is a fairly basic (and every expensive) experience.
• Everything’s expensive, especially booze. You’ll find some stuff which costs a reasonable amount (not booze!), but most everything other than parking costs much more than it will in the UK. Don’t even think about breaking down and needing a repair.
• If you tour the fjords, you’ll end up using a lot of ferries. If you’re over 6m long (including bike rack), the ferries costs quickly multiply up with every additional metre.
• Outside of the big cities, some of the towns felt functional and uninteresting to us.
• LPG is available, but not everywhere so you’ll need to do some planning to ensure you don’t run out or end up driving a long way to top up.
• Norway’s huge, and the road speeds are slow. Do your research before trying to get to Nordkapp from the UK in a couple of weeks.

For more information, have a look at our Guide to Touring Norway by Motorhome.

It’s been a while now since we toured Greece back in 2013, but we have very warm memories of our few months there, for these reasons:

• The ancient ruins were a wonder to visit: Olympia, Delphi, the Acropolis, Epidhavros and the tomb of Philip II of Macedon, and the artifacts in the museum are amazing (no heads or arms missing on Greek statues).
• The Greeks are an easy-going bunch, welcoming, relaxed, nice to be around.
• It’s frequently possible to free camp across Greece, although not universally. Our map above shows the places we stayed, including on some wonderful beaches like this one, and this cracking spot up high over Acrocorinth. Pete and Judy’s Greece Stopover Map is a great resource for free camping places across the country.
• We visited in April, May and June, and the weather was great but for a few cool nights up in the hills. Some folks opt to over-winter in Greece for the relatively mild climate, although it doesn’t seem to compete with Andalusia in Spain in that regard.

And from our perspective, the downsides to touring Greece are:

• Clearly it’s flipping miles away from the UK! The fastest way to get there is to drive to Italy and get a ferry across the Adriatic to Igoumenitsa or Patras. If you travel in the summer months, you can sometimes camp on board, so can sleep in your motorhome on the ferry.
• Some of the roads are hard work to drive, and you need to keep an eye out for fallen rocks and wandering animals here and there. Think about using the toll roads if you’ve any distance to travel and there is one available.
• Our paper map of Greece was terrible, making navigation difficult, but that was entirely our fault for not checking we had Greece on our TomTom! Maps are much better these days so you should have trouble finding those tavernas! That said, if you have a large motorhome check the route’s wide enough, some of the villages are very tight.

For more information, have a look at our Guide to Touring Greece by Motorhome.