Stops near the Gotthard Tunnel

[Wellington]

Going to make our way down tomorrow, and would like to stop somewhere near the tunnel. I wasn’t inially planning to go through Switzerland on the way there, so I haven’t looked into stops. Doesn’t matter where, don't need any facilities, cheap and cheerful will be fine, just within an hour or so of the tunnel in any direction/country.

Any recommendations? I have a Vignette.

 

[Rob Hammond]

Going to make our way down tomorrow, and would like to stop somewhere near the tunnel. I wasn’t inially planning to go through Switzerland on the way there, so I haven’t looked into stops. Doesn’t matter where, don't need any facilities, cheap and cheerful will be fine, just within an hour or so of the tunnel in any direction/country.

Any recommendations? I have a Vignette.

Have fun

 

[DBK]

Going to make our way down tomorrow, and would like to stop somewhere near the tunnel. I wasn’t inially planning to go through Switzerland on the way there, so I haven’t looked into stops. Doesn’t matter where, don't need any facilities, cheap and cheerful will be fine, just within an hour or so of the tunnel in any direction/country.

Any recommendations? I have a Vignette.

You do know wild camping is illegal in Switzerland? You might get away in a small VW camper but anything larger is likely to attract attention and from what I've read it could be the locals who report you to the police.

There is a free aire on the top of the Gotthard Pass, CamperContact #45331. There are a couple of aires and a campsite around Andermatt, also shown in CamperContact. Swiss Campsites will be expensive so best avoided!

If you don't have it download the CamperContact app and use it for finding locations. The map feature is very easy to use and the filter function also very useful. There is also the Park4Night app which has its enthusiasts but I find it shows too many locations. CamperContact tends to list the more useful places but you can try both although CC is cheaper (£5). Search for All Motorhome Parking on the Android or iOS play stores.

Switzerland is a stunning place but it isn't cheap.

 

[Wellington]

Official stops only. I do have a multitude of apps, but I’m finding them very hard to use. Well, the apps themselves are ok, but cross referencing with our eventual destination (don’t want too much mission drift) and intended stopover site is proving a bit challenging on small screens. I can’t get my head round coordinates yet, either, although I see their advantages. I’m happy to stop close to the French or Italian borders, but I really don’t any scary mountain to negotiate. My threshold for scary is probably not very high....

I had planned to go down to St Tropez and along the Liguria coast, but we don’t really have time to do that now. Will save it for the way back, or next year.

 

[Figaro]

Germinaga, on Maggorie, free Aire with its own lake beach, cafe and gelato cabin. Children's playground with fountains, and nice town nearby with supermarket.
EHU available if needed
What more could you need

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[shawn&emma]

We stayed at the Gotthard pass area a couple of weeks ago. Nice spot next to the lake with great mountain views all round if the clouds have lifted. Great to get away from the scorching tempartures in the valleys. Stayed several nights and had 6 degrees night tempartures, had to Finlay put the heater on first thing, first time since leaving Portugal in May.

Enjoy wherever you stay, we loved Switzerland.

Shawn.

 

[Wellington]

Germinaga, on Maggorie, free Aire with its own lake beach, cafe and gelato cabin. Children's playground with fountains, and nice town nearby with supermarket.
EHU available if needed
What more could you need

An extra week? Sounds great!

Also, a few clouds would be jolly welcome! It’s almost 8 and I’m still melting!

 

[DBK]

Official stops only. I do have a multitude of apps, but I’m finding them very hard to use. Well, the apps themselves are ok, but cross referencing with our eventual destination (don’t want too much mission drift) and intended stopover site is proving a bit challenging on small screens. I can’t get my head round coordinates yet, either, although I see their advantages. I’m happy to stop close to the French or Italian borders, but I really don’t any scary mountain to negotiate. My threshold for scary is probably not very high....

I had planned to go down to St Tropez and along the Liguria coast, but we don’t really have time to do that now. Will save it for the way back, or next year.

Struggling with coords will add to the stress. I suggest just concentrate on one app. Assuming you have a satnav you need to change the format to the one in the app. The easiest to use is decimal degrees which Campercontact uses and it will look like this N50.123456 E2.123456 but there are a couple of poo traps. On your trip almost everywhere should be East so check E is showing whenever you enter the coords. The other thing is the satnav will want three digits before the decimal point so E2.123456 will need to be entered as E002.123456. If there are more digits after the decimal point than there is room for just miss off the ones at the end which don't fit.

Buy a paper map for route planning.

The Ligurian coast road can be a nightmare in the towns. The motorway is fine but expect delays and heavy traffic around Genoa due to the missing bridge. It took us a couple of hours to get past last month.

 

[Figaro]

Wellington
These are the coordinates in the format dbk gave you

N 45.99572, E 8.72429

It's 11814 on camper contact
Have a practice at entering the coordinates.
Camper contact states 15 euro but there was no facility to pay when I was there and nobody came to collect money.
I thought it was a great stop and if your with kids they'll love cooling off in the lake.
The marina at lake Lucerne is also a great stop, 15 euro in the p&d machine for 24 hours.
Enjoy your trip.

 

[jongood]

There s a nice free aire on top of the Simplon Pass - but this is rare in Switzerland. My advice either stay in Ticino area ( Italy) or dash through to the Black Forest.

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[Wellington]

Struggling with coords will add to the stress. I suggest just concentrate on one app. Assuming you have a satnav you need to change the format to the one in the app. The easiest to use is decimal degrees which Campercontact uses and it will look like this N50.123456 E2.123456 but there are a couple of poo traps. On your trip almost everywhere should be East so check E is showing whenever you enter the coords. The other thing is the satnav will want three digits before the decimal point so E2.123456 will need to be entered as E002.123456. If there are more digits after the decimal point than there is room for just miss off the ones at the end which don't fit.

Buy a paper map for route planning.

The Ligurian coast road can be a nightmare in the towns. The motorway is fine but expect delays and heavy traffic around Genoa due to the missing bridge. It took us a couple of hours to get past last month.

We can strike north before Genoa, I think. I’ve also vowed motorways only in mountainous regions. It was the extra digits in the coordinates that flummoxed me, if I programme the thing tonight, instead of while the engine is running in the morning, we might stand a chance of getting off before 2pm! Although as we are in c Champagne, I’d probably better do it before the next glass.....

 

[DBK]

Best wishes and don't forget you can always slow down. On our next trip we probably won't go further than Normandy and Brittany.

 

[chaser]

If you use park 4night app, get the site up you are interested in , tap localisation and it will direct you to Google maps and take you to the gate, no need for any degrees in any format.

 

[PhilandMena]

Parking Airolo. CC 52045. Close to the tunnel entrance and free.

 

[DBK]

If you use park 4night app, get the site up you are interested in , tap localisation and it will direct you to Google maps and take you to the gate, no need for any degrees in any format.

Good point. Campercontact does the same. Click the Route button by the coords then select Google maps.

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[davidbaldam]

We usually stop in France near The boarder then travel straight through Switzerland then stop in Italy. Switzerland is to expensive.

 

[PhilandMena]

If you use park 4night app, get the site up you are interested in , tap localisation and it will direct you to Google maps and take you to the gate, no need for any degrees in any format.

I do not have this feature on my Windows 10 App ??? Are you using a different version ?

 

[chaser]

I do not have this feature on my Windows 10 App ??? Are you using a different version ?

Android phone, park4night, Google maps , satnav , all in one, no need for anything else

 

[Riverbankannie]

Best wishes and don't forget you can always slow down. On our next trip we probably won't go further than Normandy and Brittany.

I think that Wellington wrote in an earlier post that she is committed to an event in Padua and we know she left home a few days later than planned so she is unfortunately on a mission. Hopefully she can take her time returning

 

[Stonemags76]

To help get a sense of where we are, I use camper contact, find a place I want to go, and before I put it in the sat nav I use “get route” on the app. Then I can zoom in and out on maps & see where we are supposed to be going! I then put the coordinates into the sat nav, as that has the Moho height etc in, so I actually navigate with that! Think you are doing great, by the way!

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[PhilandMena]

I do not have this feature on my Windows 10 App ??? Are you using a different version ?

Just checked it out on my Android and when I clicked localisaztion it took me back to the Park4night map. Not a problem as I have A Garmin camper Sat. Nav. and use this for route planing.

 

[chaser]

Just checked it out on my Android and when I clicked localisaztion it took me back to the Park4night map. Not a problem as I have A Garmin camper Sat. Nav. and use this for route planing.

Look at the top of the second map and there will be a small black oblong, click on that

 

[chaser]

Look at the top of the second map and there will be a small black oblong, click on that

As this

 

[PhilandMena]

Thanks for this. It appears in the footer of my map but the link works.

 

[Wellington]

If you use park 4night app, get the site up you are interested in , tap localisation and it will direct you to Google maps and take you to the gate, no need for any degrees in any format.

I more or less did, but I paid for co pilot so I wouldn’t need to use our overseas data, and also to stop Apple maps directing me down little roads (it likes little roads), so I’m irked that I can’t figure out how to use it!

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[Riverbankannie]

I more or less did, but I paid for co pilot so I wouldn’t need to use our overseas data, and also to stop Apple maps directing me down little roads (it likes little roads), so I’m irked that I can’t figure out how to use it!

This is the support page for co pilot on iPhone showing how to navigate to coordinates. Before entering in the coordinates, you will have to select either decimal degrees or degrees, minutes, seconds. In the photo posted above showing a Park4night site, the coordinates are shown in decimal degrees and degrees minutes seconds so you can choose which format. If you choose degrees, minutes, seconds, you can leave off the last digits of the seconds so in the example above 29.76” you would just enter 29

Can I enter Latitude/Longitude coordinates as a destination?

In this article: Coordinates as a destination Display your coordinates on the map Coordinates as a destination To enter coordinates as a destination, tap on the main menu, and then tap Search. Tap on Coordinates. Tap on...

support.copilotgps.com

It is better to use coordinates if possible because there are so many places, particularly in France, which have the same name as somewhere else, it is too easy to set yourself off to the wrong place.

Thanks for updating us on your progress, fingers crossed your journey goes well.

 

[Puddleduck]

Monte Ceneri
6802 Rivera, Switzerland
46.138523, 8.908323

Charges by the hour so arrive as late as you can It's behind the fuel station and near the army base. Cafe at the fuel station.

Fresh water, all dumps and EHU We made a point of stopping there on the way south and north.

EDIT: not far off the E35

 

[Stonemags76]

On copilot on the go to page click coordinates and it will then let you enter them in three formats & os grid.

 

[Wellington]

I think that Wellington wrote in an earlier post that she is committed to an event in Padua and we know she left home a few days later than planned so she is unfortunately on a mission. Hopefully she can take her time returning

Unfortunately, yes. We were not supposed to be in a hurry, but left ten days late because of delays with van, the dog’s care and the damn dentist! Still we’re here now.

Have arrived at the Ecomusee D’Alsace, which is not so pretty as Champagne, but has the added bonus of shaded parking (with solar on top), which’s is fabulous, because it is FAR too hot atm. It’s Hoping to make it through Switzerland tomorrow, and onto Padua Friday. I should probably change the thread title to stops on the Italian border, now.

Almost wish I had pushed on to the lakes. We’d have been cool in the car for longer, and could have had a swim. It felt like too long a drive, though

 

[PhilandMena]

Monte Ceneri
6802 Rivera, Switzerland
46.138523, 8.908323

Charges by the hour so arrive as late as you can It's behind the fuel station and near the army base. Cafe at the fuel station.

Fresh water, all dumps and EHU We made a point of stopping there on the way south and north.

EDIT: not far off the E35

As I'm planning on visiting Greece next year via this route I have been looking at most cost effective ways of getting through Switzerland.
This Aire could be expensive at €1.37 per hour, between 2 and 12 Hrs.
https://www.camperareatamaro.ch/en/opening-hours-and-prices.php

I'm of the view a more cost effective option is to stopover at parking Airolo ( CC52045) A free stopover at the southbound exit of the tunnel. (72 Km further north that this Aire). Then using the free water and dump in the service area 22 KM further south on the A2 (CC28191).