Weather in Spain and wild camping? (1 Viewer)

[colyboy]

What's the weather like in Spain to-day and what's the position regarding wild camping this time of the year?

colyboy

 

[Minxy]

Rain, rain and more rain for a few days! As for wild camping, no problem if you stay well away from the popular tourist areas where they have height barriers and 'no autocaravans' etc type signs. We've been in France, Spain and Portugal since early April and not had any issues and have used the campercontact, park4night, fuego (might be spelt differently!) etc type website/POIs to find places, even parked in the field of an abandoned place once ... it was lovely!

 

[Armytwowheels]

The weather has been great recently but as to the wild camping situation we have done very little since Easter, but notice that the traditional places around the Costa Blanca seem to be empty. I get the impression that now the season is getting into full swing, it is not being tolerated.

I also heard that the Costa Calida (Murcia) is being cleared of free campers on a regular basis

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[jumartoo]

No rain here today, near Tortosa on the Ebro. Wild-camping where we were today not a problem but not everyone's cup of tea, i.e. in the mountains not on the coast or near the river!

 

[jumartoo]

Ooops spoke too soon, it's raining here in Asco now! We're on the aire on hardstanding so not a problem!

 

[Armytwowheels]

Still dry here but due for a few showers Friday and Saturday.

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[Xabia]

Been beautiful in Javea for weeks now and the immediate future doesn't look bad: Broken Link Removed

 

[Edendeb]

No rain here today, near Tortosa on the Ebro. Wild-camping where we were today not a problem but not everyone's cup of tea, i.e. in the mountains not on the coast or near the river!

We are heading to Tortosa tomorrow and the weather is supposed to be getting better. We are flying in rather than driving this time. Love this area so much.

 

[Boringfrog]

And this is in the shade, getting hotter the next few days. @ Benicarlo

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[gus-lopez]

Normal 30º here today. no rain forecast as checked due to painting.
Just checked again for you & sun shown up to the 23rd.

 

[John & Joan]

Parking and occupying a motor caravan for up to 2 night is lawful in Spain. Camping (putting anything outside) is not. Opening windows outward is also classed as camping, only roof light open is allowed. The big problem is that large gatherings ocurre and stay longer than the permitted limit. Keep moving and you will have no problems.
On the coast many car parks ban motor caravans, some even when they are otherwise empty will attract a fine. Parking on the street laybys beside these car parks is tolerated.
We found that if you avoid parking in the same place each night and move during the day to another location the police will often wave at you as they see you are playing the game.
Parking overnight within the area covered by the Lay de Costa (Coastal Law) is asking for trouble. ie within 500m of a beach to simplify.

 

[The Nomad]

Spain is a BIG country.
A VERY big country. About 93 or so percent as big as France.
It has a MASSIVE variety of geography, climates and weather across it's many very diverse regions.
Do you mean Atlantic or northern coastal, northern mountains, central or western plains, Eastern mountains, Eastern coast, southern coast?
A very good weather forecasting website for Spain is eltiempo.es
It uses all the detailed data from Aemet, the national Spanish weather agency, and it's computr modelling algorithms are centred on Spanish weather history so it should appears somewhat more accurate than the more general global and non-Spanish predictors.
It does have an English language option, which I'll try to provide a link to for you below:
https://en.eltiempo.es/madrid.html?q=madrid&c=prediction

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[The Nomad]

Parking and occupying a motor caravan for up to 2 night is lawful in Spain. Camping (putting anything outside) is not. Opening windows outward is also classed as camping, only roof light open is allowed. The big problem is that large gatherings ocurre and stay longer than the permitted limit. Keep moving and you will have no problems.
On the coast many car parks ban motor caravans, some even when they are otherwise empty will attract a fine. Parking on the street laybys beside these car parks is tolerated.
We found that if you avoid parking in the same place each night and move during the day to another location the police will often wave at you as they see you are playing the game.
Parking overnight within the area covered by the Lay de Costa (Coastal Law) is asking for trouble. ie within 500m of a beach to simplify.

Parking up (and then staying in overnight) a motorhome is legal indefinitely under Spanish law. The law here doesn't limit it to 2 nights.
But it needs to be done in a place where other vehicles are legally allowed to park, and without causing obstruction.
As you say, that excludes for example National Parks, and also areas covered by the Ley de las Costas.
But at the side of a road where other vehicles are parked, in a car park etc is legal.

Local townhall signs that say parking isn't allowed only for motorhomes but is allowed for other vehicles in a specific place are actually "ultra vires", ie beyond the power of the local townhall, as these road traffic rules and rights are Federal. They have no enforceable effect in Spanish law.

But of course, if a Policia Local officer (who in Spain is simply a local town council employee, who does what his town Mayor tells him, and has no training or knowledge of the law) turns up and tells you as a foreigner to move, then unless you speak very good Spanish and are prepared for the arrest and his fine, and then going to court to get that wrongly issued fine overturned, best to move on....

 

[daveinspain]

No rain here in Pedreguer, none forecast for next 5 days.

 

[travelbunyip]

Hi, found this link regarding parking and camping in Spain. In our nearly 3 years [combined] of traveling in Europe we have only been moved on once and that was in Denia, Spain. We were visiting our cousin and parked on the beach for 5 nights. On the 6th night all the motorhomes were asked to move on. A Dutch motorhomer told me that they do this to stop people living permanently on the site. Hope this link is helpful.

Broken Link Removed

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[The Nomad]

Hi, found this link regarding parking and camping in Spain. In our nearly 3 years [combined] of traveling in Europe we have only been moved on once and that was in Denia, Spain. We were visiting our cousin and parked on the beach for 5 nights. On the 6th night all the motorhomes were asked to move on. A Dutch motorhomer told me that they do this to stop people living permanently on the site. Hope this link is helpful.

Broken Link Removed

That link is unfortunately a good (bad?) example of how things can go wrong.

The Spanish road traffic law is actually perfectly clear that for a motorhome to be "parked" the vehicle must be resting with all four wheels on the ground, ie you cannot use levelling ramps and then claim that you are only parked up rather than "camping".

But, the Spanish VW van club that put the original "parking versus camping" together has got that bit wrong; and then the N332 facebook page/website (run by some Guardia Civil Trafico officers on the Southern Costa Blanca), has simply copied and pasted it with that inaccuracy still showing.

Just to be clear: the use of levelling ramps or stabilising jacks etc is forbidden if you are trying to take advantage of the legal right to just "park up" for the night at the roadside/in a carpark etc in Spain.
That doesn't mean you may not mostly get a way with using them, but be aware that the law ain't on your side and you do expose yourself to some risk of being fined/moved on if you do use them.

 

[travelbunyip]

In my post I said that the police moved us on. They were polite and gave us no grief. My question is has any Funster ever been fined and how much was the fine?
We have only been moved on once having been to 40 countries and travelled over 120,000 kilometers. With the obvious saving while wild camping maybe having a fine occasionally, you would still be ahead. Very interested to hear from anyone who has been fined and how much.

 

[Yorick]

27c every day here and can camp wherever you like

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[jumartoo]

That link is unfortunately a good (bad?) example of how things can go wrong.

The Spanish road traffic law is actually perfectly clear that for a motorhome to be "parked" the vehicle must be resting with all four wheels on the ground, ie you cannot use levelling ramps and then claim that you are only parked up rather than "camping".

But, the Spanish VW van club that put the original "parking versus camping" together has got that bit wrong; and then the N332 facebook page/website (run by some Guardia Civil Trafico officers on the Southern Costa Blanca), has simply copied and pasted it with that inaccuracy still showing.

Just to be clear: the use of levelling ramps or stabilising jacks etc is forbidden if you are trying to take advantage of the legal right to just "park up" for the night at the roadside/in a carpark etc in Spain.
That doesn't mean you may not mostly get a way with using them, but be aware that the law ain't on your side and you do expose yourself to some risk of being fined/moved on if you do use them.

The use of levelling ramps is illegal but you can use the small chocks to stop a vehicle rolling forwards.

I think that's where the confusion arises.

 

[Yorick]

The use of levelling ramps is illegal but you can use the small chocks to stop a vehicle rolling forwards.

I think that's where the confusion arises.

What about handbrake? Or leave it in gear ?

 

[bigguspeckus]

What's the weather like in Spain to-day and what's the position regarding wild camping this time of the year?

colyboy

Hi coloboy, we're in Rota, Cadiz region of southern Spain, average ten hours of brite sunshine per day and average temperatures of 22/30 degrees,,, BLISS,!!!

Free parking not a problem here, local Police patrol at least twice a day,,, we give, and get, a friendly wave.

Viva Espania,!

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[jumartoo]

What about handbrake? Or leave it in gear ?

Not my regulations unfortunately!

 

[McGeemobile]

We have spent a lot of time in Spain over the last ten years. We've only been approached 3 times by the police, all on the south coast. Firstly in La Azohia, when we were parked right on the beach and two very polite policemen said that their boss wanted motorhomes moved away the next day, so we moved at 8 a.m. Next in Playa Flamenca when we were wilding with a lot of others in the car park next to Mercadona, the police came and asked us if we would move to the side streets overnight. The third time was in Torre del Mar when we were parked in the cul de sac near Mercadona. This time they asked for passport details and took photos of all the registration numbers. Again, we moved the next day. A few weeks after this, signs appeared all through the town forbidding motorhome parking overnight.

We have never been fined. We rarely stay in one place for more than a few days anyway, so it's not a problem to move on the next day. I haven't actually met anyone who has been asked to move immediately, although I haven't been in the Aguilas region since the recent clampdown.

Many Spanish motorhomes now have a card in their windows stating in Spanish that they are parked and not camping. I don't know if this has any effect. I think the Spanish are starting to realise how much motorhomers contribute to the economy. There are hundreds of aires now, many opening in the last 2 years. We also came across a leaflet in a tourist office in northern Spain that said motorhomers were welcome to park anywhere in the town. Here's hoping the trend to provide more aires will continue.

 

[Minxy]

Last night we stopped at the car park near the Saturraran beach, Mutriku, Northern Spain (there's a campsite just up the road before the car park but you go past this). We went there in 2015 but last year when we went it was closed off for motorhomes as height barrier and fencing had been installed and signs put up to say MH couldn't stay there so there were a few on the concrete area near the little restaurant before the barriers. However, we found that the height barrier had been dismantled with just the 2 upright posts left, and all the fencing has been removed too so MHs can now get into the parking area again, although the sign is still up which forbids MHs, we spent the night there as did quite a few others, without a problem, we even had a 'drive round' by the local bobbies who weren't concerned at all. To us it looks like the barrier removal is a permanent thing as there's no way it could easily be put up again, along with the fencing without quite a bit of expense. We suspect the local economy probably suffered from not having MHing visitors going for meals, shopping etc and it has been taken down due to this. Not complaining as it was a nice surprise!

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[vwalan]

Last night we stopped at the car park near the Saturraran beach, Mutriku, Northern Spain (there's a campsite just up the road before the car park but you go past this). We went there in 2015 but last year when we went it was closed off for motorhomes as height barrier and fencing had been installed and signs put up to say MH couldn't stay there so there were a few on the concrete area near the little restaurant before the barriers. However, we found that the height barrier had been dismantled with just the 2 upright posts left, and all the fencing has been removed too so MHs can now get into the parking area again, although the sign is still up which forbids MHs, we spent the night there as did quite a few others, without a problem, we even had a 'drive round' by the local bobbies who weren't concerned at all. To us it looks like the barrier removal is a permanent thing as there's no way it could easily be put up again, along with the fencing without quite a bit of expense. We suspect the local economy probably suffered from not having MHing visitors going for meals, shopping etc and it has been taken down due to this. Not complaining as it was a nice surprise!

cant be prejadice about m,homes . they are class m1 vehicles . a car with a special body.
dont use levelling ramps etc nothing outside you should be left alone .
its taken 9 years but the guardia are finally getting the message .
all thanks to momo and her friends in spain . ac passion i believe if my memory is correct.