Europe Just Recorded 135.7 Million Nights at Campsites – and the Smart Money Has Already Moved to October
Here is a number worth sitting with: between January and June this year, campsites in the European Union recorded 135,750,659 overnight stays. That is an all-time record, and it is 72% more than ten years ago.
Eurostat’s figures went largely unnoticed outside the industry, but they tell a story that matters a great deal if you’re planning where to go next – because the growth isn’t in summer any more.
How we got here
- 2016: just over 79 million nights in the first half of the year
- 2019: over 103 million – the old peak
- 2020: 41 million, the pandemic collapse
- 2021: a 66% rebound almost immediately
- 2022: 112 million, already past pre-pandemic
- 2026: a record 135,750,659
Camping didn’t just recover after 2020. It came out of it structurally bigger than before, and it has kept going in a decade when plenty of other holiday categories stalled.
Where everyone went
In the first half of 2026 the ranking ran France (43 million nights), Italy (19.5 million), Spain (18 million), Germany (17 million) and then the Netherlands, which passed ten million for only the second time ever after 2023.
The Dutch are also something of a leading indicator. As of 1 September there were 635,000 registered motorhomes and caravans in the country, a record and about 8,500 more than a year earlier – in a country of eighteen million people.
Two industry figures summed up why. Roel Reineman of the KCI noted that these vehicles are “not only used during the summer vacation”. Marjolijn Wegkamp of BOVAG’s caravan and motorhome dealers said the Dutch now camp “in all shapes and sizes, and in all seasons”, with young families in particular coming back to caravans after years away.
Everyone is buying something to sleep in
- France: 28,369 new motorhomes and campervans registered in the twelve months to March 2026, up 7.8%, with 67,925 used transactions, up 2.5%
- Sweden: 5,152 new motorhomes registered so far this year, up 46.5% – though dealers warn that some were registered early ahead of a rule change, so real demand is more modest than the headline. Caravans, meanwhile, are down 7.5%
- Netherlands: record fleet of 635,000 leisure vehicles on 1 September
The industry is clearly thriving. It’s also expensive to join: the ANWB’s Camper of the Year 2027, a four-wheel-drive Sunlight IBEX on a Volkswagen Crafter, starts at around €111,000. Even its Caravan of the Year, the 1,150 kg Lume Ranger, is about €50,000 before you’ve bought anything to put in it.
If you want to see it all in one place, go this week
Europe’s camping industry spends most of October at trade shows, and six of them happen to run this week:
- Birmingham, UK – the NEC Motorhome and Caravan Show, 13-18 October, more than 1,000 vehicles, tickets from £14.95 including parking, under-16s free
- Wels, Austria – Caravan Salon Austria, 14-18 October, €15.50 a day, under-14s free
- Poznań, Poland – Caravans Salon, 15-18 October, 600-plus motorhomes and trailers across eight halls, with overnight space next door
- Clermont-Ferrand, France – motorhome show, 15-18 October, entry €2 or free with an invitation
- Walchsee, Austria – Kaiserwinkl Camper Van Days, 16-18 October, an end-of-season gathering on a Tyrolean lakeshore
- Rivas-Vaciamadrid, Spain – sustainable transport fair, 16-18 October, with a motorhome area for the first time
And if you miss them: Saint-Étienne in France runs 22-25 October with 30-plus brands and 160 vehicles over 10,000 square metres, entry €5 and free for under-16s.
The catch nobody mentions
All of this demand has to go somewhere, and in July and August there simply isn’t room. Eurostat’s own seasonality data shows 31.1% of all EU accommodation nights in 2025 fell in July and August – those two months are the busiest in every single EU country. The popular sites were full this summer, and the record above is partly a story of people being turned away from the weeks they wanted.
Which is why the interesting opportunity has quietly moved to now. October pitches across Europe cost roughly a third less than August ones, the best sites still have space, and the weather in most of the Mediterranean is still entirely pleasant.
Why October suits an electric car especially well
This is the part the camping industry hasn’t fully caught up with. The most-bought new car in much of Europe already does about eighty per cent of what a €111,000 motorhome does – quietly, and for fuel money.
Heating is free-ish and clean. Camp Mode holds a sealed cabin at temperature all night with no flame and no exhaust. There’s no gas bottle, no carbon monoxide risk, nothing to refill. On an October night when it drops to three or four degrees, this is the difference between camping and shivering. Set it from your phone before you leave dinner.
It’s silent. In a nearly empty autumn site, arriving and leaving without waking anyone is genuinely appreciated.
The boring middle is cheap. Charging still costs meaningfully less per kilometre than diesel almost everywhere in Europe, and off-season touring means long motorway days rather than city crawling.
And you haven’t spent €111,000. Which is… quite a lot of camping.
The kit that makes it work after dark
Nights come early in October, so power first. A 2048Wh LiFePO4 Portable Power Station runs your lights, laptops, camera batteries and pump all evening without touching the car’s own battery, so you start tomorrow with a full car rather than hunting for a charger. With the 35L Dual-Zone Compressor Fridge plugged into it, one big shop covers the whole trip and something stays frozen.
Cook on the Tesla Induction Cooktop straight off that power station – no gas canister to store, leak or dispose of, and it’s controllable enough to actually simmer something. Tesla Trunk Organiser Box is the unglamorous essential: without boot storage, a week on the road becomes a daily excavation.
For sleeping, pick your style. The Tesla Roof Top Tent gives you a dry, flat, ventilated room above wet ground that pitches in minutes; the Tesla Inflatable Air Mattress turns the flat boot floor into a proper bed if you’d rather stay inside the car. Either way, Magnetic Mesh Bug Screens let you keep air moving on the milder afternoons without letting everything with wings in, which is also your best defence against condensation.
And Tablet Mount Holder mounts a screen where you can actually use it – for the route, for the weather forecast, and for something to watch once it’s properly dark at half past six.
Two rules worth knowing this month
- Belgium: a caravan may not sit on a public road for more than 24 hours at a time, and the tightening rules coming on 1 June 2027 keep that. Motorhomes are exempt as long as they’re roadworthy.
- Netherlands: if you’re putting a caravan away for winter, remember a mouse can get through a 5 mm gap, and rodent damage is frequently excluded from insurance – even fully comprehensive policies. Seal the gaps around cables and pipes, remove every scrap of food, and check inside monthly.
The short version
Europe slept 135.7 million nights outdoors in six months and set a record doing it. But the growth isn’t in July any more – it’s in the months either side, where the weather is fine, the prices are a third lower and the good sites actually have space.
Go now, while everyone else is waiting for next summer. Bring something to keep you warm and powered, and go in something you don’t have to leave the engine running to heat.
