Van life presents its fair share of challenges, and one of the most daunting is the ongoing quest for a suitable place to park for the night. Often, you may stumble upon the perfect spot, only to realize you lack the app needed to pay for it—and to make matters worse, your mobile signal is weak. To ease your journey, here’s a list of apps designed to help you find and pay for parking with ease.
Just Park
This app is geared more towards knowing where you are going rather than making last-minute, ad hoc decisions when you’re fed up with driving and just want to pull over. I’ve used this many times for airport parking. It’s slightly different from Park4Night, as listings are added by companies and individuals rather than being reported by users. All parking spots are paid for, and there’s a nice selection of supermarket car park listings as well. I’ve used this in the UK, but I haven’t tried it in Europe, so I can’t comment on that.
Park 4 Night
The perennial favorite and a go-to for most, Park4Night relies more on user submissions and reviews rather than people offering car parking spaces. The great thing is that users often list facilities like bins, toilets, and free water. Park4Night has a charter, which is a set of official rules. Remember to take your rubbish with you and don’t dump your grey water. Park4night has a website along with iOS and Android app.
Your Parking Space
Has a vibe very similar to Just Park, but with many more supermarket car park offerings and the ability to book parking for a month at a time. Often, spaces are described as suitable for 4×4 vehicles, so it’s worth checking the images for vehicle height, especially for those of us with tall vans. This is a good option if you want to find a supermarket car parking space, although it can be a little pricey.
Parkopedia
Finally a service that will mention height restrictions without having to click around, ParkoPedia seems to have a niche of local authority and train station car parks primarily unless you get used to the UI and select street or private parking. Download on the App Store or Google Play.
National Car Parks
NCP car parks are a plenty if almost all are height restricted (under 2m) but this is a handy app to have to save some money. Book in advance to say money however the website and app is fiddly to work out restrictions. iOS App, Android App
MiPermit
Much like NCP, MiPermit is limited to the car parks it controls in various cities in the uk. TheMiPermit app is available for Apple and Android devices. Like others in this reviews there is a lack of information regarding height restrictions yet MiPermit is still a handy one to have on your list of apps, even if there’s less locations that the above recommendations.
Some other hints for Van Life parking
Vehicle height. Sounds obvious check the height that is allowed. Not all of the app mention parking height restrctions.
Create an account ahead of time. So you aren’t out in the middle of the night trying to get a spot to park in when tired and just needing to stop, create an account before hand. A lot of these websites and apps will nag you to create an account before getting a parking spot.
Download the app, again ahead of time. Granted some apps are just the website disguided in a fancy interface (or wrapper) but those with proper apps will use less data. So when you’re in the middle of nowhere and want to find somewhere to park up an app that uses less data will be a blessed relief not to mention saving the stress of trying to download an app, no doubt late at night when you are exhausted and just looking for a quick park up.
If you have any suggestions or ideas to share about how to find the best van life park ups, please let me know via twitter/x, instagram or drop a comment down below.
