Why we love sleeping in pub carparks
Sleeping out in a pub carpark might not sound like the most glamorous way to spend an evening, but you might be surprised! In this post we’re going to explain why pub carparks make excellent campervan stopovers, and how to find the best ones.
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The benefits of sleeping in pub carparks
One of the indisputable benefits of vanlife is having the option to break up long journeys and take a nap in your travelling home. If we’re facing a long drive, instead of setting off at the crack of dawn, we usually opt to leave the evening before instead and camp out somewhere on the road. We always look for something within walking distance of a decent pub, so we can get some dinner and a couple of drinks before hitting the hay. And you can’t park much closer to a pub than in their own carpark!
Camping out in a pub carpark means you’ve got food and drink on your doorstep. What’s more, you’ve got a free park-up that’s totally legal, as it’s on private land with the landowner’s permission, so there’s no risk of being moved on in the night.
How to find willing pubs
Of course, the first challenge here is to find a pub that’s willing to let you camp out overnight. You don’t want to drive for hours only to find yourself fruitlessly searching for a welcoming refuge – this could significantly deplete your eating and drinking time!
For this reason, it’s always worth doing a bit of forward planning. We estimate how far we expect we’ll want to travel, then we look for suitable pubs that aren’t too far off our route. We have a look at the carpark size and the entrance on Google Earth (to make sure Fleur’s sizeable ass will fit) and we usually take a sneaky peek at their menu too.
Once we’ve found somewhere that looks suitable, we give them a call to book a table. We ask if they’d be happy for us to park up overnight providing we have some food and drinks. While many will say yes, inevitably there will be some landlords who aren’t keen on the proposal. Filtering through these can be time consuming.
BUT, you can filter down your search to those that are more likely to say ‘yes’ by utilising an indispensable tool…
The pub carpark map
A few years ago we discovered an incredible map of pubs in the UK that allow campers to stay overnight in their carpark. This map is a truly beautiful thing, which appears to have been painstakingly put together by just one or two people.
View the map of pubs allowing stopovers
You can zoom in to a specific location and click on an icon for more details of the pub. The map works best on a desktop, so it’s a good idea to do your research before leaving if possible. We always phone pubs to ask permission before we set off too, so we know exactly where we’re aiming for and how long it’s going to take us (we’re usually cutting it pretty close to kitchen closing time!)
The website owner asks anyone who stays over in one of the pub carparks listed (or gets denied a stopover) to provide a review or description, to keep it all up to date. There is also a PayPal link for those who wish to make a donation to help with the running costs of the site.
Pub carpark etiquette
Although sleeping in a carpark might not feel high-brow enough to warrant an etiquette, there are a few ground rules that it’s important to recognise. It’s simple stuff, just demonstrating a basic level of courtesy and respect:
- Phone ahead – it’s always a good idea to phone ahead to ask permission. This gives them an opportunity to say ‘no,’ allowing you to make alternative arrangements, or to tell you if there’s a specific area of the carpark you should park in.
- Introduce yourself – when you arrive, go up to the bar and introduce yourself. Tell them which van is yours and where you’ve parked it. If they want you to park somewhere else instead, then move it. A couple of pub owners have told us about finding campers parked up in their carpark after closing, with no knowledge of who the owners are. They don’t like it, understandably.
- Buy food or drink – there needs to be a little give and take in the pub carpark relationship. If you’re getting a free park-up on private land, expect to give a little back in return. At the very least buy a few drinks.
- Be discreet – needless to say, don’t set up your awning, put up camp chairs and light a BBQ in the carpark. Remember, it is a carpark not a campsite. Also avoid taking up multiple parking bays.
- Be tidy – it also goes without saying that you should leave no trace and take any litter away with you. Also, don’t tip out your waste water all over their carpark!
- Only stay for 1 night and get up and off in the morning. Don’t camp out for days on end, just use it as a stopover.
We’ve always had positive experiences when stopping over in pub carparks. We’ve found the staff to be accommodating, pushing late food orders through and filling up water bottles for us, and a few hours sleep in a quiet carpark has been just what we needed before getting back on the road.
If you need to break up a long journey, why not treat yourself to a sleepover in a pub carpark? We even spent our anniversary in one last year (we’re nothing if not romantic).