This POI data set contains almost 130,000 freely available points of interest from some of the best motorhome resources across the internet; all highly relevant to the European motorhome traveller.
We have been creating this information as our sole source of planning while on the road for several years. While compiling, translating and formatting this information for use on Autoroute takes Adam several hours, we are making the files available here in the interest of helping others who use Microsoft Autoroute and not for commercial or financial gain.
All POI's remain the property of their respective owners or collaborators and we encourage you to visit their websites or use their own applications for the most up to date information, since changes may have been made since this file was created.
This is of course likely to be some duplication between POI sets (I haven't de-duped between groups), but see this as further validation that a particular POI exists if it is listed on more than one directory.
Summary of Contents
2011 Europe By Camper Trail - 212
2014 Discount Camping Card - 2,739
Discount campsites for €12, €14, €16 or €18 per night. You must be a member of the scheme and have a copy of the 2014 book (costs £12) in order to benefit from the discounted rates - but it soon pays for itself. See: www.campingcard.co.uk
2014 Camper Contact - 16,257
Excellent resource run by the Netherlands Kampeerauto Club. All push pins link directly back to the free website for more detailed information and often photos. Consider supporting this resource by purchasing the excellent iOS or Android app for £3.99.
This data is broken down into:
Service Locations (no overnight parking) - 850
Overnight Locations - 15,407
2014 Bordatlas Aires - 6,010
A mainly German based aire guide with POI's freely available from their website. All pushpins link back to the website, for which a valid 2014 book needs to be purchased in order to access. The book also contains pictures for the majority of sites.
2014 Archies European Campsites - 30,980
A collaborate resource giving the best POI data for campsites in Europe. Consider supporting this resource by purchasing the iOS on Android app for £1.99.
2014 myLPG.eu LPG Filling Stations - 26,678
Not for profit resource, reproduced here with kind permission of the owner Matija Matvoz. Visit
www.mylpg.eu for the most up to date information.
2014 Camping Car Infos - 18,432
Excellent French language resource Camping Car Infos website might be a bit dated, but the information it provides is excellent. All pushpins link directly back to the website for additional information and pictures. Consider using Google Chrome as your web browser for automatic translation from French to English. Consider supporting this resource by downloading the Android app. The set comprises of:
Aire De Service - 5,544
Parking Areas Tolerating Motorhomes Overnight - 5,472
Designated Motorhome Overnight Parking - 650
Motorhome Parking - 495
Aires Camping Farm - 263
Campsite Aires Accepting Campers - 4,109
Campsites With Services - 801
Service Point Only - 629
Motorway Service Points - 469
2014 Womo Wild Camping Spots - 12,521
From www.womo-sp.org - use these as a guide rather than going too far out of your way to find a Wild Camping location, but we've found some hidden gems in the past thanks to this data.
2014 LIDL Europe Wide Locations - 9,858
Lidl - the motorhomers friend! Locations all over Europe correct as of January 2014.
2014 McDonalds Locations - 5,761
For the Free WiFi of course!
Total POI's 129,448
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| All Camping Car Infos & CamperStop.nl Pushpins link directly back to the free website for detailed information and often pictures. |
Download the correct version to match your version of Autoroute to save you having to convert previous versions. I would highly recommend that you consider upgrading to 2013, as the huge differences between 2010 and 2011 were documented on this blog post here (click).Click below to download the file, if you are unsure on what to press see the image to the right for steps 1 and 2.
Autoroute 2013, click here and choose 'Download'
Autoroute 2011, click here and choose 'Download'
Autoroute 2010, click here and choose 'Download'
Unfortunately conversion to Autoroute 2007 or older would be a lengthy process, since the version handles POI data slightly differently, so do consider upgrading or using one of the free trials below. I regret that I cannot supply these files in any other format (eg TomTom) or assist you in installing them on your device. Please visit the website owners to obtain the raw data files for use on your other devices.
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| Plenty of pushpins for Spain and Portugal |
Notes & Tips on Usage
All POI sets are 'turned off' by default. Right click on the set that interests you and select 'Show pushpin set' in order to view them. Unless you have a very fast computer, turning on all of these POI's while in the 'Full Europe' or a whole country view will most likely grind your computer to a halt. If you don't have a GPS dongle (you can buy one for £26, see below) to display your exact location, then zoom to within a couple of hundred miles of your area of interest and turn on the POI sets that are relevant to at your destination or along your route.
You can always delete sets not relevant to you by right clicking then and choosing delete, or make any other changes you wish by simply selecting FILE > SAVE AS before exiting. Because it is so easy to make changes to the data set accidentally, I would recommend having a backup copy saved on your computer.
Why Microsoft Autoroute?
Autoroute is one of the best offline mapping tools, despite the many excellent smart phone and tablet apps available. It is able to handle and manipulate a large amount of data from multiple data sets, as well as plot your location with an inexpensive USB GPS dongle. This is what we have, available on eBay for £26 (click).
We use it with a dashboard mounted laptop on this blog post (click).
Autoroute already contains millions of built in POI's including Fuel Stations, Cash Machines and Banks, Parking Lots, Supermarkets, Pharmacies and Post Offices.
Free Trial of Microsoft Autoroute / Purchasing
You can download a 14 day Free Trial of Microsoft Autoroute 2013 by clicking here.
You can download a 60 day Free Trial of Microsoft Autoroute 2010 by clicking here.
Or you can buy it for £33 here (DVD or Download) by clicking here.
Thanks Adam that is really useful it looks to be a lot of work I hope your IT wizardry enabled you to reduce it to a manageable task. We will be testing it out as we head to Morocco in the middle of January.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for your hard work. This is such a valuable resource and not fully appreciated until the data is interrogated fully. You have saved me many hours of collation; once again many thanks.
ReplyDeleteJack
Thankyou Adam & Sophie for this invaluable POI resource for every #motorhome #tourist . You truly are the #campervan owner's best friends. If I can ever be of help in #Ireland please let me know. Myself, hubbie and Ginger cat are newbies. Just spent our first season, in wild, scenic, remote places in Ireland. BTW Does that mean it is OK to stop overnight in a LIDL carpark?
ReplyDeleteThe Lidl POI's are more for shopping then for overnight. They are fairly consistent in their offerings and their value europe wide (as well as cheap beer / wine!) and their carparks are often accessible by motorhomes. I wouldn't advise overnighting there without permission.
DeleteYet again you amaze me in the amount of work you have put in Adam, well done and thank you. I think I will but Autoroute 2013 as it allows the offline flexibility. Your new look blog site is also very impressive not sure I have the ability to match that :-) Comment posted using iBoost picking up local free wifi interesting talking to others nearby they can see my hotspot but can't get wifi.
ReplyDeleteAmazing! Thanks for your generosity Adam this is an amazing resource and will be valuable to many.
ReplyDeleteNow all you two need to do is be free to get on the road and use it yourselves :-)
Thanks Adam for giving such a important information. well done and thanks again. your resource really awesome specially in summary that are valuable information.
ReplyDeleteAdam & Sophie, thank you both very much for such a comprehensive POI download for MS Autoroute maps. We use Autoroute extensively for route planning and overnight stops, as getting online outside the UK is very much hit and miss for us, so the availability of offline mapping is essential. Your many POIs greatly enhance that facility. See you both at either Newark or Peterborough (or both).
ReplyDeleteBest regards,
JockandRita.
P.S. No ALDI POIs? (wink)
Hi EbC,
ReplyDeletemany thanks for sharing the wealth of info. We are planning to hit the road this summer. I have a quick question - would you reckon that I should get the camper tomtom as suppose to the ordinary tomtom. The camper edition has the camper POI.
Many thanks,
Dave
Thanks so much!! mid-thirties mid life crisis here I come!!
ReplyDelete