The best campervan
destinations in September

If you want real summer in September, drive south. Between Marseille and Cassis lies Calanques National Park: white limestone cliffs dropping straight into the sea, with turquoise inlets between them. In August large parts are often closed because of fire risk and the car parks are full. In September you can walk almost everywhere again, and the beach at En-Vau is sometimes almost yours alone.

From there you have plenty of choice. The Gorges du Verdon for mountain roads, the Camargue for the flats and the flamingos, or the Ardeche as a stop on the way down. What you miss in September is the lavender, harvested back in July. What you get instead is the grape harvest in the Cotes du Rhone and sea water that still feels like August.

The Pyrenees are at their finest in September. The August heat has gone, the summer herds come down from the high pastures and the air is sharp enough to see into Spain from a pass. The mountain lakes, the cirques of Gavarnie and Troumouse, the Col du Tourmalet and the Route des Lacs are all still open, but without the bumper to bumper camper traffic of August.

What you do notice is the temperature at night. At 1,200 to 1,600 metres it can drop close to freezing in September. Which is exactly why this is a destination for a van with real heating on board, not for a tent.

The area north of Milan is the most underrated campervan destination in Europe, and in September everything about it works. Lake Como, Lake Maggiore and the smaller Lake Orta sit an hour apart, with mountain roads between them that clog up in summer and simply flow now. The water is still warm enough to swim in, the lakeside terraces are no longer fully booked and the ferries still run a summer timetable.

Combine it with the cities. Bergamo Alta sits on a hill inside its old walls and takes half a day. Milan itself is awkward in a van, but from an aire on the edge you can take the metro straight in. And since you are already that far south, going home over the Stelvio or the Gotthard pass is the finest detour you could ask for.

Slovenia is roughly the size of Wales and it has everything: high Alps, a turquoise river, caves, wine hills and fifty kilometres of coast. You can drive from Lake Bled to the Adriatic at Piran in two hours. For a campervan that is ideal, because you can move camp every day without losing half a day on a motorway.

The Soca valley is the highlight. The river is a colour that looks exaggerated in photographs until you stand next to it. In September the water is low and clear, the rafting crowds have gone and the Vrsic pass with its forty-nine hairpins is still open. Wild camping is not allowed in Slovenia, but the country has a dense network of small, cheap campsites and official aires.

If you do not have two weeks, drive to southern Germany. You reach Baden or Wurttemberg in a day, and September there is harvest month. The hills around the Kaiserstuhl, the Tauber valley and the Neckar turn colour, the villages hold their Weinfeste, and small well kept Stellplatze line the wine routes, often at a grower's own gate and often for a few euros a night.

It is the destination for a long weekend or a week: walk the vineyards in the morning, move the van in the afternoon, buy a bottle in the evening from the grower whose field you are parked in. Combine it with the Black Forest, Lake Constance or Alsace across the Rhine, all within an hour or two.