Plan your campervan trip to the Tour de France
What is the Tour de France and why we love it
What is it?
The Tour de France (TDF) is an annual 21-day race held in July and is the most well-known professional cycling race in the world. 176 riders (22 teams of 8 riders each) race for 21 days, traveling across the beautiful countryside and mountains of France (and at times other countries including Italy, Spain, and Denmark). The route changes each year and spans over 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers). The finale is held in Paris.
Our “why”
Sam and I first discovered the TDF on our honeymoon in 2004. We got married in July and happened to turn on the TV and saw this crazy bike race. We were fascinated and drawn in by the strength, endurance and stamina of these men riding their bikes for 4-5 hours a day. We loved seeing the diverse landscape of France and spotting the chateaus, rivers and mountains. Fans line up along the road on the 200ish-kilometer routes daily to cheer the riders on. Hundreds of campervans camp along the route. Every year, we would look forward to July where we could watch the race and transport ourselves to France and imagine what it would be like to watch in person.
Let’s Celebrate!
Our 20th wedding anniversary was on July 24, 2024. I wanted to do something BIG to celebrate. We explored going on a cruise or an all-inclusive resort, but what I really wanted to do was something we had never done before – go to Europe and watch the Tour. We wanted to be one of the campervans parked alongside the route, cheering the riders on. When my mom volunteered to watch our kiddos so we could go, we decided why CAN’T we go and be there? It didn’t take me long to book our trip to Europe!
Pre-planning - How in the world do you plan a trip to watch the Tour?
I had trouble finding articles on the logistics of watching the TDF in person and especially in a rented campervan! This will be the guide that I wished I could have found before our first time watching the legendary race in person, sharing the highs and lows and what I wish I had known.
The starting location and the first couple of stages are always announced quite a bit ahead (usually years in advance). And of course, the finale is in Paris (except in 2024 due to the Olympics). But all the stages/routes in between are not announced until around the October before. There is a grand ceremony and once announced, you can find the start/stop towns on the Tour de France website.
Once the route is announced is when the fun planning can begin. When planning, you need to take into account what type of stage – flat, hilly, mountain or time trial. Where is the race going to be? When I am planning, I look at the map and try to find stages that are closer together. At times, the Tour will fly from one point of the country to another, so keep that in mind if you are driving a campervan. I looked at the dates we wanted to be in Europe were, where the race was and where we wanted to fly in/out of.
The start times and estimated finish times of each stage are not announced until a couple of months before the race (typically in May). That is also when the Official Tour de France Race Guide is released. While not required, as all the information will be on the app and website, this is a fun guide to have to plan and bring to the race. During my research, the UK version is the best English version. However, it can only be shipped to an address in the UK. I went to one of the many Facebook pages I had joined and asked if someone that lived in the UK wanted to be my friend so I could use their address. I ordered the guide, had it shipped directly to them, and then had them send it to me in the US. I was able to send them money via PayPal and added a little extra for their time and willingness to help me out! The guide itself is between £13-18 and the shipping from the UK in 2025 was £28. You can purchase the guide here.
One website I have found very helpful is https://www.cyclingstage.com/tour-de-france-2026-route/. They post the actual road routes and profile of each stage, helping me to plan where exactly the race will be during each day.
Once I know what stages we’ll watch, I try to get an idea of where we want to be parked for each stage, keeping in mind what the profile is.
On the flat stages, the riders will be going quickly by regardless of where you park. However, there are sometimes parts of the stage where it might be uphill, so I try to look for those areas.
For the hilly and mountain stages, I take a look at the race profile to see where the downhill sections are. We wanted to stay away from those sections as they will go past even faster than normal. We also didn’t want to be at the top of a climb and trying to find a spot to park – since we were trying to see multiple stages and not camp out for several days in one spot.
I use Google Earth to get an idea of the terrain of the route. This came in particularly useful in 2025 during the individual time trial Stage 13 in Loudenvielle when I realized that the route was only 10.9km and there was very limited parking along the road. I looked ahead, and we decided to get a camping spot at the start town.
After determining which stages you’ll watch and the area where you hope to park, you’re as prepared as you can be before you depart for the race! We discovered after the very first stage we ever watched, that it isn’t so much about seeing the race, but the people you meet and spend time with while waiting along the route.
You’re there ready to watch the Tour de France in person – now what?
The basics
There is nothing like navigating through the roads of France, looking at The Race Guide or the TDF app and spotting the very first neon green sign indicating that you are on the race route. The exhilaration of spotting other campervans along the route, their flags streaming in the wind and honking and waving as you go by. With each stage that you watch, that magic never gets old.
Once driving along the route (which is clearly marked with the green signs), you start looking for a spot. We preferred to find a spot early in the evening (6ish?) but there are people that pull up late at night and also early in the morning of the race. If you wanting to go in the mountains on the major climbs, you will need to be there much earlier (ie days). We have never had time to do that as our time is limited and I’d rather view more stages.
- First up is finding a spot that your campervan can fit. We enjoyed being with other fans, so we always try to choose a spot with space that others could fit as well.
- Try to find a spot that is level (or able to use leveling ramps for). This is more difficult on the hilly or mountain stages.
- We also looked for spots around a curve (especially the hairpin turns) or any type of incline…anything that might make the riders slow down a bit.
There is no right or wrong way to park. Just make sure that you are fully off the route. Once we chose a spot where we had to move the morning of because we happened to park in the feed zone for the team cars (unbeknownst to us).
After choosing our spot, we get cozy and enjoy meeting the other fans around us. That is the best part for us – meeting others from around the world. We have met people from all around Europe, Australia, Africa and a couple of people from the US!
Depending on where you park, the morning of the race starts early. It is exciting to see the cars start coming by, the gates being set up, and the signage put out. Depending on where you are, the roads start closing several hours before the race. The amount of cyclists – both group and individual, young and old, was surprising to me. It is a blast to cheer everyone on.
Once the caravan goes through, you have time for lunch and then it is usually race time! As soon as the riders go through, everyone packs up and heads out.
Logistics
One of the best parts about France and staying in a campervan is the accessibility of places to do your services – getting fresh water and emptying the gray waste and cassette toilet. The main app I used was park4night. You can look at the app and narrow down places that have service points. We have found them next to supermarkets, along the highway or just in an aire in a village. When we were in the mountains, we paid €5 to be able to use services at a campground. My point is, it is very easy to find places. During the race, you sometimes have to wait your turn, as there are many campervans that need to use them too, but they are available everywhere.
The CARAVAN and more!
The caravan is a parade of vehicles that comes through about two hours before the riders do. During this parade, there are floats with high-energy people on them that throw out all kinds of promotional goodies to those on the side of the road. It lasts around 30 minutes, and you walk away with all kinds of swag/products – flags, pens, keychains, shirts, socks, hats, bags, candy, drinks and more!
Here are a couple of tips when watching the caravan and how to get the most stuff possible.
- Use a sheet with your partner to hold up to have them throw at.
- Try not to stand next to everyone – give space between you and others. Since we had so many stages, Sam and I started standing on opposite sides of the road.
- If you have a child (like we did in 2025), they will get thrown everything. Regardless of what you are holding, they like the kids.
- At one stage, a gentleman had his car trunk open with a circle goal inside it – he got thrown EVERYTHING I think.
If you can watch the tour multiple days, you will obviously have more of a chance to get more swag. There was one day when the caravan flew by us and didn’t throw out much – I think they were running behind. In 2025, all I wanted was to get a Total Energies shirt. After watching for 10 stages, I still didn’t manage to get one. I actually had a bunch of goodies that I was prepared to trade if someone near us got thrown one. Thankfully, there was someone on one of our last stages that wanted a Leclerc polka dot shirt – so I traded an extra we had, and we were both ecstatic.
Other Goodies
The whole day leading up to the race is full of vehicles going down the route. There is a banana van that goes through and sometimes stops and hands out bananas. Skoda has vehicles that go before and will distribute flags and bags. We also got flags from Organina and Basic-Fit, to name a few. With all of these, we have found they stop where there is a group of campervans and cars.
There are also vehicles that go through selling TDF merchandise. In 2025, we saw two different ones – one selling just shirts and the other sold hats and umbrellas. These cars stop randomly, and I find it very hard to get them to stop. They are able to take a credit card if there is service available, so have cash ready as well. I thought the prices were very reasonable.
Experience the race with us on each stage we've watched
In 2024, we flew into Nice, and chose to watch three stages – Stage 16, 17 and 18. They were stages in locations where I had determined we would already be near. I also didn’t want to deal with trying to go on a mountain stage and finding a spot in the chaos of a mountain stage. In the research I had done, everything I read about indicated there was a lot of waiting for the riders and that the race goes by in an instant. There was a lot of downtime and the articles I read made it sound boring. I brought cards for us to play, and I was anticipating relaxing in a chair and catching up on my reading while waiting all day for the riders to come by. I couldn’t have been MORE wrong. NOTHING could have been farther from the truth! Our 3 tour days were our favorite and I have never smiled or laughed so much in 3 days straight. I cried ugly tears when we left stage 18. I wanted MORE.
In 2025, I knew that I wanted MORE Tour. We decided to follow it for 10 stages! While fantastic, it was a lot of driving. Even the riders complained at how much they had to be transported from stage to stage. We saw Stages 11-20.
For 2026, I am planning on 6 stages! I can’t wait to share how those will be as well.
Click here to read about each of the individual stages we have watched – where we parked, who we met and how the day progressed.