Driving a motorhome in Europe: licence, weight, tolls and where to sleep

Checked on 2026-10-26

A motorhome turns a road trip into a moving holiday home, but it also puts you in a different regulatory box from the family car. One number decides most of it: 3,500 kg. It sets which licence you need, how you pay tolls in Switzerland and Austria, and how carefully you have to read the signs in front of tunnels. This guide walks through the weight question first, then tolls, tunnels, and the rules for parking and sleeping in Spain and France, the two countries most of our readers cross. Rules are national and change, so every section links to the official page we checked.

Start with the weight on your registration document

The figure that matters is the maximum authorised mass (the legal maximum laden weight shown on the registration document), not what the van weighs when it is empty. A camper rated at 3,500 kg can be legal to drive on a car licence and still be overweight on the road once water, gas, bikes, food and four people are on board. If you are close to the limit, a weighbridge stop before a long trip is cheap insurance.

Which licence covers which motorhome

Under the current EU driving licence directive (Directive 2006/126/EC), a category B licence covers motor vehicles with a maximum authorised mass of up to 3,500 kg and no more than eight passengers in addition to the driver. Above that, a motorhome of more than 3,500 kg and up to 7,500 kg falls under category C1, the light truck category.

There are national exceptions for older licences. In France, for example, the official service-public.fr page explains that a B licence issued before 20 January 1975 still allows a motorhome above 3.5 tonnes, and that code 79 must appear on the licence to use that right abroad. A B licence issued on or after that date does not.

The 2025 reform: 4,250 kg on a B licence, but not yet

The new EU driving licence directive, Directive (EU) 2025/2205, was signed on 22 October 2025 and published in the Official Journal on 5 November 2025. It lets category B holders drive a motor caravan with a maximum authorised mass above 3,500 kg and up to 4,250 kg (up to 5,000 kg with a trailer), but only after completing a training course or passing a test of skills and behaviour, or both, depending on the country. The training described in the annex lasts at least seven hours, and the entitlement is shown on the licence with an EU code.

The important part is the timing. Member States have until 26 November 2028 to adopt their national rules and must apply them from 26 November 2029. As of today, the 4,250 kg motorhome rule is not yet applicable: unless your own country has already changed its law, a 3.5 t-plus motorhome still needs C1 (or one of the national exceptions above). The directive also contains a separate weight allowance for alternatively fuelled vehicles that applies earlier, but its text explicitly excludes motor caravans.

Tolls and vignettes above 3.5 tonnes

Crossing 3,500 kg can also move you out of the car vignette system.

Country	Up to 3.5 t	Above 3.5 t
Switzerland	Motorway vignette (e-vignette CHF 40, valid 1 December to 31 January of the following year)	Lump-sum heavy vehicle charge (PSVA), on the whole road network, paid through the official Via portal
Austria	Vignette or section toll tickets	GO toll per kilometre on motorways and expressways, with a GO-Box on board

Switzerland. The Swiss customs office (FOCBS/BAZG) lists campervans, motorhomes and caravans above 3.5 tonnes among the vehicles subject to the lump-sum heavy vehicle charge. It applies to every road, not only motorways, and foreign vehicles owe it for each day spent in the country, even if the vehicle is only parked on a campsite. You buy it for one to thirty consecutive days, one to eleven months or a calendar year; the minimum per payment is CHF 25, and the rates are shown in Via. Driving without valid proof means paying the charge afterwards plus a CHF 100 fine. If your stay runs longer than planned, you pay again in Via.

Austria. ASFINAG charges the distance-based GO toll on motorways and expressways for motorhomes above 3.5 t maximum technically permissible laden mass. That wording matters: check which mass your documents state. You need a GO-Box, collected at one of the GO points of sale in Austria and abroad; ASFINAG lists a EUR 12 processing fee and the box is a loan device you return. Some tunnels and the Brenner motorway carry higher section rates. Motorhomes up to 3.5 t use the normal vignette or section toll tickets. Our vignette guide covers the light-vehicle side.

Height, tunnels and bridges

Motorhomes are taller, wider and longer than any car, and Spain’s traffic authority (DGT) specifically warns drivers to watch the height and width limit signs to avoid getting stuck. Height also changes what you pay in some tunnels. The Mont Blanc Tunnel, for instance, classifies vehicles by height: class 2 is a vehicle between 2 and 3 metres tall, class 3 a two-axle vehicle above 3 metres, so most motorhomes are not billed as cars. Inside the tunnel the operator requires a speed between 50 and 70 km/h, a 150 metre gap to the vehicle ahead (marked by blue lights) and no overtaking; if your vehicle runs on LPG you must tell the toll booth operator.

Know your exact height including roof boxes, solar panels and air conditioning, and treat any navigation route as a suggestion, never as a substitute for the signs.

Speed

Speed limits for vehicles above 3.5 tonnes vary by country and road type, so check the official rules of each country on your route. In Spain, the DGT states that a motorhome homologated as such has the same limits as a car, while a car towing a caravan is limited to 90 km/h on motorways and dual carriageways and 80 km/h on other roads.

Parking and sleeping: Spain

The DGT draws a clear line between parking and camping. A motorhome is parked when it stands in a permitted place, inside the marked bay and within any time limit. People may be inside; what matters is that nothing goes beyond the outline of the vehicle: no awnings, no tables outside, no levelling blocks, no stabiliser legs. Camping is only allowed in places set aside for it (campsites, or motorhome areas depending on each region’s rules).

Town halls also have a say. The DGT updated its motorhome instruction on 16 March 2026 (Instrucción PROT 2026/04, replacing the 2023 one). Following a Supreme Court ruling of 13 March 2018, a municipal traffic ordinance may limit parking times and ban camping on urban streets except in zones the town authorises. The same update mentions the new road sign S-128, which marks a waste-water emptying point for caravans and motorhomes.

Parking and sleeping: France

In France a motorhome on the street follows the general parking rules. Leaving any vehicle in the same spot on the public road for more than seven days counts as abusive parking (a town can set a shorter limit by order) and carries a fixed EUR 35 fine, with possible impounding. Mayors can regulate where motorhomes stop and park through a reasoned order, but a ministerial answer published in the Senate’s official journal on 26 March 2020 states that such bans cannot be general and absolute, except in exceptional local circumstances. In practice that means local signs and height barriers decide, and they vary from one town to the next.

The simplest way to stay on the right side of both countries is to sleep where it is clearly allowed: dedicated motorhome areas (aires de camping-car, áreas de autocaravanas) and campsites, and keep the “nothing outside the vehicle” rule in mind for anywhere else.

A short checklist before you leave

Read the maximum authorised mass on your papers and weigh the loaded vehicle.
Check that your licence covers that mass, in your country and abroad.
Above 3.5 t: buy the Swiss PSVA in Via before entering Switzerland and get a GO-Box for Austria.
Note your exact height and width; check tunnel classes and restrictions on the operator’s site.
Plan the nights: campsites and motorhome areas first, and the local rules for anything else.

Sources

How Optitrips helps

Optitrips has a camper and van vehicle profile with your dimensions, a camper pace with rest days between driving days, and it splits long trips into days with daily kilometre and driving-hour limits, scheduling rest and meal stops. It shows real toll costs along the route, flags countries that need a vignette with a link to the official seller, lists fuel prices and cheaper stations, estimates AdBlue range and cost (AdBlue prices are only available for Spain), and shows the weather and official MeteoAlarm warnings along the way. Be aware of its limits: routing works in car mode and cannot express vehicles above 4,250 kg gross weight, and it never replaces the height and weight signs on the road. It is an Android app in closed beta. Join the beta