Taking a motorhome to Europe: the post-Brexit rules and what we have learned
Brexit did not stop us taking a motorhome to Europe, it just added some paperwork. Here is everything we now sort out before every trip, from the 90 day rule to the sticker most people forget, based on what has actually caught us out and what has not.
The short answer
Taking a motorhome to Europe after Brexit means a bit more admin than it used to, but nothing that should put you off. The two big changes are the 90/180 day rule, which caps how long you can stay across the whole Schengen area combined, and insurance, where you may need a green card outside the EU. On top of that, budget time for a GB sticker in a handful of countries, a Crit’Air certificate for France, and the right toll tag or vignette for wherever you are driving.
None of it is complicated once you have done it once. This is the checklist we now work through before every trip, built from getting some of it wrong ourselves.
We have taken a motorhome across the Channel most years for a long time now, through several different vans and a good few post-Brexit trips, from a fast loop round the Balkans to a solo electric run all the way to the Sahara. This is the pillar guide for everything that changed, and everything that did not. For the country-by-country detail, see our guides to France and Spain, and for the crossing itself see our ferries guide. If overnighting once you are there is new to you, our guide to aires covers that.
Getting there: ferry, tunnel or the drive
Still the easy part
None of the post-Brexit changes touch how you physically get a motorhome onto the Continent. You can still take the Eurotunnel from Folkestone to Calais in around thirty-five minutes, or a ferry from Dover, Newhaven, Portsmouth, Plymouth or Poole depending on where you are heading and how far south you want to land. What has changed is what happens at the border once you are through, so it pays to build in a little more time than you used to, especially at busy crossings in peak season.
For the full breakdown of routes, crossing times and which port suits which trip, our ferries guide covers that in detail. This guide is about everything either side of the crossing.
Documents and the GB sticker
What actually goes in the folder
Passports need at least three months left on them past the date you plan to leave the Schengen area, and should not be more than ten years old on the day you travel, both rules that catch out people used to the old freedom-of-movement days. You will also go through manned passport control rather than an EU e-gate, and get a stamp on the way in and out, which matters more than it sounds because that stamp is your evidence for the 90/180 day rule below.
For the vehicle itself, carry the original V5C logbook, never a photocopy, and if the motorhome is on finance carry a letter of authority from the finance company confirming you are allowed to take it abroad. A UK driving licence is enough on its own for the vast majority of European trips, an international driving permit is not something most families need to add to the pile.
On the GB sticker specifically: a UK numberplate with the correct identifier is enough for most of Europe, but Spain, Cyprus and Malta require a physical UK sticker on the vehicle regardless of what the plate shows. We fit one before every trip rather than trying to remember which countries do and do not need it.
The 90/180 day rule
The one number worth actually tracking
As a UK national you are now what the EU calls a third-country traveller in the Schengen area, which means you can spend up to 90 days in any rolling 180-day period, and that allowance applies across the whole Schengen area combined, not per country. It is a rolling window rather than a clean slate on 1 January, so on any given day you have to count back 180 days and see how many of those you have already spent in Schengen, wherever the border crossings happened to be.
Ireland sits outside Schengen and does not count towards the total, which is worth knowing if a trip includes a UK-to-Ireland leg. If you want to stay longer than 90 days, several countries offer a national long-stay visa aimed at exactly this situation, worth researching well before you set off rather than discovering the limit at the border.
Our longest single European trip on the map, the summer of 2024, ran to an estimated seven weeks across a dozen countries. Well inside the 90-day cap, but it is the kind of trip length where you stop trusting memory. It is worth keeping track of your own days in and out of Schengen as you go, because passport stamps alone are not always legible enough to rely on.
Insurance, green cards and breakdown cover
Two separate things, easy to conflate
Inside the EU and the wider Schengen area, a valid UK motor insurance certificate is treated as sufficient proof of cover, so you do not need a physical green card for a standard trip through France, Spain, Italy and the rest of the EU. Step outside that zone, into places like Albania, Montenegro, Turkey or Morocco, and the rules change again, and a green card is often still required at the border.
Breakdown cover is a separate policy from motor insurance, and standard UK breakdown membership frequently does not extend past the UK and Ireland at all. You need a European breakdown add-on, and for a motorhome specifically it is worth checking the cover applies at your vehicle's actual weight and height rather than the car-sized limits some policies quietly cap at.
We have needed a green card crossing into Bosnia, on the trip that took us through Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it is not something you want to be sorting out at the barrier. We run a specialist motorhome policy that covers us in Morocco, Turkey and other non-EU countries, and we always check it explicitly before crossing any border outside the EU, rather than assuming a "Europe" policy stretches that far. On breakdown cover, we have called it out for real on the road, including once when the van got stuck and the callout was quoted at sixty to ninety minutes, which is the kind of number you want to know in advance, not find out live.
Tolls, vignettes and low-emission zones
Three different systems, three different mistakes to avoid
France and Italy run pay-as-you-go toll motorways, the péage and autostrada, and a motorhome is often charged at a higher class than a car because of its height, so it is worth checking your vehicle's toll classification before you join rather than being surprised at the barrier. Our own van has been classed as a "camping car class two" at French tolls, which is a different rate to a standard car and worth knowing before you plan a route on cost.
Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia, Hungary, Czechia, Bulgaria and Romania, among others, use a vignette system instead: a pre-paid sticker or digital pass bought for a set period rather than paid per use. Every country runs its own scheme and its own validity periods, so it needs planning route by route rather than assuming one purchase covers you everywhere.
Then there are low-emission zones, city centres that restrict entry unless your vehicle displays the right local sticker. France's Crit’Air scheme now covers a growing list of towns and cities including Paris, Germany's Umweltplakette works similarly for its Umweltzonen, and several Spanish and Italian cities run their own local schemes. Because our ID Buzz is fully electric, it typically qualifies for the cleanest category automatically wherever these schemes apply, which is one small upside of the electric van when a trip is heavy on cities.
On the 2024 trip, Eddie ended up sorting the vignette route plan for Bulgaria on the road rather than before we left, which worked out but was more stress than it needed to be. And on a France trip we very nearly set off without a Crit’Air certificate sorted at all, only remembered because friends on the road reminded us the week before. It has to be ordered online and posted to a UK address, so it is not something you can fix at the port.
Pets, gas and hook-up differences
The smaller things that trip people up
If you are travelling with a dog or cat, the old EU pet passport no longer works for UK-issued animals. You now need an Animal Health Certificate from an official vet, issued within 10 days of travel and valid for that trip only, following a rabies vaccination at least 21 days beforehand. Dogs also need a tapeworm treatment before entering certain countries, including Ireland, Finland, Norway and Malta. Book the vet appointment early, the 10-day window is tighter than it sounds once you factor in a busy practice.
On gas, UK bottles do not fit the filling connections used across most of the Continent, so you cannot simply swap an empty Calor bottle for a full one at a French services. Many motorhomers fit a refillable system before heading to Europe for exactly this reason.
Electric hook-up on continental campsites is usually the same 230V blue CEE plug as the UK, so your existing cable and adapters normally work without anything extra to buy. The current available on the pitch varies more than at home though, some sites cap you well below what you would get in the UK, so it is worth knowing how to manage your draw rather than assuming every pitch gives you the same amps.
We fitted a Safefill refillable gas bottle to the Kon-Tiki 874 rather than an underslung tank, specifically so we can refill at any generic LPG pump on the Continent instead of hunting for UK brand exchange bottles that simply are not stocked there. It has been one of the more useful, least glamorous upgrades we have made for European trips. On hook-up, we have had a pitch trip at ten amps and settle at six, which is a reminder to know your own draw before you plug in and run everything at once.
Taking a motorhome to Europe questions we get asked
Do I need an international driving permit to drive a motorhome in Europe?
For a normal touring trip on a full, valid UK photocard driving licence, no. The UK has agreements in place with EU and Schengen countries that mean a standard UK licence is recognised for driving there. It is still worth double-checking the country you are heading to if your licence is old, paper-only or was issued outside the UK, but for the vast majority of family motorhome trips an IDP is not something you need to add to the list.
How long can I stay in the EU with a motorhome after Brexit?
Up to 90 days in any rolling 180-day period, and that allowance covers the whole Schengen area combined, not each country separately. It is a rolling window rather than a clean slate each year, so every day you are in Schengen counts against the last 180 days, wherever you crossed borders in between. If you want longer, some countries offer a national long-stay visa for exactly this situation, which is worth looking into before a trip that runs past the 90-day mark.
Do I still need a green card for motorhome insurance in Europe?
Inside the EU and the wider Schengen area, no, a valid UK motor insurance certificate is treated as sufficient proof of the legal minimum cover at the border. Outside that zone it is a different matter. We have needed a green card crossing into Bosnia, and the same applies to a number of other non-EU countries popular with motorhomers, including parts of the Balkans, Turkey and Morocco. Check with your insurer before you leave the EU/Schengen area on any trip, not just before you leave the UK.
Do I need a GB sticker on a motorhome now?
In most of Europe, a numberplate showing the correct UK identifier is enough on its own. Spain, Cyprus and Malta are the exception: they require a physical UK sticker on the back of the vehicle regardless of what your numberplate shows. It costs nothing and takes two minutes to fit, so we carry one anyway rather than working out country by country whether we technically need it.
What is Crit’Air and do I need it for France?
Crit’Air is France’s clean air sticker, and you need one to legally drive into a growing list of French towns and cities that operate a low-emission zone, Paris among them. It is cheap and easy to apply for online, but it has to be posted to a UK address before you travel, so it is not a same-day fix. We nearly left without ours on one trip and only remembered because friends on the road reminded us, which is exactly the kind of thing that is easy to forget until you are already at the ferry port.
Can I still take a dog or cat to Europe on a UK pet passport?
No. Since Brexit, a UK-issued EU pet passport no longer works for travel into the EU. The UK is what the EU calls a "listed third country", which means you now need an Animal Health Certificate from an official vet, issued within 10 days of travel and valid for a single trip rather than reusable like the old passport. Your pet also needs a rabies vaccination at least 21 days before you travel, and dogs need a tapeworm treatment before entering certain countries including Ireland, Finland, Norway and Malta. Book the vet appointment well ahead of departure, the 10-day window catches people out.
Real trips these rules applied to
Not a hypothetical checklist
Every rule above is something we have actually dealt with, not a list copied out of a government website. Here is where each one came from.
- 2022
Our first big continental run in the Kon-Tiki 874, not long after we took delivery of it in March 2022: 41 stops through France, Switzerland, Italy, the Balkans and back. Sorting insurance and breakdown cover before we left paid off on a trip that long, and it is where the paperwork side of touring really became second nature.
- 2024
Our biggest trip by pin count, 76 stops and an estimated seven weeks out across a dozen countries including Bulgaria, Romania and Türkiye. This is the one where the 90/180 day rule stops being theoretical and starts being a number you actually track.
- 2025
A summer loop through France, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary and Austria. Bosnia is outside the EU, so this is the trip where a green card at the border genuinely mattered rather than just being something we carried out of habit.
- 2025
Steve’s solo run to the Sahara in our electric ID Buzz Cargo, through France, Spain and Morocco. Three borders, one continent and a policy that had to cover us somewhere most Europe-only motorhome insurance does not reach.
Written by Steve and Lyndsay Radford. The procedural information here, the 90/180 rule, GB sticker, Crit’Air and similar, is general public guidance and can change, so always check the current rules before you travel. Every first-hand detail is drawn from our own trips and vehicles. Roaming Radfords is a trading name of Yowzer Limited.