Check-Ins

Lake in back, trees, meadow in the distance. Not bad.

As stated by others, it’s a nice parking lot with picnic tables, vault toilets, one covered spot, generally as a pasture feel. FYI, “Beware of Rattlesnakes” sign posted at falls trailhead.

We drove the road M17 from Kapan to the Aras river. So we didnt get here, but to the other side of the blocked road. There is a new road avoiding the critical part of M17 that crosses the border to Azerbaidschan right out of Kapan. There were military posts along the Azeri border, but none that controlled the traffic on the road.
But when we reached the Aras river, we found a checkpoint presumable by the border police. They asked for passports and a border permit. We had no such permit, so we drove back. This was only 13 km out of Meghri. So we had no issueb with the border to Azerbaidschan, but the one to Iran.

There appears to be no drinking water, just flush water. But other than that, this is an excellent facility.

Open for the ski season, it’s a big and free parking. We stayed here for the night and slept in the car, it was really cold but doable 😁 No facilities, but toilets are open during the day at the building Parador. A lot of snow but the road are well maintened, chains are sometimes mandatory, don’t go without it or without 4x4 !

We slept there in our car one night to go skiing the next day. No facilities, just a parking, but calm and close to the station (ticket office and toilets open at 8:30 in the main building). Cold at night but ok 😁

broken bridge. Follow detour uphill. They built a small bridge for water crossing (see photo), no problem for moto, 4x4 or vehicle with enough ground clearance. Water level low today.

Nice hostel with nice owners.. dorm is 40k, kitchen, hot showers, WiFi.. 10/15mins away from center..
there is the possibility to park a motorbike down the street, if you feel, otherwise there are secure parkings one cuadra away (10k)..

Some of the cheapest prices for diesel in Spain, here in Zamora and Valladolid. We filled up our tank with clean fuel and we also washed our vehicle at a very well kept self service station

very good car wash 1 euro 2 min, 5 euros 12min. spend 100 euros in fuel get a free coin for washing

Une petite famille adorable qui aiment recevoir les voyageurs. Une étape qui fait du bien. Proche du centre ville, beaucoup de commerces aux alentours

An adorable little family who love welcoming travelers. A step that feels good. Close to the city center, many shops nearby

Stayed here with no problems. Great spot 1 minute from the ferry line in the morning. $15 totally worth it! We didn’t mention sleeping in our van we just asked to lake overnight. Great find!

This is an excellent place to stay, quiet and room for a number of vehicles. To ensure the clearance then 4x4 would be advised.

locals use the panel road for car traffic, so it is not really quiet, but noone objected to us camping here. there is parking lot for about 5 motorhomes. good access road with concrete panels.

Beautiful setting - serviced (water, electric) near lake and washrooms - well maintained; register online; onsite office; rental bikes. Also full service sites and tent sites. Close to town - shopping, restaurants, fuel, garages (repairs); within 12 miles of US border

24-hour fuel station. Super attentive people. It is in a place within the city but super quiet. Because it is located on a climb, it has a little noise but nothing that makes sleeping difficult. After 11 p.m., it is quiet. It has a bathroom, but only the toilet and sink, without a bath, but it is not very clean. There were two very quiet sleeps. The front holder made me available water to the Camper water tank. It is close to the Carrefou and Parque do Povo where there is the São João. I recommend the location and tranquility.

Pasamos 1 noche en el estacionamiento principal de Playa Colorada.

Al llegar 2 chicos muy amables nos ofrecieron pescado y sillas y toldo, y nos dijeron que el estacionamiento era gratis. Luego un tercer chico vino a decirnos que teníamos que pagar una entrada, se puso insistente y como le dijimos que sabíamos que no teníamos que pagar nos pidió plata y se quedó sentado al lado de la camioneta. Fue raro e incómodo.

Para pasar la noche hablamos en el puesto de Guardia Bolivariana y nos dijeron que era seguro, que si igualmente no nos sentíamos cómodos podíamos ir a dormir a la alcabala y que si volvía a pasarnos una situación como la del chico, le avisaramos directamente a ellos.

La noche fue tranquila y en la licoreria de la ruta alquilan wifi 1 hs 10 bs. Supuestamente hay señal de Movistar y Movilnet, pero no nos funcionó ninguno de los 2

UPDATE: it’s almost impossible to get a tourist visa here, since ‘the lady’ is not working here anymore.

I visited the embassy last wednesday and the officer gave me a hard, hard time. It’s almost impossible to get easily a tourist visa anymore if you’re not really from Benin. I managed a resident card or as you can call it a ‘certificat d'identification personnelle du resident‘. This is the card tourists always used to apply for a Nigerian visa. Since shortly this is NOT accepted anymore. I couldn’t believe what i heard when i had my visa appointment at the embassy. He told me that ‘the lady’ (where everyone writes about in this blog) doesn’t work there anymore and that she always approved it as a valid resident card. There is a guy now in charge, who has a pretty bossy and cold attitude and say from now on you cannot apply with this one anymore. You need a real, green resident card who you can apply for and that takes 30 days!! I think you also need to live in Benin for a long while to even be able to apply for one. Again the white ‘certificat d'identification personnelle du resident’ is not valid anymore to apply for a Nigerian visa.

I had all the documents below which was required for a visa, but the guy didn’t even want to talk with me. I should just go back to my own country and apply there for a visa, he told me 😓 I didn’t accepted this and i was trying to convince him, like tourists do this for years now and i have all the document!!! I just stayed at the embassy and was begging him to at least be reasonable to be and understand my situation. He litteraly ignored me and i just waiting in the waiting room for a proper conversation. The colleagues around on the embassy where significantly more nice and felt sorry for me i guess. At the end of the day the officer told me i need to leave, as the embassy was closing. He told me i need to go back at 10:00 AM the next day with no further information…

In the sane evening i luckily managed to get in touch with some important people in Nigeria, which a friend of me knew. I was so lucky, since those people really wanted to help me out in this situation and one knew some people from the government and Nigerian embassies. He got in touch with one of the junior officers (not the guy who does the visa appointments) of the Nigerian embassy in Cotonou and talked with him . After this call he was supposed to help me out the next day with the visa. And he did, he came with me to the office of the senior officer (who is doing the visas) and said that they needed to issue me a visa in order from that guy i got in contact with. Suddenly he was able to have a normal conversation and he issued me the visa… unbelievable what a relieve!!

Believe me, this guy won’t accept the white Benin ID card as a resident card and the changes are almost 0 that he will issue a visa. If you can, manage to get it elsewhere.. 😭
If you have any further questions about this, you can always send me a message on instagram (steefduijn).

Cheers!

As usual i organized all the required documents as below:

- ‘ Certificat d'identification personnelle du resident’ or like all the tourist use it as a resident card

needed to find out myself that the ‘Certificat d'identification personnelle du resident’.

One of the nicest state parks I’ve stayed in. All the spots are heavily-wooded, so there’s a nice sense of privacy. Easy walk to the powdery beaches.

We were told by one of the businesses it was okay to stay in this lot, but a security guard knocked on the van at 2:45am. Since we had permission he decided we could stay, just move our location. However he came back at 5:40am and told us his boss said we had to leave. Sounds like the owners of the complex have hired a new security company and are more strict. Recommend not using this lot to camp or risk being forced to leave and drive at night.

We stayed here in the rainy season and it was not possible with our 4x4 truck. The path is partly washed away. Even in the dry season, at least good ground clearance should be available.

The square is close to the road, but is quite quiet at night. You can swim in a small pool at the waterfall. Now the overnight stay costs $10. No wifi and no phone signal.

Wouldn’t say it’s quiet here. But we came around 8pm and left before 8am. Nobody bothered us and was ok.
Dogs bark very loud around too.

@DitaExplores traveling with the truck camper

Lots of spots along this road but so many dead trees overhanging the spots. Please be careful - it's never worth it camping under dead trees.

Don’t leave your motorbike unattended! Theft occurred. Our entire luggage was stolen, while we spend a night on Tortuguero

A good place to restock with food and along this road.

Beau spot tranquille, nous étions deux véhicules, peu de traffic durant la nuit, je recommande

Really great laundry service. It can be self-service, but it will only cost you $2-3 more to have them do it. We washed quite literally all of our clothes, towels, and sheets, and it was $14.50. Very clean. Really nice family working here. Great prices. Different promotions going on depending on the day of the week.

Lots of other campers and RVs but there is enough room for everybody, road nearby with a bit of traffic noise but nothing too bad - no facilities but good enough for one night !

Pasamos por el puesto de control a las 11:00 AM y un policía corrupto tocó darle 20 dólares para poder pasar. sin tener fotómetro para medir el polarizado del carro nos pondría el comparendo o multa por tener polarizados, desde Colombia es el único policía que puso problema y nos exigió retirar los polarizados además de tener que pagarle a el 20 dólares
Mucho cuidado ⚠️.
Buen viaje.