A recreational vehicle park (RV park) or caravan park is a place where people with recreational vehicles can stay overnight, or longer, in allotted spaces known as "pitches" ("sites" in North America, Europe, and Australia). They are also referred to as campgrounds, though a true campground also provides facilities for tent camping; many facilities calling themselves "RV parks" also offer tent camping or cabins with limited facilities.
Allocated space (pitch/site) facilities may include:
Park facilities may include:
In Australia there is generally no differentiation between an RV park and a trailer park. The term "caravan park" is used to refer to both, and "RV park" and "trailer park" are never used, even to the point of not being understood by most Australians. The term "holiday park" is becoming increasingly common, with many parks increasing their stock of on-site cabins, often accompanied by a reduction in the number of caravan sites, generally having higher quality facilities than the standard caravan park.
Caravan sites in Europe range in facilities depending on their age. Most new sites will be built to high environmentally friendly standards and have facilities compatible with the newest vehicles.
The Caravan Club has 1 million members in Europe with around 200 self-owned campsites and over 2,500 third party certificated locations, more commonly known as CL sites. The Camping and Caravanning Club is a non-profit organisation which has been running for over a century and has over 400,000 members and 100 campsites in the United Kingdom.
In France, Germany and Italy, to a lesser degree also in Norway and Netherlands, a large network of dedicated stopover sites for motorhomes has grown since about 1980. These sites are called Reisemobil-Stellplatz in German or Aire de Camping-car in French. While these sites can usually not be compared to North American RV sites regarding size and facilities, they still fulfill the same purpose.
In New Zealand motor camp, caravan park or holiday parks are the usual terms for overnight or long term vehicle based camping. As well powered caravan or campervan sites the parks usually offer tent sites and cabins, a rudimentary building with cooking and other facilities shared with other users.