Google Maps for motorhomes: what's missing
Google Maps knows the roads, but not your vehicle. For navigation on the spot it remains strong; for planning a motorhome tour it lacks dimensions, overnight stays and the costs of the trip.
Many motorhome tours begin in Google Maps, because it is there and because it works. For the question "How do I get from here to there?" there is hardly anything better. A motorhome trip asks different questions, though, and with three of them Google Maps reaches its limits, in our view.
What Google Maps knows about your vehicle
Google Maps has a vehicle profile. It only lets you set the engine type, though: whether you run petrol, diesel, hybrid or electric; for electric cars, the charging plug types are added. That serves fuel-efficient routes and matching charging stations. Your vehicle’s dimensions are not part of it. So the route calculation does not know them, whether you drive a panel van or a 7.5-metre overcab.
Our conclusion for practice: an underpass with 2.80 metres of clearance can sit on the route just like an open road, a weight limit on a bridge is not measured against your vehicle, and whether a narrow village road is wide enough, the route does not know.
The three gaps in detail
| Question | Google Maps | Camperada |
|---|---|---|
| Vehicle dimensions | Vehicle profile with the engine type, for electric cars also the charging plug types. Height, width, length and weight cannot be stored. | Height, width, length and weight feed into the route calculation: roads with a limit below them recorded in OpenStreetMap stay closed. At the push of a button, the finished route is also checked against these restrictions. |
| Overnight stays | Campsites can be found as places and set as a stop in a route, but not planned as an overnight stay. | Campsites and stopovers along the route, with drinking water, disposal and electricity. One click turns one into a stop’s overnight stay. |
| Travel days | Shows the estimated driving time of a route with up to nine stops, but no distribution across several days. | Driving hours per day, nights per stop and a departure date produce a trip plan with arrival days and the overnight stops needed on the way. |
| Costs | Shows estimated toll prices for cars, without a motorhome class and without fuel costs from your consumption. | Fuel costs from consumption and national prices with refuelling stops, plus vignettes and distance tolls in your vehicle’s class. |
| Export | No GPX output. Routes stay in the Google account. | GPX 1.1 with waypoints and track, readable by Garmin, OsmAnd and many other navigation devices. |
| Navigation on the road | Turn-by-turn guidance, live traffic, street imagery, opening hours. Clearly superior here, in our view. | No turn-by-turn navigation. Camperada plans the trip; you drive with a sat nav or app. |
Details on Google Maps as of October 2026. Source: Google Maps Help (support.google.com/maps).
When Google Maps is entirely enough
If you drive a panel van under 2.60 metres, stay on motorways and decide spontaneously where the evening ends anyway, you need no second planner. For the last mile, too, Google Maps is often the better tool: traffic reports, diversions and the street imagery for judging a steep approach in advance exist there in a quality no one-person project reaches.
When it is not enough
As soon as your vehicle is over 3 metres tall, you travel several days in a row or cross countries with different toll systems, Google Maps lacks, in our assessment, the details that matter then. Not because it is bad, but because it is built for a different vehicle.
The most practical way is therefore not either-or: plan the tour where dimensions, stages and costs come together, then navigate with whatever guides most reliably on the road. How Camperada handles dimensions is under vehicle dimensions and restrictions.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you set Google Maps to motorhome mode?
- No. Google Maps has a vehicle profile, but it only lets you choose the engine type: petrol, diesel, hybrid or electric. Height, width, length and weight do not exist there, so the route cannot match height or weight restrictions against your vehicle.
- Does Google Maps warn about low bridges?
- Not based on your vehicle height. Since no vehicle dimension can be stored, there is no check of clearance height against vehicle height. Our assessment: a 3-metre-tall motorhome gets the same route as a small car with the same engine type.
- What is Google Maps still good for on a motorhome holiday?
- For navigation on the spot, for live traffic and closures, for finding supermarkets, workshops and opening hours, and for street imagery that lets you inspect an approach in advance. On these points Google Maps is, in our view, ahead of any specialised planner.
- Can I open a Camperada route in Google Maps?
- The export is GPX, or KML for Google Earth and Google My Maps. Google Maps does not import GPX; many navigation apps such as OsmAnd and devices from Garmin do. If you want to navigate with Google Maps, plan the route in Camperada and adopt the stops individually as destinations.
Comparing for yourself is the most honest way
Camperada needs neither sign-up nor installation. Entering two stops is enough to see whether it fits the way you travel.
Details on Google Maps checked on 28 October 2026