OpenVan.camp Public API

Free, no-auth API for vanlife data: fuel prices, route fuel cost, currency rates, food cost index, weather suitability scores, visa and vehicle-import rules, vanlife events, news stories, and license plates of the world — all in one place, no registration required.

Base URL: https://openvan.camp
Auth: None required
CORS: Enabled
License: data is CC BY 4.0; code in this repository (SDK, MCP server, examples) is MIT

JavaScript/TypeScript SDK: @openvancamp/sdk — npm install @openvancamp/sdk. Zero-config, typed, Node.js / browser / edge. SDK docs →

MCP Server (for AI agents): mcp-server/ — 20 read-only tools, hosted at https://mcp.openvan.camp/mcp, or locally npx -y @openvancamp/mcp-server for Claude Desktop / Cursor / Windsurf. Install docs → · AI agents guide →

Gemini CLI extension: install this repository with gemini extensions install https://github.com/openvancamp/openvan-camp-public-api. The root gemini-extension.json connects Gemini CLI directly to the hosted OpenVan MCP server; no API key is required.

Custom GPT: OpenVan Travel Assistant — live in ChatGPT GPT Store.

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What is authoritative

Resource	Purpose
This README	Quick overview and code examples
/docs	Interactive documentation with "Try it out"
/docs.openapi	Full OpenAPI 3.0 contract (always up to date)
/docs.postman	Postman collection

The OpenAPI spec at /docs.openapi is generated from the live codebase and is the authoritative contract. Numbers in this README (country counts, story totals) are approximate and updated periodically — check /api/fuel/prices meta or /api/stories pagination for current totals.

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Endpoints

Endpoint	Description	Coverage
GET /api/fuel/prices	Retail fuel prices (gasoline, diesel, LPG, E85)	160+ countries
POST /api/route-cost	Fuel cost for a route of 2–10 waypoints, per-country prices	—
GET /api/tolls/countries	Toll roads by country: payment system, per-km rates by vehicle class, vignettes	84 countries
GET /api/tolls/route	Toll cost for a route of 2–10 place names (car, van, heavy), EUR range	—
GET /api/currency/rates	Exchange rates relative to EUR	150+ currencies
GET /api/vanbasket/countries	Food price index relative to world average (100 = world avg)	90+ countries
GET /api/vanbasket/compare?from=DE&to=TR	Compare food costs between two countries	—
GET /api/vanbasket/countries/{code}	Single country + historical snapshots	—
GET /api/vansky/weather	Vanlife weather suitability scores (0–100) with 7-day forecast	160+ countries
GET /api/vansky/weather/{code}	One country, with marine and solar data	—
GET /api/visa/check?passport=RU&destination=TR	Entry rules: entry mode, length of stay, how days are counted, vehicle import	199 destinations
GET /api/visa/route?t=RU,GE,TR&p=RU	Visa rules for a whole route, up to 10 passports	—
GET /api/visa/passport/{code}	All destinations for one passport	—
GET /api/visa/vehicle/{place}	Temporary vehicle import rules for a country	—
GET /api/events	Vanlife events: expos, festivals, meetups, road trips	1,100+ events
GET /api/event/{slug}	Full event details with geo coordinates	—
GET /api/event/{slug}/articles	Source articles linked to an event	—
GET /api/stories	News stories aggregated from 200+ publishers	31,000+ stories
GET /api/story/{slug}	Full story with all source articles and direct links	—
GET /api/news/search?q=...	Semantic search over stories	—
GET /api/plates	License plates of the world: formats, region codes, example plates	199 countries
GET /api/plates/{code}/plate.svg	Ready plate image (also .png) — drop into <img src>	—

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Quick Start

# Fuel prices
curl https://openvan.camp/api/fuel/prices

# Currency rates (EUR-based)
curl https://openvan.camp/api/currency/rates

# Food price index
curl https://openvan.camp/api/vanbasket/countries

# Upcoming vanlife events in Germany
curl "https://openvan.camp/api/events?country=DE&status=upcoming&locale=en"

# Latest vanlife news stories in English
curl "https://openvan.camp/api/stories?locale=en"

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Fuel Prices — /api/fuel/prices

Weekly retail prices from 45+ official government sources.
Cache TTL: 6 hours. Please poll no faster than every 10 minutes.

curl https://openvan.camp/api/fuel/prices

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "DE": {
      "country_code": "DE",
      "country_name": "Germany",
      "region": "europe",
      "currency": "EUR",
      "local_currency": "EUR",
      "unit": "liter",
      "prices": {
        "gasoline": 1.79,
        "diesel": 1.69,
        "lpg": 0.89,
        "e85": null,
        "premium": null
      },
      "price_changes": { "gasoline": -0.02, "diesel": 0.01, "lpg": 0.0 },
      "fetched_at": "2026-04-05T10:00:00+00:00",
      "sources": ["EU Weekly Oil Bulletin", "Fuelo.net"],
      "sources_count": 2,
      "is_excluded": false
    }
  },
  "meta": {
    "total_countries": 121,
    "updated_at": "2026-04-05 10:00:00",
    "cache_ttl_hours": 6
  }
}

Notes:

• unit is "liter" for most countries, "gallon" for US and Ecuador
• is_excluded: true means the country has heavy fuel subsidies (prices don't reflect market rates)
• price_changes = delta vs last week's prices

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Currency Rates — /api/currency/rates

EUR-based exchange rates from multiple open-source providers with automatic fallback.
Cache TTL: 25 hours. Refreshed daily at 07:00 UTC.

curl https://openvan.camp/api/currency/rates

{
  "success": true,
  "rates": {
    "EUR": 1,
    "USD": 1.08,
    "GBP": 0.85,
    "TRY": 38.5,
    "GEL": 2.95,
    "KZT": 510,
    "RUB": 98.5
  },
  "cached": true,
  "updated_at": "2026-04-08T07:00:00+00:00"
}

Convert to any currency:

const priceInUSD = (priceEUR / rates.EUR) * rates.USD;
const priceInTRY = (priceEUR / rates.EUR) * rates.TRY;

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VanBasket Food Price Index — /api/vanbasket/*

Relative cost of a food basket compared to world average (World = 100).
Based on World Bank ICP 2021 data, adjusted with IMF CPI.
Data source: CC BY 4.0

# All countries
curl https://openvan.camp/api/vanbasket/countries

# Compare two countries
curl "https://openvan.camp/api/vanbasket/compare?from=DE&to=TR"

# Single country with historical snapshots
curl https://openvan.camp/api/vanbasket/countries/DE

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "CH": { "country_code": "CH", "country_name": "Switzerland", "vanbasket_index": 162.3, "pct_vs_world": 62.3 },
    "DE": { "country_code": "DE", "country_name": "Germany",     "vanbasket_index": 118.7, "pct_vs_world": 18.7 },
    "TR": { "country_code": "TR", "country_name": "Turkey",      "vanbasket_index":  82.4, "pct_vs_world": -17.6 },
    "GE": { "country_code": "GE", "country_name": "Georgia",     "vanbasket_index":  64.1, "pct_vs_world": -35.9 }
  },
  "meta": {
    "total_countries": 92,
    "world_avg": 100,
    "base_year": 2021,
    "source": "World Bank ICP 2021",
    "license": "CC BY 4.0"
  }
}

Compare response:

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "from": { "country_code": "DE", "country_name": "Germany", "vanbasket_index": 118.7 },
    "to":   { "country_code": "TR", "country_name": "Turkey",  "vanbasket_index":  82.4 },
    "diff_percent": -30.6,
    "budget_100": 69,
    "cheaper": true
  }
}

budget_100: if you spend €100 on food in the from country, you'd spend €69 in the to country.

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Events — /api/events

Vanlife events: exhibitions, festivals, meetups, road trips. Updated in real time.

Query params:

Param	Values	Default
locale	en ru de fr es pt tr	en
status	upcoming ongoing past all	upcoming
type	expo festival forum meetup roadtrip	—
country	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2	—
search	text	—
page	integer	1
limit	integer (max 100)	30

# Upcoming events in Germany
curl "https://openvan.camp/api/events?country=DE&status=upcoming&locale=en"

# Event details
curl "https://openvan.camp/api/event/fit-camper-2026?locale=en"

# Source articles linked to an event
curl "https://openvan.camp/api/event/fit-camper-2026/articles?locale=en"

{
  "events": [
    {
      "id": 493,
      "slug": "fit-camper-2026",
      "event_name": "Fit Your Camper",
      "event_type": "expo",
      "event_type_label": "Exhibition",
      "start_date": "2026-04-09",
      "end_date": "2026-04-12",
      "city": "Bologna",
      "country_code": "IT",
      "country": { "code": "it", "name": "Italy", "flag_emoji": "🇮🇹" },
      "venue_name": "BolognaFiere",
      "status": "upcoming",
      "articles_count": 7,
      "url": "https://openvan.camp/en/event/fit-camper-2026"
    }
  ],
  "pagination": { "total": 48, "page": 1, "limit": 30, "pages": 2 }
}

Notes:

• Unknown or missing locale silently falls back to en
• /api/event/{slug}/articles returns source articles filtered by locale; if none match, all articles are returned (may be in the original publisher language)

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Stories / News — /api/stories

Vanlife news stories aggregated from 200+ publishers and translated into 7 languages. Each story clusters multiple source articles covering the same topic.

Query params:

Param	Values	Default
locale	en ru de fr es pt tr	en
category	category slug (e.g. camping, travel, gear, incident)	—
country	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2	—
search	text	—
page	integer	1
limit	integer (max 50)	20

# Latest stories in English
curl "https://openvan.camp/api/stories?locale=en"

# German vanlife news in Germany
curl "https://openvan.camp/api/stories?locale=de&country=DE"

# Full story with all source links
curl "https://openvan.camp/api/story/free-overnight-parking-netherlands?locale=en"

{
  "slug": "free-overnight-parking-netherlands",
  "title": "Free Overnight Parking for Motorhomes in the Netherlands",
  "summary": "The Dutch motorhome community is pushing for more designated free overnight spots...",
  "image_url": "https://...",
  "category": { "slug": "travel", "name": "Travel" },
  "countries": [{ "code": "nl", "name": "Netherlands", "flag_emoji": "🇳🇱" }],
  "first_published_at": "2026-04-01T10:00:00+00:00",
  "last_updated_at": "2026-04-03T08:00:00+00:00",
  "articles_count": 5,
  "url": "https://openvan.camp/en/news/travel/free-overnight-parking-netherlands",
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Gratis overnachten in je camper: de beste plekken",
      "original_url": "https://www.campermagazine.nl/overnachten/gratis-plaatsen",
      "source_name": "CamperMagazine.nl",
      "published_at": "2026-04-01T10:00:00+00:00",
      "language": "nl",
      "image_url": "https://..."
    }
  ]
}

Notes:

• title and summary are translated to the requested locale
• sources[].language is always the original publisher language, regardless of locale
• sources[].original_url is the direct link to the publisher article

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License Plates — /api/plates/*

License plates of the world: plate formats, every region code grouped by region (with ISO 3166-2 units), validation, and the plate itself as an image. Images are drawn by the same engine as openvan.camp/en/license-plates — the plate typeface is inside as vector outlines, so there are no fonts to install.

The simplest integration is a plain image:

<img src="https://openvan.camp/api/plates/ru/plate.svg?number=A123BC&region=77" alt="A123BC 77">

• plate.png?width=800 — PNG, 200–2000 px wide, transparent background
• Look-alike Latin letters are normalized (A123BC → А123ВС on Russian plates)
• A number outside the country format returns 422; add custom=1 to draw any text (e.g. a name)
• Images are served Cache-Control: public, max-age=31536000, immutable; image URLs returned by the API carry v=<engine version>, so an engine update arrives under a new URL

curl https://openvan.camp/api/plates                                        # countries
curl "https://openvan.camp/api/plates/ru?locale=en"                         # format, regions, codes, engine
curl "https://openvan.camp/api/plates/ru/validate?number=A123BC&region=799" # valid? which region?
curl https://openvan.camp/api/plates/ru/random                              # random plate + image URLs

To draw plates in the browser yourself (e.g. an interactive generator), load the scripts listed in data.engine.scripts of /api/plates/{code} in order and call Plates.render(code, number, region) → {svg} (an SVG element) or {error}.

Images and the engine are available for countries whose plate typeface may be redistributed (glyphs_license: free or sharealike); for the rest the data endpoints still work. Rate limit: 60 requests/minute for images and /random, 120 for the rest.

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Response Format

All JSON endpoints follow a consistent envelope:

{ "success": true, "data": { ... }, "meta": { ... }, "_attribution": { ... } }

Every response includes an _attribution object:

"_attribution": {
  "data_source": "openvan.camp",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0",
  "attribution_url": "https://openvan.camp/",
  "attribution_html": "Data: <a href=\"https://openvan.camp/\">OpenVan.camp</a> (CC BY 4.0)"
}

Errors:

{ "success": false, "error": "Description of the error." }

If you call without Accept: application/json, some error responses may return HTML. Always send the header:

Accept: application/json

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Rate Limiting

120 requests per minute per IP. Please be responsible:

• Cache fuel prices for at least 6 hours
• Cache currency rates for at least 1 hour
• Cache stories/events for at least 15 minutes

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Attribution

Required by CC BY 4.0. Suggested format:

Data: <a href="https://openvan.camp/">OpenVan.camp</a> — CC BY 4.0

Identify your integration

Pass ?source=yoursite.com with any request — no registration needed. Your value is echoed back as _attribution.your_source so you can verify it's working:

curl "https://openvan.camp/api/fuel/prices?source=myapp.com"

{
  "success": true,
  "data": { "..." },
  "meta": { "..." },
  "_attribution": {
    "data_source": "openvan.camp",
    "license": "CC BY 4.0",
    "attribution_url": "https://openvan.camp/",
    "attribution_html": "Data: <a href=\"https://openvan.camp/\">OpenVan.camp</a> (CC BY 4.0)",
    "your_source": "myapp.com"
  }
}

This helps us understand how the data is being used and acknowledge active projects.

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JavaScript / TypeScript SDK

npm install @openvancamp/sdk
# or: pnpm add @openvancamp/sdk

import { OpenVan } from "@openvancamp/sdk";

const ov = new OpenVan();

// Cheapest diesel in Europe (top 5, EUR-normalized)
const top5 = await ov.fuel.cheapest("diesel", 5);
top5.forEach(c => console.log(c.country_name, c.prices.diesel, c.currency));

// Is Portugal cheaper than Germany for van living?
const comp = await ov.basket.compare("DE", "PT");
console.log(`Portugal is ${Math.abs(comp.diff_percent)}% cheaper`);

// Vanlife weather suitability — top 10 countries right now
const weather = await ov.weather.top({ limit: 10 });

ESM-native, fully typed (TypeScript included), works in Node.js ≥ 18, browser, Cloudflare Workers, Deno, Bun. No API key.

npm: @openvancamp/sdk · Full SDK docs →

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Resources

• Interactive docs: openvan.camp/docs
• OpenAPI 3.0 spec: https://openvan.camp/docs.openapi
• Postman collection: https://openvan.camp/docs.postman
• JavaScript SDK: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@openvancamp/sdk
• Developer page: openvan.camp/en/developers
• For AI agents (MCP, Custom GPT, llms.txt): openvan.camp/ai

The same data on the site

Fuel prices by country · Passport & visa checker · Roadbook trip planner · VanSky weather · Food cost index · Vanlife events · Vanlife news