Croatian campsites charge more per night than anywhere else in Europe, yet campers still rate them the best on the continent. That's the headline finding from new research presented by Uwe Frers, CEO of PiNCAMP (the camping platform of Germany's ADAC automobile club), at the Croatian Camping Congress.
The numbers are striking. A night at a Croatian campsite averages €77 per day for 2027 - comfortably above Switzerland at €65, Italy at €64, Austria at €61 and the UK at €55. The European average sits around €50. Despite that premium, Croatia tops the quality charts too, with an average campsite rating of 3.9 stars. The Netherlands, Luxembourg and France trail at 3.7, Spain scores 3.6 and Italy 3.5. Croatia also leads on price-to-quality ratio, named by 22% of respondents - ahead of Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Austria.
Crucially for travellers, Croatia's prices aren't racing away. European camping prices rose about 8% on average this year; Croatia's increase was 7%, below that average. Frers argues that leading on quality while restraining price growth is exactly the right strategy, and positions Croatia firmly in the camping 'luxury segment'.
The demand side supports it. Germany has hit a record 2 million registered camping vehicles this year, up from 1.7 million, and roughly a quarter of Germans now camp - a 19% jump since 2023. Germany accounts for a quarter of all camping vehicles in Europe, ahead of France (19%), the UK (13%) and the Netherlands (9%). Croatia ranks as German campers' third favourite foreign destination, behind Italy and France, and alongside Slovenian and Austrian guests, Germans fill most Croatian pitches.
There's a nuance worth noting for anyone eyeing a Croatian pitch: when asked whether the offer represented good value, 56% of surveyed campers had no opinion, and the remaining 44% split evenly between positive and negative. Frers sees that large neutral bloc as an opportunity - room to win over new guests. PiNCAMP's findings draw on surveys of more than 6,000 German and Dutch campers across the first three quarters of 2026, conducted with partner clubs ANWB (Netherlands) and TCS (Switzerland), whose combined memberships total around 30 million.
For campers, the takeaway is straightforward: Croatia pitches itself at the premium end, so expect Adriatic-site prices closer to €77 a night than the €50 European norm. What you get for that, according to Europe's most prolific campers, is the best-maintained and highest-rated sites on the continent. If you book early and look beyond the headline resorts, value should still be there - and the German crowd crowding in for 2027 suggests plenty of people already think so.
