Netherlands by campervan: safety and healthcare

Campervan safety in Netherlands: vehicle security, healthcare, emergency contacts and practical prevention. What to know before you go.

Published 18 September 2026Last checked 19 September 2026

Currency
Euro
EUR. Cards almost everywhere, a little cash for markets
Language
Dutch
English is spoken almost everywhere. Frisian in Friesland
Driving
Right
Motorway 100 km/h from 06:00 to 19:00
Power
230V, type F
Same two-pin plug as most of Europe
Tap water
Safe to drink
Ask for kraanwater
Emergency
112
Non-urgent police 0900-8844

Safety and health

The Netherlands is a safe country to travel in a van. Violence against visitors is rare and the roads are among the best maintained in Europe. What does happen is ordinary opportunist theft, and in a country this obsessed with bicycles the thing most likely to disappear is the bike on the back of your van.

Dutch stepped gable houses along a wet empty market square with closed cafe terraces — The town square out of season. A square with people on it still beats an empty layby, here as anywhere

What works

Lock the bikes to the rack and the rack to the van. Bicycle theft is the national petty crime and a rack on the back of a foreign van is an obvious target.
Nothing visible through the windows. No bags, no laptop, no cameras on the table.

Health and numbers

112 for any emergency. 0900-8844 for non-urgent police matters, charged at 2 cents a minute plus your own call costs, or +31 34 357 8844 from a foreign network.
An apotheek dispenses prescriptions. A drogist sells painkillers, plasters and the rest without one.

You are not required to carry a warning triangle, a first aid kit or a fire extinguisher in the Netherlands. Using a triangle is compulsory only when your hazard lights have failed and the vehicle is an obstruction, so the sensible thing is still to have one.