VAN-COMPARATOR Guide
Campervan Hire in Besançon: Vauban’s Citadel, Jura Lakes and Next-Door Switzerland
An ideal Franche-Comté base: where to rent a campervan in Besançon, the Doubs loop and the citadel, then the Hérisson waterfalls, the Jura lakes and the Bernese Oberland.
Nestled in a loop of the Doubs beneath its UNESCO-listed Vauban citadel, Besançon is one of France’s greenest cities — and a remarkable campervan base: the Jura massif starts at its southern gate, the Vosges are an hour north, Switzerland an hour east.
Renting in Besançon
The offer rests mainly on private owners via Yescapa and Goboony, plus a few professionals on the outskirts — a limited fleet, so plan ahead for July-August. National ranges apply: €75 to €150 per day for a campervan (price guide).
The Jura, an instant playground
To the south everything lines up within an hour or two: the source of the Loue beloved of Courbet, the Baume-les-Messieurs steephead valley, the Hérisson waterfalls, lakes Chalain and Vouglans, and the Arbois vineyards — vin jaune and Pasteur’s house. Our Jura campervan guide lays out the full route, doable in 4 to 6 days.
Forests that calm you, literally
Driving from spruce to fir forest is not neutral for the body: the study by Bum Jin Park and Yoshifumi Miyazaki’s team published in 2010 in Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, run across 24 Japanese forests, measured that a simple forest walk — « shinrin-yoku » — lowers salivary cortisol, heart rate and blood pressure compared with the same exercise in town (Google Scholar page). The Jura combes are the perfect setting to test the effect, coffee flask in hand at wake-up.
Three itineraries from Besançon
- Jura lakes and waterfalls (4-6 days): Ornans, the Loue, Baume-les-Messieurs, the Hérisson falls and the lakes — in detail in our Jura campervan guide.
- Vosges and Alsace (4-5 days): rounded summits, glacial lakes and the crest road to the north — see our Vosges campervan guide and the Alsace wine route.
- Switzerland (4-7 days): via Neuchâtel towards Lake Geneva or the Bernese Oberland — don’t forget the Swiss motorway vignette, mandatory from the very first motorway kilometre.
Good to know
Thirty minutes south-west, the Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans — another UNESCO site — deserves the stop. In winter the Jura is a real mountain range: frequent snow above 800 metres, and winter equipment mandatory from 1 November to 31 March in many municipalities — our guide to motorhoming in winter covers the groundwork.
Free checklist: your first campervan trip
Licence and vehicle size, pick-up inspection, stopovers or campsites, water and electricity, insurance, drop-off: everything to check before and during a first trip. Sign up — the link to the full checklist appears immediately.