Europe campervan in Aug is booking essential?

[Mossiebonbon]

I am hoping that anyone can advise whether taking a campervan to Europe , in peak summer holiday time , without advance reservations is possible?
I understand lots of sites get fully booked months ahead but am thinking the whole point of traveling in a van is no fixed route!
We have 2 kids so don’t want to end up in roadside with no toilets and ideally would want sites with facilities. Am I expecting too much?
Would you /did you book everything up in advance?

TIA

My friends did this in August quite last minute and had to change their planned route as everywhere was full. Not sure what it will be like next year, but lots of people didn't travel quite so far from home

I’ve only travelled in France. We booked a few high profile places in advance and just pottered around in between. We stayed in loads of little towns in aires which were often of a higher standard than campsites at home. We were never short of a toilet, running water and fresh bread. Some places didn’t have an electric hook up but we don’t always need that. Lots of aires had playgrounds or parks beside them. The parking at tourist attractions was brilliant as well.
We loved not being tied to a schedule and when a heat wave struck we just changed direction and got out of the worst affected area. And we were able to strike a nice balance between water parks and theme parks and seeing smaller towns and the scenery.

Yes ,you will have to book in advance .It's the peak month for holidays in Germany , Italy and France .There has been a huge increase in people doing camping /campervan holidays since Covid started .The camping site that we go to in Italy often is booked out a year in advance, many book for the next year when they check out at the end of their holiday.

I do agree Covid has quite an effect on normal ways of doing things.

Thank you for your replies all, looks like booking is a yes especially now there is a back log of 2 years of trips that haven’t happened!
Any recommendations welcomed , no route might plan it round the sites!

Depends where too though, we camped without reservations but it was as middle of nowhere