One essential part of the caravan equipment is the gas bottle. It fuels the stove, but also the heater. The latter was really important for us during the first couple of weeks of our trip where at times we had temperatures below zero degrees Celcius.
Unfortunately, gas bottles connectors are not standardized across Europe and there many different versions used. One can get adapters to connect the gas bottles to your connection in the caravan, however, it is not allowed to use these adapters for re-filling purposes.
This put you in bit of a problem when you are travelling through multiple countries since you want to avoid having to buy new bottles all the time.
One solution which sets you back around 500 EUR is to buy an LPG refillable ALUGAS bottle.
These bottles are filled with LPG opposed to Propane and can be filled by yourself at any petrol station selling LPG. The only requirement is that the gas bottle is fixed installed in the gas box (you need a tool to remove it) and that you refill via a fuel hose.
ALUGAS LPG gas bottle attached with a wire band and fitted with a fuel hose
The bottle comes with a set of adapters which allows you to refill your bottle. Opposed to the propane gas bottles adapters can be used when refilling LPG gas bottles.
LPG adapters
Now you just need to know where to find LPG. For this, there is the website https://www.mylpg.eu which also offers a basic app for iPhone and Android.
So far we refilled already twice and we are very happy that it allowed us to stay warm without any hazzles so far.