nice campsites - not Nissan Navaras and Sports Direct?

nice campsites - not Nissan Navaras and Sports Direct?

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ALY77

666 posts

209 months

Monday 24th April 2017
quotequote all
Haven't done the tenting thing (we have a tourer) but have been on a few sites that have had a touch of the issues described by OP.

General tips;

Avoid school holidays if possible. Easier said than done if you have kids sadly. The schools here (Scotland) break at the end of June for the summer, we always try and get away in the south of the UK in the first three weeks of July before the main holidays in England & Wales. Really nice places we're used to seeing in the summer change late July, to something resembling a news report from a war zone.

Avoid sites owned by the big chains. The worst place we ever visited was a Haven site, though there are a few other chains which serve up the same mix of many arcade machines, manky swimming pools and lots of bars/lounges to get hammered while ignoring your kids going mental on a play park in the dark nearby.

Spend some time on Tripadvisor. Its pretty easy to select only the words of those who have left poor reviews. For each place we've ended up which was nice, there have been ten that looked well located or fab from their own websites until I spent ten mins reading the woes of other peoples visits.

Join a club. They've popped up in other posts already but The Caravan & Motorhome Club (previously and better known as The Caravan Club) have some sites which take tents. The Camping & Caravanning Club may be a better shout. Less pedantic site owners/wardens and perhaps a few less regimented rules.



For some specifics, we've liked;

Weymouth - www.eastfleet.co.uk/

Wrexham - www.plassey.com/

Torbay - www.beverley-holidays.co.uk/

Notts - www.sherwoodforestholidaypark.co.uk/

Scotland (Blair Atholl) - http://blair-castle.co.uk/caravan-estate/

Scotland (Dundee) - www.riverview.co.uk/ (not sure they do tents)

Scotland (Loch Lomond) - http://woodleisure.co.uk/our-parks/lomond-woods/ (no tents but have pods)

rambo19

2,737 posts

136 months

Monday 24th April 2017
quotequote all
Paddy_N_Murphy said:
hehe

Watching with interest as I suspect in a similar boat (or tent) - single Dad, a 4 yr old looking to rekindle those camping adventures, have outdoors time.
I too bought a unwanted job lot of 'good' or comfort camping kist for a song (AirTent, AirMatresses, twin stove, hookup etc ) but have kept it in a crate in the shed biggrin
From what you say it should stay there !

I had pondered whether a Transporter / Motorhome would be a good third car and that might work - but Tents are a whole new thing for me since puberty....
Have a look at military vehcile shows.
I have a military landy and go to shows all through the summer, good group of people, plenty to do and see, a 4 yr old would love it!

DoubleSix

11,691 posts

175 months

Monday 24th April 2017
quotequote all
Pleased to see the beautiful unspoiled little retreat we frequent isn't mentioned here.

smile

dterry

282 posts

275 months

Monday 24th April 2017
quotequote all
brianashley said:
Get up towards Snowdonia . some amazing campsites there. This one is perfect

http://gwynant.com/ walked through it just before Easter on our way up towards the "rangers"


Neds/council types you wont find .
We stayed there last August in our motorhome. Luckily motorhomes have to go lakeside, unfortunately the weather was awful for 2 or our 3 days. Site is great, pizza kitchen is awesome, location is great. It might not look it but the lake is also really shallow until a long way out.

Only let down with the site was the toilets and showers, luckily we had those onboard.


dterry

282 posts

275 months

Monday 24th April 2017
quotequote all
battered said:
No more insanity than owning your own, I'd suggest. You lay down, what? £10k? Insurance and tax are £500 pa, say. I'll presume that you have a carport or garage. Set aside a bit for repairs. If you take it out 6 weekends over the summer that's 12 nights out. You aren't going to see change from £1000, so call it £80 a night. Not a cheap do, is it?

My folks had this with a caravan, by the time they had finished with a towcar, insurance, annual service, depreciation, their annual costs were £1000 and up. If they used it a lot, great, but for a fortnight in Europe and a couple of weekends out in the UK it becomes an expensive lifestyle choice.
We did our first year in a motorhome last year and managed 60 nights away including just under 6 weeks continuos during the kids summer holidays and multiple weekend breaks. Average 'decent' site cost was probably an average of £27 for 2 adults, 2 kids and a dog. Motorhome is currently worth around what we paid for it, maybe more, running costs for a year including secure storage a mile from home is <£1k

We found that the nicest sites are probably the club sites (caravan club and camping and caravan club) but there are also some excellent small sites and cl / cs around.

My tip for helping find decent sites would be to use the ukcampsite website, and only ever consider sites with an average user rating of 8, anything less seems to be a massive step down. Also read the reviews to see if they are from tenters, motorhomers or caravaners because all have different views of the site.

Also consider that on the bigger sites your perception can be affected a lot by your neighbours / pitching location, sometimes moving to the other side of a field can change your perception of the site massively, we did this on at least one site and it changed from a site from hell to a lovely site by moving probably 200m, just because of our previous proximity to a relatively large group of your previously mentioned navara / sports direct people that constantly moved from caravan to caravan to watch the differnt channels on each others 40" tvs in their. Awnings



Edited by dterry on Monday 24th April 21:37

Trabi601

4,865 posts

94 months

Monday 24th April 2017
quotequote all
I would add to be aware of the site that sounds like what you'd do to your tent on arrival. Once they have your money, they don't care if the site lives up to expectations, or even delivers what they promise in their listing. They're absolutely no help whatsoever if you end up in dispute with the site. I'm now only using them to find sites, before booking direct.

Squiggs

1,520 posts

154 months

Monday 24th April 2017
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battered said:
Trabi601 said:
£99 to stay in someone else's campervan is insanity.
No more insanity than owning your own, I'd suggest. You lay down, what? £10k? Insurance and tax are £500 pa, say. I'll presume that you have a carport or garage. Set aside a bit for repairs. If you take it out 6 weekends over the summer that's 12 nights out. You aren't going to see change from £1000, so call it £80 a night. Not a cheap do, is it?

My folks had this with a caravan, by the time they had finished with a towcar, insurance, annual service, depreciation, their annual costs were £1000 and up. If they used it a lot, great, but for a fortnight in Europe and a couple of weekends out in the UK it becomes an expensive lifestyle choice.
If you purchase something that you take out 3 or 4 weeks year to use it only as a 'hotel' the costs don't work out.

I guess on average we use our camper van as a travelling 'B&B' for at least 2 nights in every 14.

About six times a year we nip (70miles) across to Windsor for a Saturday night, park up (legally) for a minimum cost in a vey quiet carpark and go out to the other halves favourite restaurant (what would the cost of a hotel room be within sight of the castle?)
Went and parked up for a couple of nights at a lovely country pub in Northants just last week - again minimum over night costs.
About 10 times a year we just decide to leave on early on Saturday morning and go to one of the oldest country woodland parks in the S.E. Park up cook breakfast and then relax for the rest of the day, accidently forget to leave before the gates close and then we cook our evening meal.
We go to beer festivals, food festivals, smaller music festivals and continental Christmas markets
We've parked up outside family parties, parked up at friends to join them for Christmas, parked at wedding venues, and lots, lots more.
And that's all above and beyond 2 weeks touring the likes of S France, overnighting in places such as St Tropez, Nice and Monaco and we'll do additional week in Cornwall.
We don't need to rely on facilities so I can honestly say we very rarely spend much more on parking than £5 a night, usually less, and never more than £10.

It's not what you've got ..... it's the way that use it wink

Kneetrembler

2,069 posts

201 months

Monday 24th April 2017
quotequote all
Join the Caravan & Motorhome Club, they have some very nice sites and you very very seldom find this type of people on them, as they get thrown out.
Well worth joining, and they have a nice magazine with various sites and suggestions in as to what is available to do locally etc.

Don't give up not all campgrounds are like this, for instance the German ones are spotless and you definitely do not get english pleb chavvy kids around making a nuisance .

Spuffington

1,203 posts

167 months

Tuesday 25th April 2017
quotequote all
Tricky one - to avoid the hoards of people you describe, you definitely have to either pay for the privilege (and also then not guaranteed) or go to the opposite extreme and go for a more basic set up (which in my eyes is also good).

I've also noticed that there are an awful lot of caravaners (and some motorhomers, but seems to be less) who do nothing other than pitch up and then spend their entire weekend/week grazing. So much for the great outdoors - all they do is watch telly in the evenings and sit outside watching their BBQ the rest of the time. Perhaps with campers and motorhomes - they're more "lifestyle" choices and as such attract people who are more active?

I will, however, counter the assertion that it's an expensive way to get away in something other than a tent etc.

If I were to sell my motorhome today, it'd have cost me the grand total of 500quid incl. fuel, VED, insurance but not incl. camp site fees. Ok, so I bought well and it's a sought-after van. But once you have one, the more you want to use it. I did around 40nights in Harry in the last 12 months - not including full-timing since February. Notwithstanding the appreciation in value, it's a far cheaper method of holidaying as a Family. Around half of those nights were spend in France or Scotland paying a minimal amount or nothing for overnight. Realistically, it's the cost of fuel which is less than three people's airfairs to somewhere 2-3hrs away.

If a Person buys a unit and then only uses it for 12 nights a year - then yes, that is a lifestyle choice and will be more expensive than full utilisation of it. But if you use it for 40nights a year - then it's a very cost-effective way of holidaying.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Tuesday 25th April 2017
quotequote all
DoubleSix said:
Pleased to see the beautiful unspoiled little retreat we frequent isn't mentioned here.

smile
Agreed. The 3 that we frequent have not been mentioned.

We avoid places with a electric hookups, that the easy way to get rid of the troublesome types.

bristolracer

5,528 posts

148 months

Tuesday 25th April 2017
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Pigdoguk said:
We avoid places with a electric hookups, that the easy way to get rid of the troublesome types.
yes

DoubleSix

11,691 posts

175 months

Tuesday 25th April 2017
quotequote all
Pigdoguk said:
DoubleSix said:
Pleased to see the beautiful unspoiled little retreat we frequent isn't mentioned here.

smile
Agreed. The 3 that we frequent have not been mentioned.

We avoid places with a electric hookups, that the easy way to get rid of the troublesome types.
yes

No electricity, no silly rules about fires, no mobile reception.

It's healthy to remove the kids (and the wife!) from the creature comforts and modern conveniences we all get so used to.

Deerfoot

4,897 posts

183 months

Tuesday 25th April 2017
quotequote all
ALY77 said:
For some specifics, we've liked;

Weymouth - www.eastfleet.co.uk/
I`d add Higher Moor Farm to your Weymouth locations as well. www.highermoorfarm.co.uk

Morningside

24,110 posts

228 months

Tuesday 25th April 2017
quotequote all
vsonix said:
A friend of mine's parent run the Orchard Campsite in Suffolk near Ipswitch. It's in an orchard, hence the name. Wifi over the site, all the pitches have power points next to them and if you fancy the full glamping experience they have an old wooden gypsy caravan very nicely done out. I dunno if they get a lot of twin cab 'condom' trucks (so called cos they are 'Trojan' etc etc) there mind you, I've only been twice and both times the whole site was booked out for private function. they have a website.
Interesting...only looking for one night with a motorhome this Saturday. Do I get a discount by mentioning your name? biggrin

battered

4,088 posts

146 months

Tuesday 25th April 2017
quotequote all
dterry said:
We did our first year in a motorhome last year and managed 60 nights away including just under 6 weeks continuos during the kids summer holidays and multiple weekend breaks.
If you're using it as much as that then bravo. It does then start to make a lot more sense, along with the chap earlier who uses it 1 weekend in 2. However I see very few people using them like this, a more typical usage IME is 6 or 8 weekends a year and maybe a week off somewhere, and a bit of pottering to the shops. There's nothing wrong with either approach, after all I have a Mazda MX5 that has done 2k miles in 11 months and *just* might get 3k between MoTs. By any measure it makes no sense as a vehicle, but I don't care. If someone feels the same about a camper, good luck to them. I know that my parents kept the caravan I was talking about upthread regardless of cost. Yes, it ended up costing more than a B&B would, but they liked using it, which is fine.

I spend a lot of time working away and living in hotels, in the summer months if a client gave me the cash and said "do what you like" I'd be looking at a camper. It's a damn sight nicer waking up in the countryside than yet another Travel Inn Holiday Lodge.

Chrisgr31

13,440 posts

254 months

Tuesday 25th April 2017
quotequote all
Careful studying of reviews is as others have suggested the way to avoid the types highlighted by the OP. For our 2 week summer holiday we tend to seek a site with a pool as daughter loves swimming. However this instantly is more likely to attract the types we want to avoid. Careful selection means so far we have got away with it.

For short breaks we then to use Camping and Caravan Club sites as others suggest.

DelicaL400

516 posts

110 months

Tuesday 25th April 2017
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anonymous said:
[redacted]
Some nice sites in Dorset eg Longthorn's Farm near Bovington, Woodyhyde near Corfe Castle (which has steam trains running past it).

As others have said, check the reviews on UKCS - I don't think they have a Sports Direct filter but you can filter searches by other criteria.

brianashley

500 posts

84 months

Wednesday 26th April 2017
quotequote all
dterry said:
We stayed there last August in our motorhome. Luckily motorhomes have to go lakeside, unfortunately the weather was awful for 2 or our 3 days. Site is great, pizza kitchen is awesome, location is great. It might not look it but the lake is also really shallow until a long way out.

Only let down with the site was the toilets and showers, luckily we had those onboard.
Never looked at the showers .But toilets look very clean. The whole place looked very clean . And they get great reviews.

brianashley

500 posts

84 months

Wednesday 26th April 2017
quotequote all
anonymous said:
[redacted]
I sometimes do a "rapid wild" with my nearly 8 year old. School friday finishes at 3.pm. quick wash and change . M4 from London to Wales . Up into the west brecons . park up , walk out and be pitched up all by 7pm. Lovely food, , go bug hunting or star gazing , whatever etc .let him muck about with a knife and wood . .Sat move onto another place . Sunday. pack up .Back for a late lunch and a bath. Do any homework . sleeps a treat . Fresh for school monday to be all the kids who did nothing more than play on their computer games etc, and got taken to Nandos .

PurpleTurtle

6,940 posts

143 months

Monday 15th May 2017
quotequote all
OP, thanks for a great laugh with your post. Having been keen tent campers for many years we have just taken the plunge and bought a 1992 Eriba pop-top caravan. Pulling onto a site with this hipster-mobile alongside a load of double-axlers pulled by pickups and occupied by children with faces akin to their out of control pitbull is my future nemesis.

We've found the Cool Camping books to be very useful. Some of them are a bit thr other way, in that if your delightfully-named English rose of a wife hasn't hand-made the bunting for your bell tent on some downtime freelancing a column for the Guardian then they wonder WTF you are doing there! smile

Also recommend these. Filters should allow you do your best to avoid Sports Direct types.

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/sites/

https://www.pitchup.com