Camping with friends

[Jessop]

OK chaps..

A quick question, as im looking on booking up for LeMans next year with a bunch of friends [first time for all of us] im wondering what the best ways to guarnentee camping spaces next to eachother are?

Looking through beermountain.com and some good advice on there, but msot of it is 2008 updated, so im assuming nothing has changed or is the website just dated?

Early stages yet so no confirmed numbers etc but i need as much info as i can get to make sure everybody know whats waht before they are willing to commit and cough up some money to me.

After doing some reading up, i think Houx Annexe would be a good place to camp, considering we'll be wanting to have a few beers etc. But i dont really plan on getting absolutley smashed, people falling over my tent and blaring massivley loud tunes with a boot full of subs next to me. [I go to Ultimate street car at Santa Pod for that..] so at the same time Karting Nord and Maison Blanche sound appealing in a social way, but not too OTT - Also benefitting from trackside noises etc.
Power would be nice but i cant think of what we would use it for? Will try to get a small generator for lights. However what do all you guys do for beer coolers?!
Considering ive not been out of the country since i was 11 (some 12 years ago) i cant comment from experience what the weather is like abroad in June - Warm beer is no good!!
I believe Houx always sells out mega fast anyway so supplied power is out of the question i'd imagine. Pre-allocated spaces would be good though!

Thanks for advice in advance!

[Mattt]

Bear in mind some of the best places will have already gone.

[blueST]

If you book through a decent agent they will make sure you are camped together. If I was you, I would be getting in touch with an agent pdq to get at least something booked as the more popular sites will be going quick. It may be a bit easier this time with the credit crunch and world cup distracting people but I still wouldn't leave it too long.

The stuff on Beermountain is largely accurate, especially the descriptions of the relative atmospheres. Most of the sites are now marked pitches.

[Jessop]

Ok thanks for the reply.

When is the pistonheads site info going to be published?

I wouldnt like to wait to book the PH site and miss out on the above areas (assuming they havent already sold out everywhere).

[timbo48]

Hi Jessup

We usually book through the ACOs own site,[e-mail], but as has been said whoever you do it with, do it now. The problem we've found is that whatever preference you express with this site you get anything other than the ones you asked for so it might be better to go to one of the ticketing agents. Not too sure whether they get allocated blocks or take pot luck. The pitches are marked out on a lot of the sites now so if you all turn up together you'll get adjacent pitches, or you can always have words with the people who direct you to the slots, some might even speak English!(they were quite friendly and helpful on our bit of BSJ last year) As for keeping beer cool, we have a gas powered fridge that bravely struggles to keep everything cool. Just about manages the weekend, we keep topping the bottles/cans up. Or you could bring a paddling pool with you to keep the beer in which also helps to keep you cool, should the sun shine. But you can't leave it unattended otherwise said bottles might just disappear, just like our chairs did this year.

[gt6]

Most of the decent campsites are now allocated pitches, only tertre rouge retains the first come first served system. However as already stated it will be very hard to get any of the good sites now. If you are a first timer I suggest that you use an organised tour/campsite and there are plenty of comments on those elsewhere. I Also think you need to think about booking ferry etc and when you are going to get there, by wednesday the camps are already filling up, don't expect to stroll down on friday to one of the open sites and get a dry pitch with a good view close to anything.