Britain 2011: Camping

This picture is pretty typical of many of the tents we found in the UK. They are enormous! It also takes the owners several hours to "pitch up". We'd laugh because our tent takes less than 10 minutes to put up and we never had to pay for additional awnings, guy wires, kitchens, etc. I noticed in 2003 - the British bring the entire kit to the campground, including the table. That's because they need to do this. We found a few places that offered tables to every camper, but I noticed that most of the tables seemed to be situated in the vans and caravans area when I feel it's the tenters who really need them.

Campgrounds throughout the UK are privately owned and with one exception, I'd say that they were all in excellent condition. The only luxury that is provided is the toilet block, but these were always clean (with one exception) and well maintained. While we travelled through NZ, we used a camper van and had kitchens, tables, toilets, showers, etc. provided. We didn't HAVE to have them. In Britain, we camped in a small car and could have used tables and kitchens and they were rarely provided. We had 3 camps with microwaves and we went back to one at Berwick-upon-Tweed just because of its excellent kitchen facilities.

Most of the time, we camped in a big farmer's field. I got to be pretty good at identifying campgrounds on the map which were close to major walks. I think I only had two occasions where we camped when I wasn't really handy to a public footpath which could take me all over Britain. I only felt "too close to a road" at one camp and this surprised me. Even in Oxford we could hear the busy highways as a background "hum", but the farmyard we stayed at was relatively quiet. It was great to be camping during most of "low" season because it could get crowded. I heard tents are to be pitched 3 metres away from another - it was only Easter weekend where we felt someone violated this "rule".

We probably averaged 17 GBP/night for camping. It was a little more expensive than B.C., I'd say and although we have the most beautiful parks in the world, it's now about $24/night for a really nice and private site with only a pit toilet, a picnic table and probably a shelter. The British would probably be aghast at our lack of toilet facilities.

Camping in Britain was a good experience. The great weather made the experience very bearable. Our first night out was April 3rd and many campgrounds were still closed but by the next week, most camping spots were on the radar. There are popular places to avoid if you don't like crowds, but overall, I'd recommend it as a way to see Britain. A small complaint would be that the "washing up" area was always adjacent to the caravan area, not the tenting area, and this seemed a bit idiotic to my mind. Overall, a great experience and we had 32 nights out to prove it!