to want to visit a campsite that doesn't revolve around children

[ItsANameChanger]

Where you are able to stay up and have a quiet drink after 10pm without being shushed every 3 minutes?

Myself and friends went away on weekend and each morning we were woken by kids playing outside our tent at 7am, yet we were shouted at for daring to stay up past 10pm.

I know I will get roasted for this but I don't care.

No I haven't tried festivals. I like camping, Sitting up chatting and telling stories with old friends without being forcibly removed the next day due to complaints from tents either side who were trying to get their children to sleep at 11.50pm.

I doubt that many campsites will be "child free" as they probably need families to camp there to make any money. I would try camping outside school holidays or go abroad (in Europe you generally don't have to be quiet before 12 in my experience).

The woman next to you sounds very unreasonable though. Most people with children aren't like that surely?

I love camping but if everyone just pleases themselves, it takes away the enjoyment. Talking loudly and boozily after 11.30 (and there's always someone who has an awful laugh in those groups, is selfish, but so is letting your children run around other people's tents at 6am. Most campers seem to get these guidelines right, but occasionally you'll get a camper who thinks their holiday trumps all others.

My friend is such a camper .

I like camping, Sitting up chatting and telling stories with old friends without being forcibly removed the next day due to complaints from tents either side who were trying to get their children to sleep at 11.50pm.

Did this happen to you OP?

You make it sound as if the people who complained were unreasonable by trying to get their children to sleep at 11.50, I don't understand.

Chatting outside the tent is to be expected up to around midnight I'd say. My kids sleep through anything when we are camping.

Most of the sites I've camped in have had a silence after 11pm rule but some owners enforce the rules and some don't. I'm always relaxed about noise from fellow campers unless it's ridiculously load music or shouting.

We were camping in Croyde recently and it was dead quiet after 10:30 and still almost silent at 8 in the morning! I even put off blow drying my hair until 10am as I didn't want to destroy the peace.

But some campers have unrealistic expectations. We are very quiet campers but do like to have our radio on low as a bit of background during the day. Once when we had an entire field to ourselves another family came and pitched up on the opposite side of the field and then came over and told us to turn our music down. The radio was on about a low as it can go but they said it was carrying across the field. We turned it off but we were frightened to even speak after that! We discovered later that they were first time campers. I dread to think how they would have coped in a busy field.

I like camping, Sitting up chatting and telling stories with old friends without being forcibly removed the next day due to complaints from tents either side who were trying to get their children to sleep at 11.50pm

Yes, did this actually happen? Because if two families complained I'm wondering if the sitting up chatting and telling stories was actually a rather noisier process than you'd realised.

We also sit round the campfire, chatting but at our last camp, despite not getting any complaints, when one of our party returned from the lavs at 10.30, they reported back that we we could be heard from further away than we'd realised. Sound travelling a greater distance at night. So we lowered the volume of the conversations.

Nobody wants to camp next to a bunch of killjoys but at the same time, at ten to midnight, it's not entirely out of order to expect things a reasonable level of quietness.

I once camped on a site (very lovely, lots of trees, tents a long way apart) and a group of adults were celebrating the end of their hol with a karaoke session - and then regaling each other with some tales of very scandalous carry-on. By the time I had listened to a loud and detailed description of something involving a blow job at 1am, I decided to go out and explain, with good humour, that we could all hear them and maybe they should be a bit quieter or they would end up in the tabloids. They were v sweet, apologised, and then invited me to sit down, have a drink and join in!
I politley declined - but they did shush-down after that.

Have never been camping apart from one night about ten years ago when the kids were small.....you lot aren't selling it to me, I've got to say!!!

Frozen and Summerisle

Park Farm is the place I was referring to, too.

We were there two weeks ago and were sat around the fire until 2am.

SaucyJack We were there 10 days ago. Singing like buffoons around the campfire! Had a brilliant time with no complaints.

SaucyJack and Summerisle. We camped at Park Farm for years and 5am was bedtime the first night on most camps (9pm the second night for me). How anyone camped with children on that site I have no idea, but they did, even in our group. We were loud but so were most groups there.

The camp that ruined it for us was one where someone set off fireworks along the ground one night (they were dealt with by the warden but it was scary) and another group drove their cars round the site in the early hours of the morning, presumably passed. Bloody terrifying.

Nothing like that would happen now - it is an entirely different site, albeit still quite relaxed by the sound of it. Which is nice to hear.

Pissed not passed - autocorrect strikes again...

i've always thought it would be a good idea to have some sites that ban younger children and kissangels post illustrates why. i couldn't go to adults only as we had kids and they hated being woken at 6.30 by the ignorant campers across the field. And on holiday 10pm would have been far too early for their bedtime.

Its interesting to see that she thinks its totally unreasonable for any noise after 10pm but seems to think that its ok at 6am - presumably these are her kids bed/rising times. And then talks about the need for consideration!!

It's the people who slam car doors all day and night that get to me, or the ones in camper vans that have a sliding door (sliiiideTHUD, sliiideTHUD).

Okay you might need something from the car or come and go from your van, but do you have to slam the door and flash the lights every couple of minutes for hours? Flashflash, click, rummage, SLAM, flashflash……flashflash, click, rummage, mutter, SLAM, flashflash…repeat x 100 etc.

Everyone is on holiday, everyone has different ideas, but people do want to sleep and even slight noise carries further and sounds louder at night or early morning.

I think you have to expect a bit of chatting later on but noise carries and people do tend to gradually get louder, especially if they are also having a drink. Although actually, the talking noise usually isn't as bad as if someone in the group has a loud, annoying laugh. Chatting is usually background noise, we usually end up camping next to Woody Bloody Woodpecker huhhuhhurhurrring all night.

No need to ban younger children, dreamingofsun, that would be unfair on those of us who realise that there needs to be give and take on campsites at both ends of the day. DD is 4 and has camped since she was a baby. She will sleep through anything once she is asleep and we do our best to keep her quiet early in the mornings (rarely an issue any more).

In a way, I would like there to be a quiet hour between 8.30 and 9.30 while I am trying to get her to sleep (sometime between 10pm and 11pm actually if I am being honest) and then all bets are off and the rave can start. But obviously, that would be totally unworkable and unreasonable so I will not be expecting it. Neither do I expect children on a site to be quiet all night or early in the morning - I bring earplugs.

Similarly, I think it is unreasonable to expect complete silence from adults on a site all night after 10.30pm. How many adults want to go to bed at that time or sit in silence whether or not they have children? It is ridiculous.

The cardoor slamming gets on my wick and makes me jump what are the bloody raking for all day

We went camping at a Festival this summer, never again! People were singing/playing guitars/laughing/chatting/shouting etc. until 2 or 3 am every night. I'm used to family friendly sites where it's quiet from 10.30 -11 ish.

It did mean the showers were always nice and empty at 7 ish though!

mygrandchildrenrock, why did they stop partying so early?

I think by and large there are two types of camper.

The first type are those who took it up as a group activity before they had children, maybe attended festivals, certainly camped in groups with friends where drinking and singing/chatting round the fire and into the wee hours were a big part of the point of camping for them. When they have children, they want to replicate their experiences for their children so allow them up late to toast marshmallows, join in the singing etc. When they put their children to bed, they understand that other people on the site may still want the chatting/drinking/late night experience, and may even want it themselves. Those campers don't expect silence from 10pm but will generally try to keep their children (a bit) quiet in the mornings, not least because of their own hangovers.

Then there are the second type who took it up only once they had children, in some cases largely because it is an economical way to have a family holiday rather than for any actual love of camping itself. For them, camping is all about the children. They are much less tolerant or completely intolerant of noise after 10pm and may also take the view that people should put up with early morning noise because camping is all about children, after all.

Either group may or may not have camped as children themselves.

Personally, I think if sites are to be divided that should not be between campers with children and campers without (of whatever age) but instead between those who are tolerant of the way others enjoy themselves and those who are not.

And if I ran a campsite, every adult would be issued with free earplugs on arrival.

FreakinScaryCaaw I promise it wasn't because of any shshing from our tent!

People were singing/playing guitars/laughing/chatting/shouting etc. until 2 or 3 am every night

Don't do glasto then! Music playing (loudly) until 6 or 7 every day then starting up again a short time later.

I never realised you were supposed to sleep at festivals!