£700 for a weeks pitch camping in Devon?

[Laughingstock91]

We normally go camping in France in the summer and pay about £600 for 2 weeks on a lovely site with a pool in Provence. We take our own camping gear when we go.

£700 for 7 nights for a tent pitch in Devon? It’s basically a field with no other facilities bar a toilet block. That’s for us to pitch our own tent too! Not glamping or anything.

Aibu to think it’s taking the fucking piss? I am so over this poxy plague ridden island today. I know we are lucky to get any holiday but it’s a weeks camping - we save up all year to go to France & love it.

That's astronomical

@Blossomtoes Maybe it won’t have any effect, but maybe it will. Someone will pay it of course, but will they sell out, maybe, maybe not, will it affect their repeat business, will they get a different type of customer.

I have a close friend who could charge almost double on his properties, but his philiosophy is to get the right tenants in at a price they can afford and don’t screw them over every year. As a result, he has almost no turnover of tenants, no trouble from them, and they actively take care of the property. He has less headaches, less legal bills, and higher occupancy. Yes he could screw them and get more money in the short term, but ethically and financially he is better off not.

Sometimes in business you have to take a longer view.

I don’t have any experience of camping but that sounds extortionate.

£700 for 7 nights - Covigreed.

I’ve paid about £170 for a week in Cornwall (Lizard) for August. About the same price we paid on 2019. Big play area, games room, free fire pits and BBQ, walkable to fishing village with beach. Devon and Cornwall can be very reasonable if you are prepared to look beyond Croyde, Padstow, Newquay and St Ives.

I paid about £25 a night last year. It didn't stop camping sites wanting to charge me over £100! Go onto local listing sites or places that are literally just fields with a toilet block. We wanted dog-free too. Avoid websites promoting fancy sites and try ones which maybe only have a phone number or are not on the beach.

That is outrageous, can I recommend the Northumbrian coast or Lake District to you? Much better prices (albeit more than last year), amazing scenery, things to do. It really surprised us how much we loved it all.

@Timeforabiscuit

Talk about making hay while the sun shines! That is taking the piss IMO, but if people pay it ...

I have found that Nothern England (Pembrokeshire Coast) is a far better option.

I think that the Welsh MN’s may be a bit upset at your geographical description, Pembrokeshire is in the southwest of Wales.🙄🤔

There seems to be a wide range of prices in Devon, you pay a fortune to be 100m nearer the beach. I looked on google maps and found all the close by campsites and some were much cheaper. However they might fill up early this year. Not Devon, but we just booked Hollands Wood in the new forest, very nice site and reasonable price.

@laughingstock91 where is this camp site in France? As an alternative idea for this year, could you house swap with friends who live elsewhere in the UK??

And this is why we're holding out hope for a last minute overseas holiday.

Imagine if you spent £700 and it pissed it down all week?

@timeforabiscuit Pembrokeshire is gorgeous, but it's not Nothern England, its Wales!

I worry about all of the extra camp sites popping up in sports clubs - Devon and Cornwall are busy every year, but this year both counties will just snap off the bottom of the Uk and fall into the sea - under the weight of all of these extra people. 😂

It will be rammed.

Our caravan is on a seasonal pitch- £600 for the whole month of August. It’s about 3 minutes walk from my caravan to miles of beach. However, it’s not in Devon or Cornwall, so most of England won’t want to visit that area!

@MargosKaftan

And this is why we're holding out hope for a last minute overseas holiday.

Imagine if you spent £700 and it pissed it down all week?

I’m spending that on 3 nights in Uk (£775 actually) If it rains, we still have a luxury holiday

Also got foreign booked for October. Full covid cover so no risk.

I've just come back from 4 nights in North Devon, booked at the start of last year for last May then rearranged for this year, I paid £700 for 7 people in a 4 bed luxury lodge with hot tub. I tried to extend it another 3 nights to make up the full week a couple of weeks ago, and they wanted £1500 for those 3 nights on top of the £700 already paid. That's ridiculous. When I asked about the mark up, I was told I had got a really good price originally and was very lucky - however that was the standard, non discounted price in Feb 2020, for a term time Monday to Friday, when I booked. I've previously booked a full week in the same accommodation for under £1000 - this is at a large holiday company who benefited from the furlough scheme so weren't as affected as smaller companies (and were able to open for a few weeks last year).

I looked at the cost for the same lodge in August this year, and the price is £4k. I paid less than that for a fortnight in Florida.

You don’t need a reason to legally enter France from today so hey ho off you go!

If you're considering camping why not try a residential activity centre instead? With over a year of no residential school trips allowed they're down on their knees begging for families to visit. They're basic bunk beds but at least you don't have to inflate the beds yourself and they're generally in beautiful surroundings. Often with easily bookable activities if that appeals.

There are the big boys PGL (well oiled family holiday machine) and FSC but then there are a lot of places that are owned by urban LEAs or by organisations like woodcraft folk.

Your money will be appreciated and will help ensure the places continue so future kids get to have those sorts of experiences.

This is exactely why we always go abroad. Its cheaper to go basic self catering abroad for a fortnight than to holiday in the U.K

Yes I know this country needs to rebuild its economy however there is also a lot of economy connected to traveling abroad such as what you buy beforehand to take with you, traveling to the airport, hotels overnight, airport staff, flight attendants and so on

Also I don't want to spend a week in the rain here. I can stay at home for that.

I suppose I am lucky I have spent alot of time around different places in the U.K as a child and adult however costs here simply are too expensive.

The £700 you quote covers a fortnight accommodation where we go every June. I shop around for budget deals for flights.

I have a daughter too who lives in Canada shopping around I can get 2 flights return out there for £700

£700? They're mad!

I'd go to Dartmoor and camp for free in the area that permits wild camping 🤷🏼‍♀️

It is profiteering of the highest

The minute it became pretty obvious it was going to be a faff going abroad all these holiday destinations took the opportunity to take the piss
Which is stupid because they have a captive audience quite literally, if they had of kept prices competitive they had the chance to let Brits know what they've been missing.

We were looking for somewhere in Dorset, we aren't having a honeymoon (I'm not entirely sure we are having the wedding either yet, that's on Boris) so wanted to take us two, DD (14) and DS (13) somewhere.

The prices were ridiculous. DD in most places counted as an adult.
Luckily I was moaning about it at our local pub and one of the regulars has offered us use of a caravan on a site. He isn't going all summer as usual so he saved the day.

So if it's £100 per night for a pitch for 2 people, that's the same as a cheap hotel. If you're taking a family in the summer holidays, it's not bad, I suppose, especially as site owners are trying to make up for their losses last year. People I know had a holiday booked in Majorca for £2500 which was cancelled. When they tried to rebook for 2022 the price had gone up to £7500!

We're camping in our transporter next weekend for 3 nights in St. Ives. Cost us £60. There are cheaper places, you just have to shop around. Look on pitchup.com

You don’t need a reason to legally enter France from today so hey ho off you go!

I live in France and we are still under restrictions including a 9pm curfew until mid June. The official date for allowing foreign tourists in is 9th June with a vaccine passport (pass sanitaire.) You can risk it before that but will be at the mercy of border control.

Also, thanks to Brexit, you will need to be in possession of accommodation bookings, return travel reservations, travel and health insurance and a certain amount of funds (see government website for amounts) per day. If you wanted to stay with family or friends who live in France, they will need to apply for a special certificate (€30) which you would also need to be able to produce at customs.
Oh and don’t even think about bringing your own food for self catering ir trying to stock up on French wine to take back!

There is no more «hey ho off you go» between the UK and France

To OP, that’s outrageous money!! I hope you manage to find a better deal!