Okay, apologies for the massive essay but I didn't want to dripfeed and at least I'm using paragraphs 
I haven't camped as a family or for years, but since DC4 arrived a few months ago, we've decided to start doing family camping as we love the outdoors and enjoyed camping in the past as a couple and before we met.
We picked a campsite that promised privacy and seclusion and indeed the owner's replies to reviews on websites talked about how he separates families with children away from all adult groups etc. It was not the cheapest campsite ever (far, far from it) but we were happy to pay the premium for the privacy as we weren't sure how well things would go putting up a massive new tent for the first time and wanted space to screw up in peace!! And for the DC, who might be nervous as it's their first time, to not be disturbed by rowdy adults right next to us and to have space to play near us. The owner himself told us he only allows 30 tents on the fields when in theory he could fit 300 because he wants people to feel they have space.
We picked a nice clearly defined "nook" some distance from the only other two tents in the "families with small children" field as the owner described it to us. There were two other fields, one for "teenagers" and one for "adults only" groups which sounded so sensible and fair. He continued to extol the benefits of lots of space and pointed out that the only reason the other two tents were relatively close together was because they were a group. Perfect!
Set up the tent, spent the night, went out for the day and returned about 7.30ish. Only to discover that there was a massive tent pitched about 5 metres from ours. So close that we would not have been able to pitch our awning without the guyropes getting intermingled. No other tents for huge distances and masses of other nooks available, including one a few metres behind them (so parallel to ours) where they could have pitched. But no, they pitched right in front of ours, annoyingly taking up the space where our three older DC (who are aged 3, 5, 7) had been playing as the main open field bit was too far away for us to keep a decent eye on them and there was a felled tree blocking our vision too.
I stuck a very basic not to scale diagram on the next comment in case it's not very clear!
This was bad enough, but it turned out to be a group of 6-8 teenage girls. Quite why they weren't in the field the owner designated as for teenage groups I have no idea at all. And the single woman supervising them had her tent about 30m away in the distance. And then 2-3 other tents in the rest of the field, all at least 50m or more apart with dozens of free "nooks". A casual observer would have assumed the teenage girls were with us. But they refused to even make eye contact with us - whether they were shy or unfriendly, who knows.
We were prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt given they'd pitched so close to somebody else, but they're teenage girls on a camping trip. I would have been the same at their age - whooping, swearing and shouting well past 10pm at which point DH went to the woman's tent and complained. She told them to keep it down and the volume went down a bit, but at gone midnight they were still talking, not particularly quietly, and as they were literally metres away it was like they were in the tent with us. I guess it would not be considered loud for the 11pm curfew but when they're right in your face it was as disruptive as a theoretical party the other end of the field. DH complained to the woman again, getting her up and out of bed, ha. After that they talked a little quieter and finally went to sleep around 1am.
Sadly the DC slept in later than they did which ruined our plans to have the children shrieking outside their tent before they got up!
I don't even know why they picked that pitch as it can't have been for the view as we never saw them outside the tent - they could have been pitched in the middle of an industrial estate as far as they were concerned.
We complained to the owner about it the next day when we finally saw him, and he just shrugged and said "I don't understand it either, what are people like, eh?" - quite clearly not wanting to claim any responsibility even though they'd clearly been camping in the wrong field entirely according to his "rules" let alone right in our faces. They never apologised to us or offered any sort of explanation, not that we asked, but still.
Thing is, we paid above the odds in the hope we'd get some segregated-by-camper-type spacious privacy, and we didn't. We'd not have been nearly so precious if they'd pitched up in the spacious nook adjacent to ours instead of between the two nooks, or if it was a busy and crowded campsite, or we hadn't paid so much in the hope of getting a bit of space. It was just the sheer audacity of their pitch location got my blood boiling which made me a lot more sensitive to their noise and made me far less inclined to live and let live. My upset over it basically ruined our evening. Luckily the DC were oblivious aside from complaining that their "play area" had been pitched on leaving them with only a small section of grass next to a stream with steep banks to play on where we could see them as the main open field was too far away.
It was a done deal by the time we got back from going out as it was too close to dark to ask them to move and it was too late for us to try and move too, although we shouldn't have had to. They should have been advised not to pitch so close in the first place. We were given clear advice on where to pitch, why weren't they? The campsite rules also stated that a responsible adult must be in the same "unit" as any groups all under 21.. there wasn't.
The owner was really friendly and helpful otherwise so I feel bad complaining about what is basically another customer's bad manners. But on the other hand we chose this campsite and paid the premium because we were expecting space and privacy as advertised.
Two questions then!
- Is this sort of thing par for the course? It's really putting me off camping. Were we just incredibly unlucky or do people do this all the time? (why?!!!!!) As newbies to family camping we weren't sure enough on the etiquette of tackling them. Should we have told them to clear off and pitch somewhere else even though it was quite late when we got back? Were we right to repeatedly complain to the adult over the noise in what was designated a "children with young families" field, or should we have just put up with it?
please tell me we've just been really really unlucky
- Is it worth an email to the owner expressing how much this affected our stay? And to suggest he make more of an effort to check that an adult is in the same tent as large groups of children, and to more strongly encourage people not to pitch right in the face of other people's tents on a site that advertises privacy, peace and space? Or are we sounding precious?
Like I said - we wouldn't normally be this precious over somebody pitched so close, but it's the equivalent of somebody parking over the line into your bay in an otherwise nearly deserted car park where you've paid a premium for extra wide spaces! And it was our first ever camping trip as a family and supposed to be extra special which is why we picked somewhere expensive and apparently spacious.
I need to let my anger go on this which is why I'm venting here I guess 