when is it ok to complain abt noise?

[apermanentheadache]

Ok, we were camping on friday night in the new forest. Got there late, not that many pitches left. Near us was a MASSIVE group of family/friends who were all sat round in an enormous circle - there must've been about 25 of them.. They were talking loudly, with the odd bellow and shout and lots of honking laughter. At about quarter past midnight I got really hacked off and asked them to be quiet. Was I being a killjoy or were they being inconsiderate ba**ds?!

Oh, and can anyone recommend a very quiet site within an hour's drive of south west last london for future reference?

Thanks in advance.

Have a look at the campsite rules. They often say silence between 11 and 7.
I don't think you were being unreasonable to ask them to quieten down after midnight.

Usually campsites go silent at 11pm. I would be fuming much past that.

Not a killjoy!

Ah thanks, apoarently it was supposed to be quiet between 10 and 8 so they were clearly infringing ze roooolz.

I also just noticed that it was one of the only local campsites to take large groups. Next time will go for one that doesn't. God, they were loud.

Which campsite was it? We often go camping in the Forest, and would like to avoid! We've been to Roundhills previously which generally seems fairly quiet. :)

It was Hollands Wood. Shame, as a nice site but also near a very noisy road ( but think the impact of that would depend on where you pitched). Apparently all of the 'camping in the forest' sites allow large group bookings. I think we just got unlucky though.

Next time we will go to the Isle of Wight and hope the cost and inconvenience of the ferry puts large groups off. I sound really antisocial (!) - I'm not, just love my sleep.

It's great fun being in a large group camping, but I'd be mortified if I realised our fuelled chatter was keeping other people up. We've usually done it by exclusively booking a field, often not a 'normal' campsite at all.

Hopefully they had the decency to be quiet when you asked. It does annoy me when this happens however I'm sure they don't mean to annoy others, it's just thoughtlessness really.

This happened to us once - a large family group a few tents away were performing like the Von Trapp family singers. By 12.30 am I had had enough and had to go out and politely suggest that they had a bit more consideration for others. To be fair they did shut up but I shouldn't have had to get out of my cosy bed to request some peace and quiet.

Can I ask opinions about the noise of babies crying ?
We were camping last weekend and a family kept us awake for ages at 3am with a screaming baby. We did not complain but if it had been rowdy drunks at 3 am we would have done.
Is a screaming baby acceptable on a busy campsite ?
We did not go camping with our ds as a baby as he would have been awake in the night. Should we complain if it happens again ?

What would you expect them to do with screaming baby? Surely complaining is only worth doing if the problem can be fixed. I can't imagine anyone is deliberately letting the baby cry. First night of cc on a campsite? Hopefully not!

I wouldn't complain about a crying baby -it can't help it.

Screaming baby would be different I think. I wouldn't complain about that, would put it down to (ours and theirs) bad luck! One of our children very occasionally had night terrors and this would've led to him screaming in the middle of the night. So can't always be avoided.

When I, ahem, brought it to their attention, they did quieten down so perhaps they just didn't realise noisy feckers. The odd thing is that they were all up by 8 am playing volleyball/swingball/ god knows what else.

I think I would've taken said screaming child into the car and closed all the doors if it went on for longer than about 5 minutes though, and providing the car was by the pitch.

Longmeadow is on the opposite side of the road from Hollands Wood and is really nice - it's basically a big field with showers, loos and a small shop (although the local bike hire people will deliver to your door). From the website it looks like they've massively upgraded their facilities as it was portacabin showers when we went a few years ago.

The owners are/were(?) lovely but brook no disturbances and it's set back far enough from the road to be quiet at night. Bonus is that there are cattle grids at the entrances so no ponies necking your food/invading your tent when you turn your back (although they do get deer running through in the small hours, which is rather lovely), and the back exit goes directly out into the forest and off road cycle paths. There's a stream with rope swings about 4 mins walk from the site and we took our firepit and some charcoal and had a pretend campfire at night.

To be honest, for us camping is about peace, quiet and enjoying the countryside, but then with a demanding toddler anything that lowers the blood pressure like some fresh air, a BBQ and a relaxing atmosphere is what we're after. We're always nervous of loud groups keeping us up at night because on campsites there's no sound insulation and you're at the mercy of your neighbours. To be fair, most campsites have got advertised curfews because so many people feel the same.

I have to confess I have been part of loud noisy camping groups before and you do feel bad when people come to complain (although one did stay for a drink one time so we felt less bad about him).

That was years ago but it does make me more tolerant of loud groups within reason. So long as they are not shouting or arguing at least.

As to babies, when I hear them screaming I just thank my lucky stars i don't have to get up and feel very sorry for their parents. Mind you we did have a dreadful night with DD once at Eweleaze where she developed night terrors and nothing we did calmed her. In the end we picked her up and trekked back to the car across several fields and debated driving home and coming back the next day to pack (Dorset to London - we were desperate). In the end she fell asleep as soon as we put her in her car seat so we spent a very uncomfortable night in the front seats in Eweleaze car park. We did that trek because we were worried about waking other people so knowing that I try to be sympathetic to others in the same boat.