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Camping

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Original poster

Is it too soon to talk about when and where we are all camping this year?

28 replies

hillbilly · 07/02/2015 10:57

We contemplated a yurt in Feb half term but not sure I want to spend £200 if it's going to be wet and cold! So, definitely going to go to Forgewood during Easter hols. Anyone else camping early?

OP posts:
profpoopsnagle · 07/02/2015 12:08

I need some camping chat to help me get through the rest of the winter.

So far, we have booked:
*1st May bank holiday at a site just up the road.
*May half term Fforest Fields (with hopefully a new firepit)
*August 2 weeks at Les Valades. Also having a few nights in a (sssh) hotel up and down on the way to visit Futuroscope and Puy Du Fou.

Would like to get a few more weekends in this year. Will only camp at Easter weekend if the weather looks dry, DH can't get any more time off. We did 10 days at Easter last year and it was glorious, if cold. Crunching across the frost for the shower early in the morning was my favourite memory.

holmessweetholmes · 07/02/2015 12:28

I'm looking forward to some camping in the Lake District. We have just moved there, but to the south, just outside the national park. Hoping to explore the further bits of the Lakes by doing weekends' camping around the area from May - ish onwards.

In fact if any seasoned campers know the Lakes well, I'd be very grateful for any site recommendations! They will have to be sites that take dogs though - we have recently become dog owners!

mrsdiddlydoo · 08/02/2015 10:59

Ooo glad I'm not alone in already starting to think ahead about our years camping plans. Its ds's 2nd birthday soon and we were thinking of asking for some sleeping bits for him. Smile forward planning! We'll probably not manage a trip until first may BH but then I reckon we'll do some long weekends at abbotstone wood, burnbake and the new forest.

TaffyandTeenyTaffy · 08/02/2015 11:13

Nope - not for me! After 3 years of just camping holidays we have booked a week in spain in July (in a hotel!!) - but have another week off at the end of August and am looking for inspiration.....

We loved Kelling Heath in Norfolk and Whitefield Forest in Isle of Wight and really liked Scarborough and Northumberland. We loved the lake district but a very wet and cold July week put a bit of a dampener (excuse the pun) on things.

Any recommendations?

DS is 5 - and we have a dog - and I need decent loos/showers. Trying to avoid Wales (because we live here) and Dorset (because family do Grin!)-Scotland is probably bit too far and Cornwall a bit too busy.... but otherwise open to suggestions....

Original poster
hillbilly · 08/02/2015 12:57

This place in Shropshire Taffy is nice www.foxholes-castle.co.uk and beautiful area. What about the peak district. Cannot recommend anywhere but again lovely area.

OP posts:
Original poster
hillbilly · 08/02/2015 13:01

We usually go to townfarmcamping.co.uk on the first May BH but DD is going on Brownie camp and has given us strict instructions not to go without her!

Easter at Forgewood will be just me and DCs - too cold for DH! I imagine we will get away at the end of May too.

Like Prof we are going to Les Valades in summer Smile BTW prof where did you camp last Easter?

OP posts:
Showy · 08/02/2015 13:15

As children we went to a place called Big Meadow in Ilfracombe, N Devon every year. I haven't been since the year I was 14 and my big brother was 16 and awaiting his GCSE results. Now we're 34 and 36 respectively and both have a couple of children and we're going back! My Mum and Dad are coming too. I believe it is called Watermouth Valley Camping now. Looking at it on google images makes my stomach flip with that uncanny, 20 years have passed but I can still picture it like it was yesterday type feeling.

We're also going to a couple of festivals and that's it. We're off to an actual hotel type thing in July as we've been married 10 years and we're having a child free break for the first time.

I need to do some camping shopping and I'm jolly excited. DS needs a new sleeping bag and my Cath Kidston sleeping bag is lovely and I'm reluctant to move on but it's just not warm. We were given an Outwell tent last year (BIL worked at an event where there was camping and hundreds of folk just upped and left their tents at the end of it. BIL and his staff took them down and auctioned them for charity. He donated one to us first). It's fabulous and we've only used it once so far.

KnappShappeyShipwright · 08/02/2015 14:03

We're in for an expensive and turbulent year in this house (DH is being relocated with work to somewhere 150 miles away) so I'm not able to plan anything yet. We had 5 trips in total last year so I'm v.disappointed. Hoping to get a week somewhere on the Pembrokeshire coast but I'm making do with a vague look at campsites.

I need my canvas fix so might be reduced to putting the small tent up in the garden!

profpoopsnagle · 08/02/2015 17:52

hillbilly we went to The Hideaway at Baxby Manor, just north of York for Easter last year. Taffy the loos here are fab and it's a lovely site, but it doesn't have extra facilities like pools etc.

Flossiechops · 08/02/2015 18:02

I've just booked our summer holiday. We are going to Provence on a Huttopia site - hoping it will be as nice as it looks

WhenMarnieWasThere · 08/02/2015 23:16

Showy, we stay next door, at Watermouth cove. Have done every year since my parents took us as kids. And now I take mine. I love the area. And the castle over the road.

FrozenAteMyDaughter · 08/02/2015 23:53

We have a fortnight booked at a new Yelloh site in Biscarosse in the summer. Can't wait. Also Elderflower Fields Festival at the end of May and a friend's birthday weekend in June. Definitely going somewhere over Easter, but probably with EHU. Also might squeeze in Eweleaze in August. Love it there. We will probably do a few ad hoc weekends over the summer/ early Autumn too. So excited.

Showy · 09/02/2015 10:40

WhenMarnie, the castle is fab isn't it? I've been to Devon once in the last 20 years and we took dd to the castle twice. I swear it hasn't changed. She loved the gnomes, hated the robots. We didn't camp that year though. I was v heavily pregnant and we stayed at Chambercombe Manor.

TiggyD · 11/02/2015 19:59

Stayed at Little Meadow next to the castle last year. Small and great. Views were breathtaking.

This year I'm planning on about 3 sites on the west coast of Scotland. One of them on Skye. Planning on late May to beat the midges, and earlier enough to avoid the holidays.
Just me, car, slightly too big tent, and laptop for Mumsnetting.

TiggyD · 11/02/2015 20:06

Forgot to say:
Caolasnacon Caravan & Camping Park,
Then
Ardnamurchan,
Then
Glenbrittle.

Might skip one and go to Glenmore near Avimore. I'm having a very flexible time.

lavendersun · 12/02/2015 06:50

We haven't booked anything yet Sad. Last year we were homeschooling and camped for nearly four months.

This year back in the school system so no such luck and might aim to move house so we are definitely not as free as we were in 2014.

We will go somewhere for a few days at Easter and May half term and are trying to put together a 4-6 week trip to Yorkshire/Lakes/Scotland in the summer holidays plus a few weekends here and there.

We are going to try Kelling Heath for a weekend in the next month or so - it is a bit big/organised for us but close to home and we think it might be fine out of season - we are usually middle of a field without facility types.

Mixtape · 15/02/2015 22:19

We are building up with camping!

Last year, we had 2x 2 night stays at a local YMCA family campsite, dipping a toe in. Very minimal facilities so it was a good test, but only 15 minutes drive from home.

This year, we have 4 nights booked in the campsite of a Haven site in Somerset in April. Hoping to go again in May and twice in summer holidays. I thought I would hate camping but really loved it -
On both our short breaks, we tried to get more nights but they were full!

4yoniD · 16/02/2015 21:51

Back to Newquay, second year running. Only there for a week this time though, in July.

MissWimpyDimple · 17/02/2015 22:55

Wowo in sussex in June, possibly a few nights in Tenby at half term and then hopefully France/Germany in the summer. All interspersed with frequent weekends at our local site Grin

Allegrogirl · 19/02/2015 09:02

We've got a weekend near Crediton at the end of April. I live in Devon but don't now the area. It will be our first weekend with a FB VW group DH has joined. Site looks fab with indoor pool and pony rides. Will do a weekend with friends at Sandymouth near Bude in May hopefully. Bargain site near lovely NT beach. A week in Belgium at a site with a huge play area and swimming lake so we can do city day trips followed by 4 days near Paris in a mobile (treating ourselves at the end of the holiday). Hoping for the odd additional weekend here and there.

I do like play areas and somewhere to swim on site to keep the DC happy.

RhubarbCrumbled · 26/02/2015 15:19

Plans for this year are slowly coming together. I'm taking DS1 away at Easter for a couple of nights, probably to Park Farm near Bodiam. There are plans for Somerset / South Wales over the summer half term. We're not having a big Summer holiday this year but will be doing short stays around the SE - hopefully back to Badgells Wood, maybe Nethergong, definitely New Forest with my sister.

And we'll absolutely be staying at the local site a couple of times because we can't not go camping 5 miles down the road!

Thumbcat · 26/02/2015 18:27

We're doing a couple of nights at Sacrewell at Easter. Then in the summer holidays I'm planning to do three Mon-Fri camps, one at Wellington Country Park, one in East Sussex and one in Suffolk.

Rhubarb if you need a site recommendation for the New Forest, we stayed at Chapel Field last year and loved it.

anyoldname76 · 26/02/2015 21:12

We are fairly new to camping but have booked to go henbant in wales for a week, we're also planning some weekends away but a bit more local Smile

RhubarbCrumbled · 28/02/2015 10:17

Thumbcat, it looks lovely but not open when we need it.

We've just booked 5 nights on Arran as well! Looking like it might be a packed season this year ??

badger21 · 28/02/2015 20:06

Corsica in Summer - 3 weeks. Challenging ourselves to get tent and gear into Easyjet luggage allowances! Very excited at the prospect of warmth and being able to swim in the sea without a wetsuit. Hopefully also a couple of weekends - including Dalby Forest to see Paul Heaton in June.