Well I've only gone and booked a camper van and.....

[TheDogsMother]

haven't the first idea about them, campsites, what to take etc etc. I thought it might be a laugh but I've started to look for places to stay and realised just how clueless I am about the whole thing. It's me, DP and dog with a camper van as opposed to a motor home. Any top tips or advice for rookie campers ?

Camper people should tell you.
Loads of info here
www.ukcampsite.co.uk
Just ask away, we have had Caravans, a Camper but are now posh with a motor home.
Which area are you going to?

Hi Funf, you sound like an expert ! We live in West Sussex and thought we might head to East Sussex/Kent. Not very far but we only have it for 4 nights and it has to be back at 10am. I did consider Dorset though we have been there a few times. I guess I'm a bit confused about caravan parks vs camp sites and camper vans don't seem to be welcome everywhere. Also a bit unsure about hard standing or grass, electric hook up or not. Also people seem very keen on fire pit hire. Any advice would be very welcome 😀

First trip best to stay local. Make sure you know how to change a gas bottle and work everything, should be Youtube stuff to look at so when the rental places shows you it wont all be strange.
Find out the height limit and leave a note on the dash look for low bridges, take you time parking as it may be bigger than stuff you have driven.
Grass or hard standing won't matter unless its very muddy when usually they wont let you on the grass as it would damage it.
Hook up would be easier for running the fridge or you would have to use the gas, I would go hook up for the first few trips, we can do with out as we have large batteries and solar panels and the fridge can run on gas.
Fire pits up to you can be nice or can be smelly.
Unfortunately I can't recommend any sites down south as we live between North Wales and The Lakes we tend to stay local ish.
Caravan parks tend to have more stuff on clubs etc some are very good some are sticky carpet dumps, camp sites are a bit more basic but usually have good toilets etc, Have you a toilet in the camper? We do but only use it for nocturnal emergencies and try to not do No2's in it.
Some times it good to stay on a remote site and chill but some people find it boring.
Heres our website with a few of our trips on, not added the camping ones yet, might entice you to come up north.
www.donthibernate.co.uk

Hi Funf thank you for sharing all the detail. This is really helpful and I'm heading off to YouTube now. We will probably book a couple of smaller sites as some of the bigger ones look like small towns 😆. Your website is great and I will enjoy reading in a bit more detail.

What fun!

Check Coolcamping for sites, they have nice sites.

And you can also search Pitchup.com , use the campervan and ‘allows campfire’ filter.

I would avoid big caravan sites.

When are you going?

We have a motorhome. We drive all over Europe in it! I would keep it simple for your first adventure and book through pitchup. We don't like massive campsites and we aren't bothered about clubhouse entertainment or facilities other than a showerblock and loos.

I would use electric hookup if available rather than leisure batteries. When you park up you might need to level the van up with chocks unless you get a very flat pitch. A wonky van can be really annoying. Make sure you don't have any unsecured stuff in the van when you are on the move and double check that all cupboards and lockers are properly shut before moving. Make sure you know the van height and width.

Unless bedding provided, we use sheets and decent sleeping bags as they take up less space than duvets etc. We always have crocs or shoes you can whip on quickly to dash over to the loo block in. Take headtorches.

Some good tips

Pitchup.com is good for finding campsites and you can set the search engine for just campervans.

Thanks all for the great advice and suggestions. We're going the weekend after Easter and have booked our first site via Coolcamping. I had spotted that they seem to deal in smaller sites. Some appear to be huge and probably not what we're after. We have spotted another couple on the same site which look nice to and we had planned a small circular route keeping it simple for our first trip. Sounds like we will need to batten down the dog too 😀

Is it practical to move on every day ? We have a loo/shower but would you recommend using the campsite facilities instead where possible ? Do you take food or just go to pubs ?

Sorry, a couple of typos. Hope it made sense.

I would only move if you want to or need to. Keep it simple the more crap you take the more set up time, we pull up, plug hook up in for the fridge ( or run it on gas) Turn gas on and that's it. Cant have gas on whilst driving!
Food we have cooked simple stuff, or barbecued outside when skint, but quite often its out for evening meals only, simple breakfast and sandwiches for lunch.
We always use on site facilities, our own are for nocturnal emergencies or wee's on route.

Remember Pre flight checks.
Before you drive off check all doors windows and sky lights are shut.
Hook up unplugged and gas off
Check all the stuff is secure and beware of anything rolling around in the bath room we have seen a few badly damaged shower trays from people leaving chairs etc in the bathroom, a costly repair

Ooh good advice. We will be vigilant about putting everything away as we don't want a repair bill at the end of this. We're going to try and travel light as we don't even really know what space we have. The dog's crate is going to take up a fair amount but we will try and put that away when we are parked/pitched/hooked up. We have yet to learn the terminology 😀

Crate is the safest way for the dog to travel so worth it and its still in its sleeping routine well sort of