How can you plan a trip camping? Weather wise?

[Nothingtowearatall]

We have been planning to go camping this weekend for some time. We haven't booked anywhere because the weather is so unpredictable, we were hoping to go on a dry weekend but this is looking unlikely now. Most places seem to require you to book in advance often for a week at a time, but we've found a few places where you can turn up.

Do you usually just book and then hope for the best in terms of the weather?

I can imagine camping being miserable in the rain, do experienced campers just get on with it? Any advice on camping with bad weather?

We pretty much hope for the best and get on with it if it rains BUT we are well set up in terms of gear, we all have good waterproofs including waterproof trousers and wellies. The hardest thing I find is cooking in the rain, it's pretty miserable trying to light a fire with wet wood and keep it going in a breeze with smoke blowing everywhere! We now have a little gazebo thing (just a cheap £20 argos job which folds up fairly small) which can go over a BBQ or fire without it getting too smoky and then doubles up as a dry-ish seating area. We have a large tent with a porch and try and be super strict about keeping all muddy/dirty things including shoes outside the main tent so inside stays clean and dry, and if all else fails we can simply decamp to the tent and listen to the rain - which I find weirdly pleasurable but aware not everyone would!

Critically, we only ever go for maximum 3-4 nights at a time and take enough changes of clothes that we don't have to worry about drying things, and we always pick a site with a pub nearby that serves food so we don't have to cook if it really chucks it down and can spend the afternoon/evening somewhere warm and dry. It's also good to have some indoor based day time activities planned just in case, particularly if you have young DCs who need entertaining. And finally we try and limit ourselves to sites within 2 ish hours of home so if it got really bad we could come home without too much hassle - it's never happened yet but it's nice to have the option!

Unless you're planning on going somewhere really far away and/or have no wet weather gear and no budget to buy, I'd give it a go with the option to come home if the weather's bad in reserve?

We normally pencil in dates, get a shortlist of campsites and then book a week or so before when we've seen the forecast. But this summer we've found a lot of sites have been full. Also the weather has been so changeable.

Like pp we only ever camp for max 3-4 nights, generally we do a couple of nights. We have a smallish tent but a huge open awning on the front which gives us a great shelter if it rains. We take waterproofs, wellies, bin bags, old towels, and multiple changes of clothes.

Usually it does rain, but not for the whole time, and we still enjoy ourselves. Only very occasionally it is so miserable we wish we hadn't bothered. Sometimes it's gorgeous!

I also love being in a tent listening to the rain!

Just go, take water proofs, we bought a £100 caravan and went in any weather summer and winter, had some excellent holidays

We have never pre-booked, we just drive from site to site until we found somewhere. We've only once had to try a second site! We normally get in our first try.

I'm a fair weather camper so I don't like to pre-book incase the weather is rubbish.

Definitely book last minute, full waterproofs, and always shoes off inside the tent. Have a plan of things to do if weather turns a bit miserable; soft play / pub meal / cinema etc. We just book some time off work, then check weather and head wherever looks best.

We went last month (first time). I will never book in advance again. It rained for 50% of our long weekend and was grey / windy for most of the rest. Pretty unenjoyable.
The reason we booked in advance was because we went with another family so needed to secure a date we could all do.

I'll only ever book 2 or 3 days in advance in future if nowhere seems to offer that, I won't go. Wasn't worth camping in the rain 🙁

Excellent advice from Dangermouse

We were meant to be camping this weekend (Thur, fri, sat) but we didn’t go due to the weather forecast yesterday, I only paid £33 for the pitch which wasn’t too bad. We have booked to go to another site next weekend which has cost a lot more so we will be going whatever the weather, I booked it a few days ago as the weather is looking ok but it’s hard to tell as things can change, today it was meant to be raining bit now it’s sunny.

We book a year in advance so we can get the site/pitch we want. We go regardless but we go with electric so we have heaters to dry off and warm up with. Large tent with awning and we have a tarp. Having electric we have no problem cooking.

We book in advance and if it's looking crap, we don't go. Usually decide on the day. But we only book 2-3 nights.