How far ahead do you book?

[ImFree2doasiwant]

Rookie camper here. Just bought a tent. I want to go to places that have lots of facikities to start with, ill be solo campibg woth a 3 and 5 yr old. Hoping to have a short break or 2 this year, but lots of places very booked up.

Loking at Easter, and the site I really want to go to, is already booked up. Is this usual? I feel my initial idea of thinking "ooh we'll go for the weekend " is not going to work!

Many sites are operating on reduced capacity, and may not be setting a date yet to expand back to normal so they'll fill up more quickly. Some sites may also appear full if they've not yet released dates yet. However, if you's got your heart set on a popular family orientated site be aware that a lot of their visitors may be repeat visitors that re-book for next year before they've gone this year.

PitchUp is still throwing last minute camping deals at my email inbox, so worth registering an account with them and getting the app. If you're flexible about exactly where you want to be and when you want to be there you'll find somewhere.

Look at pitch up, use the filter to see what you like/want and take it from there. We've just come back from a mon-fri last week and have just booked for a long weekend on the 6th(?) August. The big sites like haven aren't offering all they usually offer anyway at the moment.

Completely different this year. We often booked a last minute weekend last year x

I've booked for a long weekend the weekend after next but it's a new site and all you get is a space in a field and a hook up. No loos (take your own). No hot water (make your own) No showers (Strip washes or a portable shower). IDEAL.

I’m always a book a year ahead type of camper but in normal non peak times you can normally just pop away short notice.

We don't usually book far ahead at all as like to see what the weather will be like. This year that's just impossible, reduced capacity coupled with a huge increase in camping holidays and people not going abroad means most places are pretty full at weekends. If you can go mid week you might fare better. We looked at short notice on pitchup last weekend, there were 4 campsites with space in the whole of the SW on their! One of which was a naturist site. I'm hoping come September it will quieten off and we can start getting away but who knows!