Is there a typical max size for a tent pitch? (Tent too big?)

[HJ40]

DH and I have camped a fair bit in our three man tent, but mostly places where you just put your tent up anywhere in a field.

Now we have DC, we're looking to buy a BIG family tent, with plenty of space for wet days. The one we've chosen looks great but seems bloody massive. Given we'll also be looking at going to campsites with more regimented pitches, it's just occurred to me to wonder if it might be too big?

What happens in that situation? You just can't use that campsite?

The one is question is 740 x 445 which includes a built in front canopy.

Any thoughts from more experienced campers would be very welcome, thank you.

Ours is the same, never a problem! Most pitche are 10 x 10 at least

Quite often you either select a pitch size when booking, or enter the size of your tent. They'll have had big family tents before and worked out how to deal with it.

We've got a massive tent and only ever not been able to use one campsite who were very clear on their website about how big quite small the pitches were.

As others have said, places do tend to state how big pitches are. If in doubt, call and ask. We haven't had a problem yet and we have quite a large 8 person tent

They normally just ask how big our tent is! It’s fine.

We've booked a 'small' pitch in Cornwall this year - 9m x 9m so you'll be fine!

Forgot to say: worst case you'd need to perhaps park car in car park

Ours isn't that big but we just came back from camping and I'm sure the website said just to ensure you're at least 7m away from the next tent as it wasn't one with set out pitches. There were a fair few huge tents there. I think we had to say what size ish our tent was when we booked it.

I've actually run into this a time or two. Lots of sites charge extra for a larger pitch, there are some that just won't take bigger tents, but I've usually been able to find one if I book early enough. For reference my tent was 8m x 5m.

Yes and it varies by site. I've seen surcharges for larger tents at many sites. Remember you need to be able to put the guy ropes within the pitch (assume there's another massive tent next to you, do you both fit?)

I only tend to book places which take smaller tents these days, only 2 of us on a motorcycle

Depends on the site. Most it doesn't matter, some stipulate how big because on some sites the actual pitch size is very specific ie small!

We stayed at a site where the pitch sizes were particularly stingy (in Masham IIRC) and marked out rigidly with lines sprayed on the grass. The family next door had a large tent and were left with nowhere to put their car. We had a bit of space so we let them park it on our pitch.

I’m not sure what they did when we left.

Thanks! Most helpful and reassuring.