My fantasy campsite

[crackofdoom]

Would have: a picnic table and a fireplace with a grille at each pitch.

It would be in a beautiful location with plenty of trees for shade, and lots of wildlife.

Every pitch would be different and individual, with plenty of privacy.

There would be a brilliant, safe play area somewhere in the centre of the site where you could simultaneously see your DC , not hear them shrieking, but they could magically hear you when you called them back.

There would be a secure area to charge phones and freeze freezer packs.

There would be some informal, laid back social events to meet other campers, with no pressure to attend.

It would be within walking distance of a cute village with good shops.

There would be lovely walks straight from the site.

Management would simultaneously be laid back and friendly, but really tough on policing late night noise/ lairy behaviour.

It would be no more than £10 per person per night, and half price for kids.

Actually, I can think of 2 or 3 sites that nearly fit all these criteria...

We like...

• decent lake access

• prefer set pitches, with space in between.

• my absolute fantasy would be each pitch having its own toilet and shower! Otherwise shower block with somewhere to put things and two people can fit in cubicle easily (for children)

• no amplified music allowed

• dogs fine, but must be controlled (I.e not chasing random children or getting into other tents)

Two of my favourite campsites are next to rivers, and the DC absolutely love them (they're playable rivers, and one even has free kayaks, paddleboards and buoyancy aids to borrow),but there is always that thread of anxiety about water danger. Earlier this year, DS2 (8) had a near drowning incident in the river right next to our pitch on Dartmoor, but luckily he had obeyed the rule to Never Go In The River Without Me Or Your Brother, and DS1 was there and pulled him out. So I'm ambivalent about bodies of water!

We did stay on sn adults only site once that had a 3m drop into a river just a couple of metres from the tent... I could see why they didn't let children on that bit! But yes, water access and smaller children is more stressful.

When you find this dream Campsite, can you let us know where it is?

Sounds perfect. What are the campsites that nearly have all this?

My nearly perfect campsite- that I think has everything on the list with the exception of a picnic table on every pitch- is Le Milin Kerhe in Brittany. Check it out! The only major drawback, I would say, is that it's not the most interesting part of Brittany, and 40 minutes' drive from the nearest beach (an hour's drive from the Cote du Granit Rose).

But it is an hour's drive from Roscoff in the direction of The Rest of France, so if you're SW based and coming from Plymouth it's the ideal stopover. Plus, the kids insist on us staying every time we're in France!

You'll love this website @crackofdoom https://www.rustiekkamperen.com/
Enable google translate. Don't bother with the app. They have hundreds more camps in their books but they are in Dutch. You could buy it anyway to look them up online I suppose.

We use one that has brillinat, clean bathrooms (you have to leave outdoor shoes in the lobby area) and has a fridge and freezer in the pot wash so no more "will the milk be ok to make coffee"? in the morning.

For a minute I though the campsite was called The Crack of Doom! Thought it was an interesting way to publicise

Rustiek Kamperen books cover more countries too, like GB and Ireland, which isn't even mentioned online. Some countries have one campsite listed but the their books will have 100-200 generally. I'm not sure why the site is so behind.