Is this just the way it is? Camping 2024

[Aliceberrypie]

Always camped with my kids as a family. We loved the space , simplicity and affordability.

mine are grown up now but DH and Dog and I like camping still .

This weekend - we tried a new site / had 5star reviews - we just got back and really didn’t enjoy it.

Marked pitches allocated to you with a clearly mowed in boundary line to delineate your pitch. All good .

we set up and the whole weekend we had kids running over our pitch - literally through our chairs and tables and the parents did nothing,

I thought on marked pitches the unspoken rule was that you stayed off a pitch that wasn’t yours. I always walk around the edge of pitches and trained my kids to do the same. Wouldn’t dream of invading someone else’s space.

… but running all over the site acting feral / chucking balls that regularly hit tents / vans etc just seemed ‘normal’. As was letting dogs off lead (site rules clear that dogs must be on leads but they were roaming all over the place )

was genuinely perplexed as it was going on all around me - never had this before and have stayed on a lot of sites and camped for over 40 years - it made me feelI have become a grumpy old women - I don’t mind kids playing and I love dogs - but I do think there needs to be a bit of consideration for others and that everyone needs to be respectful of others on a campsite.

Why do you think so many of us tave windbreaks around the pitch?

Adult only campsites are your friend here or really basic sites. I went away a couple of weeks ago to a tiny site with just a couple of composting toilets and a shower. No electric and a strict no noise after 10pm policy which was enforced. I had the site to myself all week apart from the last night when another solo camper arrived. Bliss.

I never let my children do that either, it’s teaching them respect. I went to the cemetery yesterday to take flowers for my mum, a family was letting their children run wild jumping over headstones and sitting on them I found it quite upsetting.

but maybe it was just the site you were on, I would try somewhere else or invest in some wind breaks as the PP suggested

Camping etiquette has been declining for years.

We now only go to basic sites, no EHU (we have a battery and solar panels) so no karaoke machines, "glampers", or children running feral (by feral I mean without consequences rather than just playing).

Two years ago, we had to explain to some children why kicking balls at peoples bbqs/furepits was a bad idea (and using other peoples tents as goals!!)

I raise you 1 small child screaming conga conga conga at 10.40pm on a site advertised as a quiet one....
And the dm who everyone now knows is getting her lashes done on Tuesday and the dd is called Olivia. Said 1000000 times over 2 days.
Why can't dc be controlled in the company of others?
Would like to add I took 2 teen boys with ASD /adhd and apart from one reminder to take the ball to the proper pitch have been impeccably behaved..
Go camping and parent your dc - needs to be the new holiday motto..

We camp every year and the worst behaviour has always been in the bigger 'fancier' sites - coincidentally they are the most restrictive with the greatest number of rules. We prefer basic sites with no fixed pitches so you can make a kind of enclosed area with your tents and windbreaks so people don't encroach.

Windbreaks and bunting.

Also I say firmly ‘please do not run across our pitch. Running through our tables and chairs is like me running through your lounge at home’

And I ask them to move ball games further away.

It isn’t usually an issue on the type of sites I prefer, but yes, people should bloody well teach their kids some manners

We have only had one experience like that and it was also the one and only time we have used a regimented marked and mowed site. Our preference is for basic sites where you are free to pitch as far away from other people as possible.

We do static caravans rather than camping but if any children did as you described I.e.running around our caravan/car etc I'd be telling the parents

The parents do it as well!

This is why we avoid camping in the high season and look for 18+ sites - it costs more but it's well worth it - the standards of behaviour on CAMC and CCC club sites is definitely on the slide - too many inconsiderate people and the wardens do nothing about people playing loud music all day - unfortunately I seem to be the only one who actively complains about this directly to the people making the noise and to the wardens - why the hell are the rest of the campers so meek and pathetic? I know it's not just me by talking to them - like idiots they just put up with it. I recently had to move pitches at the Moreton-in-Marsh CAMC club sites because of someone who thought it was acceptable to play his guitar and sing for hours one afternoon into the early evening - he made Bob Dylan sound like Morten Harket (A-ha) - then started playing Radio 1 at 11am. Another site in Malmesbury I had to knock on the awning at 11:30pm and ask them to knock it off - they'd been drinking all day and went the most receptive. They carried on until 1am. Noise should have quietened down at 10:30pm - I usually avoid pitching next to big awnings but didn't have a choice this time.

Three words ... adult only campsites!

We never go to sites with kids, they get up at daybreak which I can't cope with . Even when my kids were 10+ I booked adult only (who were fine with it) as dd has asd and can't deal with noisy children (she was near mute at the time, an issue in itself)

We also don't camp in North Wales anymore. Too many sweary Scousers and the kids are up at the crack of dawn bouncing footballs off anything solid and rubbing around tripping over your guy ropes. We won't even fly from Liverpool now and head over to East Midlands even though it's not as close.

We may have just been lucky but in three decades of camping we’ve never had an experience like the OP describes. The behaviour of children at campsites both here and abroad has been pretty good in my experience. I’m not a dog owner but have found that dogs have been kept well under control when we’ve stayed at dog-friendly sites. My main bugbear when camping has never been the behaviour of children, instead it’s those adults who bring their big speakers to campsites in order to inflict their musical tastes on everyone else. Bastards.

Yes, I have noticed a rise in inconsiderate camping behaviour in the past few years. Balls against the tent, loud music and talking late into the night. Interestingly, camping in France there seems to be more adherence to "rules" even on larger sites.

In my experience the difference is between ‘advance booking only’ sites and ‘turn up and pitch’ sites. The latter are usually full of mad non-campers who see the sun and dash out with a pop up and disposable bbq - the former tend to be regular campers and know a bit more camping etiquette.
If there are set rules ie no noise after 10.30pm, dogs on leads - tell the owners / site manager and if it continues, complain that this is not the experience advertised.

Yup. We've been away twice this summer. My DC now know what anti-social means. Screaming children past 9pm, football being played on pitches, people gathering wood rather than buying it, kitchen area not cleaned afterwards... camping etiquette seems dead.

The football was the most annoying, tbh. Why do people think it's a suitable game for a campsite?

I've even had staff walking through my pitch.

The most outrageous was when a parent moved my windbreaker so that there child could walk through to the toilets.

It is a shame as kids aren't learning so will only be worse in future

The rise in people who don't know the etiquette have ruined my love of camping.
Eg noise levels, litter, ball games, walking through other pitches bubbles. For the love of canvas, fuck off with the bubbles.

We are camping now. There are no bubbles (not that bubbles are a problem for us) or feral children/adults. There is only us. Nobody else.

@Iheartmysmart you wouldn't care to share that site would you? I realise you don't want it to be overrun but I'll keep my distance and love a bit if blissful silence- honest!

Last time I went camping I told someone off for driving a very very loud and fast remote control car all through the place at 11 at night. Our friends 4 year old was trying to sleep. It's like people don't consider anyone except themselves any more

@missshilling that's a beautiful looking site. I don't have a problem with bubbles personally, but they damage tents so don't belong on a campsite.

I do think it must depend where you go - we camp often and have never had anybody coming on to out pitch, or had any major problems with noise after hours. I mean, yes campsites aren't always absolutely silent after 9pm, but if I wanted that I probably would wild camp.....

That is not to belittle the experience of other posters however - I guess it just depends what site you go to. They all have their own culture I suppose.....

@stilldumdedumming Of course not. It’s from a book called Tiny Campsites and is called Ten Acres Vineyard in Devon. They do allow children so might be worth giving it a miss during school holidays but it was really chilled and peaceful when I was there. The pitches don’t have any electric but there is a phone charging point and freezer for campers to use.

The view from my tent: