Campsites- surely they’re one of the worst places to spread infection.

[Polar0pposite]

Clearly VT has never stayed in one.

Grubby, humid shower blocks and loos, cramped washing up areas covered in germs from the last family washing plates and clothes.Playgrounds, shops....

I'm not convinced Covid would spread that well in soapy water to be honest. I think it would be fairly straightforward to restrict the number of people in the shower blocks at one time if they were sensible, and the idea of limiting the number of people on site at one time would help with that.

Why aren’t public loos and swimming pools open then?

We hope to go in our caravan and we will use our facilities on board if we have to, we have booked a serviced pitch so will have our own water supply and waste water area, only two of us in the caravan so should be fine if sites are open.

If the shower block is open though which I doubt I will use that and just wipe stuff down.

Public loos closed as part of general closure of some council services. Swimming pools because people congregate in the pool, changing room and foyer. An outdoor socially distanced lido would be fine to open imo

I would be happy enough to go camping under the right conditions.

We go to 'wild' style sites, where the tents are miles apart from each other, often in woodland, you pitch where you like.

Kids are teens now, have their own tents, who is ever sleeping in a tent with a non household member?

We sit round the fire or under a tarp, not in the tent.

Washing up: wash up at your pitch. We often do anyway if the only facility is a cold tap.

The sites I like best have 'open to the sky' showers, an enclosure but no roof. So not stuffy and humid.

A bleach or soap spray for users to spray on the fixtures and fittings before and after use.

Toilets - often compost and with huge open gaps between the roof and walls - lots of ventilation, another soap spray for the door handles etc. Proper hand washing with soap.

You could cut down trips by using a loo bucket at your tent.

All the sites we visit could be made pretty safe for older kids and adults.

And I very much hope they will open up.

thedognextdoor Fri 15-May-20 15:26:44
I'm not convinced Covid would spread that well in soapy water to be honest.
........

You could be right but is it really worth taking the risk at this time? It seems silly to even think of camping before next year.

Efforf Fri 15-May-20 15:31:09
We hope to go in our caravan and we will use our facilities on board if we have to, we have booked a serviced pitch so will have our own water supply and waste water area, only two of us in the caravan so should be fine if sites are open.
...
That sounds OK when sites open again but no point thinking about it now. A caravan with your own toilet, kitchen facilities and shower are hardly the same thing as a tent.

Judging by the amount of fearful to leave the house people on MN if the shower facilities are open on site I may practically have it to myself as everyone will be holed up inside.

They could easily come up with a risk assessment and each site can either comply or it can't.

You can't compare a Haven site with clubhouse, sand pit, kids club etc and queues for indoor loos and showers with a back to basics site with 5 tents, everything outdoor and nowhere for people to congregate.

Lynda07 for some of us, the camping is the whole point, being outdoors, in the middle of nowhere, cooking over a fire. Better than a caravan or a cottage. And especially if we live in a city where our gardens are not big enough for a tent, and doesn't give us the dark starry skies and sounds of nature.

I am seriously missing camping. It is the biggest pleasure that I miss.

Sorry Linda, I know it's not the same and wasn't going to comment but then I saw OP was banging on about Camper vans and waste emptying and they are like caravans so thought all sorts of campsite was included in the OP

To start with they could open up to serviced pitches and/or own facilities only. So toilet blocks etc closed. That would be fine for us. Even if blocks were open, who doesn't wash their hands etc after using shared facilities? Providing communal doors were wedged open all the time I don't see the problem. Maybe it's the sites we stay on. I'm itching to go!

Are you really not wild camp in England at all? So if you walk the Pennine way for example you have to book accommodation or official campsites and not just pitch on a remote hillside when tired?

We don't normally have a serviced pitch but have booked 2 this year, one in late July and one in October, the one we booked in late August is a normal pitch, am definitely hopeful for going in late August and October though.

it is illegal to Wild camp.

You can ask the landowner for permission.

Re wild camping - technically wild camping is not legal in England and Wales, except on parts of Dartmoor.
It has traditionally been legal in Scotland but the authorities are restricting it in lots of areas now, to protect the environment, and because some campers were leaving a mess.
You will always find discrete wild camping going on on the high fells in the lakes, for example, a small tent behind a rock in a Col, for the night, and using the 'leave no trace' principle.

However there are now lots of 'wild style' sites - you can camp in woodland, or in glades away from other campers, where a campfire is allowed (no one should be starting a fire when genuinely wild camping). You can search for these using filters on sites such as Cool Camping or PitchUp, or join the Nearly Wild Camping Club. AirBnB even have a few 'wild campsites' offered by private landowners who are prepared to have a few tents pitch in their woods or whatever.

I'll be camping as soon as I can. I'm really not worried. I plan on strip washing anyway but will happily use the loo.

Hot tents? Every time I've been camping it's been fucking freezing and pissed down.

Overreaction much?

Even if they allowed camping and gave me the tent and all the shit and offered me a free holiday - you would not catch me in a tent unless it was a very upmarket glamping arrangement and not in the pissing wet English summer (and Scotland can go to hell as well cos of the midges)

How do people not congregate in a camping shower block but do in a swimming pool changing room? Swimming pool changing rooms are often far bigger.

There is a tent campsite somewhere where every pitch has its own compost loo and a sink with running water.

OP:

I have been to lots of sites where the showers are in individual cubicles (often wooden) with a door directly to the outside.

E.G Pop By The River, Glottenham Castle, Freshwinds, the Camping Unplugged sites, where the showers can be open to the sky in individual enclosures made of wood.

At Blackberry Wood 'Wild Side' the shower is in the middle of a thick hedge / bramble glade with a wooden door across.

Well the R number is up again, even before restrictions were lifted. Seems nuts to me risking it going up even higher.

Our campsite where have a seasonal pitch is only opening for seasonals who are all fully serviced. Shower and toilet block remainingg closed. We wont be going though as our marriage wont survive 4 people pooing in a chemical toilet...

PolarOpposite - no one will force you to go camping

And if the Government say people can go on buses and the tube, be in an office and use shared office facilities, have cleaners in their houses (no matter how many other houses they clean) then camping done sensibly seems way down the risk list for fuelling a second wave.

Apart from anything else it is quite a minority pursuit. And people spend so much of the time outdoors, drive there, (not on a plane or train) and are mainly with their own family.

Lots of sites are adult only, so no issue with kids mingling. I often camp on my own. And feel really confident that I could do so in a well socially distanced and safe way, and not put anyone at risk.

Surely it's not up to campsite owners to police social distancing?

Showers could be shut/managed eg through booking which leaves toilets and frequent cleaning plus lots anti bac

I camp a lot and don't generally q for toilets/showers or have hoards of kids around running feral... or have people leaving facilities manky...I think you're going to the wrong sites although most of mine quite basic! Wouldn't have shops etc...
Smarter ones could put in auto taps...

I'd love to go this year ...

We have already been for a couple of day trips in our campervan to isolated locations where we have seen few people and had no problems with the ones we did see. Just a few comments about how they couldn't wait to go away themselves and that was the benefit of a camper van over a caravan etc....

We took all our own food and we have our own facilities on board to go to the loo so so there was no danger whatsoever. As for overloading local hospitals, if any of us had felt poorly we wouldn't have gone in the first place.

I think caravanning using own facilities could be one of the first holidays to be safely resumed.