Help picking a campsite.

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Discussion

metbandit1

Original Poster:

430 posts

160 months

Monday 6th August 2012
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Me and the lovely lady have had a trip to go outdoors to buy a tent and various other things.
Now the question is, where is a good (not too expensive) camp site within say 70miles of Leicester.

Activities we are interested in:

- Walking
- Cycling
- Historical
- Lakes
- Mountains?
- Woods
- Pubs!

Any recommendations would be great, we would be looking to go for 2 nights to break us in gently to camping as a couple! Of course all the criteria don't have to be filled in one go.



size13

2,032 posts

264 months

Monday 6th August 2012
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Stratford upon Avon
Warwick

Just a couple of areas to look at then
Have a look on http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/

GAjon

3,804 posts

220 months

Monday 6th August 2012
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Coopers campsite

Newfold Farm, Grindsbrook Booth, Edale, Hope Valley, Derbyshire S33 7ZD, United Kingdom
+44 1433 670372 ý

At the end of the Penine way, so you can venture up.
2 pubs

metbandit1

Original Poster:

430 posts

160 months

Monday 6th August 2012
quotequote all
Coopers is on our list of possibles, it looks great for a walk/cycle around and an explore.
Another we are looking at is Wing Lakes Caravan + camping, has anyone had experience at this site?

Piglet

6,250 posts

262 months

Monday 6th August 2012
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My advice would be to work on a camping set up that lets you camp on low facility sites. This time of year, commercial sites are packed with quite a lot of the people that you wouldn't necessary chose to spend your holidays next to (sorry if that offends but it's my experience!).

The fewer facilities on site, the nicer the experience is likely to be. Try to do without electric hook up, shiny showers and entertainment and you'll find campsites a nicer place.

If you can deal with taking a proper portaloo so that you can be a tent camper on no facility sites (Camping & Caravan Club Certificated Sites can be fab), you'll find very few other tent campers on the sites and you'll pay probably less than £10 a night and get decent peace and quiet - the cost of the portaloo will be covered very quickly!

That was the best advice that we were given some years ago by someone. We now camp in lovely places where site owners tend to say "ooh a tent, we haven't had one of those for a while!" - bliss...

Edited by Piglet on Monday 6th August 21:47

mojitomax

1,874 posts

199 months

Monday 6th August 2012
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Greendales in Leicester is lovely but gets booked in advance

metbandit1

Original Poster:

430 posts

160 months

Tuesday 7th August 2012
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Some good advice piglet thanks!
I think for our first camping holiday we will look more mainstream...just for ease really with our limited kit.

I don't know how the fair lady will take a holiday without a loo/a porta loo. If it was up to me id be all up for hiking around the wilderness and setting camp in a clearing for the night (how easy this is I don't know?)

Kwacker

633 posts

291 months

Tuesday 7th August 2012
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I saw this web site the other day http://www.campinmygarden.com .

Some locations look really nice (private estates and such), also it is a world wide site if you decide to go a bit further afield.

Kwacker

Piglet

6,250 posts

262 months

Tuesday 7th August 2012
quotequote all
metbandit1 said:
Some good advice piglet thanks!
I think for our first camping holiday we will look more mainstream...just for ease really with our limited kit.

I don't know how the fair lady will take a holiday without a loo/a porta loo. If it was up to me id be all up for hiking around the wilderness and setting camp in a clearing for the night (how easy this is I don't know?)
I am the fair lady of our household and once I'd realised that low facility sites were MUCH nicer, the decision was easy, you very rarely find manky children running circles around your tent at 7am on these sites! You can get some quite decent 12v rechargeable hair straighteners which I'd recommend if that's a dealbreaker!

If you're walking a lot I'd also recomemend a http://www.shewee.com/ MUCH easier than walking for miles trying to find "the right kind of bush" (!!) and then pissing on your feet...

metbandit1

Original Poster:

430 posts

160 months

Tuesday 7th August 2012
quotequote all
I do like the idea of no kids running around that early!
I shall have to talk her around to it. How are where do you exactly go about buying a porta-loo thing for camping?

Piglet

6,250 posts

262 months

Tuesday 7th August 2012
quotequote all
We were given our first portaloo by someone who had moved up to a motorhome so didn't need it any more.

We've bought a couple (I don't know why we need three portaloos but for some reason we have three!) at car boot sales for between £8 and £15 each. I have no issues with used ones, you can clean them easily. New they can be pricey http://www.towsure.com/search?advanced=1&searc... but look at other retailers as well.

Ideally go for a Thetford as you can buy parts for even the old models.

We just find it a much nicer type of camping, I'd try a couple of commercial sites and see how she likes it. This time of year many of them are pretty rank in my (admittedly limited) experience.

There are also adult only sites, which much to OH's disappointment weren't full of swingers, these are often nice sites.

tenohfive

6,276 posts

189 months

Wednesday 8th August 2012
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Somewhere around Rutland Water would tick a couple of your boxes - lakes and cycling (about 30 miles around the whole thing IIRC?)

Good website for finding campsites - based on user reviews:
http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/