Hippodrome 30sqm - anyone camped here before?

[BeeGT]

I've a couple of camping options booked for 2025, one of which is on Hippodrome but I could only get the 30sqm plot which means parking separately to the tent pitch. Can anyone advise on the setup from previous experience - such as how far from parking area to camping area, what were security arrangements (could anyone just turn up and pitch a tent without parking a car at all), etc etc.
Thanks in advance.

[//j17]

I had one of the larger, on-pitch parking pitches on Hippodrome this year and:
+ Nice quiet site not too far from the track/tram (for an ACO "move the riff raff and give the noce sites to the corporates" campsite).
+ Basically flat and well drained (important last year!).
+ Tucked out-of-the-way so a real effort for the light fingered element of the general public to bother getting to.
+ Needs a special pass to get to by car - both to get past security by the tram station and a second checkpoint 1.2km away at the actual campsite entrance, then a third (probably another 1.2km away) to get into the tent area itself.
> Like I think all ACO sites the gate staff are only really interested in making sure vehicles have tickets though so you could just walk in carrying a tent.

- Feels like you spiral around the campsite for 15km getting in and out!
- Not an issue this year but I'd imagine quite dusty if it's a hot, dry one.
- There was no real policing of pitch sizes so arriving 4pm Thursday last year with a large pitch ticket I was initially told it was full. Thankfully flying solo and able to squeeze into an are that was not officially a pitch.
- Could have done with more/better positioned toilet and shower blocks.

"Off pitch" parking isn't that far away from the tents and while I don't know if they were letting people drive on to empty their cars or not worst case I'm sure they'd let you drop at the gate then move your car to a more permanent space.

All in all a good choice in my book if you're arriving Wed./early Thurs.

[VladD]

I've had a 30m2 pitch for the last two trips.

As above, you need a camping pass to get in.

The walk from the car to the pitch will be between 20 to 50 metres at a guess.

[BeeGT]

Thanks for the excellent intel both of you.

[kel176506]

Since Beermountain no longer gets updated, there was a good thread started on here with reviews of the campsites and i posted my experience of Hippodrome and the 30sqm plots - if you can find it there might be other reviews now but i camped there in 2023 and 2024.

Overall the site is good, as others have said for toilet/showers and drainage in case of rain. The earlier you arrive, the better the chances of getting a plot on the level with your car parked reasonably close - It can be a bit of a walk between the two but it's not the end of the world. Atmosphere is pretty quiet but again this is no bad thing.

In 2023 the site was new, they didn't even really mark out pitches as there was so much space but in 2024 the ACO gave much of it over to corporate (BMW i think) which meant they needed the guides to take you to a plot, in reality they don't do much more than generally point you to some grass. In 2025 i've gone for Hippodrome 40sqm to see what the plots are like as i used to prefer the ease of the car being nearby but the 30sqm plot was fine.