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Hi, This seems like a really friendly and informative forum and I really hope you could help / advise me.

I have a large family ( boys 12,11,8 and 5 - girls 10 and 3 ) and usually me, my wife and kids goto a caravan site in South Wales called Trecco Bay. It's a great place and we try to go there every other year. But this year we fancied something different.

We would like to try camping BUT we do not have any transport so we would like to reach the camp site by train / coach. We will have to buy tents and equipment also and lastly we do not want to travel to any where too awkward. For example if it was a 4 hour train journey and you are there. That would be great but if it was a 2 hour train journey, then a half hour taxi ride we wouldn't like it as taxi costs get expensive esp having a large family we would need 2 taxis at least.

We live in Central London so have access to many main line links. We are not fussy about where we go but the coast would be nice and activites or animals for the kids would be a big bonus. We could look through the site over and over but if I am honest I dont know what I am looking for and experience is worth so much.

So I would be so grateful if anyone could give some ideas of a site not complicated to get to from Central London, which would not be expensive, where we could experience a good camping introduction, near coast, kids activities or animals if possible. Also if you know of any caravans for hire or reasonable sites that hire I would also find that helpful as we would also be interested in going in October for a week but it might be too cold for tents at that time of year.

Thank you in advance.

Thanks for your help Ang, Ken, Fiona and Karen.

I didn't know you could have tents already erected, thats a neat idea so now it's just a matter of finding a nice site. I have sent an email to the site you mentioned fiona and karen and it looks very nice.

I'll keep on searching in the meantime.

Oh, I see alot of farms or working farms. Would anyone know of a site located near a farm where the kids could see the animals up close? Maybe even help out on a farm, that would be neat.

Thanks

Colin

Why not go from London Bridge to Ashurst, New Forest. It's 50 mins by train (Southern) and the camp site is about no more than a ten min walk. The camp site has deer, cows and ponies roaming freely into your tent and its a good starter for ten, just keep to the right of the camp site as train tracks border the camp site. I think theres also cycle hire in Ashurst

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/sites/details.asp?revid=1197