Quote: Originally posted by gtijon on 10/6/2009
I think people who camp and people with caravans are considerably different beasts. I read an article a while back where a caravanner was quoted as saying something along the lines of "People think they're flash when they've got a £500 tent, but at the end of the day my caravan cost £50 grand".
I think it's comments like that which create potential divisions, frankly.
I love looking at all the different set ups on site, and find a smile and a cheery "Hello" usually initiates the same response, regardless of camping unit.
We notice a decided change in attitude when booking when we say the folding camper occupies the same footprint as a caravan. They do like their nice straight lines and uniform size. These really big tents put owners off.
------------- Good friends are hard to find, difficult to leave and impossible to forget.
Quote: Originally posted by Liddenham on 11/6/2009
I wonder if the combination of bigger tents and SIGs has something to do with it as well?
Caravan awnings mostly use breathable groundsheets, so the grass recovers more quickly.
Just a thought...
I think so, plus the frankly vast electricity consumption of some campers using heaters all night. The campsites aren't allowed to meter electric so they've got to charge one price and that must give them problems if they are seeing increasingly large bills.
Quote: Originally posted by scarymamma on 10/6/2009
We were on EHU for the fridge and also to charge phones and the kids DS' - but you pay the same price as the vanners who are running TV's, microwaves, full electric lights, kettles - all the comforts of home.
To be fair not all vans consume loads of leccy we were at a sight that had meters showing leccy consumption and we used less than some tents
we only use leccy for charging phone ds's and low wattage lights oh and the fridge
we dont have a tv as we are awy from home for family time not to sit in front of the box can do that at home .
We have only become vanners this year and never had problems finding sites for the tent having said which we never went up your neck of the woods .
... Quite a few sites in my opinion are panicking at the sizes of the family tents and are probably worried about losing valuable pitch space to tents when caravans fit mainly a specific footprint. Its kind of rotten, but it does make business sense of sorts if you are running a small site. ....ive seen more than a few family tents that would take up the space of 2 caravans. .....
Good point, and when you add to that the much longer camping season for caravans plus the lesser damage a caravan + awning with breathable groundsheet will do to a pitch - its very understandable. Very sad though
------------- Tackling life the Western District way
We started camping a couple of years ago and decided to invest in a decent size tent to give us enough room for the children to play inside if the weather turns bad (which it certainly did for a week last August in Wales!). We love the tent and the boys love the freedom of camping. We decided to join the C&CC (supposedly the "friendly" club) but on trying to book realised we cannot use the majority of the sites due to the size of our tent (7m x 7.5m). I took this up with the C&CC who, I have to say, were indifferent to the problem. In my opinion they seem to be narrowing their market as I'm sure there will be plenty of families taking up camping with "family" sized tents who will not have any joy with the C&CC. Luckily we have found some lovely sites who do not have a problem with family tents and will be sticking with them from now on. Does anybody have any recommendations for sites in the Borders which do not descriminate against family tents?!
I went to Solwayview at Kirkcudbright in May. A lovely site that treated caravans, campervans and campers equally. Loads of room!
When I do the search on here I usually ignore sites with the static caravan symbol!
There's a nice looking site at Strathkiness near St Andrews for tents. (May not be on this website).
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: Are Campsites discouraging Tents?
