We're a family of four camping on a site along the coastline by Praa Sands, Cornwall. Been here since Monday & booked for 7 nights.
Everyone has left the site bar three tents including myself.
Really not looking forward to tonight's wind, am I crazy? What would you have done?
I have pitched with bum to the sea, & we have a small hedge to give us some shelter. I'll park my car to use as a windbreak too.
We were booked away, 2 tents this weekend with kids and grandkids but due to a non weather related emergency, had to delay the booking until September.
Re booked on the same telephone call, the person on the call said as we were rebooking straight away, she would check with the manager to see if we could retain our deposit. The answer was as "so many people were cancelling because of the weather", we lost our deposit with rigid enforcement of the cancellation policy by the manager.
Only 42 quid but given that they stated that they are losing money because of the weather (not our problem), and we have rebooked on more expensive pitches (the type we wanted in the first place) in 3 weeks time, I am a little disappointed in their mercenary attitude.
If everyone else in the party didn't specifically want to go to that site, I would have told them to shove the rebooking. Bottom line is, I have been so tied up I didn't even see the weather forecast and probably would have just arrived anyway and gritted it out without the other issue occurring.
Hey ho, no names, no pack drill in this post, but I guess I will get the opportunity to review the site honestly on here after the trip in September, and their greed (or if you prefer, rigidly sticking to poliicy when they will be getting even more money from us on a date a couple of weeks later) will be mentioned.
Good luck to those under canvas this weekend. I will be free Sunday I hope, so we will go to Longleat for the day and get the car destroyed by monkeys instead of getting the tent destroyed by the winds :)
------------- The drinking will continue till the economy improves
107.7 The Bone rocks my tent (earphones after 10pm)
Difficult one that, BTTB.
You can appreciate their point. It's not their fault the weather is putting folk off, and they don't have to believe your "non-weather related story".
However, you do make a very good point about re-booking for a few weeks time (as opposed to next season, for example... or not at all!) and also that you have "upgraded", thus ultimately paying more.
I think you've done right not "naming and shaming" under the circumstances, as they are following their T&C's, when all said and done. I guess you simply have to put this down to bad luck on your part.
The important thing is that, whatever your "emergency", I hope everyone is well. And look on the bright side... at least your camping gear will still be intact come Monday!
Quote: Originally posted by FlyRyder on 19/8/2016
We're a family of four camping on a site along the coastline by Praa Sands, Cornwall. Been here since Monday & booked for 7 nights.
Everyone has left the site bar three tents including myself.
Really not looking forward to tonight's wind, am I crazy? What would you have done?
I have pitched with bum to the sea, & we have a small hedge to give us some shelter. I'll park my car to use as a windbreak too.
Quote: Originally posted by Mucker1884 on 20/8/2016
Difficult one that, BTTB.
You can appreciate their point. It's not their fault the weather is putting folk off, and they don't have to believe your "non-weather related story".
However, you do make a very good point about re-booking for a few weeks time (as opposed to next season, for example... or not at all!) and also that you have "upgraded", thus ultimately paying more.
I think you've done right not "naming and shaming" under the circumstances, as they are following their T&C's, when all said and done. I guess you simply have to put this down to bad luck on your part.
The important thing is that, whatever your "emergency", I hope everyone is well. And look on the bright side... at least your camping gear will still be intact come Monday!
Some places are flexible on this, some not. Due to a death in the family, we once had to postpone our hols to a pre-booked site in France where we'd paid a substantial deposit (over 200 euros). We re-booked for later in the season (their quieter time, when they have fewer customers) but still lost the deposit, despite that they let out our pitch in a nano sescond.
It felt worse because we're regular customers and they know us so I'd hoped they'd be a bit more understanding. I guess that, at the end of the day, business is business and so you either take it or leave it. We like the site, so we took it on the chin. Cried a bit, but then moved on.
Well me and the girlfriend arrived at Keswick club site yesterday in the pouring rain and very strong gusts. Ground was very boggy and some caravans looked flooded.
Anyway we attempted to put up our tent but the wind made it impossible. Ended up snapping a couple of poles and a lovely lady came out to give me hand to put everything back in the car. I had given up and was ready to find a B&B for the night.
Then I was approached by another lady who asked if our holiday was now ruined. Told her yes and our holiday is over before it began. She then told me her and her husband are packing up and asked if I would like to buy their tent ready pitched. Jumped at that offer at £60 for an 8berth gelert horizon. So we waited for them to pack up then moved all our gear into there tent.
The tent held up brilliantly to the rain and wind last night and the campsite is starting to dry up too.
I think I was very Lucky and it's taught me a valuable lesson not to even consider sticking my tent up in strong winds.
well, we went - but 4 poles snapped and we couldn't hold tent down even with everyone helping pitch as it took too long in the dark!! - we luckily found a hotel nearby(the smugglers!) our friends tent came down in the night and there were no hotels available so they slept in the car!!!! Lesson learnt for all of us xxx
Well we survived shell but our tent did not! We got there for 7am hoping we could beat the rain....silly idea. Our tent held up til 10pm the we had to abandon tent and all piley in our friends tent. First thing Saturday morning we packed up, threw the tent in the skip and waited for the causeway to open. A storm, a car falling off the causeway (not ours) and a helicopter rescue all in 31 hours!! Wow what a trip!
------------- Nothing better than looking up at the stars and realising just how small we are!
Quote: Originally posted by Mucker1884 on 20/8/2016
Difficult one that, BTTB.
You can appreciate their point. It's not their fault the weather is putting folk off, and they don't have to believe your "non-weather related story".
However, you do make a very good point about re-booking for a few weeks time (as opposed to next season, for example... or not at all!) and also that you have "upgraded", thus ultimately paying more.
I think you've done right not "naming and shaming" under the circumstances, as they are following their T&C's, when all said and done. I guess you simply have to put this down to bad luck on your part.
The important thing is that, whatever your "emergency", I hope everyone is well. And look on the bright side... at least your camping gear will still be intact come Monday!
I appreciate what you are saying, if we had cancelled for the weather and not rebooked on the same call. Strikes me that they did not believe what I was saying. And yes, even drying two tents would have been a problem for me when I got back, so I can see their perspective for potential untruthfulness. Fact is, when I called them I had not even had a chance to think about looking at the weather.
Sorry to hear of other folks tales of bad times and damage to equipment. But on the bright side, that is a great shopping opportunity to check out all the new gear and start saving again - well the first bit was OK in that sentence :(
Anyway, all that aside, I got some time on Sunday and went to Longleat with the O/H on a Tesco points £18 entry for both of us versus the (15% discounted) £57 available on Longleat's own website. And it only rained a little.
Had to leave early due to things, so missed the 50th anniversary parade but a good time was had by both of us. Leaving early was a bit of a relief actually as I didn't get to bed till 5am and was up again at 6:30 to set off, so I was wasted by then anyway. And you know when you are really tired, sometimes you keep needing a wee? Well, I made it round to the cheetah enclosure before the little fellah went numb and the kidney pains kicked in massively. Staying in the car with gritted teeth was still the better option though as I can't even outrun Usain Bolt let alone a cheetah. It is strange how many times you do the calculations between bladder size and empty medium Costa coffee cups under such duress...
Driving through the monkey enclosure was the highlight of the day, resulting in a damage free car, but not all other cars escaped completely with wipers (arms and blades) and rubber trim littering the road.
Lots of fun, fantastic watching my O/H so happy, great value at the Tesco price and good memories this morning from the muddy monkey footprints everywhere on my car :)
------------- The drinking will continue till the economy improves
107.7 The Bone rocks my tent (earphones after 10pm)
We were ok thanks for asking, the tent held up very well, the site lost 3 tents overnight. I was up all night which wasn't much fun!
The day after was still windy but at least it wasn't raining.
And RY4N £60 for a Horizon 8 is outrageous, well done!
Oh you was hit pretty hard too there I guess. Thanks. Tbh I'm putting it down to experience. We only had to look out onto the causeway at the car hanging off the edge to see there were worse off than us. He attempted to drive the causeway as the tide was coming in! The driver (and two staff who tried to help) had to be rescued by helicopter later that night after he went back to try and salvage some items! so we won't let this defeat us. Am now looking forward to choosing a new tent 😉
------------- Nothing better than looking up at the stars and realising just how small we are!
Argies that's just bonkers! What's wrong with people, you have to respect the sea, there are some things which just aren't worth risking your life for.
Yeah we got smashed in cornwall, we had gusts of over 45mph but I must say I was very impressed with the tent, even though we were right on the coast we did have some shelter from a low hedge which must have helped.
Bonkers is one word to use FlyRyder 😂 good to know your tent stood up. Been looking at the vango airbeams but I would cry if I had to put it in a skip on shell 🙈
------------- Nothing better than looking up at the stars and realising just how small we are!
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: weekend weather
