As a long-time camper, who started out with Guides and has had the bug ever since, I've been pretty shocked at the way the price of a camping holiday inn the UK has shot up recently.
Our favourite campsite is now over fifty quid a night if you want EHU! Our next trip is to a site with metered EHU, and it's still over £30 per night. There's a pub on site but not much else.
I know there are still cheaper sites out there, and I realise the cost of everything has gone up, but it's getting to the point where I'm actually starting to weigh up the cost of camping vs a hotel for a weekend away in some cases. Having just bought another new tent I won't be giving up life under canvas any time soon, but it worries me that some people will be priced out, which would be a massive shame.
I just wondered if anyone else on here has started to think twice before pressing the 'book' button when they see the price of their pitch.
MiladyB x
------------- Extremely in tents
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Hi, it's certainly true that prices have shot up, but if you are a Caravan and Camping Club member you can use their certified sites (CSs) where you should be able to find sites for a bit less.
The problem with getting old is you remember how much things once were, so everything looks expensive! 30 years ago when we started camping £5 was a pitch cost, a pint was £1. That pint is now £5, so no surprise pitches are £20 plus.
A site we used to visit is now £37 for a non EHU tent pitch, it was about £20 when we last visited, but that was when daughter was 4, she is now 18!
Another was £14, it is now £26, but again we visited there in about 2010.
There has however also been a huge increase in budget accommodation over those years. Premierinns, Travelodge, Airbnb for £30-50 a night which does make stays in those a viable alternative.
Some sites are been out right greedy. Camping during the summer holidays with children has always been more expensive, but some sites are just abusing the fact families are restricted to when they can go away.
The only option we have is to find sites that offer a more reasonable price, there are plenty out there, they tend to take a bit more searching than the popular sites.
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I'm definitely considering C&CC membership for next year, as they do seem to be a good balance of price Vs facilities.
Thankfully we're not limited to going on school holidays and can use adults only sites as well. It used to be a cheap way for people to go on holiday with kids, but I shudder to think how families cope with the costs now!
There are lots of cheaper sites about. You maybe a bit restricted with amenities. We use a touring caravan and we find that prices have shot up recently but we are self contained so no problem. We have booked a super site in the Peak District in 3 weeks time that we've been to before. No showers and no loos. Nice pub about a mile away. Views are amazing. £20 a night with EHU included and hard standing pitches.
On our recent trip round Galloway, all 3 independent sites charged £25 for 2 people. One charged per person, so solo was £4 less. All included EHU, 2 took tents, 2 were hardstanding, 1 was a fully serviced pitch, all showers free, all had free Wi-Fi, 2 had a pub or restaurant within 15 mins walk, all had a dog walk direct from the site. I’m ok with £25.
Popular CAMC site last year for similar features in Sept was £42pn, I think it’s £10 more for non-members.
Rarely use our CCC membership because of a dearth of Club sites where we go plus their refusal to let us book just 1 (sometimes 2) nights - frustrating to drive by our nearest one to go to an outdoor theatre show nearby & see vacant pitches when we couldn’t book one night to stay after the play.
Quote: Originally posted by daveyjp on 14/6/2024
The problem with getting old is you remember how much things once were, so everything looks expensive! 30 years ago when we started camping £5 was a pitch cost, a pint was £1. That pint is now £5, so no surprise pitches are £20 plus.
A site we used to visit is now £37 for a non EHU tent pitch, it was about £20 when we last visited, but that was when daughter was 4, she is now 18!
Another was £14, it is now £26, but again we visited there in about 2010.
There has however also been a huge increase in budget accommodation over those years. Premierinns, Travelodge, Airbnb for £30-50 a night which does make stays in those a viable alternative.
This weather doesn't help either!
It definitely pays to do your research to find the right combo of price V amenities. We prefer somewhere with really good facilities but not bothered about play areas, bars etc.
You're probably right and I'm just getting curmudgeonly with cost of living and inflation in my old age. Even tents are inflated now!
It's a fairly common topic of debate! Even on posts that start on a different topic, they often drift on to the cost/affordability of camping these days! Those of us who've camped through the 'good years' of times past are now getting a little concerned about the ever increasing cost, and it's the inflation busting costs year on year as well! One particular concern, is the trend to 'accumulative pricing', where an already not particularly cheap pitch gets boosted to an often extortionate level by what for many is some pretty basic needs. I've got a dog, that can add between £1 and £6/night! - for absolutely nothing in return, and no cost to the site! EHU charges are often far in excess of potential usage costs. I've seen charges for groundsheets/awning carpets, there is no limit to what some sites will add charges for! Recent debate on a pull out Sun Canopy on a MH being charged extra for!
On one recent post on the cost of camping, someone (think it was their wife actually!) said 'where can you find a B&B for £30 or so a night, it's still cheap!', as I pointed out, the pitch cost is only part of the cost of a night's stay, add all the expenses of actually putting the pitch to use and the true cost per night is MUCH higher!
After that debate, I did actually work out what the real total costs to pitch my caravan is. Taking all the costs of ownership, like servicing, insurance, storage fees etc. etc., and dividing it by the number of nights I actually use it pitched on a site, AND adding the cost of the extra fuel (and it was ONLY the extra cost, not the total cost!) due to towing (roughly doubles the fuel consumption) to reach the same destination, and adding that to pitch fees (and I DON'T go for the expensive pitches, sub £30 is my aim) I came to some alarming numbers! Depending on how often I use the van in a given year, it worked out between £75 and £110 per night! In my case I probably only get to use the van about 2/3rds as often as I intend, 'life' gets in the way and trips just don't happen, but if I did all the trips I wanted to do, the nightly cost would fall to around £56-£83/night, which is still in the realms of staying in a B&B instead of messing around with the caravan!
I love camping, I love staying in my caravan, I love the destinations my caravan allows me to get to and be surrounded by, but realistically, these days that alone has to be the motivation, camping is no longer 'cheap', at least not with a caravan. A tent does have a cost advantages, but it's still not the shoestring budget holiday it used to be!
Just frightened myself!
Around 1990 I went camping (basic tent) with a new girlfriend and her son at Golden Cap in Dorset, money was tight, I'd not long been been made redundant and didn't have a new job yet, so REALLY didn't have cash to splash, so the camp site MUST have been pretty cheap (I don't recall how much)!
Remember it was all pretty new, hedges between pitches were mere twigs, the swimming pool was still free to campers, the on site restaurant was affordable – GEEZ, to take the caravan there now, I'd need to mortgage the house to finance it, and that's just for the pitch, everything else is in addition AND costly! The pool is now a chargeable 'leisure club' with EXTRA chargeable services, the bar/restaurant are now top end pub prices!
Guess I won't be reliving memories at that site! Pricing is somewhat above inflationary increases!
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I belong to both C&CC and CAMC and am trying to use their sites to make the most of my membership.
Can't wait until next year as I shall qualify for their concessions!
My van is my semi retirement project, and I am getting out and about in my van as much as I can while I still have all my marbles and am relatively fit and mobile; usually once every month from Easter to October, then over the New Year weekend at a pub site.
IMHO, taking my van out is still cheaper and more enjoyable than other forms of holidays, and I can take my dog with me.
He costs me about 20 to 25 GBP per day if he goes into kennel or homestay, and I need to take that into account when budgeting my time away from home.
Everything has gone up through the years, not just camping. I remember the days when a McDonald Big Breakfast (discontinued) cost only 99p, the same as 3 KFC Hot Wings. I am old enough to remember those prices fondly.
DK
------------- Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest & Play!
- 2027: ? NL+DE+FR
- 2026: FR+DE
- 2025: 17/77
'24: 10/49; '23: 9/47;'22: 8/46; '21: 9/34
* Ex-tenter
* Treat life events like a dog: if you can't eat it, play with it or hump it, p1$$ on it and walk away!
I can't remember what we paid for a pitch back in the 1970s and 1980s, but what I do remember is that the pitch was all we paid for. There were no extra charges unless you were one of the very few who had a caravan with electricity and needed EHU, which would have been metered. Hardly any sites offered it anyway. We were a family of 5 with 2 dogs back then, and in all probability we would never have bought a caravan if sites back then had adopted today's charges, such as per person and charges for dogs. It was the fact that all we paid for was to rent a patch of grass that attracted us, as we have never been well off. Boating was the other thing we went in for, and that was for basically the same reason. You hired a boat, for whatever that particular boat cost, and how many people and/or dogs you had onboard was irrelevant, as long as you did not exceed the number of berths. If you spent the night in a marina there would be mooring charges, but if you just moored outside a pub or on the riverbank, it was usually free.
One thing that has changed recently for us is that if we are only stopping for one night we often stay in a Premier Inn. Not really that much more than a site pitch just for one night, and far less bother. Big comfortable bed, our own facilities which we don't have to clean or empty, and someone else does the laundry. Only snag is having to book much further in advance than we would normally do for a caravan site.
Blimey, for £50 a night it must be some site, even £30 is extracting the urine! A favourite site of ours we use in Brittany, lovely site in a stunningly beautiful coastal location, quite a bit is currently €21, approx £17.50 a night, un-metered EHU. Last year this time cost us £108.50 for a week, 7 nights, with our caravan using ACSI.
Quote: Originally posted by Devonatheart on 28/6/2024
We are being ripped off in the U.K.!
Gems like Fforest Fields near Builth Wells are harder and harder to find for certain!
DK
------------- Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest & Play!
- 2027: ? NL+DE+FR
- 2026: FR+DE
- 2025: 17/77
'24: 10/49; '23: 9/47;'22: 8/46; '21: 9/34
* Ex-tenter
* Treat life events like a dog: if you can't eat it, play with it or hump it, p1$$ on it and walk away!
We don’t usually use a CCC sites but saw the good reviews of the newly refurbished Bowness on Windermere site. This is not particularly cheap at £434 for 7 nights July next year, but you have to weigh up the cost in a hotel, cottage etc. it probably still works out cheaper. We both still work full time so our limited time away together is precious to us so don’t mind paying a bit extra for a little bit of luxury. We both work shifts which includes weekends so don’t have the luxury of being able to nip away at the weekend. Don’t forget, a lot of sites have about a 6 month window to earn their money to get them through the slower winter months.
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: The cost of camping
via mobile 14/6/2024 at 9:59am
