If your new to campervanning or camping it can be a daunting experience worrying about places to stay, what to cook, what to pack and of course what will you do if the weather doesn’t quite go as planned.
We have camped with our children from when they have all be very young, starting off with a trailer tent and when we outgrew that we moved to a large 6-man tent. We have had so many adventures from Scotland to the Cornish Coast also venturing into Europe, camping in the South of France. Some of our best holidays have been away without the distractions of television & play station, swapping them for endless days on the beach, family games of cricket, football and not to mention Uno with the biggest bunch of cheats ever.
The idea of this write up is to give you a few tips on how to save money when it comes to booking sites, some great ways of cooking and anything else we can think of to help you plan a great get away.
Sites
After deciding on where you are heading the next step is choosing your site and this will very much depend on what you are wanting from your holiday. We found when the children were small, we tended to go for sites that had some form of entertainment. The main reason for this was if the weather didn’t go quite to plan there would be something for them to do and a place that was warm and dry. If the weather went in our favour the kids would spend hours riding scooters and bikes around with other children on the site having an absolute ball.
Now days we tend to steer away from the entertainment but look for dog friendly sites so Dougie our cockapoo can tag along. Since buying our camper van we have purchased a membership with both Caravan & Motorhome Club and the Caravan & Camping Club. There isn’t a great deal between the two but due to the fact we do get away regularly we wanted to be able to choose sites from both.
The Caravan & Camping Club membership starts from £41 a year and includes a monthly magazine either in digital format or hard copy and offers discounts on their sites. These club sites pride themselves on exceptional cleanliness something that is really important to us. Travelling abroad is also made easy and the membership offers discount on your ferry and Eurotunnel crossings. Although paying £41 for a membership may sound excessive on something you may only use once a year however with the discount your receive booking through their sites you would only need to stay 4 nights at a site and you have recouped the cost of a membership. www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/jointheclub/
Caravan & Motorhome Club membership is £54 for a yearly membership and once again offers a monthly magazine either in digital format or hard copy. The membership gives its members up to 50% off on club site fees, members save £140 on average per year on site pitch fees when staying at club sites. So, if you are looking at a 1 week break it really is a no brainer. One thing we have noticed is that at a few of the club sites we have booked, a deposit was not required at the time of booking and we paid on arrival, this has been a bonus during the current lockdown. Once again there are so many discounts available to club members like 25% of at selected restaurants, discounted ferry crossings, holidays abroad and so many more. It really is worth looking into. www.caravanclub.co.uk/membership/member-offers
Just recently on a trip away in Cornwall a fellow camper showed me an app “park4night” https://park4night.com. Pretty simple to use, it’s a matter of entering the location you are or will be and it identifies a number of places you can stay. Some places are just fields with no facilities and others offer a lot more. Definitely worth a look if you are keen to keep costs down.
Travel Sickness
I have always suffered from car sickness and unfortunately our daughter Bethany does also. Travelling around Cornwall/Devon has certainly caused some emergency stops with the winding country roads and lanes. We had tried the sickness bands but found it very hit and miss as to whether they actually worked. We have since purchased Sturgeron 15 https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/files/pil.1529.pdf and they are a real game changer. These tablets can be chewed or swallowed so really easy for children to take. The only downside is that they need to be taken 2 hours before travel so it’s just a matter of
Cooking
Lots of people have said to me, how do you cook? The answer really is, easy. There are not many things we haven’t been able to cook while away camping, including a Sunday Roast dinner. Many years ago, Darren purchased a Cadac Carri Chef BBQ that had so many attachments from roasting dish, paella dish, pizza stone, skottle and a traditional grill that meant we really could cook anything. Don’t get me wrong we haven’t always got it right. I remember after a long day on the beach we promised the kids pizza, well cooking with the pizza stone wasn’t a great success the first time, I hadn’t realised we needed to flour the stone. Burnt bottom pizzas . We didn’t make the same mistake next time.
To make your life easier we have purchased a Cadac Safari Chef 2 and this can be hired as an optional extra. The beauty of this Cadac is that it is light weight, easy to set up and due to the fact it runs of a C500 screw on gas cannister it is easy to take anywhere and can even be set up on a table top. www.cadacinternational.com/safari-chef-lp/.
Darren loves to cook, and his Webber BBQ is his pride and joy, believe me the feasts he has created are amazing. So, with this in mind Darren has spent time putting together some recipe ideas for you to try whilst away, all of these recipes have been cooked using the Cadac Safari Chef 2. If you come up with some ideas we would love to hear about them and maybe use them on our website.
What to pack
This is always a tough one, trying to predict the English weather can be tricky. We have created an inventory list so you will know exactly what is in the camper, we feel we have covered the essentials but obviously we welcome your feedback.
You will need to pack bedding of some sort whether this be sleeping bags or a duvet, pillows & clothes, we do provide Vango 5cm California self-inflating double mattresses to give extra comfort. The camper van does have a diesel heater so regardless of whether you camp in summer or winter you won’t go cold.
Clothing is usually the biggest worry but most sites have washing facilities so don’t go crazy. There is space under the seats and 1 tall cupboard for clothes. Trust me this is enough, the last thing you want is bags everywhere whist travelling. I do the same thing every year and pack to many clothes and we tend to wear only the top few layers of clothing.
With regards to food lots of people make the mistake of trying to load in lots of food. We usually set off with enough for our first night and breakfast and lunch for the following day and will have a plan of what we will eat that evening. There is usually somewhere you can purchase food; we buy two day’s worth at a time. The fridge in the camper is a good size but you are still limited, for example we only buy 2-pint milks as they fit in the door better and I find it best to remove food from packaging to use the space more effectively. There is quite a lot of storage for non-refrigerated food but once again don’t go crazy.
I do recommend you pack outdoor chairs, nothing better than sat out watching the sun set, these can be laid flat on the floor in front of the rear seats.
Wild Camping
So, what is wild camping? Basically, this is taking yourself away from camp/caravan sites and taking yourself into the wilderness. This will mean you have no facilities such as showers, toilets & electricity but it is free. Our camper van does come equipped with a solar panel that does enhance the leisure battery and almost everything will run from the leisure battery. The power sockets for a standard plug would not operate unless connected to electricity however most things these days have the ability to run from a USB.
In 2016 we hired a motor home and toured Scotland, although we stopped at a number of sites, we also took advantage of the wild camping rules. A highlight was waking one morning on the Isle of Skye by the sea with Seal’s playing. This was one memorable breakfast.
In the UK only Scotland permit wild camping, for further information on wild camping please see the following link. openroadscotland.com/2014/beginners-guide-wild-campervanning/
I do hope that this helps in planning your trip and if you have any questions please always get in touch, Darren and I are more than happy to help. Likewise, if you feel there are some useful tips you have to help others in planning a trip away in the camper van, we can always add them.
Many thanks
Tammy
Great Escape Campers
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