Bongo Fury

Ukcampsite is fantastic. Use it all the time.
You can match the site to your needs, all mod cons and the price to match or down to basic and simple!
It can also save disappointment. You can see what others say regards type of site, facilities location size etc.
I book all our camping trips after searching on the site, it's never let us down so far. A bit of time, effort and homework can pay back big dividends. Especially if it's the main holiday you have been working all year towards.

Cheers

I never meant to suggest that there was any form of 'profiteering' going on, it's just that I was amazed to see prices in excess of £40 a night for a basic place to park, and I did say that I have no idea of what it takes to run a site: anything to do with catering to the Great British Public is notoriously hard work, so please don't think I was knocking the site owners, I'm sure it's a very tough life, and yes, the 'weather' has been s***e, that can't have helped them at all, but if prices go too high, the bookings will drop, same for the pubs and B+B's.

Although we paid £90 for a dog friendly pub last summer, (the room was not worth half of that) there are some very nice B+B's @ £65 if you look hard enough, and laterooms.com have given us some great deals. My point is that if you invest several £k's in the van, it won't be much of a deal when you pay £40+ per night on top. I realise it's "the experience" of bongoing/camping that is the main attraction but the £'s have to make sense as well.


Derek

Hi Derek, my o/h is also a teacher, so I totally understand your situation. Yes there are some good and bad sites out there (price and facility wise) but what we've started doing is phoning at the last minute to book and try for a discount! This has been a success a couple of times even when the sites website says they are only taking bookings of four nights or more ( I hate that!) We can use the bad weather to our advantage. Do you want the business or not?!
Also Practical Motorhome run a nightstop scheme with pubs around the country. Some where the fee is waived in return of buying a meal or drinks.
Hope this helps! We paid a lot for our Bongo and haven't regretted a moment of it!
Enjoy! (Esp the 6 weeks off lol)

Dont forget France is huge, and they are very much geared up for camping. It is a way of life over there. And they have a very long and predictable season. I camped all over france and I have a feeling one thing is the same here as it is there......go off the beaten track and prices plummet and scenery improves . Wont be so easy to do in the UK though due to lack of space.

I only camp in the UK for festivals, or wild.

Im fairly sure my mate just paid over £100 a day for silverstone F1 GP camping, no electric. The roads were closed by the police and they would not refund him, " not our fault about the rain" was the reply from the campsite owners. Nice.

It is very true about all countries having some kind of advantage. I lived in Italy, and although prosecco & cold meats & rent were amazingly cheap, they dont have the "argos" culture, you really struggle to buy cheapo stuff. I used to buy things off ebay and have them posted to italy from the UK and still save massively.

hi,
unfortunately i do have to agree with prices and dont understand how some are £15.00 a night and others £35-40 a night with very little difference????

i am always looking out for a bargain and unfortuntely in camping this isnt easy to find lol...............

we have recently found some great sites at £16.00-20.00 a night for a family of 4, bongo, awning and electric and feel this is much better!!!!!!!!!!!!

keep looking, it takes time but reasonable camping is out there....good luck,

nikki

this is why when it comes to this time of year we look for tmep hoilday site with the ccc as the price are a lot less we did a week in pembrey country park this year £ 13 per nigth for a family of 4 but there lot of temp site at lower than that

This came up not so long ago, and along with Bob, Alan and others I was also singing the praises of the Camping & Caravanning Club's Temporary Holiday Sites here http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... 3&p=555831

We have also had two Forest Holiday holidays this year as well, and I suspect the pricing is probably down to timing! We spent six nights at Roundhill in the New Forest (basic site no leccy but showers/toilets/washing up) for £22 per night during the Jubilee week (half term) and eight nights at Christchurch in the Forest of Dean Full facilities including cafe on site) a couple of weeks ago (first week of the school holidays) for also for £22 per night.

We'll shortly be off to a C&CC CS (Certified Site) much closer to home which admittedly has no toilets/washing facilities but does have electricity for £10.50 per night. Admittedly, we now have a caravan so having a shower no longer means a quick visit to the local leisure centre!)

Many campsites are getting away with silly prices in peak season for the loan of a patch of grass, and if the French can get it right, I really can't understand why we can't. Granted, our season may be short, but a lot of France is blighted by similar weather conditions to ours and only have a holiday season of a similar length to ours, so I wouldn't blame that for our silly prices. Prices have slowly been creeping up for five or six years, so I don't think the weather is to blame either.

Am I beginning to rant now? Possibly.

We've made it our mission to spend no more than £10 a night for a campsite.
We have managed this successfully for two years now, and have stayed on some cracking sites.
I too am tied to school holidays for our breaks so getting a bargain can be difficult.
We are members of the C&CC and have mostly used cs sites although quite often we have found basic & cheap sites whilst driving around (Anglesey, 2 minutes from the beach, toilet and water - £8 a night and only shared a massive field with four other units).
Admittedly, some sites are basic but that is what we want. We've just come back from Saundersfoot where we paid £10 a night with EHU and toilet, and we had the site to ourselves. Can't beat that for August (and the sun shone!).

Thats very expensive for what your getting,
We are on a site in Cornwall Called Trevedra Farm, excellent facillities.
Plenty of toilets/Showers male and female,
laundrette with tumble driers,
food prep area,
washing up area,
wetsuit shower,
cafe,
shop,
Freezer for your ice blocks,
Sea view

And we only pay £17 a night with hook up.

idetika wrote:We've made it our mission to spend no more than £10 a night for a campsite.
We have managed this successfully for two years now, and have stayed on some cracking sites.
I too am tied to school holidays for our breaks so getting a bargain can be difficult.
We are members of the C&CC and have mostly used cs sites although quite often we have found basic & cheap sites whilst driving around (Anglesey, 2 minutes from the beach, toilet and water - £8 a night and only shared a massive field with four other units).
Admittedly, some sites are basic but that is what we want. We've just come back from Saundersfoot where we paid £10 a night with EHU and toilet, and we had the site to ourselves. Can't beat that for August (and the sun shone!).

what was the name of the campsite?? great price!!,
nikki

nik68 wrote:

idetika wrote:We've made it our mission to spend no more than £10 a night for a campsite.
We have managed this successfully for two years now, and have stayed on some cracking sites.
I too am tied to school holidays for our breaks so getting a bargain can be difficult.
We are members of the C&CC and have mostly used cs sites although quite often we have found basic & cheap sites whilst driving around (Anglesey, 2 minutes from the beach, toilet and water - £8 a night and only shared a massive field with four other units).
Admittedly, some sites are basic but that is what we want. We've just come back from Saundersfoot where we paid £10 a night with EHU and toilet, and we had the site to ourselves. Can't beat that for August (and the sun shone!).

what was the name of the campsite?? great price!!,
nikki

I'm very interested to know too. As a lone camper, I feel ripped off sometimes because most places, not all, include 2 adults in the price but charge extra for the dog! I think I'll give the dog a shower too!

The site in Anglesey was here
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps/place?ft ... q9A&dtab=5.
It was £8 a night last year, 5 minutes to a secluded beach, basic facilities (toilet and tap).










The site near Saundersfoot was called The Valley and is a C&CC CS site
http://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co ... ?id=158103
The Valley was £10 a night with EHU, toilet, cdp but no showers. There was some road noise but as we didn't spend much time on site, it didn't bother us. The owners were great, couldn't do enough and let us roam all over there land which had woodland walks and streams, plus you could walk to the coast (Amroth).

We also stayed at a great site in Derbyshire, again a CS
http://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co ... arSearch=N
£7 a night, no toilets or showers, just a cdp and tap but views to die for, a great pub and access to the High Peak Trail for cycling.

Hi
Excellent stuff!!!...CDP and tap is all you need!...They're best campsites, not crowded, quiet, and relaxing. Apart from being cheap, it's what camping is all about...even the Bongo is a bit luxurious...I usually sleep in the awning...trouble is, age is making me look at caravans again...been there, done it, and maybe going back to it...but still at basic sites
Still...some folks like hookups and such...we can't all like the same!
Cheers
Helen

We stayed at rowhill campsite whew hedges west wales between Tenby and saundersfoot that was 20 per night per pitch . We had an 8 man bungalow tent and our bongo. There was 4 adults and 6 children which worked out 2 per head. The facility's were great but it was 20 p for a 5 minute shower. The beach was a 15 minute walk through the woods. I thought that was a bargain. Also we had electric hook up Rob.

Mulletman wrote:We stayed at rowhill campsite whew hedges west wales between Tenby and saundersfoot that was 20 per night per pitch . We had an 8 man bungalow tent and our bongo. There was 4 adults and 6 children which worked out 2 per head. The facility's were great but it was 20 p for a 5 minute shower. The beach was a 15 minute walk through the woods. I thought that was a bargain. Also we had electric hook up Rob.

Whether it was a bargain depends on how much it would have been for 1 or 2 on a pitch though. The more you can get on the pitch, usually the cheaper it is, which is no good for solo campers! This is why I go for CS sites.