What camping card/membership for UK?

Canary Bird · Jan 1, 2017

Hello! We are starting to plan our trip from the Canary Islands to the UK to spend a month or so camping around the UK ... basically arriving at the end of June and leaving the beginning of August.

We plan to use the tunnel, head to Cornwall, head up North along the Western coast/side passing through Wales, spend the bulk of our time in Scotland, then come back down the Eastern coast/side back to the tunnel.

We are planning to stay in campgrounds without reservations and do no wild camping, unless we can't get to an "official site. Our only exception for reservations might be at the very beginning of the trip and the very end of the trip (coming & going right after/before tunnel), but want to have the flex to move on as we desire or weather or midges move us on. We also would make reservations if we find a place for highland games or music festival in Scotland. Any ideas & dates for highland games of music festival? .... yes, I know, off topic.

We have used the "Camping Key Europe" for traveling around mainland Europe.

What card/membership should we have for the UK and especially Scotland? Will we have trouble finding campgrounds open to us without a specific card? Would we miss big savings if we don't have a specific card? Another question that I should be asking, but I am too clueless to know to ask?

We would be soooo thankful for any advice that you might have. I would be more than happy to return the favor with info on camping in our neck of the wood - Tenerife.

WelshGas · Jan 1, 2017

http://campingkeyeurope.m2b.se/node/28

Paragraph 2. Regarding use in U.K.

MattBW · Jan 3, 2017

What kind of sites do you like to stay on?

We travel like you, we don't book many places, we like to just stay as long as we feel like and move on when we want. Travelling during the school holidays can make it hard to just roll up however, the UK summer break for schools are 17-07-2017 to 05-09-2017.

Do you like a basic site or more high quality facilities? We use the camping and caravan club which has a lot of small affiliated sites (usually 5 or 6 vans in size) with basic facilities but very affordable. They have an app to find sites with space during those busy times and generally only found the bigger sites hard to book between end of July and August.

MattBW · Jan 3, 2017

Useful link

https://www.schoolholidayseurope.eu/school-holidays-2017-uk.html

Mickm · Jan 7, 2017

The Drum Inn at Stanford is a pub with a campsite. Good beer and food and only 10 minutes from the tunnel terminal at Ashford. I've used it several times. http://thedruminn.com/

Mick

Mickm · Jan 7, 2017

Also, I've used the Camping and Caravaning Club for several years. As a member, you get discount on their own, well maintained, sites. No specific card is required for camping in the UK.

Mick