Winter Camping

The 'camping season' is almost over for many but we hope to get away for weekends over winter too. Any idea's for sites that are open all year would be much appreciated. We would like to stay within an hours drive of Manchester if possible

No idea not my area but winter wont be the thing that stops us,its what dandys are made for

Helen have you tried looking on the UK Campsite, search facility? It will show you all campsites within a 20 mile radius of any location (in your case Manchester) and one of the filters that you can use is campsites that are open all year.

Thank's Jayne, I don't often look at UK campsites but will try the search facility. I have an old Haynes campsite guide and an even older AA guide but they are seriously outdated.

I've plugged it before but try Archiescampings. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
You have to use it in conjunction with Google Earth and there is only a pin with a phone number but loads more campsites than Uk Campsite.
Once in a while a campsite owner is bright enough to bookmark themselves into Google eart but generally it's just Phone numbers.

Thanks Kevin, will try to figure out how to use it

its good I used it for France and the other country's very handy to find sites that are not in the books

Thinking of trying a little winter camping ourselves this year, Nigel has almost persuaded me that it's a good idea

The Admiral wrote:Thinking of trying a little winter camping ourselves this year, Nigel has almost persuaded me that it's a good idea

Good for you,we enjoy it but you have to think differently to summer camping its nice to curl up on a dark evening with the heater on.you get some bad weather and some good not like summer

You'll find it makes you feel all warm and cosy

I love winter camping, it's lovely and peaceful and you just feel ........... relaxed and all snuggled up, kind of like when it's freezing outside and you have a cuppa soup or hot vimpto

We love autumn and winter camping, especially as we are into astronomy now, we can get away to some lovely dark sites.

Now we have the Dandy on electric, we can take the whole family and keep them nice and warm. The old dog does get a bit cold in the campervan when we turn the noisy Propex off at night, but we leave the silent convector heater on all night, it's right luxury, warmer than being at home.

Hello

We joined Camping and caravan club and stayed at one of the listed sites this weekend. Hartleys farm Forest of Bowland. Its about 1hr from Manchester. Lovely quiet small site loads of walks around, clean warm showers and a room where you can make hot drinks, sit chat and read. It also has a little animal area where my girls loved feeding the animals with monkey nuts! Not sure if that is what their diet is but Albert the owner said it was ok.
It is £13 a night with EHU. It was very cold on the Saturday night so I am now looking at trying my hand at Mikes insulation tips!

We hung cheap Ikea fleece blankets over the bat wings to help keep us warmer, they were due to be cut and fitted properly, but like jobs to do when away - it didn't get done.

I will do it one day and post pics.

We spoke to a steward of the C&CC at the weekend, they had been staying at a site we go to for a while and were using it as a temporary site for 6 weeks, he was a lovely down to earth chap who explained how temporary sites work and the price per night is really low so we are joining. We hope to use the temporary sites next season and we have far more options for winter camping too.

Helen wrote:We spoke to a steward of the C&CC at the weekend, they had been staying at a site we go to for a while and were using it as a temporary site for 6 weeks, he was a lovely down to earth chap who explained how temporary sites work and the price per night is really low so we are joining. We hope to use the temporary sites next season and we have far more options for winter camping too.

We went to a ths at Cartmel racecourse last Easter and it was pretty good, they even had EHUs laid on and cheap too May go again next year and take the EHU cables this time