camping

[Guest]

One of the few subjects I've never seen mentioned on here. I took a tent to Finland once, but ended up smashing it up and chucking it in a bin.

However, I'm planning to wander about Europe for a month or so this June - could anybody possibly recommend pleasant campsites anywhere on the continent?

Or offer any thoughts on camping in general?

Have already checked what to do about bears (play dead) and wolves (hit with frying pan).

[mafu]

camping

are you literally wandering or will you have a car/van/bike to get around?

germany is a good bet, camped there during the last world cup and was impressed with the sites generally, especially toilet and shower facilities. and the countryside (in the south at least, didnt really explore much more than that) is wonderful

[Guest]

camping

Literally wandering.

[Toby Gymshorts]

camping

I once took a carrier bag to Iceland.

[Guest]

camping

There's so many. Literally anywhere you want to go will have a campsite. If I were you I'd think about it from that angle; decide where you want to go, even if on a daily basis, and be reassured that you will find somewhere that's perfectly decent to stay. Relax. Whenever I've done it we just used maps that mark campsites and just turned up as and when the wandering led us; never had a problem. I don't think being on public transport will be too much of a problem.

[Gerontophile]

camping

I hate camping. It should be left to Graham Norton.

[ad hoc]

camping

I have never ever seen a campsite in Romania. That doesn't mean you can't camp here - you do see in-tents people on river banks and in the mountains and so on, and I have the suspicion that there might be a campsite or two by Romania's very short stretch of coast, but aside from that, nada.

However, having said that, Transylvania would be a great place to go camping, as long as you don't mind the kind of camping that doesn't involve facilities other than the ones you carry in on your back. My brother-in-law spends practically every spare moment he has out in the mountains and forests somewhere.

[Wolf2]

camping

I think Logan Mountstuart might know something about camping in southern France, from memory.

Dorset and Cornwall have some magic campsites, but that's really the end of my camping experience. I've always wanted to take a tent around Sweden and Switzerland.

[hobbes]

camping

Why would anyone actually choose to sleep rough?

[Wyatt Earp]

camping

I'm basically with hobbes, though we've camped occasionally because the kids dig it. France is also a very safe bet indeed for (relative) comfort and facilities and that. Many campsites even have their own bakeries, or take morning deliveries from ones really nearby, which I think is a really civilised touch.

[Guest]

camping

take a tent around Sweden and Switzerland.

I've done both of those! both are great countries to do this in. although mosquitoes in Sweden can be a bit of a trial.

[San Bernardhinault]

camping

Camping is something that you really should only do when you're somewhere there's no chance of getting a hotel room.

If you're properly in the wild then sleeping in a tent is the only option, and is therefore not pointless self-abuse.

When you're on a campsite with running water and showers and things, there's almost always a hotel or B&B nearby that offer things like walls, and heat, and so on.

[Wyatt Earp]

camping

Bruno wrote:

Oh dear. I'm not Mr. Outdoors or anything but the point of camping is to get away from all that.

I don't want to get away from all that.

[Wyatt Earp]

camping

I think you lads are more Henry David Thoreau than us: civilisation as a thing to be escaped from and so on. I seriously think that's a cultural difference (though that view does of course have its adherents here too).

But remember, geography is key here. In much of Europe you'll be, wherever you camp, a ten minute drive from the nearest town. And the nearest town might indeed be part of the reason you're in that particular area; its pretty architecture or its market or a restaurant you've had recommended or something.

There's very little "wilderness" over here. In all seriousness, I can probably see the appeal of it, but in most W European countries that appeal is moot. (Finland is probably an exception.) Even our National Parks have towns and farms.

[Third rate Leszno]

camping

Don't you get tarantulas roaming around desert areas at night? That alone would be enough to put me off camping in the American west, no matter how jaw dropping the scenery.

Last time I camped was 1992 - lovely place in the hills above Lake Como, way off the beaten track and no one spoke any English, which made it feel all the more special - I can think of nothing worse than one of those tented camps in the south of France where every second van is full of Brits.

I'd probably consider camping again, but Mrs AbB is firmly in the "hotel with ensuite" mindset, so that's not going to happen.

[hobbes]

camping

The feeling you get out in the western desert is, my god, what a planet this is, what a universe. It's cosmic I tell you. Bit of a spiritual colonic

I'd be happy to do that, if I had one of these:-



It's not the being out in the wilderness (although admittedly I can get literally seconds of fun out of looking at scenery) it's the sleeping in a tent. To answer your points:-
1. is over-rated.
2. They are indeed. So you have one, then wander back to your hotel.
3. One or both of us would pay with out lives. I couldn't think of anything worse. Give us a massive bed and an en-suite bathroom any day.
4. What's wrong with an ipod?
5. Sunrise and a full english served in your room.

Don't get me wrong, I understand that people like the wilderness more than I do and want to enjoy it. Fair enough. But this "getting back to nature" malarky leaves me cold. I mean, we've spent 10,000 years as a species compelled to try to get away from nature. Why fight it?

[Ginger Yellow]

camping

1) Peace and quiet.
2) Campfires are cool. Sitting around one at night with friends, having drinks and eats you cooked yourself, encased by the eerie silence of the wilderness, is a very cool feeling.
3) Snuggling with your nesting companion in a little pup tent, while frost collects on the outside of it, ain't bad.
4) All the ingenious gear!
5) Sunrise and coffee out of a tin pot.

1) Things to do
2) Pubs are cool.
3) Snuggling with your nesting companion without any frost involved is even better.
4) Not having to carry all the ingenious gear!
5) Sleep in late and proper coffee

All that said, like Wyatt, I don't have a problem with camping for a purpose, especially in the great American/Australian wilderness. But camping for the sake of it, in the middle of Yorkshire, say? Nuts.

[San Bernardhinault]

camping

As usual, Wyatt explains my feelings better than I can.

The only time I've genuinely enjoyed camping was floating down a river in Northern Utah, in a very deep canyon with no access from anywhere else.

This is the US, where you're away from everything, in proper wilderness, where you have no choice. It's also in the desert, so it's nice and fresh at night but properly warm in the day and there's no risk of rain. The only things to worry about are snakes and bears. And they tend to give you a wide berth.

Camping, as GY says, for the sake of camping, somewhere there's civilisation near by, is just nuts. Particularly camping in the UK where it rains incessantly.

[Wyatt Earp]

camping

La Lanterne Rouge wrote:

Camping, as GY says, for the sake of camping, somewhere there's civilisation near by, is just nuts.

Yeah, well, the kids enjoyed it, and I got me baguettes and that so I was happy.

Best roast chicken I've ever cooked, actually, was on that trip. I assume it was the sheer quality of the bird rather than anything to do with the camping itself.

[hobbes]

camping

none of you has ever had that sort of fantasy of delight at snuggling against the elements?

Perhaps in a log cabin. But tests are either hot and annoying or cold and annoying and they usually smell weird.

[hobbes]

camping

Heh. The idea of big spiders knocking about is enough to put me off whole continents.

[Eggchaser]

camping

Bruno wrote:

About the sleeping whilst frost forms - none of you has ever had that sort of fantasy of delight at snuggling against the elements? It's fucking great. And a decent air mattress can give quite a good night's rest.

Yes, I had the fantasy. Then I realised the reality is that it's bloody cold and there's no central heating to escape from it, and that a sprung mattress on a bed gives a far better night's rest and if you need a pee during the night you can't wander into the bathroom in a bleary eyed state without having to put on several layers of clothing first.

Camping is pretty much a love/hate thing. Very rarely do you find people in the middle ground when you really get down to it.

[Third rate Leszno]

camping

It's so much the death dealing capabilities of potential unwanted tent-mates that bothers me, just large spiders in general.

When I was in a hotel in Tasmania a couple of years ago, a large one crawled out of the aircon unit and headed slowly but steadily down the wall. To my eternal shame I legged downstairs and dragged the night porter up to capture it. My embarrassment is only slightly reduced by the memory that he needed a tupperware box to snare it, as a cup wouldn't have been big enough. "Ooh, she's a big one!" he announced. She?? SHE??? How the fuck can you tell?

Apart from that, I have to say that I found Australian hotel rooms to be refreshingly free of arachnids.

[hobbes]

camping

Apart from that, I have to say that I found Australian hotel rooms to be refreshingly free of arachnids

In 1984, no one died.
In 1985, no one died...

[Gangster Octopus]

camping

Bruno wrote:

It's cold outside

Der der.