These are the pieces of campsite etiquette that we think everyone should know

If there’s one touring topic that everyone is bound to have an opinion on, it’s campsite etiquette.

Whether the best motorhome site for you offers family-friendly facilities or the peace and quiet of one of the best adults-only motorhome sites, one thing is for sure – you’re going to want to have a great stay and make unforgettable memories. However, a key part of ensuring everyone who is pitched up has an enjoyable tour will be being considerate of others, which is where that topic of campsite etiquette comes in – the dos and don’ts when you’re at your destination.

With that in mind, we asked Practical Motorhome’s editor, Sarah, Content editor, Peter Byrne, and Reviews editor, Peter Baber, “What’s a piece of campsite etiquette everyone should know?” – this is what they said.

Practical Motorhome’s editor, Sarah, highlighted the importance of remembering you have other people around you – especially at night.

She said: “Make sure that you’re not making too much noise, not so much during the day cos that’s not too bad, but at nighttime”.

She explained: “I’ve been on campsites before where you’re sitting in your ‘van and you can hear someone in the next unit watching the television in the awning, and it’s really loud, and it just echoes across the whole campsite.”

However, the good news is that this motorhoming mistake is a simple one to remedy, with Sarah saying: “Just keep an ear out as to what you’re listening to, make sure it’s not too loud and try not to disturb everyone on site.”

For Practical Motorhome’s Content editor, Peter Byrne, it’s making sure you avoid walking across someone else’s pitch. After all, when you’re up at your chosen site, your pitch is your own space, where you can relax in one of the best camping chairs or in your awning.

Having someone wander across your space to take a shortcut that saves them a matter of seconds is a sure way to disturb the peace of the moment, and with that in mind, for Peter, it’s a firm no-go. Instead, appreciate and respect that people will want a bit of privacy on their pitch. He said: “When you’re on tour, your pitch is basically, it’s your own space. So respect that everybody wants their privacy.”

The main reason people could be tempted to do it is to take a shortcut that saves time, but that didn’t justify it in Peter’s eyes. He said: “I know that it’s maybe a shortcut that could save you five to 10 seconds, but frankly, it’s not worth it, don’t do it”.

We also asked Reviews editor Peter Baber, who again raised the importance of watching how much noise you make. He said: “I often wonder at how some caravanners and motorhomers don’t realise that their vehicles aren’t particularly well soundproofed, and that, especially on a crowded site, conversations can carry.”

There was a particular incident which made him highlight this. He said: “I was making dinner for myself on a summer evening on a crowded site in Normandy some years ago. I was forced to listen to my next door neighbour’s half-hour-long telephone conversation with a relative back in England about the prospects for some male relative of theirs who was clearly at death’s door.”

“I had full chapter and verse – what his condition was, what the prognosis was, how long the doctors gave him to live, and full details of all the grisly treatments the poor guy was having. All this very personal stuff about a total stranger.”

“It wouldn’t have been so bad if it had not been so obvious that my neighbour was desperately trying to find a reason why she and whoever she was travelling with did not need to cut their holiday short and get the next ferry back to Blighty for that all-important deathbed scene. This did not endear me to her, particularly when it transpired that they had already been on tour for four months.”

“I possibly heard more than I should have because, it being a warm evening, she had opened the window wide. But a simple move, say, back into a more concealed part of her motorhome, or even to somewhere more private on site, could have made things a lot more pleasant.”

You can also see what we had to say when we were asked “how important is it to have an oven in a motorhome?” or “which do you prefer to use, on-board facilities or campsite washblocks?”

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