Camping in the UK
Friends. It was bound to happen. I grew up camping, and I’ve been raising nature lovers. We bought a tent last summer. We’ve camped one night at a time here and there, but that was it. Until we cooked up the idea to go camping with some friends over the summer. I was nervous at best because the weather in the UK is…unpredictable. We decided to book 3 days in the Lake District with some friends who also have 2 kids. Here’s what I can tell you after having survived the experience.
We booked campsites at Social District for 2 nights, and had to pay a small fee for our pups. It’s £50 per night, which didn’t seem insane to me, but a few other campers said they felt like that was pretty steep for UK camping. Pros of this particular campground are: direct lake access, campsites are self selected, generally mellow vibe, family and dog friendly, and conveniences close by. Cons of this campground: no lights in the toilets, showers only on from 9-11a & 4-6p, finding the actual campsite is tricky because it’s not marked from the road. I’d say the pros outweighed the cons, especially because with direct lake access our kids were so happy to play outside literally all day long. Like I had thought we might take some day trips or hike around, but we absolutely did not. We just swam, paddle boarded, and relaxed all day. One day, Hubs and I did a hike with the pup which was really nice. And one day we went out for breakfast, but that was about it. Otherwise, we were at the campsite.
Originally, we were meant to go home on Wednesday, but on Tuesday we started kicking around the idea of staying an extra day. If we’re being totally honest, I wasn’t thrilled at first, but in retrospect am 100% glad we did. So on Wednesday, we needed a grocery top up. We decided to find a bakery for breakfast, and head to the grocery afterwards. The bakery we ate in is called Bakehouse Born and Bread, and it was AMAZING! Honestly, all the stars. 5 out of 5. They truly had it all: great coffee, dog friendly, kid//family friendly (with a kids menu), delicious cakes, and a good selection of breakfast options. (FWIW, I linked their Facebook page because when I tried to open their website Google said it was an unsafe link.) But honestly, if you’re even a little bit in the area, do yourself a favor and pop in for coffee. And the peach frangipane, if they made it that day. No bookings; walk in only, but honestly, if you’re in the area, a visit will be worth it.
Aside from our breakfast venture, the only other activity we did is paddleboard rental. We rented from 2 different places: LakeSUP and Stoked Water Sports. LakeSUP was fine; their rates were reasonable and they were flexible enough to do a last minute rental. I’d assume on the weekend that probably wouldn’t be likely, but we were there during the week on a weather day that started sunny but ended not so. The next day we had AMAZING weather; sunny, cloudless sky and like 65ish out. I had been wanting to check out Fell Foot, so we packed up and then drove over to Fell Foot to spend the day. We rented paddle boards from Stoked Water Sports at Fell Foot, and our friends paddled over on their boards. You can also rent kayaks, and there is a massive playground as well. Between the 4 adults, 4 kids, and 2 dogs we just swapped on and off the paddle boards all day and swam around a bit as well. We kept our paddle boards until the last second, and then returned them and changed in the locker rooms. We knew that we were on borrowed time with our Small Humans because we had been out in the sun all day and hadn’t really eaten lunch, so we decided to have dinner at The Swan before driving home. If we weren’t trying to eat quickly, we probably would have looked around a bit more, but like I said, I knew we were on borrowed time. The restaurant at The Swan was convenient; we were able to sit across 2 tables and they did have a kid’s menu as well so everyone was able to have what they wanted to eat. After eating, we left and drove home.
TL;DR: if you’re tent camping in the UK, you have to be prepared for rain (at like any second), but if you can release the weather then I’m sure you’ll have a good time. There are also lots of caravan parks and glamping sites as well, if tent camping isn’t for you. The National Trust app as well as AllTrails were really helpful in planning activities.