Cool Camping: England (Cool Camping)

A book of out of the way, out of the ordinary camping is a terrific idea, which is why I bought the book. Many of the sites featured look amazing, and they have all been personally 'road-tested' by the CC crew. So far so very good. However there is a (quite a big in my view) downside in that although there is on the surface a large choice of sites, in reality this amounts to an average of less than four sites in each of the 23 counties/regions represented.

So if you want to use this to plan a trip, rather than take it with you, then its really good and will get you to some really interesting off-the-beaten-track places (and I do intend to try some of them out), but much less use as something you carry around in your panniers or glove compartment. So great for selecting a camp for a week's holiday, but much less useful if you are on tour, the kind where you say 'This looks a nice area, let's find a campsite near here' because (my experience) the nearest one might be 50 miles away (and if you happen to be travelling anywhere near a border - Wales, Scotland -- you'll need to buy another book).

Ideally this approach would suit the 'TripAdvisor' style of online consumer contributions. The CC people do have a site, but is is mainly to sell their books. Nothing wrong in that, this is really good book worth buying provided you know what it does and doesn't do - and nothing to stop someone else setting something up of course (maybe someone already has)

Great revision of this essential camping guide (5/5 people found this helpful)

Great revision of this essential camping guide. Now it features more
campsites across England (70 rather than the original 40), and some of the
originals have been substituted, not sure why? The photos are still first
class and the expanded 'handy information' gives a neat little overview of
what to do and where to eat & drink we loved a secret little locals pub
right on the beach in Dorset, recommended in the guide. The write-up and
information for the campsites are accurate, and the authors seem to favour
the kind of campsites I prefer - small ones with personality, rather than
the large, static caravan type. All in all another great guide from the
dependable Cool Camping dudes.

Good but missing out information (8/11 people found this helpful)

This is a well researched book and excellent in many ways. Sadly it's let down by missing out a major piece of information (for lots of people) at each campsite - whether or not dogs are allowed. Actually it does state this for the Fieldhead Site at Edale but neglects it at all the others, simply a weird ommission.

I'm also amazed that there is not one campsite listed along the easterly section between Norfolk and North Yorkshire. A similar thing between the westerly section of Shrewsbury and the Lakes - nothing whatsoever!

There are some beautiful photographs but nothing to say where they are. For instance there's a fantastic view of a magnificent beach in the opening pages (Cornwall) but it doesn't say the name of the beach, this is really frustrating. So it's worth buying the book but be aware that you will need other more books if you want really comprehensive information - especially if you take a pet camping with you.

Great gems (40/40 people found this helpful)

This is great! We were camping up around the lake district and it directed us to some superb little-used spots. It also has excellent suggestions for eating/drinking etc near each campsite and/or warnings if there's a bit of a walk. We definitely found a few gems (like the Drunken Duck!). It covers 40 campsites across England (each one gets a page or two, and some lovely photographs so you can see what you're getting) - not a huge amount of choice, but as it says itself it "features a hand-picked selection", and seemingly they visited hundreds of camp sites across England to find this list of 40, and i'd much prefer that to a huge list of ones where you turn up and are disappointed.
Something that i found a huge advantage, but that you might find a disadvantage is that they're NOT looking for "holiday park" type camp grounds - their (and my) idea of hell. so the ones listed here will be beautiful , or quirky, or in a brilliant location ... but they won't have lots of swimming pools and hi-de-hi activities etc.
The only (small) disadvantage is, although the directions to/from the campsites are detailed, it wasn't great with directions to some of the "nearby food/amenites" locations - but it does give phone numbers so you can ring and find out if you want to (i suppose it saved space).

Bottom line - i've just now discovered on Amazon (sorry - i originally bought cool camping : england in a little camping shop!) that there are companion guides to wales etc ... and I'm going straight out to put them in the shopping basket!

Jonathan Knight, Paul Marsden, Andy Stothert

Reader Reviews:

A great idea, but.... (1/1 people found this helpful)

Great revision of this essential camping guide (5/5 people found this helpful)

Good but missing out information (8/11 people found this helpful)

Great gems (40/40 people found this helpful)

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