Campsites France end of May Beginning of June

[roundisland]

This is going to be my first European tour and have never camped abroad before. I will be getting the bike express to Peripignan would I need to book a campsite for the first night to make sure getting a pitch? what about subsequent nights are there plenty of campsites which have spaces all year round, its going to be just me in a one man tent.


Sorry if the question seems a bit basic just want to be prepared!

 

[andrew_s]

In late May/early June, the campsites will be quiet.
You are more likely to be the only tent than find a campsite full, apart from the slight chance of coinciding with some local jamboree.

 

[looe]

This is going to be my first European tour and have never camped abroad before. I will be getting the bike express to Peripignan would I need to book a campsite for the first night to make sure getting a pitch? what about subsequent nights are there plenty of campsites which have spaces all year round, its going to be just me in a one man tent.


Sorry if the question seems a bit basic just want to be prepared!

I am going to tour France last week in May and 2 weeks in the beginning of June and I think there will be no problems at all to find camping space. Maybe our roads will cross?

 

[frank9755]

There will certainly be space.

The only problem is that, as I discovered last year, some sites will not have opened in late May. It was more of a problem in the North than South.

 

[psmiffy]

Most campsites will be open the end of May begining of June (a quick look at my Michelin Green book shows at least 60% open by the end of april - 75% by the end of may and the remainder opening in "june" - as I remember the Bus drops off in Perpignan mid morning - plenty of time to get to a campsite and the are are a reasonable number within easy cycling distance of Perpignan - generally a bit "South Coast" and bigger which I am not fond of - but does have the advantage that if you want a bit of peace of mind they are generally easy to contact by phone to check if they are open - normally the people on the end speak immaculate english - or by email if you not happy on the phone to foreign places

I have been to pick up the bus 7 or 8 times along that piece of coast and have never booked a campsite

 

[andym]

No you shouldn't have any trouble either getting a space or finding somewhere that's open, however, don't leave looking for a site until the end of a long day.

These days it's very rare to find a campsite that doesn't have a website - usually with an English version- so there's nothing to stop you doing some research in advance (use Google Maps for instance).

 

[roundisland]

Thanks for all the replies looks like I don't have much to worry about. What sort of price should I be paying for a one night stop? do the prices vary much?

 

[frank9755]

Last year I paid from €4-8. Virtually all were excellent.
One, at Montpellier, charged a location premium and was about €15.
There was no relationship between price and quality.

I normally aimed for municipal sites, never booked ahead and was never turned away. My earlier comment referred to one day when I found two towns where the sites weren't open, and had to cycle an extra hour or so on a warm spring evening to find one in a third town. Hardly a hardship! I agree that further south you should be fine.

Thanks for all the replies looks like I don't have much to worry about. What sort of price should I be paying for a one night stop? do the prices vary much?

 

[andym]

Last year I paid from €4-8. Virtually all were excellent.
One, at Montpellier, charged a location premium and was about €15.
There was no relationship between price and quality.

I normally aimed for municipal sites, never booked ahead and was never turned away. My earlier comment referred to one day when I found two towns where the sites weren't open, and had to cycle an extra hour or so on a warm spring evening to find one in a third town. Hardly a hardship! I agree that further south you should be fine.

It depends a lot where you are. I'd say 8-ish euros on average - 4 euros is a once-inablue-moon thing. My experience is that municipal sites charge the market rate - if they have swimming pools etc then they will charge more (expect to pay more than 10 euros).

One thing to bear in mind is that the term 'camping' is used pretty loosely - occasionally you can turn up at a 'camping' and find that it's turned into a 'village des vacances' or 'hotel de plein air' with nothing but mobile homes. I think it pays to do a bit of research in advance if only to have a list of possible options - especially if you are venturing away from the main tourist areas.

 

[xilios]

You shouldn't have any problems finding a place anywhere in France that time of year.
We mostly use this site http://en.camping.info/ to find our camping spots for the night. It even shows the small and cheap municipal campings.
cheers