The 2011 Guide to Britain & Ireland includes details of over 600 of the best camping and caravanning parks in Britain and Ireland, each being individually inspected and selected by our small team. New for 2011, we now list our featured parks by tourist region and nearest town. The guide includes new full colour maps, a town index, listings for 'open all year' parks, 'dog-free' parks and parks that offer facilities for fishing, bike hire, golf and horse riding. A new section features holiday accommodation in holiday caravans and chalets. 368 pages.
- Covers England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Channel Islands and Ireland.
- Tourist information on the regions of Britain & Ireland and tourist attractions.
- Full colour layout, indexed by region and nearest town, with colour maps.
- GPS coordinates for most campsites in Britain & Ireland.
- Ordinance survey grid references for most campsites.
- Prices/Charges Guide for each campsite
- Town/Village index.
- Holiday homes section featuring holiday caravans and chalets across the UK and Ireland
- Facilities available for fishing, bicycle hire, golf, riding and boat launching.
SUMMARY: Very well written and easy to use guidebook to 600 of the UK's best campsites for tent, caravan and motorhome - perfect for keeping in the car or on a shelf somewhere. This isn't the book for you if you like camping in deserted fields - these reviews are of 'proper' sites with decent facilities which meet the publisher's standards for entry. Only one criticism, and that's that it could do with a quick-reference for whether or not each site is suitable or not for tents/caravans/motorhomes.
For the full review, see:
http://www.gearweare.com/2010/09/alan-rogers-best-campsites-in-britain.html
We were sent a copy of the 2010 guide book to review and I have to admit to two caveats at this point. Firstly, in our house I don't usually do the campsite research and planning and secondly any campsite research and planning that does happen is usually done online. So a guide like this is not something we would usually opt for.
This is a guide to the best campsites in Great Britain and Ireland so it's not a comprehensive list. It's a very select set of sites that Alan Rogers have judged to be worthy of singling out as being of an especially high. It feels like the Who's Who of camping site guides.
Those that are listed have good descriptions but lack particularly good photographs, something I personally use to judge a site quite a lot. The reviews of each site tend to emphasize the positive aspects, which as they have been judged to be the best and so not have too many negative aspects is not unexpected. It does however give the reviews a slightly unbalanced feeling.
I think that knowing the site you are going to visit has passed muster to make it into this guide would be re-assuring and it's entry gives you more information on the site to help you make your decision. As part of the campsite research process then it would be a helpful source of additional information about particular sites but it's probably not as useful as a primary means of research.
If you are missing your camping fix over the winter months it might a nice book to browse on a cold damp winter evening to help you look forward to next year's forays under canvas.
We use the europe editition
Like you we do our research on-line, but we do keep the Europe edition in glove box and that proved to be an essential piece of kit back in 2008 when we made changes to our trip on the road.. without it we could not have made those changes.