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Quote: Originally posted by LobeyDosser on 22/3/2007

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No Val, the real reason is that both Caravan and Trailer Tent Awnings tend to be used only for eating in etc and therefore have environmentally friendly Groundsheets. IE, ones that allow the grass beneath them to breath.

Tents, large or small are either sitting on SIG or tarpaulins and these can kill the grass in a week.

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No, not true I`m afraid...the standard TT groundsheet is still non-permeable. This might be true for a very modern folding camper or tt to come with an eco-friendlt groundsheet, but not for the vast majority, including mine. You have to buy one seperately. As to caravan awnings. I`m mystified why any of them need groundsheets at all but that`s another story....

Just so happens I don`t use the groundsheet in my TT at all and thus ther only real impact I have on the grass is from two very small undertents. I don`t use a groundsheet in my tents either, so the only print from mt tent is from bedroom pods. Site owners must love me! But I think I`m in a tiny, tiny minority with this.

But back to the original comment here...yup, I get onto more sites with the TT than with a normal tent, but no-one has EVER made it a condition that I use a breathable groundsheet to do this. Which is why I think excluding tents has more to do with a perceived upmarket drift/snobbery, than anything to do with grass, alas. Site owners just don`t much like the current trend of more hard up families picking up a pile of bargain kit from the supermarkets and coming to their site for a cheap holiday, possibly a lot of drinking and usually a total lack of knowledge of the traditional rules of living on a campsite. So they concentrate on the more affluent end of the market....and as there`s more campers out there, they can afford to do this.

 

We stayed in France a couple of years ago with our tent. They specified Breathable groundsheets only for tents, awnings or whatever. Luckily our tent hasn't got a SIG, so we bought some Eco-mat.

That might have been the way forward for campsites. But the fashion now seems to be for SIGs. Perhaps if they go out of fashion the situation may change.

I have some sympathy with camp-site owners. after all it is their place, and they have a right to call the shots.

Alan

Unfortunately a lot of people see camping as a good way of having an all night party in the summer. We used to get fed up with large groups of adults in their argos specials getting blathered and drinking into the small hours. Their kids getting up to allsorts etc. We are not party poopers on the contrary but a small minority are wrecking it for the rest I'm afraid.

I think it's something to do with a license.  On the sites where I've stayed that have stopped taking tents but do still allow awnings they have a rule that you mustn't have people sleeping in the awning. 

Quote: Originally posted by mr.paul on 22/3/2007

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A number of people have said that the reason is tenters stay longer than they used to in the past. I would just like to point out that before my teens, my family would go camping and pitch up for 2 weeks at a time. I don't recall that the sites were less busy than they are today either. I too am convinced that this trend is due to the generalised perception that tenters are more trouble than they are worth.
###  Still, what goes round comes round. It would be just desserts if a group booking of caravanners turned out to be a bunch of long stay travellers... ###

 

Ho, Ho, I would just love that to happen! They would be begging us tenters to come back to them.

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