Public Parking

[colinbal4]

Is there such thing as public car parks that take caravans? I can see some that take motor homes, but not caravans.

We are going away down to Swanage for our first ever trip over Easter and assume we will need to check out of the site on Easter Monday morning, but want to do something for the rest of the day, not just drive home.

 

[Craigyoung]

If you ask the warden's if you can get away or stay on a bit later till 2 or 3 they may let you as that's what we do most of the times and they are no bother . I wouldn't fancy manoeuvring our outfit round a supermarket carpark !!

 

[Brasso530]

We always ask for a late departure,they can only say no.If not find a stately home or something thats a main attraction to see on way home,if its big it will have bus parking-bingo,park in there.We did this at osbourne house on isle of wight when ferry had massive delays.

 

[CustardAvenger]

Good question. I've only used one - That was a council pay-and-display car park, which had Caravan/Motorhome specific spaces. It was opposite an ALDI in Fort William, and only knew about it via Andrew Ditton's videos. However, it was only a short-stay. Not really suitable for a day out.

 

[Harby]

I seem to see loads of caravans parking up in Sainsburys in Grantham. Well I say loads, I've seen a few. Like CraigYoung said, I wouldn't fancy getting ours in then getting stuck!!!

 

[Mel]

I wouldn’t park up a caravan hitched to a car and leave it. It probably wouldn’t be there when you got back, . Even at Service stations me and OH take it in turns to go in to go to the loo. Suggest you go for a late departure as others have suggested or see if you can leave the van in any storage space at the site.
Mel

 

[colinbal4]

Thanks all! It seems to be as I thought, caravans just not catered for.

The suggestion of a tourist attraction with coach parking is a great one thanks

If left parked and hitched to car I'd fit both hitch lock and Milenco wheel clamp. If it still wasn't there when I got back, well it's insured....

 

[Thingy]

Corfe Castle is very near to Swannage. On the way north from Corfe at the bottom of the hill is the Castle Car Park. We have parked on there in the past with caravan and walked up to Corfe and the Castle. About 300 yards.

 

[CustardAvenger]

Thanks all! It seems to be as I thought, caravans just not catered for.

The suggestion of a tourist attraction with coach parking is a great one thanks

If left parked and hitched to car I'd fit both hitch lock and Milenco wheel clamp. If it still wasn't there when I got back, well it's insured....

I looked at the Park and Ride situation for York the other day - there are 5 park and ride sites around the city and they cater for motorhomes and campers but not cars & caravans. Looking at the spaces on Google satellite, you might get a caravan in there, but my outfit is 40' long; it would not be fun.

Despite the photos you see in PCV magazine, it seems that touring with a Caravan means, going from home/storage to a caravan site and only stopping in service stations; for the most part places are inaccessible to caravans. One caveat: I did stop at the House of Bruar shopping complex coming back from Scotland, as their car park was huge and caravans were not discouraged by height restrictions (locks were applied though).

 

[SamandRose]

It does seem that parking cars with caravans in most towns is discouraged, which appears rather short -sighted of the councils / car park operators.

I've told my story about Conwy before but Llandudno Council's website said that the long-stay car park accepted caravans. However, we got there to find that it didn't. Not only that, but the road then carried on through a very narrow arch, and getting the caravan through that seemed to be something that attracted stares from most of the town's inhabitants (did they all WANT to hear me swear)?

We normally ask for a late checkout. Some sites have agreed to this without charging extra, others have asked for a nominal extra fee of between £2 and £5. I can only recall one occasion where we couldn't stay on the pitch because the site was fully booked for the next night, but even then they let us leave the caravan on another part of the site. If you're planning to leave on bank holiday Monday it seems unlikely that the next night will be very heavily booked.