You can imagine our delight when we visited the Sydney Caravan Camping Holiday Super Show at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse and signed up for free caravan park membership discount cards with Big 4 and Top Tourist Holiday Parks. We envisioned enjoying the great facilities on offer and the amount of fun the kids (and us adults) would have on the jumping pillows and in beautiful swimming pools.
Our caravan is insured with CIL and our towing vehicle is comprehensively insured with NRMA including Premium Plus Roadside Assistance. This meant we also have access to discounted stays at NRMA Parks and Resorts. Prior to leaving for our Aussie tour, we would spend time up and down the NSW coastline, using caravan parks with close friends for family holidays. So we thought we would most likely keep staying in them, perhaps 50% of the time.
Lets explore the multiple reasons why we never got the chance to use our caravan park membership discount cards across 2018.
I'll start with the most obvious reason and then the rest are in no particular order.
1. COST
When you have zero income, every cent counts and holiday parks are expensive. Some charge a little extra for children and some charge a lot extra. A $22 a night stay can easily transform into a $42 a night stay when you add the children. The most we have been quoted is $67 per night and this was an off peak rate. You may agree or you may believe we are just too stingy but please read on, the cost is not the main reason.
2. THEY DIDN'T WANT OUR MONEY
Every single time we were willing to splurge some cash and stay in a Big 4 etc, they had a no pet policy. It didn't bother us, it just meant they didn't get our money. A great example is the Big 4 MacDonnell Range Holiday Park in Alice Springs. We ended up across the street in Alice Springs Heritage Caravan Park, which was less expensive and the BEST dog friendly park we have stayed at. They even had an off leash area and so it is the only park we've come across that has one! Sure, the facilities were tired but when you've been camping in the outback with red dirt in every orrifice, any hot shower is a blessing! Please, take my money!
3. WE LEARNT WHAT "PET FRIENDLY" REALLY MEANS
From our (limited) experiences, "pet friendly" parks just means you can bring your dog and put it on a lead the entire time. There is nowhere within the park where a dog can run off leash. Most parks state you can not leave your dog unattended either, however we never actually had any troubles and we had never met anyone who had this rule enforced on them.
4. WE DON'T USUALLY HAVE TIME TO USE THE FUN STUFF
We use caravan parks only to lay our heads at night, have a shower and sometimes use the washing machines. Normally we don't make time to use any other facilities, we are too busy getting through the school workload and then we are out and about, exploring the area. The only exception was our stay at Cairns Coconut Holiday Resort, with amazing family friendly facilities, we barely left the park and took a holiday from travelling. We felt we were getting more than what we paid for and this made us more than happy to pay. In fact, Cairns Coconut was an absolute BARGAIN in comparison to some of the other caravan parks we've stayed at.
5. THERE'S NO WHERE TO HANG A HAMMOCK
You're not allowed to hang a hammock across a creek in a caravan park. Actually, there are many, many rules and restrictions in place. Sometimes, you worry if you can loudly fart after 10pm without a possible complaint from a site in the next lane over!
6. SITES ARE VERY COSY
We found we don't like being jammed into an allocated spot. It's just not our style. Refer to previous point about loud farts. Not that I am the guilty one, just thinking about others.
7. YOU CAN GET A BETTER DEAL WITHOUT FLASHING YOUR CARD
You can sometimes get a better deal if you simply ring the park directly. I found this out the hard way, after booking online to take advantage of a "Pay 3, Stay 4 nights" deal, I discovered I could have rung the park directly and received an unadvertised "Kids Stay Free" deal which would have saved us a further $40.
8. THE UNSUNG HEROS - SHOWGROUNDS
Showgrounds and race courses offer a safe place to park your van and explore a town or nearby National Park. Most of them are dog friendly and the space provided seems more generous than caravan parks. Usually, caravans, tents and vans aren't parked within arms reach of each other. The caretakers are usually fellow travellers and offer personalised advice on what to discover in the area. They don't have all the bells and whistles like swimming pools, but they do offer a convenient location at a discounted price.
9. YOU CAMPS!
The blissful discovery of YouCamps! We love the concept so much, that we could see ourselves becoming YouCamp hosts ourselves someday. We've been bush camping on private acreages on the East Coast in some incredible places at the fraction of the cost of being jammed in to a caravan park.
We've had the pleasure of staying at three YouCamps in Queensland. A passion fruit farm near Babinda, just south of Cairns, a horse property near Airlie Beach, the gateway to The Whitsundays and in the back paddock of a unique property offering bungalow accommodation on the edge of Byfield National Park, near Yeppoon. The most we have paid per night is $20 for our whole family and the dog.
The hosts we've met have been incredibly friendly, full of local knowledge and have a passion for supporting travellers. These are everyday people inviting guests to share their land and it's a pretty special feeling.
10. STATION STAYS!
Station Stays offer a unique perspective on farming life in Australia's Outback. Some offer camping for as little as $10 for a site and some offer a free stay in exchange for you lending a hand around the farm. An amazing experience for every member of the family and we have enjoyed all of our station stays so far.
11. FREE, LOW COST, DONATION.
Free, low cost and pay by donation camping. When we just need to bunker down for a few days and make a solid effort with school work, we love to stay at free camps. Distance Education involves a huge workload for the kids and supervisors (us), and free camping provides a stress free environment to get the job done. They are often in locations that are a little off the beaten track (which we love), have incredible surroundings (like beachfront or secluded bush) and we meet loads of like minded "free spirits".
Travellers using these low cost camping area are usually full time travellers and share lots of information about what to see and do around the region and talk about the must see's all around Australia. If you're set up for off grid living like we are, don't be afraid to give these places a go. We chose these places based on location and also sussed out the "vibe" before setting up. There were places where we just kept driving because we could tell the midges and sandflies would be horrendous (visualise mangrove trees and mud), it was too crowded or we just didn't get a good vibe about the camping area.
To be completely honest, staying at free camps with our dog was an easy decision for us. He was an exceptional guard dog and we never worried about our safety while he was with us.
12. HOUSE SITTING
While we haven't yet ventured into the world of house sitting, it is an option that is on our radar for 2019. House sitting involves taking care of someone's property and/or animals while the owners go on their holidays. The house sitter gets free accomodation and the house owners get piece of mind that their home and animals are being well cared for.
13. STATE FORESTS.
Mostly set amongst pine trees, not gum trees, State Forests allow dogs and therefore us. To some people they are spooky places, but we love the sound of the wind in the pine trees.
14. NATIONAL PARKS AND CONSERVATION PARKS
Clearly, most National Parks are not domestic pet friendly so we rarely stayed in them. We did take advantage of plenty of Conservation areas that do allow pets and they provided some brilliant bush camping experiences.
14. LESS PEOPLE = MORE CHATS
People who love to go bush camping are a different tribe. They are there to escape the crowds and their city lifestyle. They don't mind a little dirt between their toes and they just love a good camp fire. A daily shower is optional and no one cares if you haven't washed your hair for a week. They want to get back to nature, be around real rainforests, experience the remote outback and share yarns around a fire. The less people there are around, the more everyone talks to each other. Crazy observation there, I know, but this is what we have experienced. And we do love a chat!
ARE YOU SURPRISED?
We have definitely surprised ourselves by not utilising our discount membership cards for a whole year of travel. It certainly wasn't intentional! We are more than happy to stay in caravan and holiday parks but they do need to reconsider their pricing structure if they plan to remain a family favourite.
Holiday Parks are brilliant for a holiday, but full time travellers can and should experience all types of stays.
Now you know the reasons why so far we haven't had the chance to use our membership cards to grab a discount at a caravan park! We still hope to some day though!
X Mia
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