Hi everybody, Just discovered this site. What a great idea. I'm new to this travelling game and just wondered if anyone out there has some advice for me on caravan parks. I'm keen to do 'The Big One' in six months or so and am obviously keen to keep costs down as much as possible. I've been a bit shocked by how much the parks cost!! How do you find cheap ones? How do you know what's a good park before you check in? What do you look for? Is it worth joining these Big 4 or Top Tourist Park clubs? Any advice would be helpful. Thanks. Happy trails.
I've found the book "Camping in Australia" by Cathy Savage and Craig Lewis to be very helpful. It lists cheap and free campsites which include both caravan parks and bush sites. We started out by staying in caravan parks mainly, but now we prefer 'bush' camping as we have more of our own space and also we save a lot of money!
We (myself and my wife Sarah) have been on the road for about four months now and had the same thought when we first hit the road - the cost was a surprise. But there are a fair number of free ones out there when you start looking. And we found the free ones were, in fact, the best. It's a generalisation but pay sites tend to be reasonably busy with a few facilities whereas the free ones tend to be more out of the way and consequently quieter. And don't expect much in the way of facilities - but then that's half the fun if you ask me! Don't know where you're heading but one of the best free ones we discovered was half way between Kununurra and Wyndham in WA. It was called Mambi Island next to the River Ord - a fabulous spot.
We tend to have a quick look at a site before paying. You can get an idea of the place pretty quickly. Let us know us you get on mate.
Regarding your querie on chain memberships: I have the feeling that Big 4 is the dearest chain, one of the requirements for park membershipis that they have a pool. Top tourist are excellent parks and on the average seem to cost less than B4. Family Parks of Australia (FPA) tend to be basic good value parks. Of course you will get large variations in each chain.
Check out http://www.big4.com.au/ http://www.familyparks.com.au/ and www.toptouristparks.com.au/ . Each website contains maps of where the member parks are situated. From these it will allow you to calculate if there is any membership benefit by looking at the number of parks there is in your intended tour.
Regards PeterD
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PeterD Nissan Navara D23 diesel auto, Spaceland pop-top Retired radio and electronics technician. NSW Central Coast.
