How to Camp on a Budget in the UK: Cheap Pitches, Kit and Food
· Updated
You can camp comfortably in Britain for less than the price of a takeaway. A basic farm field or a certificated site charges roughly £10 to £15 a night for two people and a tent, kit bought second-hand or borrowed costs a fraction of new, and cooking your own food turns a pricey weekend into a cheap one. Get those three things right and a two-night trip comes in under £60 all in.
The trick is knowing where the money actually goes. Most of a camping budget disappears into three places: the pitch, the gear and the fuel to get there. This guide deals with each in turn, with real UK prices, so you spend on the trip rather than on the setup.
It is part of our wider guide to planning your first camping trip, from Camping Sites in Britain, where you can find and compare campsites, caravan parks and glamping right across the UK.
The cheapest places to pitch a tent
The single biggest saving is the pitch itself. A big commercial holiday park with a pool and a bar can charge £30 to £50 a night in high summer, while a basic farm field or a members' certificated site does the same job for a third of that. You are paying for facilities you may not use, so the first question is how little you actually need.
| Type of site | Typical price per night | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Wild camping (where legal) | Free | Nothing. You carry everything in and out |
| Basic farm or campsite field | £8 to £15 | A flat pitch, water tap, often a basic toilet |
| CL and CS certificated sites | £10 to £20 | Small five-van sites, quiet, water and waste, sometimes electric |
| Club campsites | £15 to £30 | Toilets, showers, hardstanding, wardens |
| Commercial holiday park | £30 to £50 | Pool, shop, bar, entertainment, full facilities |
Certificated sites are the budget camper's secret
Certificated Locations (CLs) and Certificated Sites (CSs) are small, member-only sites limited to five caravans or motorhomes plus a handful of tents, run on farms and in gardens across the country. There are more than 2,000 of them through the Caravan and Motorhome Club and a similar network through the Camping and Caravanning Club, and they are consistently the best value proper pitches in Britain, usually £10 to £18 a night.
You need to be a club member to use them, which costs around £50 to £60 a year, but the saving over commercial parks pays that back in three or four nights. They tend to be quiet, rural and adult-friendly, with a tap and a chemical waste point rather than a pool and an arcade. For a couple who camp a few weekends a year, this is the cheapest reliable way to pitch.
Basic farm and independent sites
Plenty of independent farm sites never join a club and simply charge £8 to £15 for a pitch, cash in an honesty box or paid at the door. Facilities are minimal, often a cold tap and a portaloo, so bring your own everything and read our tips on maintaining personal hygiene while camping before you book a site with no showers. Search our directory of campsites across Britain and filter for the simpler, cheaper sites rather than the resort parks.
Wild camping: free, but only where it is legal
Wild camping is free, and in a few places it is a legal right, but almost everywhere in England and Wales you need the landowner's permission first. This is the part budget guides get wrong, so be clear on the rules before you rely on it.
- Dartmoor is the one place in England where you can wild camp without asking. The UK Supreme Court confirmed that right on 21 May 2025. Backpack camping only, away from roads, and follow the national park's camping map.
- Scotland allows responsible wild camping almost everywhere under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 and the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. Note the byelaw permit zones around Loch Lomond that apply from 1 March to 30 September.
- Everywhere else in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, you need the landowner's permission. Some upland areas quietly tolerate a discreet, one-night, leave-no-trace pitch high on the fells, but that is tolerance, not a right.
Wherever you pitch wild, arrive late, leave early, take every scrap of rubbish home and follow the Countryside Code or the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. The Highlands are the classic free-pitching destination, and you can pair a wild night with a cheap site nearby from our Highlands campsite listings. The primary source for the Dartmoor position is the Dartmoor National Park camping map and rules.
Kit for next to nothing
You do not need to spend £500 on gear to camp. The cheapest kit is the kit you already have, borrow or buy used, and the gap between a budget tent and a premium one matters far less than people selling premium tents would like.
Borrow first, buy second
Before you spend a penny, ask around. Most people who camp own a spare tent, a couple of sleeping bags and a stove gathering dust in the loft, and will lend them gladly for a weekend. Borrowing lets you try camping before you commit, and if you decide it is for you, you then know exactly what to buy.
Buy second-hand
Used camping gear is everywhere and it is cheap, because plenty of people buy a full setup, use it twice and sell it on. Facebook Marketplace, eBay, car boot sales and charity shops routinely list good tents for £20 to £40, sleeping bags for £5 to £15 and camping stoves for a few pounds. Check tent poles for cracks, zips for wear and that all the pegs and the flysheet are there before you hand over cash.
Budget supermarket and outdoor gear
If you buy new, buy sensibly. You do not need a mountaineering tent for a weekend in a Devon field. The budget-friendly outdoor shops cover everything a summer camper needs:
- Decathlon is the standout for value. Its own-brand Quechua tents start around £30 to £50, and the two-second pop-up tents and £5 to £10 accessories are hard to beat.
- Go Outdoors runs frequent sales and a discount card, with own-brand Hi Gear tents, sleeping bags and camp furniture often heavily reduced in and out of season.
- Aldi and Lidl run their specialbuys camping ranges each spring, with tents, chairs, stoves, cool boxes and airbeds at low prices for a week or two, then gone. Watch the weekly leaflets from around April.
Prioritise a decent sleeping mat and a warm sleeping bag over a fancy tent, because a cold, sleepless night is what actually ends trips early. For the full list of what genuinely earns its place in the bag, see our pre-camping checklist and the common mistakes to avoid.
Book off-peak and midweek
The exact same pitch costs far more on an August bank holiday than on a Tuesday in May. Site prices swing with demand, so shifting your dates is the easiest saving on this page that costs you nothing.
- Go midweek. Many sites charge less Monday to Thursday, and some quote a lower nightly rate for a three or four-night midweek stay than for a two-night weekend.
- Avoid school holidays. Late May to mid July and September are warm, cheaper and far quieter than the six-week summer holiday. September in particular offers summer-ish weather at spring prices.
- Book direct and ask. Small sites often do not advertise their best rate. A quick phone call asking about a longer stay or a quiet-week discount frequently beats the online price.
- Share the pitch. Splitting a group pitch or two adjacent pitches between friends brings the per-person cost right down. Our guide to planning a camping trip with friends covers how to split sites and kit fairly.
Cook your own food
Eating out is where a cheap trip quietly becomes an expensive one. Two pub meals a day for a family will cost more than the pitch, the fuel and the gear put together, so a stove and a cool box are the highest-value kit you can pack.
A simple two-burner gas stove or even a single-burner £10 setup lets you cook proper meals for a few pounds a head. Plan cheap one-pot food that stores well: pasta and a jar of sauce, sausages and beans, a chilli made at home and reheated, porridge and instant coffee for breakfast. Buy your supplies at a supermarket before you arrive rather than the site shop, where a pint of milk and a loaf carry a captive-audience markup.
- Freeze a couple of meals at home and let them thaw in the cool box, which doubles as an ice block.
- Take a flask. A flask of hot water saves relighting the stove for every brew.
- Fill water bottles before you leave rather than buying bottled water on the road.
- Pack tea, coffee, sugar and cooking oil from the cupboard rather than buying travel-size versions.
Travel light and save on fuel
Fuel is the hidden cost of camping, and the two levers are distance and weight. Camping closer to home is the obvious one, and a good site two hours away almost always beats a famous one five hours away once you count the fuel both ways.
Weight and drag matter more than people think. A fully loaded car with a roof box or roof-mounted tent burns noticeably more fuel than a tidy boot, because the extra weight and the wind resistance both work against you. Pack only what you need, keep heavy loads low in the boot rather than on the roof, and you will feel it at the pump on a long drive. Our guide to a successful car camping trip covers loading the car and keeping the setup simple. Sharing the drive and splitting fuel with another family halves this cost outright.
What a cheap weekend actually costs
Here is a realistic budget for two people camping two nights, assuming you already own or have borrowed the basic kit.
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Pitch, two nights at a certificated or farm site | £24 to £30 |
| Food and drink, self-catered for two | £20 to £30 |
| Gas for the stove | £3 to £5 |
| Fuel, a site within two hours | £15 to £25 |
| Total | £62 to £90 |
Swap the paid pitch for a legal wild camp in the Highlands or on Dartmoor and the total drops well under £60. Compared with a hotel or a holiday park cabin, that is a weekend away for the price of a single night indoors.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to camp for a night in the UK?
A basic farm field or certificated site costs roughly £10 to £15 a night for two people and a tent. Club campsites run £15 to £30, and full commercial holiday parks charge £30 to £50 in high summer. Wild camping, where it is legal, is free.
What is the cheapest way to go camping?
Borrow or buy your kit second-hand, pitch at a certificated or basic farm site for around £10 to £15 a night, cook your own food on a camping stove, and camp midweek and off-peak close to home to cut the fuel. That keeps a two-night trip under £90 for two.
Where can I camp for free in the UK?
Legally free wild camping is limited. You can wild camp on Dartmoor as a right confirmed by the Supreme Court in May 2025, and across most of Scotland under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. Everywhere else you need the landowner's permission first.
Is it cheaper to buy or borrow camping gear?
Borrow first if you can, since it costs nothing and lets you try camping before committing. If you must buy, second-hand tents cost £20 to £40 against £100 or more new, and budget shops like Decathlon sell perfectly good new tents from around £30 to £50.
When is the cheapest time to go camping in the UK?
Midweek and outside the school summer holidays. Late May, June and September offer warm, quiet camping at lower rates, while the July and August peak and bank holiday weekends carry the highest prices and the biggest crowds.
Do you need to be a member to use CL or CS sites?
Yes. Certificated Locations and Certificated Sites are for members of the Caravan and Motorhome Club or the Camping and Caravanning Club. Membership costs around £50 to £60 a year and pays for itself within a few nights through cheaper, quieter pitches.
The short version
Camping is one of the cheapest holidays going once you stop paying for facilities you will not use. Pitch at a certificated or farm site for £10 to £15, borrow or buy your kit used, cook your own food, and go midweek somewhere close to home.
Get those four things right and a weekend away costs less than a single night in a hotel. Start by browsing campsites across Britain, or read the full guide to planning your first camping trip.
