Where to Pitch a Tent: How to Choose the Best Spot
· Updated
The best spot to pitch a tent is level, well drained ground, sheltered from the prevailing wind, with firm soil to take your pegs and nothing dead hanging over it. Get those five things right and the rest of the night tends to look after itself: you sleep flat, you stay dry, and you are not woken at six by the sun or a flapping flysheet.
Most people choose a pitch for the view and regret it by morning. A shallow dip that looks fine in dry weather becomes a puddle overnight, and a pretty spot right by the river is usually the coldest, dampest and most midge-ridden ground on the whole site. Choosing well takes about five minutes of looking before a single peg goes in.
This is part of our guide to planning your first camping trip, from Camping Sites in Britain, where you can find and compare campsites, caravan parks and glamping across the UK.
Start with level ground
Flat ground matters more than any other single factor, because you cannot fix a slope once you are in your sleeping bag. Walk the area and look for the most level patch you can find, then lie down on it before you pitch. Your body will feel a slope your eyes miss completely.
If nowhere is truly flat, pitch so you will sleep with your head slightly uphill and your feet down the slope. Sleeping across a slope means rolling into the tent wall all night, and head-down leaves you waking with a thick head. Point the door downhill too, so any water that does get in runs away from you rather than pooling under your mat.
Avoid dips, hollows and anywhere water collects
Never pitch in a dip, however sheltered it looks, because in British weather it will be the first place to flood. Water runs downhill and gathers in the lowest ground, so a hollow that is bone dry on arrival can hold several centimetres of standing water after one night of rain.
Learn to read the ground for clues. Bright green moss, rushes, reeds and soft spongy turf all mean water sits there regularly. A faint line of twigs or leaf litter shows where run-off has flowed before. Pitch on a slight rise or a gentle, even slope where water drains past you, not through you. Digging a trench around your tent used to be standard advice, but it scars the ground, breaks Leave No Trace and is banned on nearly every managed site, so choose better ground instead.
Read the wind and pitch the strong end into it
Point the lowest, strongest end of the tent into the prevailing wind, and keep the door on the sheltered side. On most tunnel and dome tents the strong end is the tail, where the poles cross or the guy lines are heaviest, and the door is the weak point that catches wind like a sail if it faces the gusts.
In Britain the prevailing wind comes from the south west, but check the forecast and the lie of the land on the day, because valleys and coasts funnel wind their own way. Use solid, permanent windbreaks such as a drystone wall, a thick hedge or a bank, and give them a couple of metres of clearance so you are not in the turbulence that spills over the top. Avoid sheltering under a single tree, which offers little protection and adds a real hazard overhead. If strong weather is genuinely on the way, read our guide to how to secure your tent in high winds before you commit to a spot.
Balance morning sun against afternoon shade
Face the tent door roughly east so the low morning sun hits it, dries the dew off the flysheet and warms you out of bed. A tent pitched in permanent shade stays damp and cold, and packing away a wet flysheet is the least pleasant job in camping.
In a summer heatwave the opposite becomes the priority. Direct sun turns a tent into an oven by nine in the morning, so a pitch that catches early light but falls into afternoon shade gives you the best of both. Our guide on how to keep your tent cool in the summer covers the rest.
Check the ground will hold a peg
Firm, slightly yielding ground is what you want, because your pegs are the only thing keeping the tent up in a blow. Push a peg in by hand before you pitch. If it slides in far too easily the ground is waterlogged or pure sand and will not hold; if it will not go in at all you have hit rock or baked clay and your standard pegs are useless.
Soft turf over firm subsoil is ideal. For loose, sandy or stony ground you need the right hardware, and our guide to selecting the right tent peg for the job explains which shape works where. Clear away sharp stones, cones and twigs from the footprint first, both to protect the groundsheet and to save your back at bedtime.
Look up, and keep your distance
Look directly above the pitch before anything else, because a dead branch is the one hazard that can actually kill you. Foresters call them widowmakers for good reason: a heavy limb can drop in still air, and it will come straight through a flysheet. Never pitch under dead wood, leaning trees or overhead power lines, and be wary of any large branch hanging over where you will sleep.
Then judge your distance from the things that spoil a night rather than end one. The quick version:
| Keep clear of | Why | Rough distance |
|---|---|---|
| Rivers, lakes and streams | Cold, damp air, flood risk and clouds of midges at dawn and dusk | At least 30 metres, and above the high-water line |
| Toilet and shower blocks | Foot traffic, doors banging and smells all night | Two or three pitches away |
| Main paths and gates | People passing your door and headtorches sweeping the tent | Off the through route entirely |
| Floodlights and site lighting | Light through the flysheet all night | Out of the direct beam |
| Roads and car park entrances | Engine noise and headlights at unsociable hours | As far as the site allows |
Water is worth spelling out, because it is where beginners most often go wrong. Being near a tap is convenient; pitching right beside open water is not. Stay close enough to fill a bottle, far enough that you are on dry, breezy ground rather than the cold damp air that settles by a riverbank.
Choosing a pitch on a booked site
On a managed campsite most of the hard work is already done, so your job is picking the best pitch within the rules. If pitches are not marked, arrive early, walk the field before you unload, and apply everything above: level, drained, sheltered, firm, clear overhead and a sensible distance from the toilet block.
Watch the corners and edges. The pitch nobody wants next to the bins or the play area is often quieter than the prime central spot once everyone else arrives. On a first booking it pays to pick a well run site to begin with, and our guide to how to choose the right campsite covers what to look for. When you are ready to book, search and compare sites across the country in the Camping Sites in Britain directory.
Choosing a spot when wild camping
Away from a marked site the same five rules apply, but you carry more responsibility for reading the land and the law. Get permission first: wild camping without the landowner's agreement is only a settled right in England on Dartmoor and, more broadly, in Scotland under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. Our guide to whether you can legally pitch a tent anywhere in the UK sets out where you can and cannot.
Once you have the right to be there, pitch late, leave early and choose ground that will not be damaged. Avoid the valley bottom, where cold air and water both collect, and look for a level shelf a little higher up with firm turf and shelter from the wind. Camp well back from paths and out of sight, and leave no trace that you were ever there.
Frequently asked questions
How far should a tent be from a river or lake?
Keep at least 30 metres from open water and pitch above the obvious high-water line. Riverbanks hold cold, damp air, flood fastest in rain and draw the heaviest clouds of midges at dawn and dusk. Stay close enough to collect water, far enough to sleep on dry, breezy ground.
Should a tent door face into the wind or away from it?
Away from it. Point the low, strong end of the tent, usually the tail, into the prevailing wind and keep the door on the sheltered side. A door facing the wind catches gusts like a sail and lets rain drive straight inside.
Which way should a tent face for morning sun?
Roughly east. An east-facing door catches the low morning sun, which dries the dew off your flysheet and warms the tent early. In a summer heatwave, look instead for a pitch that gets early light but falls into shade by the afternoon.
Is it bad to pitch a tent under a tree?
Yes, in most cases. Trees drop dead branches without warning, drip long after rain has stopped, block the drying morning sun and shed sap, cones and bird mess onto the flysheet. A solid wall or hedge makes a far safer windbreak.
How do you stop a tent flooding?
Choose the pitch, do not dig. Pitch on a slight rise or an even slope so water drains past you, and avoid any dip, hollow or spongy, mossy ground where water clearly collects. Trenching around a tent is banned on most sites and rarely needed if the ground is chosen well.
Where should you never pitch a tent?
Never under dead branches, leaning trees or power lines, in a dip or dry stream bed that can flood, or right on a riverbank. Also avoid the ground beside toilet blocks, gates, main paths and floodlights, which stay noisy or lit all night.
The short version
Spend five minutes looking before you pitch. Find level, well drained ground, put the strong end into the wind and the door towards the morning sun, test that a peg goes in firmly, and check nothing dead hangs overhead. Do that and you have already had a better night than most of the field.
For the rest of the trip, from kit to your first booking, see our guide to planning your first camping trip, or start comparing sites now in the Camping Sites in Britain directory.
