Just camp in my garden: new websites offer private pitches

You’ve done glamping, you’ve tried wild camping, but are you ready to embrace camping in other people’s gardens? A new travel website launching this month may just push more of us to do so, with its collection of pitches on people’s lawns and private land.

About 100 gardens, fields and outdoor spaces in the UK will be available to book from £20 a night on wildpoint.com from the end of July, with more to be added after. More than 4,000 hosts have applied. Hosts must have at least 0.2 hectares (0.5 acres) of space to be selected, provide use of a toilet and will usually greet guests. Some may offer extras such as packed lunches, cooked breakfasts and bundles of firewood.

Gardens are generally large, attractive country affairs, rather than small city lawns, and options include a leafy space in the village of Mickleham in Surrey, within walking distance of two pubs, and one in Yorkshire, where campers will wake to 180-degree views of the North York Moors, Howardian Hills and Yorkshire Dales.

The idea is to provide a liberated experience akin to wild camping, with more privacy than a campsite, but with the reassurance of knowing permission to be there has been arranged in advance. Of course, unlike wild camping this means there is a cost: between £25 and £100 a night.

In what’s set to be another bumper year for UK accommodation providers, all these services are sure to be a valuable extra resource to mine for that elusive holiday availability.