Hi everyone, I havent posted for quite a while as we havent been using our van, weve been doing baby grand child sitting and providing taxi services for them as well. So now that all that has finished weve ordered a new van( please dont mention trading in or selling our old van, what a nightmare) and intend to start travelling again. Apart from short local ish trips we want to go to WA and explore that wonderful state. My question is does one have to book ahead for caravan parks or is it ok to just rock up and hope for the best? I believe we may have to book. What do you guys do? Symbol wont do free camping any more.
We visited SW WA in Feb-Mar 2024, leaving just before Easter (crossed the Nullarbor during Easter). More than one or two days notice was required for coastal van parks which we preferred then. Maybe at least a week. At the time, Albany was really full and one needs to be careful regarding free camping in that district. We could not get an opening there. We visited there as a day trip from Denmark. First weekend of March is long weekend and I reckon any coastal sites would already be booked. We observed long queues of vans and trailers heading towards Perth on the Monday of the long weekend.
inland parks could be booked at less notice.
-- Edited by watsea on Sunday 7th of December 2025 09:32:26 PM
Hi Ashley,
It depends on the time of the year that you plan to travel & the towns you wish to stay in. We try not to travel in the school holidays but sometimes it's unavoidable.
I generally ask my wife to call ahead at about 2-3pm on the day if we're looking for a powered site at most places UNLESS you're planning on staying at popular (& expensive) places such as Broome, Darwin, Canberra, Warrnambool, Birdsville, etc. However these places can be avoided if you do your homework well & use an up-to-date reference book, app. As watsea mentioned you may have to have a booking period of 1, 2 days or a week.
__________________
Warren
----------------
If you don't get it done today, there's always tomorrow!