Camping in Chester

Chester itself is a tight walled city with no campsite inside it, but the Cheshire Plain that surrounds it is dotted with touring parks, and several sit within a few miles of the centre. The terrain is the defining feature: this is low, flat, well-drained farmland broken by the sandstone ridge that carries the Sandstone Trail south from Frodsham. Pitching is easy, levelling is rarely a problem, and none of the approaches involve the kind of single-track lanes that make Wales or the Lakes stressful in a large outfit.

The soil is the catch. Much of the plain is heavy clay, which means grass pitches can stay soft well into May and turn quickly after a wet spell in late summer. If you are touring outside the peak months, or if your outfit is heavy, book a hardstanding. Several sites near Chester are hardstanding-only for exactly this reason, and the Caravan and Motorhome Club site north of the city is almost entirely gravel.

Weather is kinder here than the reputation of the north-west suggests. Chester sits in the rain shadow of the Welsh hills and records noticeably less rainfall than Snowdonia an hour to the west. Summers are mild rather than hot, and the sheltered inland position means far less wind than the Wirral coast. Midges are not the problem they are in Scotland, though canal-side pitches attract mosquitoes on still July evenings.

On the legal side, wild camping is not permitted in England without the landowner's express consent, and there is no equivalent of the Scottish access rights. Cheshire is intensively farmed and almost entirely private, so plan on a booked pitch. The practical season runs from Easter to the end of October, with most independent parks licensed from mid-March to late October and only the club sites open year round. May, June and September are the best combination of firm ground, long days and space to pitch, while August books out around the zoo and the racecourse calendar.