Camping for the Cheltenham Festival and Race Meetings

Cheltenham Racecourse sits under Cleeve Hill on the northern edge of the town, and for four days each March the Cheltenham Festival fills it with the biggest crowds in jump racing. Hotel prices in the town multiply for that week. The racecourse also has meetings from autumn to spring, and the town runs its own jazz, science, music and literature festivals through the year. Camping and touring are a realistic way to stay for any of them, with one important caution about the season. The full list is on our Cheltenham camping page.

March is early for camping

The Festival falls in mid-March, before many campsites open for the season, and it can be cold and wet. Check opening dates first: a site that looks ideal on the map may not open until Easter. Those that do open are best suited to caravans and motorhomes, or to glamping with heating; hardstanding pitches matter more than usual when fields are soft. For the autumn meetings and the summer festivals in town there is far more choice.

At the racecourse

There is a club site inside Cheltenham Racecourse itself, with pitches looking across the course to the hills. It takes tents, caravans and motorhomes, has electric hook-ups, welcomes dogs and is rated 4.4 from over 350 Google reviews. It operates seasonally and around the racing calendar, so confirm whether it is open for the dates you want.

The closest campsites to Cheltenham

Briarfields Touring Park, between Cheltenham and Gloucester, takes tents, caravans and motorhomes with electric hook-ups and is rated 4.7 from nearly 1,000 reviews. Elmwicke Campsite at Elmstone Hardwicke is a flat, spacious site that takes tents and tourers, allows campfires and welcomes dogs, rated 4.9 from over 300 reviews. Regency Court Park is a family-run touring park on the edge of the Cotswolds.

Glamping

Big Skies Cotswold Glamping is rated 4.9, takes dogs and allows campfires, and Star Glamping is rated 4.8. Glamping with a stove is the comfortable way to do a spring race meeting under canvas.

Towards Winchcombe, Tewkesbury and Gloucester

Hayles Fruit Farm near Winchcombe is a working fruit farm with pitches for tents and tourers, hook-ups and glamping, rated 4.6 from nearly 700 reviews. North of the town, Croft Farm Waterpark near Tewkesbury is a lakeside park with its own bar, rated 4.4 from over 1,000 reviews, and Tewkesbury Abbey Caravan and Motorhome Club Site is beside the abbey in the town centre. On the Severn, The Red Lion Inn Caravan and Camping Park is a riverside pub site, and Gloucester Camping at Court Farm takes tents, caravans and motorhomes.

What to check before booking

Opening dates. The single most important question for March. Getting to the course. Shuttle buses run from the town centre and the railway station on race days; ask the site about taxis, which are in short supply after the last race. Ground conditions. Ask for hardstanding in spring. Race-week pricing and minimum stays. Both apply at the sites that open.

Beyond the racing

Cheltenham is a Regency spa town with good restaurants, Winchcombe is a Cotswold walking centre with Sudeley Castle on its edge, Tewkesbury has its abbey and timbered streets, and Gloucester has the cathedral and the docks.

We have similar guides to camping for Castle Combe Circuit, the Great North Run, Silverstone and Glastonbury Festival.