The Best Weekend Escapes for Campervans ~ Edition 02

Three more places that earned their place on the list.

A modern take on camping. Most campsites sites offer a hook-up and a shower block and consider the job done. The Pitches at Kip & Nook takes a different view. Seven pitches in the Yorkshire countryside, each one designed with the specific pleasures of van life in mind - and three of them come with their own wood-fired hot tub, which changes the vibe considerably when you're trying to find something to do on a Friday evening. The range runs from The Tiny at £40 a night, nearest to the toilets and showers, through to The Buddy and The Albert at £50, up to The Tee's and The Kip at £85 with wood-fired hot tubs, and The Nook at £100 - the flagship pitch with a 7m x 14m footprint and its own sunset viewing area. For those who want to go properly off the grid - The Off Grid pitch - a fully disconnected spot a five-minute walk from the main site, with no electricity, no water, and nothing between you and the landscape but a van window. What makes Kip and Nook worth booking is the facilities. Park up and you're within walking distance of a restaurant and bar with a log burner, ping-pong, pool and darts; a coffee van; a yoga and pilates studio; a sauna and ice plunge room; and a cinema room bookable by the session. New this season: a padel court - bringing one of the world’s fastest-growing sports to this corner of the countryside. Breakfasts are cooked to order - the full K&N or Chef specials. Adults only. Dogs welcome.

Two miles from Shell Island and its golden sandy beaches. Nestled at the foot of the Rhinog mountain range. Seven acres of flat ground positioned so that no matter where you pitch, the sound of the river finds you. Nantcol Waterfalls Campsite operates on the principle that some things do not need improving - a good piece of land, clean water, a campfire, and enough silence to remember what all of it is for. The site has won best campsite in North Wales and is consistently rated among the best in the UK - the kind of recognition that arrives through people coming back, again and again. The owners run the place with the particular warmth of those who understand that hospitality and outdoor life are not in conflict. Campfires are encouraged. The washrooms are first class. There is a launderette, electric hook-ups, and WiFi for those who need it - though the instinct, once you arrive, is to be offline entirely. Beyond pitches, Nantcol offers walks to the waterfalls. Accessible to most, and remarkable enough that guests cite them as the reason they cannot stop returning.

At some point the road south runs out and the Atlantic takes over. Henry's Campsite sits at that exact junction - on the most southerly point of Britain, perched above Caerthillian Valley on the Lizard Peninsula, where the sea views arrive without warning and the sunsets tend to make people stop what they're doing. It is, by geography alone, a place that feels like an endpoint. In the best possible sense. It's a small, family-run site, which shapes everything about the experience. The mild Lizard climate allows plants here that have no business growing this far north -agapanthus, palms, tree ferns - lending the whole site a slightly surreal, elsewhere quality. Pitches are divided by mature hedgerows, each one forming its own semi-private enclosure with electric hook-ups, and a character that makes choosing your spot feel genuinely consequential. A short walk reaches the village centre. Ten minutes on foot brings you to the coastal paths; from there, the trails fan out in every direction along the coast and beaches. The Lizard village does the practical things well: Cornish pasties, fish and chips, a butcher, a few pubs, cream teas, and gift shops. Fresh crab, lobster and shellfish can be bought in the village or at Cadgwith Cove, three miles away. Back on site, the shop stocks everything from gas canisters to tent pegs - and Old Rosie cider, which has apparently been the catalyst for more than a few good evenings. The kind of campsite where you arrive for a long weekend and start pricing up the week.

Editor's note These are places we return to in conversation more than any others - not because they are perfect, but because they each do the thing a weekend away should do: put distance, of a useful kind, between you and whatever was urgent on Thursday. Book early. The good ones fill up fast.