A few years ago, the trend-watchers would have happily sent camping and caravanning holidays the way of the tinned pilchard and string vest. But membership of the UK’s Camping and Caravanning Club has grown: up 44% in the past 10 years and 25% in the past five.

At the same time, the Caravan Club has seen a 33% rise in membership over 12 years and it now represents about 1m caravanners, motor caravanners and trailer-tenters. As air travel becomes ever more unpleasant and we rediscover the attractions of our own country, their ranks will swell.

Not that the kind of families used to the comfort and convenience which hotel living provides will have to rough it. Standards have been rising in response to a more demanding customer profile.

At Ayr Holiday Park in St Ives, Cornwall, for example, the lavatory blocks have mosaic floors and piped music. Most tourers and holiday homes come with double glazing and heating as standard; many have en-suite bathrooms, airy pitched roofs and wrapround verandas.

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• All your tent gear

• How much for a motorhome?

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• First-time campers in Norfolk

BACKGROUND

• All your tent gear

• Girls go mad on a motorhome in Yorkshire

• A novice and his caravan in Dorset

• Why not buy a static caravan or holiday lodge?

Most modern tents are cheap, light, simple to erect and keep you snug all night long, whatever the weather. Even the vocabulary is new: caravans are now tourers, static caravans are holiday homes and camp sites have become holiday and touring parks. About the only thing that hasn’t altered is the scenery: holiday parks were always situated in some of the most beautiful parts of the English countryside, and they still are.

Viscount Coke, 42, of Holkham Hall on the north Norfolk coast, is an enthusiastic caravanner. He is also, as the owner of Pinewoods Holiday Park on his estate at Wells-next-the-Sea, a member of the British Holiday & Home Parks Association (BH&HPA) and president of the Caravan Club.

When he was a child, he and his family used to spend all their holidays under canvas, and often visited his grandmother at her static caravan at Mother Ivey’s Bay in north Cornwall. “We had a whale of a time running about with the other children,” he says. “It’s classless, it’s safe, you are in a family park where lots of the owners know each other and it’s about location, location, location.”

Certainly there are a great many locations to choose from, with 1,400 parks in England, scattered across every rural corner. They come in all types and sizes, from tiny ones offering the simple pleasures of the countryside to huge places with pools, spas, golf courses and family entertainment.

And it’s not just the facilities that have improved. “You might argue that a caravan park despoils the countryside, but most responsible owners are doing something about it,” says Coke, who has 550 holiday homes at Pinewoods, including 12 luxury wooden lodges overlooking Holkham National Nature Reserve.

Landscaping is the key. Coke has planted tens of thousands of plants, trees and shrubs, and has won gold David Bellamy conservation awards for the past seven years.

“Twelve years ago David Bellamy started a scheme to recognise what park owners do to promote biodiversity and create wildlife habitats,“ says Ros Pritchard, director general of the BH&HPA.

Owners are encouraged to develop wildlife trails, children’s activities and wildlife events, and to buy land around their parks when they can, to act as a buffer zone. “Some use the land for golf courses,” says Pritchard. “Others are creating orchards so children can go scrumping without upsetting anybody.”

Scrumping is an autumnal activity but that’s no problem as the holiday park season is getting longer all the time. “The October half-term break is really taking off and Christmas is picking up,” says Pritchard. “People take their mountain bikes, their walking boots and go in all seasons. They eat local food and visit local attractions and gardens.”

It’s not necessarily cheap. “A top-of-the-range holiday home can cost £1,000 a week in August,” says Pritchard. Beginners can buy a tent for under £100 or borrow one, then pay £10-£25 a night for a pitch. These are the people who may move on to a touring caravan when they have children or dogs. Eventually, they might buy a static caravan or a lodge at a holiday park.

“People use static caravans as second homes almost, to get away from the stresses and strains of modern life,” says Coke. “You wake up, open the door and you are in countryside.”

He and his family – wife Polly, 40, and children Minna, 9, Juno, 7, Ned, 4, and Beth, 2 – regularly take off in their tourer, a 1965 22ft Airstream Safari. “It’s fun,” he says. “We take it to caravan parks, music festivals, weddings, big parties.”

To see what 21st-century camping and caravanning has to offer, we sent Sunday Times writers, in a variety of family/friend/partner combos, into the English countryside to experience nights under canvas and the challenge of towing or driving their own holiday accommodation along the byways. They also encountered cosy log cabins and en-suite bathrooms, and chronicle their experiences in this supplement.

Star quality

The BH&HPA works in partnership with the official tourist boards on the star grading scheme. This provides independent annual inspection of park facilities, grading them for overall quality of facilities, cleanliness, service, pitches, groundsmanship, play areas and leisure facilities.

- One star: simple, practical, no frills.

- Two stars: well-presented and well-run.

- Three stars: good level of quality and comfort.

- Four stars: excellent standard.

- Five stars: exceptional, with a degree of luxury.

Even a single star shows the park has passed a 40-point test of its standards. Most parks are in the three- to five-star categories.

The Camping and Caravanning Club, 0845 130 7631, www.campingandcaravanning club.co.uk; the Caravan Club, 01342 326 944, www.caravanclub.co.uk www.enjoyengland.com/quality

Cleaning up

TWELVE years ago the naturalist and green campaigner David Bellamy, right, joined forces with the BH&HPA, the holiday park trade association, to establish a scheme to encourage “sustainable tourism”. More than 550 British camping and caravanning holiday parks have now earned a David Bellamy Conservation Award, following independent audits for environmentally friendly policies and biodiversity achievements. Find the Bellamy-approved sites on the BH&HPA website, www.ukparks.com.

Enjoy England’s Rural Escapes brochure contains top tips to help you explore England’s spectacular coast and countryside. It includes maps, details of family trips, accommodation (from quirky to cosy) and group getaways. Visit www.enjoyengland.com/ruralescapes to order your free brochure for 2008

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