cornwall is much the same when the kids are off but you eventually get to know the £10 a night sites mid August
Ahhh- Tristram Campsite. I agree - such a great spot but was sooo expensive last time I looked I haven't considered it since. There are literally hoards of public school kids there in the summer, all with their shirt collars turned up like some kind of idiot uniform.
This sounds familiar - only stayed at and caravan and camping site once. We were advised by the obligatory fool on a quad that our awning was in the wrong position - I said nothing but I think my expression said it all. The awning stayed.
My camping rip off story is the time we were following the Tour de France - we paid £145 to camp in the car park of Ilkley Lawn Tennis Club when the Tour came through. In Ilkley that night we went to an Indian where you could only have the set 'three course meal' for £25 a pop - course 1 was a Poppadum, 2 was an onion baji and 3 was a veggie curry with boiled rice. Later, in the Pyrenees, we stopped at a beautiful little site overlooking the tour route which charged us 3€ for the site 2€ for us and the dog went free