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If you stay in free and low cost camp sites and camp grounds when you travel, then CAMPS 12 is the book for you!
You can choose the Easy-to-Read version with photos of camping sites and larger maps or the Standard A4 edition without photos.
To find out more and shop our Camps 12 travel guides visit our shop here: https://shop.campsaustraliawide.com/collections/camps-travel-guides
If you mostly stay in Caravan Parks when you travel, then our Caravan Parks 6 book is the publication for you!
Caravan Parks 6 is Australia’s most comprehensive Caravan Park book which includes over 2230+ verified caravan parks – it also includes pet friendly sites and public dump points so you can always find the right caravan park for you.
Find out more and shop our Caravan Parks 6 travel guide here: https://shop.campsaustraliawide.com/collections/travel-guides/products/caravan-parks-australia-wide-6th-edition
If you stay in both campsites and caravan parks, then you can choose from a CAMPS Pendium or a travel pack.
A travel pack includes both the Camps 12 book (free and budget sites) and the Caravan Parks 6 book (Australia’s most comprehensive Caravan Park book). With both these publications you will have all the information you need no matter what site type you stay at.
You can shop our travel packs here: https://shop.campsaustraliawide.com/collections/travel-packs
The CAMPS Pendium includes all sites from Camps 11 and Caravan Parks 6 books, plus extra sites not previously published, and is split into 7 separate state guides. CAMPS Pendium features 6273 sites and is available only in the “Easy to Read” size with larger maps and photos. Being stitched and bound, it means that these lighter, individual state guides can lay flat on your lap or table.
Find out more and shop our CAMPS Pendium travel guide here:
Heatley Gilmore here, owner of Camps Australia Wide. Using the app, or books or both app and books is totally a personal choice!
I like having the flexibility of both when we hit the road. For me, even though I LOVE our App, nothing beats a paper map to follow when I travel. Although you can download maps on the App to work offline, the books are an excellent back-up.
How do we use both the App and the Book when travelling?
We search the book for our proposed route and sites, then find out more about each site or any changes from the App. Or filter the sites you like on the App and then plan the trip using the book – they work hand in hand. Some couples tell us he likes the App, she uses the book, or vice versa, so between them all is seamless.
Find a site you like from the App and if you have the book, you can use the Hema co-ordinates to find it in the book. Once you have found the site on the map pages in the book, you can go to the listings page and at a glance, check out all the other sites in the area. If you have the B4 book with images of camp sites you can visualise all the sites in the area, on one page. It means decision making is easy.
Other customers who have a Sat Nav, also say the books have rescued them – as Sat Navs don’t always take you the best or easiest route.
The app and Sat Nav may take you to your destination, but the map pages give you more information, you may not find out on the screen – a stop off the beaten track, a walk, or water hole…
The books we see have years of notes in them on different sites, owners and other travellers they have chatted to have added things to see/do when they are in the area – some with contact details of people they have met along the way. We can’t come close to this with an App. The books end up being just as important to travellers as their photos, as a memento of their adventures.
PS If you have kids – CAMPS becomes their companion when they travel. They can help decide where to stop for the night, add up distances between stops, or towns. They can learn so much with the CAMPS maps – it improves spatial thinking – their interaction with our world, reading skills and gives them perspective on just how big our country is!
Find out more in our blog article here.
The app has all the information in your CAMPS 12 listing plus more information (that we can’t fit into a book on the site or area), extra photos, reviews of the site, a trip planner, access to newsletters and blog, and the ability to highlight favourite sites. The App includes all the sites in both the CAMPS 12, CARAVAN PARKS 6 book, as well as the dump points. It also has more recently added sites, and extra sites (like walk-in campgrounds where you can’t have an RV there), or individual camping areas in some National Parks, for instance.
It also guides you to the location as you are driving.
Of course, the book has the paper maps, and listings – and it is easy to compare sites on one page. You can highlight your travels with a marker, and write notes near your favourite sites in the books. Books and the maps are also so useful for planning trips.
The Camps teams travel with both. This article may assist: https://www.campsaustraliawide.com/what-benefit-is-there-to-owning-the-books-when-you-already-have-our-app/
We publish a new Camps book every 2 years or so, so it’s already been 7 years since Camps 9 was published – so as you can imagine there are a lot of changes with each new edition!
We added another 950 sites between Camps 9 and 10 alone. More added each edition, and well as updates, changes – dump points etc.
A big difference with Camps 12 are the new symbols so you can tell the difference between a farmstay or national park, a paid site or showground, a pub vs an RV park – as well as a whole lot of new symbols like playground, natural swimming options, 4WD only, pet seasonal, fishing, games rooms, gas, generators…
As well as new symbols in the site listings – a huge difference for CAMPS 12 compared to earlier editions is you can see easily on our maps which sites are pet friendly or not, and which have dump points.
Our customers tell us they get the money back in just 2 or 3 nights on the road. Also you can receive our fortnightly newsletter for free, and Camps 12 book purchasers receive a discounted CAMPS+ app subscription.
To shop the latest visit our shop here.
Definitely! The only camps that aren’t listed in the Camps 12 guide book and App are walk-in campsites – where you cannot camp beside your vehicle. Most sites are suitable for every type of camping.
Our list of sites suitable for only 4WD, roof top tents, camper trailers and regular tents is growing every week.
Please note if you see a site listed with Self Contained Vehicle Only – it currently means only vehicles that are fully self-contained with respect to shower, toilet, washing, cooking, sleeping facilities and that have holding tanks for toilet waste and sullage plus are water sufficient for at least 48 hours’ use by the occupants. These sites generally only have symbols for motorhomes and/or caravans.
Yes! You can purchase our GPS POI Downloads which correspond with our latest books and include the latest sites.
Our GPS POI Downloads are compatible with all the main brands of navigators. Visit our shop here to find the right download for your vehicle or GPS device: https://shop.campsaustraliawide.com/pages/gps-poi
The Camps book is aimed at “Freedom and Budget Camping”, this includes free and donation camp sites, low cost fee campsites, rest areas that allow overnight parking, National and State parks, community hall, recreation ground and showground camping, hotel and pub camping, farm and station stays, and RV parks plus caravan parks if they are low cost council parks and smaller remote town parks that were under $25.00 per night for a powered site when we went to print.
The Caravan Parks book lists only caravan parks no matter what the cost.
Shop our Camps book here in our Shop.
And our Caravan Parks book here.
The Easy to Read B4 book is approximately 25% bigger and weighs approximately 700g more. The B4 size is 25cm wide x 35.3cm tall. This means the maps are larger and easier to read, and it also includes photographs of the majority of sites. This gives you a visual perception of the location and helps you compare sites and choose where to stay!
The Standard A4 book has identical maps and text, however at an A4 size of 21cm wide by 29.7cm tall is smaller. The A4 book also doesn’t have photos for the sites which keeps the book lighter and thinner.
You can shop the Camps 12 Easy to Read B4 Guidebook here
The ethos behind the Camps book is “Freedom and Budget Camping”, so only sites that are less than $25 per night are in the book.
Some caravan parks can fall within that price band and are therefore in the book, but a lot can be more expensive, especially city and coastal locations, so they are not in the Camps book, they are in our Caravan Park Book.
You can browse our Camps books here in our Shop.
However our Caravan Park book, lists all caravan parks regardless of price. See it here: https://shop.campsaustraliawide.com/products/caravan-parks-australia-wide-6th-edition
If you like to stay in both freedom and budget camps and caravan parks – we recommend you purchase one of our Travel Packs here:
Or our CAMPS Pendium here:
There are however, some remote parks and stations that we do list with a $+ symbol in the Camps book. This is either because there is no other choice in that location or the facility is unique.
Each edition is published approximately every two years. Camps 12 was published in January 2023. Caravan Parks 6 came out November 2021.
You can buy directly from our Shop, or over the phone (07 5474 2542). If you like we can add your email address to our fortnightly newsletters, where announcements will be made closer to the release.
We currently have hard-covers for Camps 12 Easy to Read B4 book and soft-covers for Caravan Parks 6 books and Camps 12 Standard A4 books. They are of good quality, durable and are spiral bound to ensure they last you on your travels.
The CAMPS Pendium has a soft-cover B4 size and is stitched and bound to lay flat.
With our current print costs and all the huge amount of other expenses involved, it is not financially viable for us to sell each CAMPS Pendium state book individually.
We considered options extensively prior to production and release.
Join our newsletter here to receive a discount code so that the CAMPS Pendium will only cost a few dollars more than the Premium Travel Pack. Added value included in our new books are the discounted CAMPS+ Premium App subscription with purchase.
Our new CAMPS Pendium is a different product and meets different customer needs compared to our other guides.
I still love and use my CAMPS 12/Parks book every day!
Read here for more detail on how each guide meets your needs.
Changes are bound to occur, especially over time after each book’s release. There are three ways you can access updates for your book.
Using the Update Service
From the Update page found here: https://www.campsaustraliawide.com/update-service/
Then select ‘Update my Travel Guide’ button, this will open a blank page with headings. Here select the edition of the book you have (updates are available for the current edition book and the previous book) and the state you want to update, then a date range or leave blank if you are updating for the first time, this will then give you all the current updates. Then hit ‘search’. The updates then are loaded into the page.
From here you can then print them or print as a PDF.
We usually recommend to people that they record the date they last printed the updates then next time they can put this date into the ‘from’ box in the search and just get the updates from that date instead of everything again.
Follow in the instructions from the “3 Easy ways to update your book” page in the introduction pages of your book.
NOTE: Names of sites may change over time. As the updates are automated, we no longer use abbreviations. If the Print button is obscured, simply use the scroll bar to reveal it.
The updates stay current for a CAMPS 11 book for a period of 4 years from release date (and 2 years for the Caravan Parks 6 book and CAMPS 12 book). CAMPS 10 was released in February 2019, that was now 5 years ago.
Please don’t worry, you can still check updates for those sites via CAMPS 12 (or 11) – as sites are also listed by site name and names do not change much. Best of all, the App is the most convenient way to search for changes, and will always be the most up to date version. Instead of seeing the main changes to a site on the website – the App will show you all changes, plus a load of new symbols that have only been introduced into CAMPS 11 onwards.
In addition, our free email newsletter regularly includes site information – please send us your email address and name, and we’ll add you to the list. Our socials on Facebook, Instagram, and the Facebook group ‘I Love Camping Australia Wide’ will also help keep you up to date.
As a new book is only released every 2 years (approximately) there are always changes to listings during that time and we also add new sites and delete closed and unsuitable sites. As the format of the numbers follows along a highway route, when we come to printing the next edition the numbers all have to be realigned to accommodate these changes.
Please read the ‘Legend’ page in the introductory pages of each book. There is also a full and correct list of symbols at the very back of the book and inside cover in CAMPS, for easy reference.
If you also use the App, there are helpful tool tips explaining each facility or amenity on a Site listing page. Simply tap the icon and the name of that symbol will be revealed. The Map & Site Symbol Key page can also be found in the main menu on the Home tab.
GPS stands for Global Positioning System. Using signals provided from satellites users are able to determine reliable positioning & navigation.
There are 3 common GPS coordinate display formats:
The Camps Australia Wide & Caravan Parks Australia Wide books use Lat./ Long –minutes-seconds, or DMS ( dd mm ss ). Generally you will find that most GPS units have the above three settings, so if you want to input our GPS coordinates for a site into your GPS you must have the right setting selected. Entering our coordinates into another setting will result in incorrect directions and you will not access the correct site.
Camps Australia Wide site Point of Interest (POI) files have been created for some of the popular GPS brands, which will display campsites from our database which are easily searched for by name that corresponds to the App and your guidebook. For information on POI’s see here. As always take care when following directions from your GPS, as they tend to want to take short cuts, so use common sense when following the directions given.
Under the ‘Legend’ page in each book, please read the information under the Pets symbol:
“Call ahead to confirm that your pet is welcome. A fee and/or bond, limits on animal sizes and breeds, or numbers of pets may apply. As a general rule keep pets on a lead or contained, never leave them unattended and always clean up after your pet!”
Every entry is verified for each edition. Caravan Park owners are not always aware it is us calling, and we use their websites to check accuracy also.
Thank you for letting us know, so we can change the listing. Although the books are published every two years or so – we do change our App and highlight important changes to sites on our website (and pet friendly symbol is something that we do alert people to changes) – see updating this book, in the early pages of your book.
Please ask to receive our newsletter list if you are not receiving them already, it is another way we let people know about new sites.
We do our utmost to keep CAMPS accurate – which is why it is so popular.
Every caravan park provides minimum facilities like toilets and a laundry. Just like we did not include toilets or water in the CP book, we don’t include laundry symbols. See the introduction on the Legend Page – p10.
Of course, these are in the Camps Australia Wide App, because facility symbols need to be consistent across all sites.
If there is an odd caravan park without a laundry, this information should be written in the description.
Your GPS may be set to the wrong setting if it is doing this for every site, please refer to About this Guide page in the introduction pages of your book for the GPS Information.
Basically, there are 3 common GPS coordinate display formats. The Camps Australia Wide & Caravan Parks Australia Wide books use Lat./ Long –minutes-seconds, or DMS ( ddd mm ss ).
Generally, you will find that most GPS units have different settings to choose from, so if you want to input our GPS coordinates for a site into your GPS you must have the right setting selected. Entering our coordinates into another setting will result in incorrect directions and you will not access the correct site. You will need to access the menu of your GPS to find and select (ddd mm ss) which is the correct setting.
Alternatively, instead of manually inputting the GPS coordinates each time you could purchase the GPS POI file.
Sites are now available to be searched for by name and not site number, meaning that you can use your current guide and still use the POI’s for your travels.
The latest GPS POI files are available in our shop here.
There select the GPS type you have and then it will display the models that the POI upload is available for. Click on the one you want to purchase and the type of computer you have (Mac or PC) and then follow the purchase process.
Our system will then send the file via email to the customer, it is very important that you read the instructions first before they attempt to upload the file to your GPS unit.
Unfortunately, once an edition is out of print, the corresponding POI is no longer stocked. The only POI available now is CAMPS 12 (it also includes CARAVAN PARKS 6 and updates every 6 months).
Here are the POIs that are available for your sat nav from our website:
We love feedback and updates about the sites in our books and app. Any changes you suggest benefit all travellers using our products. To suggest an update or provide feedback, you can use:-
Our publication relies on consumer feedback to maintain accuracy and development. Any information, no matter how small, can be sent to us and is most appreciated.
We love getting new site suggestions for our books and app. Any new sites you recommend benefit all travellers using our products. To suggest a new listing, you can use:-
Our publication relies on consumer feedback to maintain accuracy and development. Any information, no matter how small, can be sent to us and is most appreciated.
Your might want to check out our Ordering, Shipping & Returns FAQs here if you have a questions about an order or if you are still stuck, get in touch with us below, we’re always here to help.
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