Two weeks into our family camping road trip (number 4!) and we’re camping in the region where Spain’s greatest literary hero, Don Quixote, roamed–from the plains to the mountains of Castile-La Mancha,. From Camping Los Batanes by the emerald green lakes of Ruidera to Camping Caravaning Cuenca, we move our modern gypsy caravan, some 477 kilometers from the highest campground we’ve pitched our family tent on–Camping Trevelez–1,560 meters above sea level in the high Alpujarras of Andalucia . . . Here’s a review in pictures of Camping Cuenca. Big Smile!
After all the pictures we’ve written more helpful descriptions of the campinground for those of you who are planning astay and want to know just a little bit more. Enjoy!
First question. Why are we camped so far away from Cuenca? Because it is the only one near the HANGING GARDENS of CUENCA, 7 kilometers away. Camping Caravaning Cuenca (great SEO-friendly name by the way) is located in the sierranitas de Cuenca. with lots of tall and shadeful trees and greens.
On leg 7 of our fourth family camping, road trip with kids, we moved from the emerald lakes of Camping Los Batanes to the arid muntain ranges from where Don Quixote, his loyal sidekick Sanch Panzo, and their horses likely roamed.
Mistake: pitching our tent next to a BBQ area and a squash court (pitch 343). BBQ because of the smoke (I smell and feel like the Jamon Serranos of the Alpujarras hanging to dry), worse I feel like having grilled meat all the time. I even dreamt of chasing it. Squash court? Because the freaking ball have landed on our pitch 5 times aready in 20 minutes. One even hit the car.
It gets quite quiet here, almost just crickets by 11 o’clock at night. That’s strange considering we are in Spain where people tend to come alive beginning at 10 pm, and considering the density of the camping site–there are a lot of people here at this time. Makes me reconsider. . . maybe that was just in the south, in Andalucia?
After a family GAP YEAR. . . that turned into over four years, living in Jerez de la Frontera, it’s finally time for our semi-nomadic family to move again, this time to Poland, from one camping site to the next.
REVIEW of Camping Caravaning Cuenca
Here below are some information that can help with planning your camping in this land of Don Quixote and Sancho Panzo.
This is a great place to spend a week camping and exploring the many different outdoorsy things you can do here. I’ll leave that up to your imagination.
This place is big although it’s unclear how many plots/parcels there are. There are some cabins/bungalows that cost between 60 and 100 euros per night.
NOTE: In case you’re wondering. . . NO, we have not received (nor expect to receive) any form of compensation or freebies or anything at all for reviewing or mentioning this or any others on our blog. We do because it may be helpful to you and others. And it’s fun too!
What we like about this camping Site?
Family-friendly!–that’s Camping Caravaning Cuenca in a word. That means, good for both parents and children. This campinground is spacious that allows for different kinds of activities for the entire family.
Although the swimming pool is relatively small for the size of the camp and the number of people at the camp site, there are other areas and activities that camping families can enjoy like a separate water-splash park for younger children while parents sunbathe on the huge lawn next to it. There’s also different courts for different sports.
As in the last camping site, this is a great place for kids to meet new friends. Three days is not enough for this stay. For our future camping, it would be nice to stay in places like this for a week per camping site. . . children would gather around and play together, if you give it time.
Other notes: All lights out at midnight. Play at courts until about 23kl. The boys been out playing football with the older kids for 3 hours now! + There’s music in the bathroom and throughout camp at certain times.
What we don’t like about this camping?
What not to like about Camping Los Batanes? Lessons learned through lesters earned: Do NOT pitch your tent near BBQ/grill areas. If you are downwind, you’d smell like smoked meat… or fish!
PRICE
Higher than average price at €36.40 euros (tax included) per night for a family of four (two kids–one under six years old) in a 4-person tent with electricity at the beginning of the summer season (mid July). It was about €12 euros less than at the last Camping Los Batanes. It was €32.80 at CampingTrevelez–the highest white village in Spain.
Price Breakdown per night:
- €5.50 for a 4-person tent,
- €5.50 car,
- €4.50 for electricity,
- €5.50 per adult,
- €4.40 for children under 12 years old;
- plus tax/VAT.
Hot water, access to swimming pool and entertainment areas, including activities for kids are all included.
PITCH
How’s the pitch/plot? Self select, not assigned. Big, almost twice the size of average plot that we’ve been camped at so far. This and the surrounding trees give us more privacy. But it also depends on where you are. Some are small.
Plenty of room for our (now-bigger) 4-person Amayama tent, dining area with two tables and 4 chairs. We were on plot 343. The car was in front of the plot, between the tent and the road, adding a bit of protection and privacy.
Pitch groundcover
Grassy; some dirt from overused caravans, but overall minimal dust and dirt. No problem sinking pegs.
Privacy
No privacy hedges around the pitches that we’d seen. Maybe some faraway sections had them. Since we are in between two paved roads, we hung laundry lines and put blankets on them to give us some sense of privacy screen.
Shade
Fullgrown shadeful trees on our pitch helped cool the tent area. I know there are some people who like the heat and the sun. But here in Spain, especially in the summer, we’d rather be in the shade.
Spacing? In random/natural order, unlike in other camping areas where trees would mark the corners of the pitch areas.
Electricity
There are both dogbone and standard connection right at the pitch.
Water
No water at the pitch nor in the immediate area of our pitch. The boys had tofill the jug of water from across in the main bathroom/litchen/laundry area
WI-FI
Wifi only at the reception and not quite strong at that. At times it didn’t even work. When our kids played a football match at the court, the Wifi signal could reach there. That’s probably why there were several older kids hanging around the court without paying any attention to the games.
PLAY areas
“Is camping all about playgrounds and swimming pools,” I wondered? For our boys, it certainly looks like it! But, here there’s a lot more than just swimming pool.
SWIMMING POOL
In the simmering Spanish summer heat where it can get already quite hot at 10 o’clock in the morning even in the shade, even small cold-water pools are FUNtastic!
Here, the single swimming pool has a huge boulder that looks like a megalolithic dinasaur poop. It mimics some sort of waterfall atop a cave that people can go through before diving. Quite unique and FUN, especially for the kids.
Unfortunately, The pool is relatively small for the size of the camp and the number of people at the camp site. There were too many people at the pool for us to really enjoy it. And in the later part of the afternoon, shade covers a big part of the pool making the water a little too cold. Almost full capacity on weekends.
I suppose to solve this problem, management made ACCESS to the swimming pool was based on your “COLOR-CODED” wrist band (blue and red/azules y rojas) that the reception gives you when you check in; meaning guests who wear a particular color has timed access. For each color, there were 4 shifts of 1.5 hours each from 10:30 to 20:30.
Next to the pool, there is a separate water-splash park for younger children where parents can sunbathe nearby on the huge lawn next to it while watching their kids have a blast.
PLAYGOUNDS
Playgrounds are always a nice family-friendly addition that our children appreciate . . . what child wouldn’t anyway?!? This campinground is huge and there’s enough play areas.
There are different courts for different sports, like squash, a full football pitch, ping pong and basketball.
Nearby there’s a small very well shaded, old-school playground for smaller children with slide and benches around.
Kids Activities?
Apart from the various play spaces, Campingred Caravaning Cuenca offers minimal daily activities for children in the summer. In fact, there was just 1 activity per day here during our stay, unlike at the last campinground in Los Batanes that had five, yes 5!, activities for children EVERYDAY!
Hosted activities, many with so-called “animators who are basically activity organizers, are a great way for kids to meet and be with other children and have different experiences… for no additional costs, even if they do not speak Spanish. It encourages play and integration, even cross-cultural communication atan early age. Sadly, here was the minimal opportunities.
Bummer.
SANITARY FACILITIES
WC/restrooms/bathrooms?
One centrally locate, clean and modern bathroom with sufficient cross-ventilation; a little tight inside the corridors. There are a couple of private bathrooms with shower. Separate rooms for boys and girls; each with 4 toilets, 4 showers, 3 sinks… plus 2 urinals for men.
There was a separate FAMILY or KIDs/BABY bathroom with a space for changing diapers. This is a novelty for camping sites, but NOT unusual for family-friendly camping sites in Spain.
There’s also WC for the mobility-impaired (i.e. those in wheelchairs).
No hairdryer. No paper towel or hands dryer.
There’s music in the hallways which is pleasantly unusual to hear because it covers up the unpleasant sounds coming in the caverns of post-gastronomical output.
There’s plenty of FREE hot water. I know, I know, right? Where else do they charge for water?!?!? In some campsites in Belgium and Poland, they do!
There’s FREE toilet paper. Believe you me, there are plenty of camping sites out there that do NOT provide this most essential product of modern civilized society! It also has soap and sanitizing gel.
NO PROBLEM with water drainage.
Washing Areas?
Small. Single entrance. Plenty of light.
Washing room with one set of laundry and dryer machines with 4 sinks for hand washing.
Dishwashing in the same are with 5 sinks.
Enclosed Dishwashing and clothes-washing areas are sufficiently clean in the same bathroom area. Let me repeat that, ENCLOSED! This is a unique feature because many campsites have the washing areas OUTSIDE of the bathroom.
DINE or DRINKS
One big restaurant bar by the entrance, before the reception, where locals and other travelers would also stop by. It has a big, shaded, outdoor seating area. You might NOT like shade, but it could be a life-saver in the summer. YOU’RE in SPAIN after all! We chose to have our meals at the old city itself.
Plenty of parking spaces. The traffic for the restaurant do NOT interfere with the access to the campground.
You can also buy grocery/food and drinks at the reception.
You can also buy drinks and snacks and ice cream, at the swimming pool area.
ACCESSibility
Accessibility. easy to spot from the road. The roads are long and wide with flags marking the vicinity of the camping site, as well as a big sign where you would need to turn.
From the road you would see the big facade of a restaurant and many camping caravans parked at the huge lot next to the restaurant.
There is a wide clearing and parking areas and a road that leads to the gate of the camp, some 200 meters down. The reception is right there. Parking is right past behind it
Wide roads and turn areas make it easier for campervans and caravans.
others
We did not see the following additional amenities: refrigerator, freezer or microwave. It’s likely there. We probably just missed them.
All lights out at midnight.
Play at courts until about 23kl. The boys been out playing football with the older kids for 3 hours one night
There’s music in the bathroom and throughout camp at certain times.
TIPS for Camping Caravaning Cuenca
GIVE IT TIME: Plan to spend more time here (more than a couple of nights like we did) because there’s plenty to do and a great way for your kids to mingle with other kids and form some kind of connection, even for just a week or so. There’s also the many lakes and associated activities to explore that can put a mark on a summer well-spent. Unfortuntely, we hd to get to Poland at a certain time so we hd to save the lakes for the next time around.
SWIM CAPS: Here, you do NOT need them unlike in other places with strict adherence to the supposed-law about mandatory swim caps in Spain. . .
But let’s JIC it!”… JUST IN CASE: To be able to use the swimming pools, make sure to bring swimming caps/headgear (you know, those little things you put over your head to make sure your hair does NOT get into the pool, and if you have it on too tight, your eyes start to squint like you’re a drunken runaway monkey. . .) Yup, that one!
Although it was not really needed (or enforced) here, it would do you good to bring them with you when camping in Spain (maybe even France) to save you money, just in case the camping site that you ended up in has a pool and are strict about enforcing the so-called regulations, if there are in fact any such thing. I think it’s an additional way to milk you with your hardearned cash for some of these camping sites.
what to do near CAMPING Cuenca
So, what to see or do nearby? Since we have to haul our asses off towards Poland and only had a couple of nights here, we had a singular purpose here… and that is to see to see the HANGING HOUSES of Cuenca and whatever else there is to see in that old Muslim-fortress-turned-Christian–power-center of a town.
And, OH, of course. . . one for the kids and the kids-at-heart: the pleasant surprise of teh DINOSAURS of CUENCA, located at the Museum of Paleontology. (Surprise for us because we try not to read too much about the places that we plan to visit before the actual visit.)
Check it out: our family-friendly things to see and do in Cuenca, Spain in one day. . . with kids!
If we were to do it over, we’d have serate days for each one tomake it easier for the kids and a bit more enjoy the tranquility and the walk through the up-and-down, winding, medieval streets.
Maybe even have a separate day for hiking in the surrounding hills to get a different persepective of the strategic location of the town. . . or maybe just chill!
Any others?
- UBEDA & BAEZA: Some 350 kilometers to the southwest are the most well-preserved Renaissance towns in the whole of Spain–Ubeda and Baeza–definitely one of those beautiful places and UNESCO world-heritage sites in the whole of Spain, that you would need days to visit and really appreciate all that it has to offer, not a couple of hours like we did. Oh, well! When you’re on the road, you just gotta leave some for later.
- Don’t forget about the beautiful capital of Spain–MADRID–only 2 hours and 170-something kilometers to the west.
- Check out this video of FREE things you can do with kids in the Sierra Nevada, GRANADA. . . in the snow!
Next Stop: What the sHell’s Cake is at Lake Caspe?
Last stop in Spain: TRANQUILITY–that’s Lake Caspe Camping in a word. Tranquility among the trees. The original inhabitants of this land came from the Caspian sea… or so they say.
Then onwards, upwards. . . . towards Andorra! Here’s the first half of our family camping road trip. . . number FOUR! 1,617-something kilometers from Jerez de la Frontera (with a small detour to Bolonia), then to Setenil de las Bodegas, the white villages of the Alpujarras, the caves of Guadix, Baeza, Ubeda, the chain lakes of Lagos de Ruidera, the hanging houses of Cuenca, Lake Caspe and finally the little country of Andorra. . . at least for the first half of this trip!
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