Bristanbul campsites review – part 2

“Small and simple” does not adequately describe Camping Rino as the warm welcome and stunning views of Lake Ohrid make it much more than that.

The owners, a father and son, have a motto of “feel like home” and were extremely friendly and helpful, even staying up until after midnight when we were phoning them from the Albania/Macedonia border explaining our delay.

They go out of their way to help and provide nice touches like free coffee, even for our group when we finally arrived at 9am (so we didn’t actually stay the night but did shower and empty our toilet cassettes).

They have a restaurant and terrace that reaches on to the lake with views across to the UNESCO town of Ohrid. The nearest town, Struga, is a busy little place with shops for all the essentials. Well worth a visit.

Visit the Camping Rino website

An older campsite that, like a lot of Greece, has a slightly rustic simplicity to it.

We were grateful for it being easy to find, close to a main road, but also enjoyed its direct access to the beach – and wonderful view over the Aegean sea. The terrace for the beachside restaurant must attract locals, as it seemed huge for the modest size of the campsite.

Pitches are not clearly marked, so we just parked anywhere, as we were their only guests. The facilities were small and basic and some of us experienced cold showers. Plenty of trees provide shade across the campsite.

Visit Camping Alexandros website

The plus points of this campsite were its location by the beach and proximity to the Anzac memorials on the Gallipoli peninsula – which is well worth visiting.

The camping area has 60 pitches and is in the grounds of a hotel, with a swimming pool and restaurant/café available.

It’s a shame the facilities were so basic, otherwise we’d have rated it better, but we were self-sufficient in our caravans and motorhome, so it served our purposes perfectly.

Visit the Hotel Kum website

Our online research didn’t come up with much choice of campsites near Istanbul open in April, so we were pleased to find Sahil Kamp Istanbul, east of the city on the Black Sea on the Asian side of the Bosphorus.

The site mainly consisted of small tents, huts and ‘bungalows’ to rent. There was limited space for pitching our caravans and motorhome; however, it did have great views of the sea.

We could see some old caravans permanently sited on a couple of pitches right by the sea, which would have been great, and there may have been more options further around the peninsula, but the access road didn’t look great for our vehicles.

There was a new restaurant/café area; however, the new facilities block looked smart, but was not finished yet.

There is a swimming pool, which we presume would be emptied and cleaned for the summer season, and another restaurant overlooking the sea. We did have the benefit of a brilliant view of the Black Sea and experienced some awesome sunsets and sunrises while we were there.

Visit the Sahil Kamp Istanbul website

(but maybe 3 stars when the new facilities are open)