Tourist Holiday Park Design ©️ Brighthouse
Typical Tourist Caravan Park Site Size
For many caravan park developments the size of caravan park sites is dictated by existing park layouts or maximising site yield for a given area of land.
However, recreational vehicles have changed significantly in recent years, with a trend towards larger touring caravans, camper vans and motorhomes. Many families and other traveller groups tour with more than one vehicle or tow a boat, or trailer, which needs to be accommodated on the rented caravan site.
Typical caravan park site layout
When considering the design of a new caravan park or the redevelopment of an existing caravan park, our designers take into account many factors, including planning requirements, caravan park regulations, location, visitor demographics, competitors, topography and more.
At coastal holiday locations guests are likely to stay extended periods of time and bring their boats, trailers etc. In the regional areas, traveller's vehicles tend to be larger, including 4 wheel drive vehicles and small trucks.
There is no "one size fits all" formula for caravan sites and careful consideration must be given to both market demand and site yield. Having a variety of site sizes at a caravan park causes administrative headaches and much extra detail for reservations and arrivals staff. Therefore, it is better to establish a consistent site sizes throughout the caravan park.
This does not mean that camping sites and other specialised sites, such as drive-through sites and en-suite sites all must conform the a common dimension, but that each defined type has its own measurement.
In addition to the caravan, annex and vehicle dimensions, road setbacks and separation distances need to be considered.
In consultation with its clients, Brighthouse determines the requirements for occupancy, yield and product mix for each location and factors in the site-specific needs. Generally, we aim for minimum site sizes of 12 x 10 metres, which accommodates caravans of up to 9 metres long including drawbar. There is sufficient space for a full annex and vehicle parking alongside.
Where space and land cost is not a critical factor we tend to increase the site size up to 15 x 12 or any increment between the two above-mentioned sizes. Bear in mind that increasing the site size has a corresponding impact on development cost due to extra length of roading and services infrastructure. The maximum distance from ablution blocks (90 metres under Western Australian Caravan and Camping Grounds Regulations) may also be a determining factor for site sizing to keep amenity building costs minimised.
Camping sites may be defined or specific areas allocated according to tent size and separation requirements. Drive-through sites (up to 18 x 9 metres) are included in the product mix to cater for longer caravans and motorhomes.
The above information applies to tourist caravan park sites and differs from the planning requirements for residential park home parks and lifestyle villages.