Campsites are going quickly as more people look to get outdoors this summer

If a camping trip is on your summer to-do list and you haven’t book your site yet, you may be running out of time.

Campgrounds across Ontario are reporting another increase in demand for reservations this year. Demand has been growing steadily over the past several years and kicked into high gear post-pandemic.

The Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) opened reservations at its campgrounds on March 21 and right away, sites filled up.

“Within that first day we had nearly 5,300 reservations made,” James Clark, senior marketing and communications advisor of GRCA, said. “That’s a 37 per cent increase from opening day bookings from the previous year.”

But that doesn’t mean you’re out of luck if you have yet to reserve a site, he said.

“There are still plenty of sites available through mid-week in the summer and also some on the weekends, but those are those spaces are filling pretty quickly.”

Laura Bingeman and her family operate three popular campgrounds in Waterloo Region: Country Gardens RV Park, Landings Campground and Whistle Bare Campground. She said her reservation book is also filling up quickly.

“For overnight camping, I do still have some weekends open. Throughout the week though, I do have a lot more open sites,” she said. “Every single weekend will eventually book up. But, sometimes it’s a little closer to that date that do book up.”