Camping at Spa for F1 GP

[Chickenstu]

Weekend tickets booked for F1 at Spa in August.

Plan is to load up and head south with an overnight stop somewhere near the Beauleiu motor museum, then Channel Tunnel to France and drive to Spa.

Looking for any recommendations for campsites near the circuit for 4 nights. I know temporary ones get set up right at the gates just wondered if anyone had experience of these or should we find one further out and be prepared to travel in each day?

Thanks

[kevberlin]

Last year the temp sites were a bit poor in my view.

I 'commuted' to the circuit each day from a small town in Germany where I rented a house for a week. It was easy. There are plenty of sites within 'commuting' distance.

Good luck.

[James I]

We didn't do the F1 at Spa, we went to the Spa 6 Hours, it is an event for historic race cars, we slept in the car on the car park, a bit rough but ok for one night.

Hope you have a great time.

Here is a picture, F1 cars from the day being well used around Spa, this is taken from the top of the Pit garages (new ones)

[Chickenstu]

Did it look an easy enough 'commute' ........I know the likes of Silverstone can be a nightmare getting in and out!

Not sure to go for parking passes or rely on shuttle buses to get back and forth?

And any recommendations for vantage points? Decided to go for general entry tickets so not tied to seats

Cheers

Last year the temp sites were a bit poor in my view.

I 'commuted' to the circuit each day from a small town in Germany where I rented a house for a week. It was easy. There are plenty of sites within 'commuting' distance.

Good luck.

[James I]

all parking is one road in and out, even for the small event we did it was quite a queue, all parking is outside the circuit and you enter between the old start finish straight and au rouge.

Once inside the circuit you do not have an in field like our UK circuits, there are paths you can walk around the outside of the circuit, when you are all the way up at the top end you can go under a tunnel to the inside paths, and cut through the middle, I expect this would be difficult on F1 day because of the amount of people there.

You can see from this website the paths through the circuit and did I mention the elevation, the TV does not do au rouge any justice, it is very steep.

Main food when on site is chips and mayonaise or hot dogs.

Looking back to la source from the top of au rouge

[kevberlin]

We did a 30min commute on the Friday and Sat to arrive circa 8.30. There were no traffic problems.

On race day we got here for gate opening (7 I think). Again no problems, but it paid to be early.

The biggest problem was leaving on race day. Massive queues. We just hung around for about 2 hrs.

We moved around the track on the predefined paths to view from various places and get a different perspective. This helped us make our plan for race day, which was to sit (chairs) at Eau Rouge on the rough ground. It was great as we were also smack in front of a tv screen.

If you take chairs to this point a small trowel is has to cut out a flat area of soil so as to be able to site your chairs. Sounds silly, but loads do it.

The circuit is brill. Massively contoured so you get great views.

Enjoy!

[_Jim]

Completely agree with the above.

We stayed at camping f1 on the Friday and Saturday nights the toilets were vile and we all wished we had looked for a more substantial campsite with proper showers and toilets. Not portable ones.

It was about 10 minutes drive from the campsite and we never queued to park, it was only around €10/day too I think. We left as soon as the race finished on the Sunday to catch the ferry home and got stuck in a small queue but it was no worse than leaving your average football match.

If your not sat down by about 8am on the Sunday you will struggle to get a decent view, and folding chairs are a must!

Edited 24 March, 2013 by _Jim

[shrops_paul]

Another thumbs down for camping F1. The campsite, toilets, food were all terrible. On quali day the coaches were ok but on race day sitting in a roasting hot coach at the circuit in traffic for an hour before we left was unbearable.

There's a small town en route that the coaches go thru. I would stay there and take or hire a bike to ride to the circuit.

The location of spa was great but also isolated which is why I've not felt the urge to go back. Hungary, and Budapest on the other hand, was awesome

[shrops_paul]

I would also say that the prices at the circuit were cheap for food, beer and water. So don't bother loading a rucksack with heavy supplies.