Winter is almost upon us and with the colder weather, comes the perfect time to ponder next summer’s adventures.
The province is giving British Columbians the chance to book their camping getaways in 2023 soon.
On January 3rd at 7 a.m. sharp, BC Parks will open bookings for many provincially run campsites through their reservation service.
This year, people will be able to book up to four months ahead of their vacations, when last year they could only book two months in advance.
“Through our ongoing visitor engagement, we’ve heard the majority of campers prefer a four-month rolling window, allowing people to book a site well in advance of their visit,” said George Heyman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy.
“We will continue to listen to public feedback so we can improve people’s park experiences, and everyone can easily access the many beautiful parks and backcountry areas our province has to offer.”
In the 2023 season, more campgrounds are joining the provincial run reservation service too, and every campground that uses the service maintains a balance of reservable sites and first-come-first-serve sites.
“We are fortunate to live in a province that has an abundance of spectacular parks for people to connect with nature and learn about Indigenous Peoples’ history and culture,” said Kelly Greene, Parliamentary Secretary for Environment.
“We continue to expand opportunities for camping and improve accessibility so more people can experience the natural treasures of our beautiful province.”
The reservation service was launched in March 2022 and was meant to improve user experience when booking BC Parks’ campsites.
In 2022, more than 317,000 reservations were made through the reservation service. BC Parks manages over 10,700 campsites and about half of those are available on a first-come-first-serve basis.
Be prepared to get on the reservation site as soon as you can when booking day rolls around. In 2022, the day the bookings opened, traffic to the booking website had a queue that went up to 90,000 customers ‘in line’ throughout the day.
