Recipefiesta

We asked camping pros to tell us about their favourite sites, from the highest pitches in Switzerland to a wilderness reserve in Sweden

Pitchup.com lists more than 5,500 campsites in 67 countries. One of the most scenic is the remote Šenkova Domačija farm near Zgornje Jezersko in the Kamnik-Savinja Alps, close to the border with Austria. This heritage farmstead dates to 1517 and is surrounded by pastures and peaks. The farm has 25 pitches (including 10 for tents) in a meadow under old ash trees, plus a communal campfire and kitchen, a shop and restaurant serving breakfast and dinner. Campers can ride horses on short guided hacks or longer treks into the mountains, or tackle the trails on foot.
From £16.93 for a tent and two adults, open 1 April-30 September, pitchup.com

From pitching a tent in the haunt of Greek gods to a private beach in Italy’s garden of Eden, our tipsters share their favourite places to sleep under the stars

Veganeset Camping (tent pitch from £18 a night) is a stunning campsite in the Norwegian fjords – remote, but an easy drive to the village of Balestrand. The views were to die for, and in the summer there was still some light at midnight. No frills, but good-quality bathrooms. It was the best campsite we found in Norway and also the cheapest.
Sarah

Inside the French capital’s ring road, the Petite Ceinture, a disused circular rail line, now abounds with nature trails, shared gardens – and even urban farms

A rustle in the undergrowth sends birds wheeling above the trees and into the sky. I’m left alone and in near total silence as I look along the train tracks that disappear in either direction. It feels as if I’m in the heart of the countryside, but actually, the Boulevard Périphérique, the traffic-choked ring road that encircles Paris, is just a stone’s throw away. This disused rail route, the Petite Ceinture, offers wildlife and quiet solitude just moments from the roaring motorway, thanks to a plan that is turning parts of the line into walkable green spaces – the French capital’s less manicured (and less central) alternative to Manhattan’s High Line or north London’s Parkland Walk, a rewilded railway line that’s part of the Capital Ring walk.

Built on the site of the Thiers wall, the last defensive wall of Paris, and its surrounding shantytown, the eight-lane Boulevard Périphérique (known as the Périph) is used by more than a million cars a day. The 20-mile (32km) railway line just inside the ring road was created to supply the Thiers wall, carrying goods and then passengers as the city’s first metropolitan railway service.

A holiday park on the lesser-known Côte Orientale offers lower prices, activities for all ages, and secluded sandy beaches

I had held out as long as I could, but there was no getting out of it. The catcalls were rising; the baying, cackling audience of under-11s intoxicated by a combination of ice-cream sugar rushes and my obvious, clammy fear. It was day 14 of a two-week summer holiday, and our final afternoon in blissful 30C Corsican sunshine. I just needed one more chapter, lounging with my book, soaking in the last of the bone-warming sun slowly edging down towards the island’s dramatic mountainous spine.

But my calculating offspring had not forgotten ill-fated promises made on a previous evening, probably a little too deep into the second carafe. I was probably caught off-guard at Barny’s, a sensational sushi restaurant in the town of Ghisonaccia, enjoying our best meal of the holiday. They know when my defences are down; when I’m fully relaxed into holiday “yes” mode, and prime for being taken advantage of.