Altona Campground began taking reservations for the summer season on April 8th.

"It was a pretty busy day," said Eric Hildebrand, the town's Rec Manager. "A lot of the reservations we took happened to be online. It's nice because it frees up the office staff from constantly answering phone calls or having people come in. There's some of that still, but online reservations seem to be the norm for the majority of our campers." 

On day one alone, the town took in just over $13,000 in campground revenue for reservations for this coming season. 

Last year reservations began in May. However, the start date was moved up, so it was in line with provincial campgrounds.

" We know camping has been become more and more popular and it's a little more difficult to get into some of the very popular provincial campgrounds," said Hildebrand. "People that know of us keep coming back and that's great. We have a lot of repeat guests. Of course, we get a lot of guests coming through that are visiting town when there are baseball tournaments going on, whether that's a weekend tournament or a provincial event or high school graduation.

Manitoba Sunflower Festival weekend is usually the first weekend to fill up followed by Canada Day long weekend. 

The town is expecting another busy summer season at Altona Campground.

Since opening day, the intensity of bookings has lessened and are now approaching the $20,000 mark for the season.

There never a shortage of people wanting to book a site last minute noted Hildebrand.

"People that have gotten to know all of our facility or become aware of our facility really appreciate the proximity of the pool, the washrooms, the play structure and the nature park for their children to enjoy, as well as amenities such as the tennis courts that double as pickleball courts, the disc golf in the park and of course the ball diamonds if you're watching baseball or and involved in baseball. It's all right here and it's in a nice clean environment. It's become a bit of a popular camping destination and we're very pleased with that."

Hildebrand says the campground is almost always full on weekends - and particularly long weekends - in summer.

The fee for a serviced site is $25.00 per night; an un-serviced site costs $12.00 per night. For details click here.

Campground reservations can be made here.


~With files from Candace Derksen~