The May long weekend marks the start of camping season

As the first long weekend of the summer arrives, so does the start of camping season in Ontario.

At Calabogie Lakeside Camping and RV Resort in Calabogie, Ont, they are fully booked for the Victoria Day weekend.

"All the transit sites are fully booked, our seasonal sites are fully booked, so we're looking forward to a good season," says owner Sylvain Goudreault.

In 2021, weekend campsites were booked through the entire season before the warm weather even arrived. Despite travel restrictions easing in 2022, the demand for camping remains high.

"I know Labour Day we're fully booked," says Goudreault. "Canada Day I would assume we're fully booked. But again, we get cancellations so it's always a good thing to check in."

Driving two hours from Clarence Creek, east of Ottawa, Christine and Serge Page managed to secure a spot for their RV in Calabogie this weekend.

"This year actually was a challenge to book camping for weekends," says Christine. "It's busy and a lot of the campgrounds were booked solid."

The Page's say they tour around the province, visiting a new campground most weekends. But due to the sky-high price of fuel they are deciding to dial back the road trip.

"We will be doing less camping this summer because of the cost of diesel," Christine tells CTV News. "But we're still going to do it and we're still going on our summer holidays."

At Bayview Resort in White Lake, the cost of an overnight campsite is $70, making it $210 to stay over the long weekend. That's a cheap weekend for the Williams' who are not worried about gas and hauling their trailer from Stittsville.

"Because we're so close to home it's not too big of a deal, and that's why we picked this park instead of going somewhere that's two hours away," says Julie Williams.

Bayview Resort has 180 seasonal camping spots, 11 overnight sites, 12 cottages, and four chalets for rent. Campground owner Walter Geisser says all of them are booked up for the May long weekend.

"They didn't want to pull their trailers too far, and we have that advantage," Geisser tells CTV News. "We're close to the city. Kanata is 40 minutes from here."

With their camper now parked, the only thing the Williams will have to worry about burning through is logs on the fire and burgers on the grill.

"We're very excited," says Williams. "We're here to relax, have some fun; we're meeting some friends here in a couple hours. It's going to be a great weekend."