Camping in South Australia’s national parks: bookings, maps and mobile phone coverage

South Aus­tralia has some won­der­ful bush camp­ing, with camp­grounds in more than 50 of our nation­al parks and reserves.

You can camp at what­ev­er lev­el suits you, from the most basic to an ultra-com­fy set up, but there’s a few things to con­sid­er when organ­is­ing your site.

If you’ve been fol­low­ing along on this series, you will have already read our stories:

• Every­thing you need to know for your first camp­ing trip in a nation­al park
• Every­thing you need to know about cook­ing on a camp­ing trip
• Your guide to pack­ing for your next camp­ing trip in SA’s nation­al parks

Here’s how to book your camp­site in a nation­al park and some handy info that will help set you off to a great start.

1. Book before you go

Camp­sites and vehi­cle entry fees to nation­al parks need to be booked online or through one of our book­ing agents before you arrive in the park. Some pop­u­lar camp­grounds book out quick­ly dur­ing peak peri­ods like school hol­i­days and long week­ends. You can book camp­sites up to a year in advance, so you can plan ahead and be assured that your camp­site will be ready and wait­ing for you when you arrive.

2. Check if there’s phone coverage

Some of our nation­al parks have lit­tle or no mobile cov­er­age, so are great for a dig­i­tal detox. If phone sig­nal is impor­tant to you, make sure you check before you go. If you’re alone in a remote place, like one of the desert parks, you might want to con­sid­er hir­ing a satel­lite phone or loca­tor for safety.

3. Down­load Aven­za maps

Offi­cial maps from Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice South Aus­tralia are avail­able on Aven­za Maps. The app uses your device’s built-in GPS to locate you even when you are out of range of a net­work or inter­net connection.

The maps are geo­ref­er­enced, so once you’ve down­loaded the app and installed your map, they work with your smartphone’s inbuilt GPS to plot your real-time loca­tion with­in the park on the map.

You can use the app with­out a net­work con­nec­tion, allow­ing you to stay safe and aware of where you are – which is par­tic­u­lar­ly handy in hills parks that are often just out of net­work range.

Read our sto­ry to find out more.

Want some inspi­ra­tion about where to vis­it? Vis­it the Nation­al Parks and Wildlife Ser­vice SA web­site for some ideas, or check out our library for things you can ​‘See and Do’ in SA’s amaz­ing parks.

This sto­ry was orig­i­nal­ly post­ed in Sep­tem­ber 2015.