Manitoba parks reservations set to open April 4

Get your tents, coolers and favourite campfire foods ready: on April 4, Manitobans will be able to book campsites, cabins, yurts and group-use sites for the 2022 season.

The province will be introducing an expanded, staggered launch for bookings this year to help spread out user demand, a news release said.

In 2021, nearly 38,000 online reservations were made online in a matter of two days. The high demand and long wait times left many hopeful campers and travelers empty-handed, despite their best efforts to get up early and join the queue.

This year, the online reservation system will accept bookings in five phases instead of three:

• April 4: all cabins and yurts will be open for booking.
• April 6: campsites atBirds Hill, Falcon Beach, Falcon Lakeshore and West Hawk Lake.
• April 8:campsites at all western and northern region parks (Asessippi, Bakers Narrows, Clearwater Lake, Duck Mountain, Manipogo, Paint Lake, Rainbow Beach, Rivers, Spruce Woods, Turtle Mountain, William Lake and Wekusko Falls).
• April 11: campsites at Grand Beach, Nopiming and all remaining Whiteshellcampgrounds.
• April 13:all remaining locations will be made available for booking.

All reservations will be online at 7 a.m..

To increase opportunities for cabin and yurt bookings, the maximum stay is now seven nights instead of 14.

People looking to book cabins, yurts and group-use sites will be limited to booking two reservations per session instead of three.

The province has also introduced computing resources to improve the online system performance, and increased stability to reduce the likelihood of someone losing their place in line.

Users will receive a booking confirmation immediately.

In January, the province announced that they plan to have a new online booking system in time for the 2023 season.