With the May long weekend coming up quickly, campers are looking forward to getting back to nature but many aren't going where they thought they were.

Those who tried to use the Saskatchewan Parks Reserve-a-Site system when it launched on March 12 ran into quite a few problems.

Stacey Fredericks is just one of many people who were incredibly frustrated trying to use the online booking system on the first day reservations opened to the public.

Fredericks says because of the system's problems it took her about five hours to book her camp site.

"It was horrible, it took hours and hours to get through," Fredericks said.

Many campers including Debbie McKinnon echoed her frustration about the experience on the first day.

"We went on at 8:00 a.m. in the morning but because of the demand on the system we weren't able to pay for our site or get the site that we wanted," she said. "We had the site and then it crashed."

Mary Anne Wihak with Saskatchewan Parks says the website got three times the hits they were expecting and they are looking at ways to fix the system.

"We're going to be working with the service provider to make sure that we have a better solution and the best success available to us next year," Wihack said.

They are also discussing ways to keep campers happy following many complaints.

"We have been looking at waiving some of the fees or refunding some of the fees associated with some of the cancellations or some of the changes that people were making," Wihack added.

Even though many people had such trouble booking sites, Wihak said on the first day Saskatchewan Parks exceeded the number of site bookings they had for all of 2011.
 
Edited by News Talk Radio staff