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dspuk
Dave
Top Poster
Lifetime VIP Member
Both
K
Kevin5658
Lifetime VIP Member
I use caravan and Motorhome club suits me . My brother in law was a member of both, he has now cancelled caravan and camping as he prefers motor and caravan club . Must mention VW staff member suggested Parkdean touring sites . Out of season can get a week away for all most nothing and some nice locations
ArunAlec
Super Poster
VIP Member
There really isn’t much between them apart from one is primarily for Caravans/Motorhomes (some sites allow tents) and the other more tent biased.
CMHC gets criticism for being too strict on rules but I’ve only been told off once!
Hawthorn37
Retired, and working hard at it
Top Poster
VIP Member
The two main clubs are similar in the standard of their sites, but there are differences, and your either/or choice might be influenced by the differences. This summary (from our 3 year experience) is generalist - there are site exceptions!
Caravan & Motorhome Club:
Mostly caravans and larger motorhomes. As a result, most sites have 100% hard standing pitches, which are usually reasonably level. The overall site are is usually compact (space efficient!), and the pitches lined up around the access roads. The sites can look quite ‘vanilla’
The demographic is very much skewed towards older couples. We are in our 60’s and often we’ve been the youngest campers in our row.
The facilities are always (?) a good standard, all very similar, and always clean. A bit like McDonalds, you know what you’re going to get!
Pitch costs have risen fairy significantly over the past 2 years, so now a night away in low season for 2 people will be around £35 to £40 and in high season, around £40 to £55. Annual membership is a little more than CCC - It used to be the same.
Pitch selection is your choice. Drive around to look for the one that suits you, then tell the site team. You should put a sign out if you leave during the day. There are ‘black and white’ rules on how to position your van given that the spacing between pitches isn’t huge, and fire protection etc.
Camping & Caravanning Club:
Mixture of caravans, motorhomes, campervans and tents. As there are more tents and smaller vans, there are generally more grass pitches, plus grass pitches without electric. The overall site area is usually larger - more space. Use Google maps to view the CCC and CAMC sites at Sandringham to illustrate.
The demographic is skewed towards families and younger couples (tenting etc).
The facilities are usually good, but we’ve had a couple of experiences which were borderline acceptable to my better half. I think the different age demographic with lots more kids had an effect on cleanliness.
The pitch costs are similar to CAMC, but CCC give more frequent discounts for things like out of season, grass pitches, older (over 60 members). We can get away in the low season for as little as £30 a night, with our age related discount. High season is around £5/ night cheaper than CAMC.
Pitch selection is made by the campsite managers, but on a couple of occasions we have called ahead to request two pitches together. As the area of the sites tend to be larger and less regimented into rows around roads, distance between pitches can be greater, or conversely you might find the odd pitch squeezed in between others.
Private Sites and other groups:
If you become a club member, don’t forget to look at the private sites, they can be as good / better than club sites. We have membership to both clubs, and also use private ones.
One handy feature of both clubs is the move to position sites in or close to major cities and towns, examples London, York, Bristol, Edinburgh. This gives lower cost accommodation when going to shows, concerts, or visiting people.
Hope this helps a bit.
Caravan & Motorhome Club:
Mostly caravans and larger motorhomes. As a result, most sites have 100% hard standing pitches, which are usually reasonably level. The overall site are is usually compact (space efficient!), and the pitches lined up around the access roads. The sites can look quite ‘vanilla’
The demographic is very much skewed towards older couples. We are in our 60’s and often we’ve been the youngest campers in our row.
The facilities are always (?) a good standard, all very similar, and always clean. A bit like McDonalds, you know what you’re going to get!
Pitch costs have risen fairy significantly over the past 2 years, so now a night away in low season for 2 people will be around £35 to £40 and in high season, around £40 to £55. Annual membership is a little more than CCC - It used to be the same.
Pitch selection is your choice. Drive around to look for the one that suits you, then tell the site team. You should put a sign out if you leave during the day. There are ‘black and white’ rules on how to position your van given that the spacing between pitches isn’t huge, and fire protection etc.
Camping & Caravanning Club:
Mixture of caravans, motorhomes, campervans and tents. As there are more tents and smaller vans, there are generally more grass pitches, plus grass pitches without electric. The overall site area is usually larger - more space. Use Google maps to view the CCC and CAMC sites at Sandringham to illustrate.
The demographic is skewed towards families and younger couples (tenting etc).
The facilities are usually good, but we’ve had a couple of experiences which were borderline acceptable to my better half. I think the different age demographic with lots more kids had an effect on cleanliness.
The pitch costs are similar to CAMC, but CCC give more frequent discounts for things like out of season, grass pitches, older (over 60 members). We can get away in the low season for as little as £30 a night, with our age related discount. High season is around £5/ night cheaper than CAMC.
Pitch selection is made by the campsite managers, but on a couple of occasions we have called ahead to request two pitches together. As the area of the sites tend to be larger and less regimented into rows around roads, distance between pitches can be greater, or conversely you might find the odd pitch squeezed in between others.
Private Sites and other groups:
If you become a club member, don’t forget to look at the private sites, they can be as good / better than club sites. We have membership to both clubs, and also use private ones.
One handy feature of both clubs is the move to position sites in or close to major cities and towns, examples London, York, Bristol, Edinburgh. This gives lower cost accommodation when going to shows, concerts, or visiting people.
Hope this helps a bit.
KevH
Retired and loving it
VIP Member
Agree with all of this.
Recently joined C&MC, been with C&CC for years. For European booking I find C&MC far better, as is the ability to change and/or cancel online.
C&CC can be quite officious in my experience, and often close showers for up to 2 hours for cleaning at inconvenient times IMO.
Personally I slightly favour M&MC so far.
My advice is to try both.
Recently joined C&MC, been with C&CC for years. For European booking I find C&MC far better, as is the ability to change and/or cancel online.
C&CC can be quite officious in my experience, and often close showers for up to 2 hours for cleaning at inconvenient times IMO.
Personally I slightly favour M&MC so far.
My advice is to try both.
A
AJQ
We've been members of CCC since COVID because of the cancellation policy they had at the time. We use a few of their sites every year, maybe a tenth of our camping is at a CCC site. What I like about it - easy to book, only £25 deposit and only pay the rest on the day of arrival, good value (we're both over 60), and it's handy having wardens on site if there's a problem. The facilities are often not as modern as the other club but that doesn't bother me, for the price. The other club seems a lot more 'samey' and I don't like the look of the photos on their website of rows of white motorhomes and caravans in a line. Though you can get that anywhere of course. Someone earlier mentioned that both clubs also offer small private sites, called certificated sites in CCC and certificated locations in MCC - you need to be a member to use those. They don't all have facilities though a lot of them have hard standing and EHU. We've tried a couple which were nice. However while they're supposed to only take 5 units they don't always stick to that, so you can turn up and find that it's bigger/busier than you thought it might be.
I think whichever one you join you will get your membership fee back in the savings you make within a few nights/one trip, so Kev's advice is sound.
I think whichever one you join you will get your membership fee back in the savings you make within a few nights/one trip, so Kev's advice is sound.
Anthony1
Too young to be old
VIP Member
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We are members of C&MC and the C&CC and ACSI. The latter we use all the time in Europe. The C&MC is now getting very expensive. I sometimes wonder if a B&B might be better.
ed6789leopard
VIP Member
The C&MC lived up to this expectation at the first rally we went to. With two kids & a dog, someone is going to moan about ball games, noise etc…
We are no longer members of that club, not because of that first experience as overall it was great but just we needed to rationalisation what clubs we were and weren’t using.
We have been with camping and caravanning for a long time, since we were with a tent. My sense is the C&CC club appeals to a wider age group as it caters to members as they go through life. I.e if you started out tenting like we did and then progress to a Caravan/Motorhome with children. So they get some loyalty there. Also I do agree with their branding, it is more friendly in my experience.
We probably still don’t use the sites and benefits enough though.
Need to get out in the van more!
We are no longer members of that club, not because of that first experience as overall it was great but just we needed to rationalisation what clubs we were and weren’t using.
We have been with camping and caravanning for a long time, since we were with a tent. My sense is the C&CC club appeals to a wider age group as it caters to members as they go through life. I.e if you started out tenting like we did and then progress to a Caravan/Motorhome with children. So they get some loyalty there. Also I do agree with their branding, it is more friendly in my experience.
We probably still don’t use the sites and benefits enough though.
Need to get out in the van more!
Hawthorn37
Retired, and working hard at it
Top Poster
VIP Member
I agree from a cost viewpoint, the difference is sometimes not huge between a b&b and camping with EHU and facilities. We succumbed to this once this February, took the van, but stayed in a pub due to expected weather. The room in the pub was so cold we ended up taking some of our bedding and the fan heater from the van to the room!! B&Bs are okay, but you don’t know what you’re going to, and it’s nothing like the vibe of camping. I think there must be a bit of gipsy blood in anyone owning a campervan who is always itching to get away camping!
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