Caravan and camping club

[calikev]

Is anyone a member of the caravan and camping club and would you recommend joining?

 

[Iain&Shani]

We are looking at whether to re-join the caravan club, we have previously been in the c&c also, however we do wonder if it will actually be worth it. Both clubs are very similar but the c&c boasts that is is the "friendly" club. I have heard that the cc can be a little snooty regaurding anything that isn't a caravan. The main thing that get us back into the cc would be access to their overseas insurance which by all accounts is fabulous should you need it.

Not much help towards you OP but I guess it boils down to how much you will use their sites and CSs against the £40 membership.

 

[Martin]

We belong to both but make much more use of the Caravan and Camping Club as we use the Forest Holiday Camp Sites which you get a discount for being a member of the C&CC s These are as close as you can get to Wild Camping but still have toilet/shower facilities. We will probably keep both memberships though as we then have a better choice of CL's and CS's

 

[Californiaman]

We often use caravan and camping club sites.

 

[Californiaman]

And caravan club sites for that matter and have never encountered snooty behaviour (or maybe I just never notice!!)

 

[Iain&Shani]

And caravan club sites for that matter and have never encountered snooty behaviour (or maybe I just never notice!!)

Likewise but plenty folks have a downer on them. Personally I think it is down to how you treat people yourself. Want respect? Earn it.

 

[Ewan]

Like Martin we use Forest Holiday sites regularly but took out CCC membership this year for the first time given the discounts. Hoping we'll get our money's worth.

I wouldn't necessarily say they're snooty but there's certainly an obsession with rules !!!

 

[gatvol]

More noob questions ...

But may I ask if it makes sense to join one or both of these please. It is literally decades since I last stayed on a caravan club site and as a child I loathed them as they were so basic. But that was the 1970s

Thanks

 

[calikev]

I have joined the caravan and camping club this year and booked 3 sites at Easter 2 at £10 per night and 1at £15
Think I have nearly got my membership back still got all the summer to go

 

[sebking]

always viewed it as more of a Caravan than camping club with all the weirdness that goes in with caravans...

 

[Martin]

We are a member of the Camping and Caravan club mainly for using Certified Sites and Forest Holiday's, I would only join up though if you find you 'really' need to use one of their sites and then join on the day you book it, that way your membership lasts longer. We made the mistake a few years back of joining in January and not booking a site until July and wasting six months membership.

Like Seb says, most of their own sites are full of Caravans so not a 'real' camping experience. ( not that there is anything wrong with caravans or caravanners !! )

 

[Calimark]

I Joined the Caravan club last night mainly so that we can make use of their smaller "certified sites" during the off season since many of them are open 12 months a year. I found that the Caravan club had more choice in terms of certified sites. Hope to try out the new cali in a few weeks time !

 

[Chris]

We were a CARAVAN CLUB member last year. Used one site for one night. ( most expensive night ever!)
Was a little van in a sea of caravans. We cooked outside, curtains were twitching!
At this particular site we saw a caravan with a larger TV than I have at home, +40" and to top it off a Parott in a large cage at the front window! It takes all sorts!

Found that whenever we wanted a short notice get away most of the CC sites were fully booked. When I phoned to cancel my direct debit / membership, I explained to a nice chap that pre-booking pitches the way they do, meant us people that have to work are penalised. He agreed and said they were looking into the problem as many people have made complaints regarding this.
Off Season CC is fine. Peak Season a nightmare.
Not been a member of C&CC so can't comment

 

[Iain&Shani]

In the past we have been members of both. At the time we had a caravan and it was a handy place for the kids to find "fast friends". The sites of both were generally maintained at a high standard. Both have a huge network of 5 'van loactions which vary a huge amount from pretty basic with only water and disposal points to impressive all singing all dancing establishments.

I don't think we are going to re-join either at the moment as I doubt we'd "get our money back".

 

[ChrisandPenney52]

Originally joined C& CC but also joined CC last year as they had more sites in area of Scotland we were doing. Have only used big sites, not certified ones. My subjective views: CC feels much more rooted in Caravan origins and sites seem more formal, whereas C&CC more broadly based and have loads of camper vans and tents; both offer good low and mid season deals, making them good value for us when we travel. I'd say review your plans, check the prices for the season you're going and check a map of their respective sites and make a choice on that basis.

 

[Freeley]

We joined both when we bought our cali in 2009 and have been ever since.
It's nice to have the choice and from our experiences overall caravan club sites have tended to be slightly better quality and in better locations. membership fees aren't that much anyway.

 

[KernowLad]

I have a total hatred of anything with any snobbery attached and having heard a few tales of vans not being considered "good enough" I'm not keen.

Also not worried about facilities - clean toilets and showers is all we look for. It's the location that's vital to us and happy to "wild camp" if/when needed.

 

[Fin]

We are in both clubs and tend to use both, however we also wild camp and use the small CL's and CS's probably more than anything else. I would echo the sentiments of many especially with the C.Club there is often a lot of curtain twitching, we are almost always the only people sat outside, cooking outside and we don't have a telly or large satellite dish to twiddle with not in the California or indeed not at home either. Whilst the facilities are usually in very good order it can seem as though you are often in a car park of predominantly humongous white motorhomes & white caravans. However we have met some very pleasant folk, though frequently despite being in our early forties we're frequently the youngest on a site. I think one of the best things is the City Centre sites, such as Cambridge, Bristol, London etc these are really, really handy. So it works for us but I can see that it might not work so well for others.



Fin

 

[Californiaman]

Same here, we are in both clubs, camp in both quite happily and also like nothing better than being in the middle of nowehere while camped up by a beach. We have never encountered anything that could be interpreted as snobbery; just good people. There is probably the odd bad-apple but they must be few and far between (and sod 'em if they're miserable snobs...)

My approach is if I only have a day or two in a particular area, then I often will try and find a Caravan Club site as you tend to know pretty much what you are going to get. The Caravan and Camping clubs can be a bit less 'regimented' if 'regimented' is the right word (don't read too much into the use of that word - in Caravan club sites, 'regimented' often means that you won't have kids booting footballs up against your van or dog mess on the grass on your pitch... they're pretty good...)

We get our money back time and again with both...

 

[David Eccles]

we are C & CC club members I lke their sites cos you always know in advance you are going to get good standard of facilities and a welcome and help if needed
thought about CC but reading these will just stay as is ....

 

[keredewor]

CC Member for a few years......hate, absolutely hate, the booking system....can never get the site we want.....why oh why don't they charge the full stay at time of booking.........if you don't turn up you lose your money......that would sort it

 

[GeoffB]

Never tried them with anything other than a tent, but agree they seem to be mostly for caravans and won't be rushing to take our new Cali there (always amused by the signs on many of their entrances; under the club's name it usually says "The Friendly Club - NO TENTS" ).

 

[Cody]

CC member for 4 years. Never really found any snobbery except one site in Scotlland which was very pretty but anal. Cut short the stay. The booking system is very weird but generally not had a problem to get where or close to where we want. Also always worth checking with Warden as often get cancellations which don't register as vacancies on the website and sometimes they do keep a pitch or 2 in reserve for short notice needs. I never ever go out on Bank Holidays and during the school holidays as kids all grown up so avoiding peak seasons.

And don't take a tv, beer/wine, good book, long long walks and actually have the time in busy lives to speak to the Mrs G!

 

[lfm]

There are a couple of hidden benefits:

1) Safeguard give you a discount on your annual insurance.
2) M6 Toll Road: You pull into a manned lane (or hit the Assistance button), show them your membership card and tell them you are a Motorhome and you get a discount back down to the Car price. Saves you £4.50 each way.

To be honest, the new found toll discount almost adds up to the CC membership for us. That's 5 return journeys from East Anglia / Wales and Lancashire to see the rellies.

Just watch out for the miserable bloke who said "It's not a caravan" but he gave in pretty easily when I said "It's a motorhome" and he saw the sink through the window. :evil:

 

[Paul S]

We are still Cali hunting but have Ben members of the Caravan Club since 2004 when we got our first caravan. We joined them in preference to the C&CC as we went to our local site Clumber park to do a comparison. The CC site was like the Hilton, the CCC site was like The Somme complete with latrine. In all fairness I think they closed the CCC one the year after as the park redeveloped the land it was on so maybe they didn't want to modernise it. On the basis of this highly scientific test we went with the CC and have never regretted it from a facilities point of view, they are almost always immaculate. However, as previous posters have commented there is also nearly always a bit of a "thing" going on at CC sites. Can't really put my finger on it and to be fair it's never been enough to put me off but they can be a bit straitjacketed sometimes, I guess it depends who you pitch next to and you run that risk anywhere. As they say there's nowt as queer as folk. Whenever we roll up you normally get twitchers that'd rather watch you struggle with an awning or reversing onto a tight pitch rather than help you, but last year a nice couple helped us for the first time ever, they turned out to be localish to us and had come over to help as they'd seen the Lowdham Leisure badge so were glad to see fellow people from Nottinghamshire. You sometimes hear people say "don't ever leave suds in the sinks" on CC sites and while it may be tongue in cheek I have witnesses the next sink user get quite agitated by it. With respect to the oldies (I'm 41, my wife is 46) it is usually the very mature ladies who look like they've been sucking a lemon that are the worst for moaning, LOL. And you'll get them at both sites I'm sure. And at CC sites yes you will get some very odd outfits, we've seen plenty of massive bird cages with macaws, parrots etc, we even saw a whole plastic tree once for them to perch on, must have been 7 ft tall. Weird. And huge awnings with all the trimmings on that make a lil' VW van look quite insubstantial. And the massive TV's too - sometimes wonder why people actually bother to leave home at all. Agree the CC booking system is on the whole rubbish. I have no experience of the CCC one but with the CC what tends to happen is that when booking opens for the new year on the 6th December everyone who has kids tends to block book the holidays in advance so those of us without kids or who just fancy a long weekend on impulse will often find that a site is totally booked. But if you ring on the day there'll be a space as invariably some families haven't turned up and didn't bother to cancel. That really gets my goat. Anyway, that's just my input, I feel quite cleansed now I've had a bit of a moan.