Caravan Club & Caravanners ?

[robinf]

As owners of a black Cali for over 4 years, we often go travelling to Devon and Somerset and stay on Caravan Club sites. But we very very rarely see another Cali. So where does everybody else go?! And yet there's over a 1000 members on this site alone. The other thing is that nearly all CC member 'outifts' (as they are termed) are glacial white or off-white. When our black van turns up, so do the heads, thinking we are something from the dark side. Not that we find CC members unwelcoming, quite the opposite, but initially we always get loads of staring eyes! Anyone with similar experiences?

 

[Martin]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

Hi Robin & welcome.

I know exactly what you mean, we have just come back from the Cotswolds and stayed on a Caravan Club Site ... excellent facilities and really nice staff but as you say you are surrounded by big white caravans who all look at you as if you have just arrived at the campsite in a flying saucer, you then get even more odd looks when the roof goes up. We like to spend most of our time outside the van be it eating or playing board games (weather permitting) but we find that especially at club sites everyone seems to go inside and watch TV around 7pm , on our final dog walk one evening at around 8pm every camper was inside their caravan watching Eastenders, my idea of a camping is to get away from that! Much better atmosphere on continental campsites, especially of an evening.

 

[John]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

Ditto to Martin CC have some great sites but we have not seen another Cali at one yet.

However, stayed at the great CC site at Battle last week and saw not one but two T5 conversions and one T5 Black Van that was being used to tow a classic American Airstream Caravan.

Also at the site a nice guy in the pitch next to me said he loved the Cali. He was amused when he saw us turning up, the roof going up and the chairs and table appearing out of the doors etc.

John

 

[MKRW]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

We just completed our first 'proper trip' 8 nights away in France.

South west france in the Vendee. Fantastic site, already booked again for next year.

We arrived at about 4 in the afternoon and were just in the process of taking the bikes off....... all the Caravaners were circling, moving their chairs to face us, and opening a beer ready to watch us through the struggle to set up........

Thankfully a friend already had a pitch over on the tent field. Where we were was not flat so we decided to move closer to our friends, as we had a tent and a 'van that was our transport..... All the campers were friendly and brought over a few beers, other than struggling to bang in tent pegs for the Khyam in 32 degrees, we were set up in an hour.

Key Learnings from the trip:

1) Need to purchase a proper heavy duty mallet as the ground was baked hard (not the cheep £1 camping mallet which break easily and bent lots of tent pegs......) Then need to buy a tent peg puller :laugh2
2) Electric kettle on electric hookup was really convenient and will purchase an electric grill / griddle as friends made easy work of panini's.
3) 2 extra tripod chairs from Decathlon worked really well and fit in the rear tail gate.
4) Pack less. much less!
5) Keep organised and establish a routine.... especially with a 6 month old.
6) Relax and enjoy
7) Travel with friends. Great for keeping the kids entertained.
8) Find the right campsite. There was loads to do and many people returning for their 4th and 5th years.
9) Be prepared to give guided tours of the Cali. I think we converted at least 2 families...

 

[KernowLad]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

CC rules and the typical misplaced snobbery make the thought of ever going to one of their sites very unlikely.

About as far from my idea of fun campering as you can get!!

 

[Hubert]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

Fully agree with the comments regarding club sites.
Used to own a caravan many years ago and was a little disappointed when I rejoined after getting the Cali. It seems that bigger is better. The number of vans, with just two people in, that measure the length of a football pitch and of course they still go to the shower block despite having bathrooms bigger than some houses. Don't even mention the awnings !
We stayed at Broadway in the Cotswolds a couple of years ago in really hot weather, come 7pm they were all inside windows wide open, televisions on. The competition there was to have the biggest satelite dish, the site looked like Jodrell bank.

Having said all that, the sites do have excellent, clean facilities and we nearly always use them.
We shall be in the Cotswolds,Devon and Somerset in September, say hello if you see us.

Hubert

 

[Martin]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

As much as we dislike CC sites we would not dismiss them for stopover's or a stay for a few nights and I have never encountered any snobbery at any of their sites. The main benefits we like is you are always guaranteed modern and clean toilets and good proper showers without the stupid push button! Also you can choose your own pitch as they never allocate pitches so you can choose to hide away from everyone if you want, finally if you want a good nights kip you know the quite rule will always be adhered and the wardens do chuck people off the site. Saying that we would never want to spend more than 2/3 nights at one !

 

[Martin]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

Totally with you there Hubert on the satellite dishes, we have seen caravanners in the past positioning their massive dish before putting the kettle on ... and yes, they all have luxury bathrooms in their caravans yet insist on using the wash block facilities ... don't start me on some of these massive awnings they have that take around a day to erect and they then have to park partially on the access road as they can no longer get the car on the pitch.

I do like caravanners really ..

 

[Californiaman]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

We've always had good experiences on CC sites. I like them especially if you don't know an area at all and want somewhere reliable whilst you investigate...

The CC is also very good if you use the M6 toll as membership currently attracts a 50% discount!

 

[barry]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

We've been a member of CC for 2 years and I have to admit I found the sites a little depressing: facilities were excellent and clean but there was a degree of 'control' that I didn't like much and there was a lot of people with an awful lot of extraneous kit on display (and what's with the rows of potted plants watered twice a day?).

I've just returned from a family 80th weekend in a very expensive golfing hotel in England which seemed to be full of the same type of extraneous kit people

Anyway, we found the sites were sometimes well-placed (in York, next to Dover ferries sort of thing) and this attracted us (I think a post above pointed to the fact that they can sometimes be good bases to explore) - but as a place to chill out and see the great outdoors, they're an overpriced nonsense I think.

So we've not joined this year (so won't be using the M6 Toll, now

 

[KernowLad]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

They have a site in an absolutely cracking location near St Agnes in Cornwall which is a shame. I cycle past it sometimes - don't think I've seen anything but "oversized white goods" caravans and motorhomes so far.

 

[Graham]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

We were members for a few seasons. in the years BC (before Cali), we had a trailer tent and stayed at a number of their sites. We didn't like the pervasive control freakery which doesn't sit well with us when on holiday - and relinquished our membership. No intention of going back to one either. I can do without the stares and tellings off when my kids want to kick a ball or throw a frisbee. Or when my BBQ is a bit smoky. Or when we get friendly with neighbours and have a laugh over beers after 9pm. Or want to buy some milk outside the 30 microseconds a day the shop is open. And not want to get chased off the site if we misjudged the time it would take us to pack our stuff up again. Or be told that we couldn't put up a pup tent because we hadn't booked it in advance. Or rarely make a booking for a site we wanted to stay at less than a year in advance.

Yes, all this happened to us. Yes, we are nice people. No, they never did publish our customer feedback on their website.

 

[KernowLad]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

Is there any positive feedback for them? I've yet to find any!

Sites with more rules than a boarding school - WHY do people pay big bucks to be members?!

And the snob thing often seems to come from some doyley wiedling Mrs Bucket towing some old Marauder/Crusader/[insert comedy caravan name] with an old Rover 75/Vauxhall Carlton/[insert name of old saloon] both totalling the princely sum of one Brandrup foot mat.

 

[calikev]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

Is there any positive feedback for them? I've yet to find any!

Sites with more rules than a boarding school - WHY do people pay big bucks to be members?!

And the snob thing often seems to come from some doyley wiedling Mrs Bucket towing some old Marauder/Crusader/[insert comedy caravan name] with an old Rover 75/Vauxhall Carlton/[insert name of old saloon] both totalling the princely sum of one Brandrup foot mat.

:rofl :rofl funny and true :rofl :rofl

 

[Freeley]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

Agree with all the comments on CC sites. We've been members since we got our cali 3 years ago, have only stayed at one this year - Moreton in Marsh. As is often the case it was in an excellent position and the toilet/shower block was good.
No matter how well situated a site is if it has dodgy facilities i find myself dreading going for a shower in the evenings so at least i don't have this worry with CC sites.
I think i've only come across 1 cali on the CC sites we've been to in the past, like Robin with his Black cali ours stands out from the sea of white.

Yes they have too many rules and too many jobsworths but they do come in handy on occasion.

 

[Stu]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

Those of you at the recent Norfolk get together probably won't be surprised the Tin Tent brigade complained about us spoiling their view.

Ironic really as at a rough estimate we had best part of a £ million of Germany's finest whilst they looked on from high in their recycled Coke Cans.

 

[Gary&Heather]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

Tin Tent brigade

:rofl :rofl :rofl :rofl

 

[sidepod]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

We just spent the weekend camped in the next field to a CC rally. We were unsure exactly what these rallies consisted of but now I know.

Turns out its a weekend of waste water tank/poo tank emptying/filling. Without a word of a lie I must have seen 30 little grey tanks on wheels get pushed/pulled/carried back and forth.

I pride myself on being able to go at least 4 days without emptying/filling or pluging anything in to the van.
Surely a big white caravan can last a weekend without maintenance? It was almost as if they had nothing else to do!!

We knew some people at the rally but couldn't visit because we wern't insured!!! Eh?

It also appears there is a 7pm curfew. Doors shut, TV on, play with the satelite dish.

V odd.

S.

 

[choplee]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

I have afew friends tha are CC members .. They seem to love it as they book up most of the season in one booking frenzy .. Lol
If they don't do that they say they probably wouldnt get into the sites .. The CC members love to book everywhere and cancel when choices have been made ... CC not my cup of tea ,as a friend got some looks when he rocked up in his T4 ..not unfriendly ,but just a different breed to campervaners I'm afraid to say ... The tv aerial comes out first when the caravan is secure..lol
Is that CC first rule ??.

 

[Martin]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

Ha ha , I thought it was only me that got annoyed by caravanners, obviously not! Anothter thing is Caravans are referred to as 'tourers' ,so why do they spend two weeks on the same site, that is not touring!! Also many of them tend to go back to the same campsite year after year.. Crazy!

BTW, Has anyone seen the caravan channel on Sky? Very amusing viewing.

 

[robinf]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

When I kicked off this topic less than 24 hours ago, I couldn't have guessed the general direction of the replies, but I think I now know why we don't see many Cali owners on CC sites! However, I'm still wondering where most of us do actually go - given the cultural resistance to the Caravan Club ethos. For us, having visited some less than perfect shower and toilet arrangements, the one thing you can depend on with CC sites is decent facilities. As many of you have intimated, it's as if a sleeping gas is emitted across these sites every night at 8.30pm. But when they're awake, we find them very pleasant and polite- just a bit different! We nearly always book sites near to pubs, so dinner and refershments are taken care of, and when we womble back past 11pm, it's like a ghost town! We find it all pretty harmless really, but I do recognise most of our members' critical comments.

 

[Martin]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

inmates

:laugh2

 

[davidg4183]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

I tend to agree that CC sites are cleaner, and more organised than the average site. However, they also suffer from excessive rules (and potential snobbery!) This is based on my previous experiences when travelling with the parents.

However, I somewhat feel that all caravan sites (CC included) go against the ethos of the California. They limit flexibility (you must book in advance, check-in by a certain time etc), and limit the potential to truly explore the countryside and remote places.
There are plenty of laybys, dead end roads, disused roads that offer complete privacy, beautiful views, complete independence (as well as being free!), so why stay at a campsite site(?)...or perhaps I’m just spoilt choice of wild camping spots in Scotland . On the West Coast of Scotland all the big white motorhomes are forced to use the campsites while the campervans have the choice to stay anywhere, and usually do!
I’ve never stayed in a caravan site again, and probably never will.

Ohh, and here is a question to the moderators. It might make an interesting POLL, to find out how many people usually use caravan sites, and how many wild camp?

 

[sidepod]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

We always try for sites that allow campfires, which pretty much rules out CC.

Routine. Arrive.Park.Roof.Fridge.Wine.Fire.Done.

S.

 

[AndyandLiz]

Re: Caravan Club welcome?

what a shame