Rip Off Britain

[66tim99]

my current favourite site

I'd love to know which one

 

[GrannyJen]

I have just finished a 13 site cycle ride through England.One person per unit.

1 CAMC site (wirral) £28. Nice location, Nice facilities, just that feeling of regimentation but we were there to cycle every day, not enjoy sitting by the caravan.

2 C&CC sites: Drayton manor, £25, horrendous, theme park in a theme park and leave by 10.30 please: St Neots, lovely place, close to some brilliant pubs and eateries, £21 and delightful if you like thousands of children playing around your van.

An outrageous, overpriced independent, £35 plus £100 security deposit, paid in advance for really nothing to write home about. Brook Meadow near Market Harborough, avoid like the plague. It was an any port in a storm job when injuries to my hand slowed me down a bit.

2 Fishery sites, Makins near Nuneaton and Colemans Cottages, near Chelmsford. Makins, £21, best showers I have ever had but environment like a building site: Colemans, £25 and totally delightful, will definitely go back to. Lovely lake walks, great cycling all around, nice cafe opens 4 days a week and incredibly relaxed and laid back.

One of my favourite sites, a CS, Whitemills Marina, Earls Barton, now £25 but lovely environment, very friendly owners, great Marina-side restaurant, brilliant toilets and shower rooms.

A golf club, Golfworld Stansted, £18, lovely 19th hole, really chilled, no noise from the airport either. Definitely one I would happily return to.

4 farm sites, Green lane near Whitchurch, £25, full of seasonals, felt like an intruder, avoid. Swallow farm, outside Chester, £20, big field, EHU, small toilet block, true free range chickens laying gorgeous free range eggs and THE most helpful farmer who took me to Chester A&E after my nasty crash. Red-lion farm, near Stafford. Another favourite, £22, everything you want but facilities a bit tatty. Flemings, Leigh on sea, £16, no showers or toilets, great views, immaculately kept field with great views over the Roch valley.Very handy for Southend if you like that sort of thing.

Finally, the bad taste in the mouth. Shepreth Mill, near Royston. Booked last year for £22. Turned up to find new owners, £30. Bite the bullet, only stopping two nights, but then £5 extra for EHU. Fortunately with a fully charged Anker 1kw power station on board we could charge the bikes and laptops so it was "no thank you, keep your electricity, and your run down lean-to that passes as a sanitary block".

Finally nothing works without a couple of pics: Leaving the Wirral and arriving Sarfend, and me wearing two different but identical helmets. My first got retired after it possibly saved my life.

 

[Corradobrit]

I have just finished a 13 site cycle ride through England.One person per unit.

1 CAMC site (wirral) £28. Nice location, Nice facilities, just that feeling of regimentation but we were there to cycle every day, not enjoy sitting by the caravan.

2 C&CC sites: Drayton manor, £25, horrendous, theme park in a theme park and leave by 10.30 please: St Neots, lovely place, close to some brilliant pubs and eateries, £21 and delightful if you like thousands of children playing around your van.

An outrageous, overpriced independent, £35 plus £100 security deposit, paid in advance for really nothing to write home about. Brook Meadow near Market Harborough, avoid like the plague. It was an any port in a storm job when injuries to my hand slowed me down a bit.

2 Fishery sites, Makins near Nuneaton and Colemans Cottages, near Chelmsford. Makins, £21, best showers I have ever had but environment like a building site: Colemans, £25 and totally delightful, will definitely go back to. Lovely lake walks, great cycling all around, nice cafe opens 4 days a week and incredibly relaxed and laid back.

One of my favourite sites, a CS, Whitemills Marina, Earls Barton, now £25 but lovely environment, very friendly owners, great Marina-side restaurant, brilliant toilets and shower rooms.

A golf club, Golfworld Stansted, £18, lovely 19th hole, really chilled, no noise from the airport either. Definitely one I would happily return to.

4 farm sites, Green lane near Whitchurch, £25, full of seasonals, felt like an intruder, avoid. Swallow farm, outside Chester, £20, big field, EHU, small toilet block, true free range chickens laying gorgeous free range eggs and THE most helpful farmer who took me to Chester A&E after my nasty crash. Red-lion farm, near Stafford. Another favourite, £22, everything you want but facilities a bit tatty. Flemings, Leigh on sea, £16, no showers or toilets, great views, immaculately kept field with great views over the Roch valley.Very handy for Southend if you like that sort of thing.

Finally, the bad taste in the mouth. Shepreth Mill, near Royston. Booked last year for £22. Turned up to find new owners, £30. Bite the bullet, only stopping two nights, but then £5 extra for EHU. Fortunately with a fully charged Anker 1kw power station on board we could charge the bikes and laptops so it was "no thank you, keep your electricity, and your run down lean-to that passes as a sanitary block".

Finally nothing works without a couple of pics: Leaving the Wirral and arriving Sarfend, and me wearing two different but identical helmets. My first got retired after it possibly saved my life.

View attachment 110928

View attachment 110929

Nice writeup although I'm a little miffed about the thumbs down for Mkt Harborough. Its only a few miles from where I grew up. Glad you are OK after the fall. I had a similar misadventure a couple of weeks ago. Luckily low speed and no broken bones. Helmets are essential which surprisingly ferw wear in Germany.

 

[GrannyJen]

Nice writeup although I'm a little miffed about the thumbs down for Mkt Harborough. Its only a few miles from where I grew up. Glad you are OK after the fall. I had a similar misadventure a couple of weeks ago. Luckily low speed and no broken bones. Helmets are essential which surprisingly ferw wear in Germany.

My crash was thanks to the state of British roads, especially narrow secondary ones. Trying to avoid a big pothole, squeezed to the side by a car coming the other way, completely broken edge of road and a deep gully alongside. Front wheel into a big hole, down into the gully and sideways over on to the tarmac. I have lost about 15 minutes of memory including all of the painful bits so not so bad. Concussion for three days, broken nose, cut mouth and a hand that looked like it had been through a mincer. Like you, no broken bones, much to the surprise of the doctor who had the job of cleaning my hand up.

 

[66tim99]

I have just finished a 13 site cycle ride through England.One person per unit.

1 CAMC site (wirral) £28. Nice location, Nice facilities, just that feeling of regimentation but we were there to cycle every day, not enjoy sitting by the caravan.

2 C&CC sites: Drayton manor, £25, horrendous, theme park in a theme park and leave by 10.30 please: St Neots, lovely place, close to some brilliant pubs and eateries, £21 and delightful if you like thousands of children playing around your van.

An outrageous, overpriced independent, £35 plus £100 security deposit, paid in advance for really nothing to write home about. Brook Meadow near Market Harborough, avoid like the plague. It was an any port in a storm job when injuries to my hand slowed me down a bit.

2 Fishery sites, Makins near Nuneaton and Colemans Cottages, near Chelmsford. Makins, £21, best showers I have ever had but environment like a building site: Colemans, £25 and totally delightful, will definitely go back to. Lovely lake walks, great cycling all around, nice cafe opens 4 days a week and incredibly relaxed and laid back.

One of my favourite sites, a CS, Whitemills Marina, Earls Barton, now £25 but lovely environment, very friendly owners, great Marina-side restaurant, brilliant toilets and shower rooms.

A golf club, Golfworld Stansted, £18, lovely 19th hole, really chilled, no noise from the airport either. Definitely one I would happily return to.

4 farm sites, Green lane near Whitchurch, £25, full of seasonals, felt like an intruder, avoid. Swallow farm, outside Chester, £20, big field, EHU, small toilet block, true free range chickens laying gorgeous free range eggs and THE most helpful farmer who took me to Chester A&E after my nasty crash. Red-lion farm, near Stafford. Another favourite, £22, everything you want but facilities a bit tatty. Flemings, Leigh on sea, £16, no showers or toilets, great views, immaculately kept field with great views over the Roch valley.Very handy for Southend if you like that sort of thing.

Finally, the bad taste in the mouth. Shepreth Mill, near Royston. Booked last year for £22. Turned up to find new owners, £30. Bite the bullet, only stopping two nights, but then £5 extra for EHU. Fortunately with a fully charged Anker 1kw power station on board we could charge the bikes and laptops so it was "no thank you, keep your electricity, and your run down lean-to that passes as a sanitary block".

Finally nothing works without a couple of pics: Leaving the Wirral and arriving Sarfend, and me wearing two different but identical helmets. My first got retired after it possibly saved my life.

View attachment 110928

View attachment 110929

Brilliant, helpful post thanks. Sounds like a good time apart from the crash, glad you're ok.

 

[GrannyJen]

Brilliant, helpful post thanks. Sounds like a good time apart from the crash, glad you're ok.

Now, nerdy post:

up to Lockdown 52.6% of my stops were on CAMC sites.

With the utter shambles of the new booking system I booked one CAMC site then had to stop as tears of frustration were threatening to short out my laptop.

I'm glad I did. Going back to CL's and small independents has been a revelation. Always I booked CAMC when I was on long tours as I knew that I could totally rely on the product to give me what I want. Now I'm finding the other sectors to be almost equally reliable and in many ways a far better experience.

 

[66tim99]

far better experience

Quieter?
More ‘off grid’?
Friendlier?

 

[GrannyJen]

Quieter?
More ‘off grid’?
Friendlier?

First is flexibility. Flexibility when you can arrive, when you can leave, where and how you park, Very evident on this trip where often our next site was an hour down the road. Both clubs were totally inflexible on arrival time, the rule says 1pm. With just one exception everyone else went out of their way to accommodate us.

Friendliness is something I found also. Whilst most club site managers are a friendly bunch they are employees of organisations that have a lot of written rules. However someone who owns the place, who is very often indulging in a hobby as well as seeking an income, often someone who loves the place, area and environment you are camping in, will often will go out of their way to stop and chat and tell you all about it.

Some things on this trip really stood out: the farmer dropping everything to get me to a hospital 40 minutes away, the farmer offering to let us arrive f.o.c. the night before so we could get an early start, the "front of house" manager at the golf-course blocking off the ladies shower room so I could take my time getting a dressing off my hand without people staring, going sick at the sight of it or moaning about someone leaving soiled first aid dressings all around the place: I could have managed in my van but she wanted to make sure I had plenty of running hot water etc. The lovely man at Leigh on sea, looked at our shirts, saw we were cycling for charity, and told me to put the site fees in our collecting box.

I'm not knocking either club, they both have worked very well for me in the past, a reliable product when I needed one, but now I feel there has been a lot of catching up in the independent sector and, frankly, the management of the CAMC should all take a bow and get off stage after the incompetent, botched implementation of the new booking system and the clunky, inflexible and in some cases stupid system it is now,

 

[66tim99]

The lovely man at Leigh on sea, looked at our shirts, saw we were cycling for charity, and told me to put the site fees in our collecting box.

Love this

 

[The Blue Merle]

Stopped at Moffat C & CC for an overnight pitch a few days ago. Yes sir, we have a pitch, it’ll be £38.90 for members (2 people). When I said that’s a lot, warden said yes, we are expensive. I said no thanks and turned round. We stayed there last August and it was only £21 then! (We ended up at the services near Lanark where it costs £10, really nice stopover with free showers.)

Loads of lovely parkup spots over near grey mares tail (not the main carpark people do stop there), that’s where I always end up as looked at Moffat site and had the same opinion!

 

[The Tall Luthier]

Wild with Consent is getting some good press recently. A chance to stay in wild remote locations with the land owners consent. Very Basic or No facilities.

FORTY FIVE BRITISH POUNDS PER NIGHT!!!!

Honestly!

A wilder kind of campervanning: park and hike on Dartmoor

A new style of holiday offers off-grid seclusion in a rented campervan, with Devon just one of many places pairing UK landowners with nature-loving travellers

www.theguardian.com

 

[Vagophile]

FORTY FIVE BRITISH POUNDS PER NIGHT!!!!

Honestly!

I checked this out when it was first introduced in Northumberland.
The landowner of my boyhood home was offering a facilities free stay in a field overlooking Holy Island for £100 per night.
I haven't had any feedback on how successful it has been.

 

[Vagophile]

Not wild camping in the true sense but interesting article in the Sunday Times today. New company called ‘Wild With Consent’ offers offers pitches where only 1 self contained vehicle is allowed per night. Just Northumberland at the moment but I guess they’ll add more locations in time?

Wild Camping

Funny enough in our dotage we play a lot of baseball so we keep the bat under the drivers seat and the ball in the door pocket..You never know when you will get the urge to play baseball.... Yes it’s amazing how many taxi drivers are into baseball. Who would have thought it?

vwcaliforniaclub.com

 

[soulstyledevon]

Wild with Consent is getting some good press recently. A chance to stay in wild remote locations with the land owners consent. Very Basic or No facilities.

FORTY FIVE BRITISH POUNDS PER NIGHT!!!!

Honestly!

A wilder kind of campervanning: park and hike on Dartmoor

A new style of holiday offers off-grid seclusion in a rented campervan, with Devon just one of many places pairing UK landowners with nature-loving travellers

www.theguardian.com

Yet in France, you can stay in a quiet Aire for €12. Water disposal, fresh water refill, bins, electric hookup, and lakeside.
We were the first there at 3pm. 4 vans turned up in total. It was still empty with just 4 vans.

This is what the UK needs…

 

[Amarillo]

Stayed at a facilities free site on Dartmoor earlier this month. £10 per night per campervan, money in an honesty box.

Tent camping is £2.50 per person per night.

Exclusive use of the site is £100 per night.

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

A problem surfaced at Beadnell C&CC Campsite when we were there recently. Wasn’t a show stopper for us but just posting for information.

The site lost its Internet connectivity. Inconvenient for the campers but also for the on site shop who were unable to sell anything.

The manager advised us that C&CC has gone totally cashless across all their sites with no back up system! If true it’s madness. They had to throw some unsold perishables away.

At least there was a local shop near by.

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

A problem surfaced at Beadnell C&CC Campsite when we were there recently. Wasn’t a show stopper for us but just posting for information.

The site lost its Internet connectivity. Inconvenient for the campers but also for the on site shop who were unable to sell anything.

The manager advised us that C&CC has gone totally cashless across all their sites with no back up system! If true it’s madness. They had to throw some unsold perishables away.

At least there was a local shop near by.

Back to the original question from @Dave Wickham .
We’re booked at a site in Ile de Re next month and for 8 nights with EHU it’s €469.56 (€58.70 per night). Almost double the €30 price Dave paid at the sites he visited. The site we’re staying at (La Grainetiere) does have good facilities and it is peak season so I’m not unhappy with the cost.

 

[Corradobrit]

Back to the original question from @Dave Wickham .
We’re booked at a site in Ile de Re next month and for 8 nights with EHU it’s €469.56 (€58.70 per night). Almost double the €30 price Dave paid at the sites he visited. The site we’re staying at (La Grainetiere) does have good facilities and it is peak season so I’m not unhappy with the cost.

I think you will like the location. La Flote is small but quaint. Some bigger towns with more to offer are a short drive away. I stayed 2 nights in the car park marked with a star on the map.

 

[66tim99]

They had to throw some unsold perishables away.

You’d hope they’d give them away…

 

[Amarillo]

A problem surfaced at Beadnell C&CC Campsite when we were there recently. Wasn’t a show stopper for us but just posting for information.

The site lost its Internet connectivity. Inconvenient for the campers but also for the on site shop who were unable to sell anything.

The manager advised us that C&CC has gone totally cashless across all their sites with no back up system! If true it’s madness. They had to throw some unsold perishables away.

At least there was a local shop near by.

Have cashless shops really forgotten how to use credit card imprinters!?

 

[CaliforniaSeb]

Has anyone used the France passion stops? I believe they are like Brit stops. Located in vineyards, farms, etc , and free. We are off in September to France and have signed up . No idea if they are a good idea. We will probably start using the Brit stops too.

.

 

[haydnw2]

Have cashless shops really forgotten how to use credit card imprinters!?

The cards are all flat nowadays though.

 

[Corradobrit]

Has anyone used the France passion stops? I believe they are like Brit stops. Located in vineyards, farms, etc , and free. We are off in September to France and have signed up . No idea if they are a good idea. We will probably start using the Brit stops too.

.

I used it recently back in May when I visited France for 2 weeks. Used it 3x. Two were OK but the the 3rd was spoilt by the other 'guests' who created a nuisance. With all the other options France has to offer France Passion is superfluous. I won't be renewing next year.

 

[Amarillo]

The cards are all flat nowadays though.

Ah yes, I have two new cards of that type.

 

[GrumpyGranddad]

I think you will like the location. La Flote is small but quaint. Some bigger towns with more to offer are a short drive away. I stayed 2 nights in the car park marked with a star on the map.
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Thanks @Corradobrit
I might try that car park for 1 night before arriving at La Grainetiere. Wanted an extra night with them but they are fully booked. Any tips on staying in the car park