Are we members of a touring club?
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Usually leave a site at 10am or 10.30am governed by time to next site. When leaving for home we usually leave it until 9am to avoid rush hour. and arrive shortly after earliest arrival time.
Can't remember if I have stayed at Looe. The most recent site that I stayed at with a pool was Seacroft in July. The pool was well used but certainly there were very many, probably the majority, of outfits who did not appear to use use it.
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I think there is a difference between touring and being able to travel about without booking. A few years ago we did a tour of Scotland, up the west coast, across to Inverness then down the east. We wanted to do the same as when in France where we didn't need to book anywhere. But this was not to be. For Scotland we had to book every site many weeks an advance to ensure we weren't 'homeless' on any particular night. Some places we stopped a couple of nights and others 3 nights but we were still 'touring' albeit booked in advance.
Unfortunately spontaneous touring is a thing of the past in the UK for most of the time. It may be possible to still do it if one is prepared to make a lot of phone calls and divert from the planned route to find a site for the night.
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add the M27 to your list heading down towards Dorset where it becomes the A27, nightmare for most of the summer months, and i dont believe living in Cheshire is going to be a whole lot better
watch out for these Easy
A number of roadworks and closures are taking place across Cheshire this month.
Improvement works on major routes such as the M53, M56 and M6 are bound to have an effect on traffic
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I thought, perhaps incorrectly, that the tourer or touring part referred to touring caravans (now including MH) rather than static caravans, so perhaps with glamping pods and the like that has changed a little bit?
What other differences have I noticed in either the 'ethos' or actual sites in 20 years of using them? Very little really, the main one being the time needed in booking ahead. But that's due to the club being popular and getting more so. But it's not the club where you have to book ahead, it the same with non club sites.
I'm not really bothered if it's a club or business as long as the sites offer me what I want, a good quality place to pitch my caravan.
A lot of sites still can be booked up out of school holidays for touring within a week or so.
I do disagree entirely with the statement that the club is for older couples. Go in school holidays and it's mainly young families.
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Many of the commercial sites have swimming pools, bars, restaurants, bowling allys, provided entertainment for children, bike hire, the list goes on, for the club to adopt to any of this would mean a drastic re think on site layout etc,
Some of the commercial sites offer those facilities but generally they are sites double the size in pitch numbers to the largest CMC sites and often with a lot of statics, log cabins etc to support the provisions made.
Such sites are available and cater for a different clientele than does the club sites and very many other commercial sites. Certainly not the sort of site that I personally want and nor a great many others
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oh! come on, Southport in the winter really can not be counted,
Wharfdale Skipton
North York Moors,
Wagtail, Grantham
The Sandringham Estate
St Neotts C&CC
BroadwayC&CC Winchcombe
Exmoor House, Dulverton
Trewethett, Tintagel
Godrevy, Hayle
Ross Park, Newton Abbot
Wood Farm, Charmouth
Devizes C&CC
Burford
Ebury Hill C&CCCC Carsington
CC Sutton on Sea
Norwhich C&CC
Monarch Lakes, Boston
CC Ferry Meadows Peterborough
Conkers C&CC, SwadlincoteSouthport
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So, is it a club we've all joined? Or perhaps an astutely run business with customers who pay an annual fee as well as periodic purchasing costs?
It was when I first joined over 30 years ago and belonged to a Centre and rallied but if you don’t belong to a Centre and rally then it is no more a Club than “Go Outdoors” or “Matalan”. It is just your subscription is more expensive than either of these two.
I did tour in the UK 20 years ago without booking anywhere. However, for an easier and a more relaxing holiday most of my touring has been in mainland Europe and the most recent tour I did in the UK was in Wales and it would have been most unwise not to have booked everywhere well in advance. The need to book, certainly C&MC sites, often way in advance, seems to be supported even more by todays anecdotal evidence. It is a shame we cannot enjoy the same freedoms as experienced in mainland Europe.
perhaps the Club will eventually see that some minimal year-round provision is desirable for those who would like the peceived security of an authorised site together with the chance to replenish fresh water and dispose of waste
Pigs might fly, but then 20 years ago we didn’t have “Brit Stops” or “Pub Stopovers”. Touring in mainland Europe with Brexit and CV19 influences is going to become less appealing. Staycations will likely be more popular and with the increase in motorhome use there is a growing demand for minimal facility stopovers. If these should succeed and If my touring is going to be confined to the UK the jury is going to be out deciding whether the C&MC is still an organisation I want to contribute to.
2021 is going to be an interesting year.
peedee
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I have never owned a caravan although I have always wanted one, but after receiving a legacy I decided that it would be easier for me to drive and pitch a motorhome. I bought my Eldiss Autoquest 7 years ago and it never crossed my mind at all that I would not be allowed to join and pitch on the Caravan Club site and I doubt if anyone else with a motorhome ever thought so either, so did changing the name of the Club really encourage more motorhomers to join?
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vbfg back in 2017 when the rebranding was carried out I thought it a good move, now I am not so sure. I agree with Brue but they did lose about 1000 members in the 2017/18 year, perhaps those that didn't like the name change! An expensive change just to sound more inclusive.
peedee
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May I thank everyone of you who was sufficiently interested or troubled by my OP! It has clearly prompted some assessments, weighing up what you like most and least, and I wasn't really attempting to say that anyone's choice of how to holiday was better or worse than anyone else's. Like all such things, it's personal. As one ages, and I am, it is hard not to reflect and that was a bit of me doing so.
For all that, I plan to maintain our subscription for the foreseeable, as well as those for C&CC and Britstops. It's extravagant as we really don't use all of them enough to justify it, but the perceived freedom of choices it gives us kind of matches the perceived freedom of the road! In most regards the CMC is still the best of the bunch for its facilities and the extent of them.
As an aside, it is always interesting that the more postings there are on a given topic, as time goes on the farther is the meandering away from the original matter...
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I doubt if anyone else with a motorhome ever thought so either, so did changing the name of the Club really encourage more motorhomers to join?
vbfg
It depends what you base your view on I suppose. Apparently there was an increase in motorhomers joining the Club when the name changed. Clearly those who have been motorhoming for some time will be aware of the Club. However in recent years there has been a large growth in motorhome ownership. Now depending on which forums and Facebook groups you read I think you could quickly come to the conclusion that many have little idea on what is available out there. I do find that surprising as these people have invested tens of thousands of pounds in their shiney new motorhomes!!! So there are some rich pickings out there for the Club.
David
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IMO it is pointless trying to compare over here with over there and i think we have done this to the death many times on CT, however, having a caravan of 7.3m the last thing i would want to do is tour in the UK especially during the months June - Sept, unlike Spain for e.g. the roads here are a nightmare who would want to join a traffic jam every 4 or 5 days, not me thank you.
We tour on extended trips all the year round in Britain, and have been doing so for the last 18 yrs, and have very rarely seen a traffic jam. It just depends where one chooses to go during the holiday period. Of course you're going to find them in the S West in the summer or at EAster, but if we head that way it wouldn't be at that time. It just takes a bit of planning and a lot of common sense, which seems to go out of the window with some people.
and have very rarely been in a traffic n
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We have to use those routes too, and I can't remember the last time that we've been held up because of a crash.....perhaps you're just unlucky!
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Would this queue be in front of or behind you . . . ?
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Don’t forget I live in the middle of both of them. I drive a mini bus with special needs children to a school in Chorley. At one point in time last year on the journey back from Chorley to Preston 3 days on the the trot I was held up for over an hour due to accidents on the m61/m6 junction. One day a couple of years ago it took me 6hours 30minutes to get back to Preston from Ambleside due to a truck hitting a motorway bridge south of Lancaster. Maybe you don’t use those routes anywhere near as much as I do. If I didn’t use them then I would have to stay at home
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We have no problems with traffic in general Nellie. Probably helps that we don't tour in nearly all of August. Usually return from our tours about 27th July until after August bank holiday Monday. In the same way, depending when Easter is we often go away a couple of days before Good Friday. We move every 5 days. I am not sure how somebody manages to meet a traffic Jam every 4 or 5 days - it is a talent that I have no wish to cultivate.
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Anybody who’s avoided being in a queue on the M6 at sometime should check their pulse!
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But the subject is about touring, not the general everyday running around that you are talking about. We have to use the A590 whatever other route we are going so we do use all of those routes at one time of another, and as I said have seldom been help up because of accidents or roadworks.
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Depends which section of the M6 one uses. If at all possible we choose not to drive on it south the Mersey. As I said it's all about planning one's route.
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It’s good to dream.......😉😂
Why is this thread debating the M6 and traffic jams?
Worst place in England to be towing a caravan used to be the M4/M5 interchange near Filton, anytime between 3pm and 6pm on a Saturday in August. We found it quicker to go straight through Bristol one day (admittedly solo🤪) I should qualify it though be mentioning that we have never driven on M25, which I understand is known as London’s Orbital car park?😱
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