Planning our first grand tour ...
... ok, Grand Tour is a bit optimistic but we're planning our summer holiday trip with our motorhome which will take us from Scotland to England and Wales. (We're having an earlier short jaunt to Ireland).
When it comes to booking parks in advance, how flexible are bookings? If, for example, the roads were a nightmare so we decided we needed another day somewhere to recover or, alternatively, a place was so amazing we wanted to stay longer - how do we manage this?
My plan had been to book all our stops in advance so we knew exactly where we would be and when. Yes, I am the type of person who likes colour-coded spreadsheets, can you tell?! But, is that bad etiquette? Should we be more flexible? My worst nightmare is being stuck with nowhere to stay and having to drive for hours to find somewhere. But likewise, I don't want to feel sad that I have to leave somewhere where we haven't scratched the surface.
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It depends a lot on when you’re planning to tour and where you’re going. Sites will naturally be a lot busier in peak season than at other times and especially do in popular areas. It also depends if you’re talking about club sites, CLs, commercial sites or pub stops etc.
In previous years I would have said to always book sites through the summer months but who knows how things will be this year with folk feeling the financial pinch?
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Depends when you are going. I always assumed it would be impossible to tour in the UK in high season without booking and quite difficult in the “shoulder” months. That’s what drove us to tour Europe but would love to be proved wrong.
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You could always ask in the office of any particular site if they could move bookings around for you (if using the same organisation eg one of the clubs) So there might be some flexibility and you could also look at late availibilty when travelling around to see what might be possible.
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Our summer jaunt has been booked for months now and is a combination of CAMC sites and private sites. In the caravan will be..... Scotland, then home for a few nights, then Somerset/ Devon/ Dorset, then home for a few nights, then a cottage in the Outer Hebrides. Our son is house sitting while we are away....
David
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Bonnie Penny, I don’t think that provided you are flexible you will ever be stranded with nowhere to park a motorhome.
For instance if I were going back to Cirencester to see friends there, and if the Club site was telling me that it’s full , then a good app or a search site would tell me of a dozen or more others within 15 or 20 miles and I would start phoning - on the day before.
But in the end it’s a personality thing. You have been very honest in saying how you are - but I’m the ultimate freewheeler. So do your planning in a way that suits you.
Good wishes1 -
Thanks for all the advice.
When looking for sites, I'm obviously using the search on here and Google, the other caravan club (I'm not sure if it's like Voldemort and they're not allowed to be named!). I've looked at Trip Advisor and joined some Facebook groups for motorhomes etc. Are there any other places I should be looking for sites?
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UK campsites is very useful. Yes, you are allowed your mention the Camping & Caravanning club😀.
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This is good web site when searching for alternatives, especially for M/H'ers
https://www.searchforsites.co.uk/webapp.php
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There are a few other possibilities for you especially as you are in a motorhome.
Or a new app thats come out. www.park4night.com
Or as you've joined this club try looking for a CL (Certificated Location). They'll be in your site directory book in county and country order. There are over 2,200 of them so usually a few within any area. Click on Find a UK campsite in the heading at the top of this forum and click down to Certificated Locations.
Hope this helps.
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Another suggestion, try pitchup.com for a variety of sites.
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Being able to manage without EHU will improve your chances of a last minute pitch. I'm set up for off-grid and I can spend three days without any requirement other than a place to park. The size of your fresh and waste tanks and water consumption will be the determining factor. The other one is when your loo cassette warning light comes on.
A good site for ad-hoc stops is Park4night.com
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BonniePennyPitstop You say “planning our 1st grand tour in summer/summer holiday trip”. IMHO I would say if booking full tour use it as a fact-finding trip where you may find places you want to return to. I would suggest if touring (UK) in summer without bookings bear in mind you need to have good phone signal/internet access and/or books with site listings. If you have a heavy M’home and the ground is wet/soggy I would avoid grass pitches.
Reading a site’s T & C’s will give you the info regarding flexibility of bookings.
Good luck and enjoy.
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All good advice and links above. I think how much you enjoy your tour might depend on how long you are going for, and what time of year. We spent 10 days away early June, just touring Dumfries and Galloway, and our route was carefully planned. We only booked the one CL site, mainly because we knew it would be busy, and really wanted this place as a base, and a rest point from driving to be honest. The rest of our stops we just winged, and it worked out ok for us, but boy was it getting busy as we headed home. Even the little Aires, MH pull ins.
Dont be over ambitious in terms of mileage is my advice, otherwise all you will see is tarmac. Plan in a few proper stays, where you can actually do something, see something, and take a break from being on the road. If you are travelling July and August, expect traffic to be very heavy, another reason to have a few proper stays. The best website we found for touring was Search for Sites, mentioned and linked above. Has all sorts of MH info, including simple pulls ins, how safe stops are, etc…..
If you do wing it, expect cheap overnight MH stopovers to be full by 2-3pm, after that you will be searching around for a stop. We found that loo disposal, and getting rid of recycling/rubbish were our two main factors. We don’t dump either where we aren’t supposed to, but could easily do three, four days without filling or dumping water with frugal use and care.
If you want to tour via Club Sites and CLs, you might very well have to book these. Everywhere is super busy compared with a couple of years ago. CLs won’t be flexible, they are small independent businesses. The Club will be able to move you to another Site, tag on an extra day if available.
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Thanks for all the advice and links. I can't wait to look through them all!
We've holidayed a lot in the UK - except for Wales for some reason
- so we have some places that we're revisiting. When we were younger, we both travelled a lot for work and sometimes had exactly that experience of just travelling and working and not actually seeing anywhere so we're conscious of not spending all our time on the road and are aiming for not more than two hours driving between sites/stops (although maybe I should have touched wood after I typed that because 'best laid plans ... etc'!).
Great tips about grass pitches, internet and how early stopovers can fill up. According to Mr BPP we can probably survive off-grid for at least 3 days but I'd probably like us to try one night first. Maybe we'll squeeze that in before we go our longer trip.
Thank you so much for all your tips and suggestions. Everyone has been so helpful.
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Summer touring is usually very easy off grid. We have done weeks at a time, but you do need to be prepared. We have little in the way of specialist kit, although our MH came with a roof top solar panel and this keeps everything going. Admittedly we don’t use a TV, microwave. It’s warm so you don’t need heating, shower frugally (a trigger head for shower is just so good, no wasting water). We use iPads for most of our entertainment, music, maps, etc….. charging up as we roll along. Travel as light as possible if you can, it’s far easier if moving on every few days.
Gas bottles are our issue at the moment. The small ones are just not out there.
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