ACSI 2017
Bought the ACSI book this year direct from Company for 2016 and got special offer on App inside book. Looking at the ACSI web site it's showing a subscription offer for 2017 with free App for 11.95 Euros with 2 euros shipping. Is this the best way to buy
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Comments
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If you bought directly in 2016, by subscription, then you should receive an email inviting you to take out a subscription for just the ACSI Guide and Card (without the App). However, at 11.95 euros, with the App, this is a good deal if you have a smartphone and use technology rather than a guide book. We don't, so we'll wait for the offer of just the guide and the card.
The alternative are to buy from Vicarious Books, or the Caravan Club, or Camping and Caravanning Club, each of which (even with the reduced exchange rate) are more expensive.
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As far as I can see it is only the 2016 book / card that is available at the moment and don't really want to buy this as the card expires at the end of the year. Does anyone know when the next years book / card (2017) usually go on sale. Unfortunately you
don't seem to be to buy the app if you don't buy the book, as I would do this, so I can get planning, for the small cost invoved.0 -
Thanks Martin, found it, they have it well tucked away. At the moment it is only giving delivery times for the 2016,version. So will check at the beginning of December. Although now I've registered I suppose I might get an email.
Thank you Val unfortunatly its too clever, although it let me download it and I have registered an account with ACSI, it knows I have not purchase a card and told me to come back when I had. So will have to wait until December, when the 2017 version is available.
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I have had a subscription with ACSI for a few years now, yes it is the cheapest way to do it, I don't understand why more don't do it this way. Always arrives in early December. The App is free on Itunes but you need the subscription to make it work. This
year we recieved the books as well as the App but I suspect as soon as ACSI get enough using the App the books will be at an extra charge. But I must say I haven't used the books this year as the App is so easy to use. You can even contact the campsite from
the App. You don't use data whilst you are on the move as you can download the information by Country before you depart.0 -
I have had a subscription with ACSI for a few years now, yes it is the cheapest way to do it, I don't understand why more don't do it this way. Always arrives in early December. The App is free on Itunes but you need the subscription to make it work. This year we recieved the books as well as the App but I suspect as soon as ACSI get enough using the App the books will be at an extra charge. But I must say I haven't used the books this year as the App is so easy to use. You can even contact the campsite from the App. You don't use data whilst you are on the move as you can download the information by Country before you depart.
I always buy mine from Vicarious as a means of supporting them as they sell a range of guides that would be more difficult to obtain if they did not exist. Invariably Vicarious get their guides out before ACSI. Perhaps not that important but a bit like waiting for the new Suttons Seed Catalogue!!! For planning I use the DVD however I do wonder if its days are numbered given the introduction on the App? Whilst I have used the App for me it is not a substiture for the paper directory and DVD. Just my quirky view!
David
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I'm afraid I don't do apps on my phone, OH does but he is usually driving and I'm the one going through the book looking for where we are going to stay
We
also have the DVD which I like just browsing, its great for finding Municipal sites and lots of other sites that are not in the discount scheme but are still worth taking a look at, some of them are just as reasonable as the discounted ones especially during
low season.0 -
Tammygirl has made me feel like a nerdy control freak. I could not possibly not know where I was going or the route I was going to take. Timing is flexible but routes and sites have to be planned by me, usually weeks before we leave England. Planning is
part of the whole enjoyment for me.0 -
Tammygirl has made me feel like a nerdy control freak. I could not possibly not know where I was going or the route I was going to take. Timing is flexible but routes and sites have to be planned by me, usually weeks before we leave England. Planning is
part of the whole enjoyment for me.
that was not my intention Dunclair, no need to feel like a 'nerdy control freak' everybody holidays in differant ways. There
are many that like to plan ahead, some spend all winter planning where they are going, maps on the table marker pens and little bits of tape. Sites booked up months ahead, if that is what you like to do and you get pleasure from it then why not.When we started going abroad again, after many years break, we too planned where we were going to go, we booked the first site in advance, had an idea of where we would go from there and so on for the 4 weeks that we were going to be in France. It lasted
all of 1 week,
we found a site and area we liked and we stayed much longer than we had planned, so that meant that everything
else had to be re-scheduled. Ever since then we book a ferry, have a brief idea of a route but so far we have never stuck to it. Many things can change it for us, weather being the usual. Finding an area we really like or don't like. Now that we are not working,
time is not that important, in fact we have become very brave and only book ferry going out now, prefering to leave the return until we know when and from where we will be coming home.0 -
Tammygirl has made me feel like a nerdy control freak. I could not possibly not know where I was going or the route I was going to take. Timing is flexible but routes and sites have to be planned by me, usually weeks before we leave England. Planning is
part of the whole enjoyment for me.one point not mentioned was that, with a MH, stopping or not is a decision that can be left until....whenever....due to the vast network of aires (or similar) in France and all over Europe.
if you see a town you like, there will invariably be somewhere to spend the night, should you wish to....no need to have booked in advance....
plans can change and evolve, we usually have an idea of the 'end destination' but the route is certainly part of the holiday and its enjoyment....we sometimes take weeks to cross france
each to their own, but im sure (with a caravan) you feel more comfortable knowing where/when.....which is probably why we enjoy having a MH
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You are not alone, BB, we run with a caravan across mainland Europe in just the same way you describe. I think it's more to do with one's mindset than one's type of vehicle.
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true, ET, i guess you use the local municipal sites?
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Oh dear, we are drifters and minimise the planning we do other than critical dates to ensure we get back on the ferry or meet up friends.
Going in May through June even with a caravan there is rarely a need to plan other than “honey-pots”, and the only planning we do there is to ensure we avoid them. Life pre retirement was far too restricted and confined by planning, now we simple don’t want the strictures of plans; what was once holidaying has become living, seizing the moment. ACSI is though a bible to find those gems off the “people farming” circuits.0 -
I am a planner but not very good at sticking to them. As we get older we don't have the enthusiasm for long single journeys but break them down into smaller chunks. That also makes it easier to change ones mind as if push came to shove you can always carry onto to the next destination. When we went to Austria earlier in the year we more or less got to all our planned destinations but not always in the order originally planned. So I suppose planning is just a crib sheet to be amended as required?
David
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I'm sure you are right David, yet it varies so much according to location. Down the west coast of France - where French pensioners never have caravans and where they never go to campsites with their motorhomes - we were on a really good ACSI site (La Palombiere at Les Mathes) in June this year and there were only about five others there. We went back in September and there were just two of us - and 208 empty pitches. The site owner had few good words to say about motorhomes..
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We always say that we've been to lots of places - BEFORE we set off! We say we'd like to go here and there, stopping off here and there on the way there and back.
The reality is nothing like that; once we're on 't other side, we'll decide we'd rather go somewhere different, and either end up going to altogether different areas or just one or two of the areas originally discussed.
But that's the beauty of not having to book anything in advance out of season, total freedom to go where you want, when you want.
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This year we did make plans of a sort, ferry to Santander, then down to Salamanca, Caceres, Seville, Huelva etc. etc. Well we got as far as Salamanca then OH took ill, it was 2 -3 weeks before we were able to start our journey again. So off we set for Caceres,
boy was it hot, when we looked at temps in Seville and beyond we decided way to hot so we cut across to Portugal and then headed slowly north intending to go to the north west coast of Spain and then into France. Weather was awful both in north west Spain
and France of course if you remember was under water. So we changed our plans yet again and headed back across Spain to the Costas where we had a wonderful time and great weather. Initially we had not intended to go anywhere near the Costas but hey things
change, we had a great holliday in the end and that's all that matters.0 -
Usually, in about mid September, OH will say "where are we going next year?"' and we will settle on a rough location/direction.
Then in October she books a ferry, both ways, having looked at when Easter is, and that is the planning done until about a month before we leave.
Then we start looking through the ACSI book to see which sites we might fancy, and generally decide on the furthest point of the tour.
We then pick a site for our first night, and that is the planning completed.
Whether we end up going roughly where we thought we would very much depends on the weather.
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Micheal
Have a browse through thier website and check how many of your likely targets are still taking the card during those dates as it does vary site to site Its primarily aimed at earlier and later weeks but you might find the odd one you want to use and sometimes it only takes a couple of days to pay for itself
Write your comments here...thanks David, once we work out the likely route will check then, hoping to use some Aires/Stellplatz but also some sites.
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The website you want for the ACSI discounted sites is CampingCard.co.uk. - Each site has it's own individual dates and prices, but that's this year's list and not yet next year's. But the quicker typists have already told you that
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