Interesting Statistics
Since I started caravanning back in 1988 I have kept a record, as many of us do, of all the caravan sites visited and the number of nights stayed. In later years I started to include costs per night both for in the UK and in France. In my mind I had always thought that French sites were appreciably cheaper than UK ones but, following a discussion with a friend I have actually looked at the figures for the sites that I have stayed at.
The average price that I paid in the UK since the start of 2013 works out at £14.43 per night. This is using CLs and CC main sites.
The average price for sites in France since the start of 2013, many of them ACSI, works out at £14.35. They are cheaper but only by £0.08 per night. Without ACSI the French costs would be substantially more. (These French site fees are based on fees paid mid June to early July.)
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what proportion of your uk night total was spent on CLs?
these should be appreciably cheaper than the 'proper' sites you stayed at, and will undoubtedly skew ypur calculation.
why not compare the ACSI sites against the 'proper' club sites and see what result you get
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I have records going back to 2008 but only started keeping an eye on individual site cost in 2015. This year, so far, I have been away 88 nights, none of which have been on Club sites. I have spent 13 nights on CLs and my average night cost has been £12.68. What I am finding over the years is that I am using Club sites and services less and less and I am getting to feel that the membership is no longer relevent. JohnM, did you include the cost of membership in your calculations? It can make a significant difference to Club site costs especially if you do not spend a lot of time on them.
peedee
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The breakdown is approaching 2 to 1 in favour of CLs. The average price for CLs is £12.42 including some with showers / toilet and all with EHU. CC main sites average out at £17.63 per night so almost 50% more even with some having no toilet block.
Unfortunately, without going through the ACSI book I don't know which of the French sites will be at a discounted price although I would guess it is most of them. Also, part of our holidays usually take in the change time from low to high season. As an illustration, a site that we use as an overnight stop near Arras was £11.43 at the start of our holiday so very roughly two thirds the cost of a CC site. When we returned 20 days later it was £18.93. This appears to be the highest price I have ever paid in France by £2 or £3 per night even during the first 10 days of July. I admit this site is a bit of a transit site used particularly by the Dutch for an overnight stop because it is close to the autoroute so they can probably charge what they want because their location is very convenient for many.
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We have never recorded the cost of staying on sites or anything else. I did once find a receipt from the year before and was surprised that the charges were lower on the current visit but that is it. We know what the sites cost when booking and as long as we can afford them that is all that we need to know.
Despite people saying sites in France are cheaper, this has not proved true when we have been there.
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We've just come back from an 8 week trip of France the dearest site we were on was 19€ a little under £17, more often we were paying 17€ and 15€ a night, most sites had swimming pool, restaurant and bar on them.
The only site we stayed on in the UK prior to departure was non facilities @ £14pn on our return £19.50pn sites in France during the Acsi discount season are much better value than a C&MC site.
We don't bother to keep records of our trips it costs what it costs, as long as we can afford it and we enjoy it I will continue to go abroad.
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We don't keep records in the detail mentioned here but can go back a while to see what we paid from time to time.
One thing that has not been mentioned is that many of us use ACSI or Camping Cheques to access sites that, were they not in such schemes, would certainly be as much, if not more, than CLub sites so offer great value.
The use of such schemes allows us to use sites that are in a different league to what Club sites can offer so it's a matter, as usual, of choice.
If you want to spend your holiday abroad on a site with a toilet block and tap then you may find it cheaper than here but for most I don't think that's what draws us over there.
Almost all our UK nights, apart from the CL 300 yds from our Daughter and £9 a night, are on club rallies which is almost like a discount scheme!
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Interesting - recently returned from a 4 week trip to Venice;
St Omer - £13, Nancy £15, Lucerne £30, Lake Garda £18, Venice (Ca Savio) £24, Innsbruck £27, Winterthur (Switz) £30, Nancy £22, St Omer £22
Like many, I do keep a note of the places - site, visits, cost, photo...all to look back on when I hang the keys and buy a Ford Fiesta!
I have no idea what the holiday cost or the miles we did. At the moment I'm lucky and can afford it. We rarely use Club sites and much prefer CL's in this country and that's why we pay the CAMC subscription.
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The main problem I find is it is difficult to compare like with like but what is most definitely the case is you can tour in France and the rest of the Continent much more freely and there is the opportunity to pay much less for a pitch than the UK. If you come across a site with similar standards to that of the Club, they generally have more facilities for a similar price and many in peak season are much more expensive.
peedee
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