Winter - do you tour or store?
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will do, just had a nice email letting us know he received our deposit..
see, even with a small organisation, a deposit didnt put off this customer
.....hardly a faff...0 -
while we fit our uk touring round our two long european tours (and any cruises or other 'holidays' in the diary).....and are generally for Christmas with the family, for anyone who, for whatever reason 'really' doesnt like the cold....my 3 vanning tips would be:
3 months touring in spain
3 months touring in spain
3 months touring in spain
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We are off to York (BG) on the 9th December stopping off at Oaklands Farm CL on the way, then over to Brid for a couple of nights. Then at Castleton for Xmas, home on 27th then down to Littlehampton for new year.
Will try and get away in January or February depending on the weather just to keep van aired and engine moving etc.
Off to Jamaica in March then flying up to Glasgow for a wedding late April, though I guess these are spring.
So in short we try to use the van all year bu a lot depends on weather and work commitments.
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We are off to Sandringham for Christmas and then short stays in the UK until our summer odyssey when we drag the van down to Italy for a month.
We normally have a winter holiday in March somewhere warm but I seem to get less comfortable on long haul flights so we have decided not to next year.
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I gave paid 10 deposits for next year. 6 are C&CC sites. I usually have 4 or 5 most years. The ones that I hate are those where I have to remember to pay the balance 4 weeks before!
We don't tour from early October until April. Just two weeks or so in December when we stay on a single site.
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We use our van all year round but tend to travel shorter distances and usually only book just before we go so we can avoid ice and snow. Near to a town or similar are favoured places in winter e.g. Hawes, Castleton, Grassington, Chatsworth, Bury etc.
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We often go away in the caravan in December, but have put it away in storage for the winter this year. I adopted a rescue cat from our local RSPCA centre shortly after our holiday in September. He's a very shy boy, and will take a long time to fully settle in and bond. He may have been badly treated in his previous home, and was in the cattery for 8 months, although he's fit, healthy, and very athletic. I can't go away and leave him to be cared for by someone else just yet so, hopefully, we'll get away somewhere in March and all will be well.
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Have a great Christmas with your pet, There's Always next year to get away and enjoy.
Lynne
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We are spending Christmas at Wharfedale stopping at Castleton for a few days on the way up. Then Poolsbrook over New Year on the way back with a stop off near Cambridge.
We don’t get much in the way of snow in East Kent so a little sprinkling up there would be nice and add to the festive spirit.
My main tip as has already been mentioned is protect your water systems.
Ken
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Over the last 20 winters we have toured 10 countries - but none of them with a caravan or Motorhome - just cars, buses, trains, planes and boats.
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So just out of interest I did a search for ALL sites open in December, it returned 203 sites open, yet when you start to look at each site you find that out of the first 51 sites on the list 30 of them are actually closed
What is the point of having a search facility if it doesn't work, I have mentioned this before to the powers that be but still its rubbish.
I know I could get a better idea if I gave set dates, however I don't want to do it that way I want to look at the whole month so I can see where the availability is and when so that I can put together a tour. Is it too much to ask.
Feeling frustrated.
Could someone kindly report my post please.
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Store, definitely. We've never been winter caravanners, and bought a caravan so that we could continue with our European holidays at less cost than paying for ready-erected tents. Our caravan in now stored in France - and has been well and truly 'put away for the winter' - cleaned inside and out, drained of water, taps left open, windows on 'vent', and covered with our cheap and cheerful ten year old (at least) cover.
When it's cold outside I need the comfort of our woodburner. If we do go away in winter it's to somewhere hotter, or to a lovely hotel which offers home from home comfort.0 -
We go away all year round; no point having an expensive vehicle sitting idle for 3 or 4 months (IMHO of course!).
We have been to the German Xmas markets in the past during December and thoroughly enjoyed those. Other times we've been to the Cotswolds, York (shire), Wales, Peak District.
Choice of open sites during Jan/Feb/March is more limited, but there are still plenty out there.
Tips I would include is definitely propane gas, we were cured from having butane many years ago in Bolton Abbey when it froze and wouldn't want to repeat that. And for MHs a silver screen.
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We go away all year too. I agree, why have all that money sitting on the drive doing nothing?
Last year we ventured to Spain and Portugal for three months. This year it’s Portugal then a quick nip into Holland on the way home.
I hate winter, especially January and February, and would much sooner be paddling in the med on Christmas Day!
Nora
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Tg, knowing the vagaries of this website, i thought id use my CAMC UK Sites App, to have a nose at New Year late availability....
so, i input 100 miles from home, sites, CL, AS included, HS and EHU please......
then theres a chance to put in your requested dates, so i did this...
lovely, press the button and a long list of sites appeared...
....but i like to see them in a map format, to be able to quickly guage location.....
great, loads of options, all over the place....
wait, whats this?.....a site near(no 'in') Bristol......wow.....this looks like BW but, surely, cant be....
'click' and BW opens up, im amazed........
oh, hang on, whats this......'this site is not available for selected dates'.
to be expected, but why on the list?
try another....Cheltenham, i think.......'not available'....
so, in order to find this useless news, i have to open up each returned site...
switch to 'list' rather than 'map'....
ok, at least every site that isnt available, has 'not available' clearly in front of you....but, again, why include it on the list.....?
so, back to the list to find a site......
and then we come across the lack of location info...
see a site (or CL) that youre not familiar with and its called (say) Cherry Lodge' or 'Beech Farm' youve no idea where, in relation to nearby (known) towns, it is....
ok, it might say '51 miles' which gives 'as the crow flies' mileage, but no real idea about how long it might take to get there, and Cherry Lodge and Beech Farm might both be 51 miles away but in totally different directions....
so, the search needs to exclude all invalid sites based on selected date, not just flag them, if it can do this it can exclude them...
and items in 'list form' need to be able to be referenced against its nearest major town/city.....we know this is available as the site detail always says 'easy drive to xxxxxx' .....we need to know how close to xxxxx on the presented data so that 90% of the returned sites can be binned straight away...
if someone could also report this post, perhaps all the searches (surely the same one.....) could be looked at based on these (and TG's) observations.
many thanks.
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Being a motorhomer at present I find it so very much easier to take our van out compared with when we towed, even during cold or even snowy weather conditions as long as the roads are reasonably fine. It, the motorhome, stays packed and ready to roll at a moment's whim. We love those cold and crispy winter walks, the evening meal by that pub cosy fireside and waking up in our toasty warm Alde heated van. Not everyone's cup of tea I realise but why do more motorhomers venture out?
I guess it's the faff of getting ready and the worry of towing that puts many caravaners off winter trips. I may be wrong but the evidence on the pitches indicates something like this. I know when I towed I never relished the idea but with the motorhome I have no concerns.
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Duly reported, BB.
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thank, nellie
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TG - as a workaround why not look at the sites open all year?
https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/uk-holidays/uk-sites/club-sites/open-all-year-sites/
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Thanks for the suggestion Corners, of course I could do that or I could do it by putting in dates, wasn't sure when we were going so thought I would just get an overall view of what was available for December. It infuriates me when they offer a search facility that should do that but doesn't work.
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Hi TammyGirl,
I'm sorry you are having issues with this. I'm trying to replicate the problem so I can forward to our Digital Team to investigate further. Can I ask where were you searching and what dates did you input? I will then forward to the team to look into this ASAP.
Many thanks.
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Hi BoleroBoy,
Many thanks for reporting this. I have forwarded this to the relevant team for their information.
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Hi Rowena, thanks for getting back to me.
The search I did was in 'Search and Book, UK site booking, leave everything blank (ie as it is) then scroll down to where it says 'I am flexible with my dates' select Dec 2017 then search.
It returns 203 sites which you would think would be the ones open in December 2017 yet as I mentioned in my OP out of the first 51 sites I looked at 30 of them had already closed.
I tend to do my searches this way rather than set dates as I am putting together a tour so can be flexible as to where and when I can be, so if a site I want to use is full at the weekend but has space during the week then I can fit something else around it.
Late availability is only useful for the weekends it doesn't give you any indication if a site is ok during the week.
EDIT: Just to say that it happens with all months not just December, Come January I would do a search on 'open all year sites' rather than by the month of January, however which ever month you choose it returns 203 sites, first site in list is Abbey Wood, great its open all year, second site is Aberbran, oh it closed in October
and so the list goes on.1
