is the Club about touring or static holidays?
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Sorry to contradict you HG, but we tour throughout year, including school holidays, only in this country, and always find a pitch somewhere. Usually at a very good price as well. Granted, we may not get onto Rowntree Park on a Bank Holiday Monday, but then we don't limit our options to such narrow windows.
Same advice to you lornalou. You will get a pitch, but it just might not be the exact pitch, at a popular site, on your set date. There are lots and lots of options available. It all depends how many individual preferences, barriers etc.....you need to consider. Which is not the Club's fault, but down to individual needs.
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No need to worry about future holidays, LL. Unless you're wanting to visit one or two specific sites at specific times you're pretty much certain to find a CAMC site with availability most of the time. But if not, as you're in both clubs, like us, there are literally hundreds of alternatives, such as C&CC sites and CLs /CSs, many with facilities every bit as good as club sites. Add on to that non club sites and you've as wide as choice as you could possibly wish for. And if you want suggestions for specific sites in specific areas, there's plenty of experience on here to give suggestions.
So don't give up - carry on enjoying your times in the van.
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Well, the photo was taken in the French Alps about 40 miles from Annecy, which would have been absolutely rammed at that time in August.
But then where I live in Cornwall is 40 miles from Newquay - and the contrast is just the same. Sites with space in August here, outside the Club/Commercial/Coastal networks, versus sites which are rammed.
One does have to engage brain, and be selective if you want to tour without booking ahead - whether it's Cornwall or France.
Aren't mobile phones useful for that previous evening call.
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This might be a good opportunity to ask for some help on this. Could one or two of those who say "no need to book" explain how to make it work?
One arrives unbooked at the chosen site shortly after 6pm to find that there are no vacant pitches. Whether the last availalable one is now occupied by someone who turned up half-an-hour earlier, or booked the previous December is immaterial - there is no space.
Should I have made a prior list of alternative sites and Certificated Locations/Sites in the area and researched their user reports, Trip Advisor staus, etc to confirm that the ladies' lavatories are up to or exceed the Caravan Club standards, and then try to drive to a few of them before they close to new arrivals at around 8pm? Is there some (secret to me) way of knowing which site to head for first? One cannot telephone the sites, as that would be "making a booking".
To me it seems so much simpler to spend three minutes on the computer making a booking - and that includes 30 seconds for my ancient printer to produce a paper copy of the details. I would usually do this as soon as I knew the "where" and the "when" of the trip.
It is worth mentioing that not all of the UK is the same as Devon and Cornwall where there can be but less than a mile between sites. Where I tour it could be sixty miles to the next site - and that is without filtering to select those with acceptable sanitary provision.
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Needing a toilet block will limit you Nav. Best book.
We tend to take note of CLs and other sites when we are out and about visiting different areas, sometimes even stopping and having a look what might be there. This information is filed away for future reference. We do browsing searches when not away, read reviews, take a look on a Google Earth etc, use OS maps to see what is around in terms of walks, POI. It all helps when out and about.
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That's it but no need to book months in advance on the majority of sites, and when on tour a quick look at the cc late availabilty site will show if there are pitches at w/ends, if the w/end has pitches then it's 99% certain that other days will be ok, if the site is full on a Suday night the its probably very busy at other times ,has not let us down since the online booking system was introduced
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We are in the UK. I would not drive 100 miles to a site without making absolutely sure that there was a pitch on that site for me. Why would I even if certain in my own mind of availability? There could well be ab event close to my chosen site that I was not aware of. Travelling to some Yorkshire sites on spec could be a poor move if the cycle race was on. I would not know that it was as I have no interest in it. Same thing with flower shows etc. Or boat race at Henley on Thames
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echo David's post completely.
when 'not necessary', having places 'booked' and deadlines to meet doesnt relax us at all, imposes restrictions that generally arent there when we tour (abroad).
this (late) summer, we had an 'owners club meet' booked, a couple of weeks into the trip...
as it happened, the weather in mid western France was very poor and, had we not committed to this function (which was quite expensive, and paid for in advance) we would have just moved south far more quickly, to follow the sun.
whilst moving to find a (general) change in the weather, doesnt apply as greatly in the UK, we dont like to have too many (booking) commitments even here, as changes to itinerary (for us) are likely to be due to finding a place just doesnt hold the attaction we thought, or somehwere has turned out to be a real find...
with uk sites booked to the gunwales (in the generally accepted 'good weather' period of our fickle islands) changing plans can be tricky without some 'ringing round' or much time spent on the pc.
hence, unless its for a specific tour where we will generally 'stick' to the plan, we only book a site or two per trip, whereas (when away) we can use between 5-10 'locations' before we get 'there'....and we often dont know where 'there is'...until we find it.
...and having found it..we like to leave when we want to, not when our 'booking says so'....
just different processes for different locations...i appeals, one doesnt.
this will be the total reverse for some, but thats how different we all are
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We are heading out on Wednesday this week first site booked for 2 nights, then a CL for the weekend after that who knows. Wouldn't do that in the high months but at this time of year it is pretty safe to do so. Nearest we get to touring 'over there'
BB, it would help if the 'search' facility worked properly
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We tend to book our first few sites for any trip, and then book more as we go along. However for this next rip we've book 5 sites as one is near York and the two following that are over X-Mas and the New Year. We will book further sites after that depending on the weather.
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Quick question for those that do tend to book ahead like ET, if you have a series of bookings over say 6 weeks, staying 5 nights at each site.
Do you stick to you itinerary regardless of the weather? or do you amend it and try to squeeze the most out of you time away.
We tend to do the latter but that is because we holiday over the water between April and November. Its the one big risk in the UK of booking so far in advance you never know what the weather will be like and with the sites being so busy, its not always possible to change at the last minute. Then of course you have the problem of having paid deposits to some sites.
Going away now in the winter months for us it doesn't matter so much about the weather because we won't be riding our bikes, nor will we be BBQing or sitting outside.
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Do you stick to you itinerary regardless of the weather? or do you amend it and try to squeeze the most out of you time away.
We normally stick to the itinerary as If the weather is bad it tends to affect a significant area, Having said that we often find that if we have a few days of wet weather then by travelling, say, 20 miles on a day out we can find better weather because of the effects of coastal areas or mountain/hill ranges.
In general though it is very rare that we find ourselves 'rained off' for more than the odd day.
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