Is it possible to tour a country without the CMC
Last year I tried an experiment. Having visited all the CMC (CC) sites in the country of Scotland, many of them on numerous occasions over the many years, I did not renew my CMC discount card.
I was pleased to find that there is not one area of Scotland which cannot be toured by using private commercial and if necessary C&CC sites.
The Northern Islands, The Western Islands The North coast The West coast the Central highlands and The Moray coast. are well endowed with private sites.
A few examples without even using ferries are :- Durness; Ullapool; Scourie; Skye; North Ledaig; Glen Nevis Braemar; McDuff ; Black Isle; and those are just scratching the surface. There are hundreds more. Not counting the CS network.
Does the CMC need to increase their presence in Scotland and provide a much greater spread of sites to attract touring members , I would definitely say so. Will it happen ?. I doubt it.
Interesting experiment though.
K 
Comments
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I can only speak of Cornwall. Here too the number of Club sites is also very limited but it's very easy and possible to tour without Club membership. Thousands do.
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I suppose it depends on how open minded people are to using sites that don't belong to either of the main Clubs. From my point of view the location of the site in important and that tends to override whether it's a Club or Commercial site.
David
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We managed for years without belonging to CAMC by using privately owned sites and C&CC. We eventually joined this club to provide a better spread of sites but they are woefully scarce in some areas, particularly Scotland.
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Many of us have long holidays in the UK without setting foot in a CMC site, by using the CL network. Like quite a lot of members though we just choose whatever site, be it CMC, CL or private, that is most convenient for us bearing in mind cost and type of site being proposed.
There are counties in the UK that do not have CMC sites (I live in one of them) so it's not always an option anyway.
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I think that we would find it hard to tour to the extent that we do, for the same outlay, without using CLs, so that necessitates being a of the CC. We could of course re-join the C&CC but do not like their equivalent sites as much, and there does not appear to be the number of commercial sites within our price range to facilitate our touring all year round. If others know differently please point us in the right direction.
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They may well be for the occasional period at a particular place but I don't think that one could fit an extended tour of 8-10 weeks around them with the certainty of getting a cheap pitch.
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We would certainly miss the CL presence of the Club, but could and in fact do tour very easily without using Club Sites. There are some very nice small private sites out there if you do some careful research. Having said that, a couple of areas are unknown to us, namely very North of Scotland, and SE corner.
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Especially around Scarborough
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The reason that I first joined the CC was to gain access to a network of sites of a standard that I liked. Also to gain access to CLs. That was over 35 years ago. I have not regularly used CLs for 30 years.
The reason that I still use a lot of CC sites is that they still provide a standard that I personally like. So I could manage without using CC sites ..... but why would I?
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+1 for me. Standards on non club sites for me are generally not as good.
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well only if you go to sites that are cheaper, not all non club sites are. Often said that non club sites are middle of the road for prices.
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Over the past six years, my stops I've used about one third CAMC sites although almost entirely those have been low season/ no facility sites. I see that ratio declining in future years.
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I generally find the standards on commercial or private sites often exceed those of Club sites...... maybe we research more than some or apply different criteria. For us cost isn’t the primary reason for selecting a site although value is. This year we are booked on 2 club sites out of 8 bookings.
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Funnily enough I have yet to find that. I have been on a few that equal the best the CMC have to offer but I am yet to find a site that surpasses. Perhaps I have yet to visit such a site. For that reason it would be useful for people to give examples of those sites where they feel the cMC would come out second best when all things are taken into account.
David
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Looks a nice enough site, What particularly do you like about it though?
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There are many parts to a site. The quality of the facilities I think are superior, especially if you like privacy. The shop on site, cake of the day. You can order food to be delivered. Choice of pitches. Lots of little things like ‘not closed for cleaning’. The layout is sympathetic to the surroundings and not like a car park.
I know of other sites that have some of these things, but it’s nice to have them all in one place.
And you can attend activities like an art course if you wish.
I could go on but I’m not being paid
Ken
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I've stayed at The Old Oaks adults only site in low season when I considered the price to be very reasonable for what was on offer.
The newer facilities block is top notch. They have a good mown dog walk with a doggy shower adjacent. The entrance barrier is ANPR operated and they seem to have thought of everything.
We were only there one night so were put in the steeper part of the site where the facility block is older but still perfectly good.
Would I return? Yes, definitely.
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due to it being just two miles away from us it's not a site we would consider but it seems to win some 'best site' award every year...
I was as a MH dealers last week and bumped into a couple who were staying there to explore the surrounding area and they were positively gushing with praise....
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