Camping Key Europe Card
One of these came in the mail, as we had taken out Red Pennant insurance. We have an ACSI discount card and a Camping Carnet for use as ID. However, I thought I would take a look at what sites are on offer. That's not particularly easy, no map or booklet comes with it, just a web address. That diverts to a Dutch site, ANWB Camping. The site although fairly good is in Dutch, with no apparent translation option, as with ACSI. There are a lot of sites and those I looked at took the card, although no idea if they all do.
Overall it seems a fairly poorly presented offering. A little map booklet along the lines of the one that comes with the ACSI books would be useful. Or an App you could download and use offline.
Comments
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I don't think the purpose of the card is to offer site discounts, it is an ID and insurance type thing like the Camping Carnet.
There are various discounts on offer on other things like eating out, sightseeing etc, but often these are only if you have purchased the card in the country where the offers are.
I believe it originated in Sweden where it was required on many sites, originally Camping Key Scandinavia, then they joined up with the Dutch and it spread from there
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I questioned the "benefits" of the club issuing these cards back in June, see camping-key-poor-experience
The replies seemed to suggest it was my fault, and not the club properly researching these things.
Que sera
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It's for ID and insurance as Kjell has said - insurance for site owners not for you, and ID for people who still believe that their passports will be taken from them by campsite receptionists. There may also be discounts but I never found them - but then I never went to the right sort of campsites.
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Have one of these when I tour Europe and use mainly for ID. If not an ACSI camping card site have found odd site that gives discount about 10%. When checking in normally have all my cards ( CC. Best Deal & Camping Key) in hand just in case.
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The letter the CAMC sent with it certainly indicated there were discounts to be had, so I delved a bit deeper and utilised the translation function on the chrome browser. I only looked at France, as that is all we are currently interested in. That returned 1000 out of 3000 campsites that offered a discount. Unfortunately unlike ACSI there are no helpful badges showing what the discounted rates are. You have to go into each site. I found a couple that I had been looking at on the ACSI app. At these the rates and discount periods were identical to ACSI.
It might not be particularly usable for ad hoc touring however. Even on our high speed internet, with the translation function engaged, the site was running rather slowly. A map search had the little caravan running up and down for ages,😂 before any sites appeared. Although if the site is not covered by ACSI, it will be worth proffering it to see if any discount is forthcoming.
As for leaving a passport with them, that would be a definite no. If they insisted they would just loose our business.
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With a fistful of cards, you sometimes feel like you're in a poker game.
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A little plastic card with my name on it - could be useful in case I forget. With three firms producing and selling them it seems to be quite a profitable business .
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As mentioned before there are sites that require you to hand over your passports prior to letting you in to the site.
Our experience is that this is done to avoid lengthy queues at the entrance and you collect it the next day when you have to tell them what pitch you are on, length of stay etc.
As David says it may be a local requirement and, if it is, if its one that you would not be happy with may make site choice difficult.
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I have used the CKE card a couple of times this year (Agde and Pontorson) and found the sites gave the same prices as Acsi. As has been said, finding the sites that accept them is difficult, as they tend not to show CKE on their websites, whereas ACSi is often displayed. I decided which sites I may be interested in visiting, then emailed to ask if they accepted CKE, as I didn't have ACsi this year.
Using the CKE website last year, I managed to find the following sites accepted them (but please check if this is still up to date)
Spain - Mas Nou Empuriabrava 17e 7=6, Camping Gavin 17e 7=6, Playa Joyel 22e, Camping Amfora 18e.
France - Camping Neptune Agde 15e 7=6 (16 euros 2019), Ma Praire17e 7=6, Pins Parasol 17e, Belle Etoile 18e, Haliotis 17e 7=6 (18 euros 2019), Soleil Plage 19e, Peneyrals 17e
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