Do you research an area before booking a site?
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Yes we would visit as we don't research in advance. Stayed on a CL last trip just outside Boston. No idea of the area before hand. Same thing with Norwich on the same trip. It is not very hard to find enough interest in most areas for our length of stay.
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We do more research about where we want to go if using MH. This will include suitable sites, with our preferences and how easy it is to tour around linking places that interest us so that we don’t have to drive backwards and forwards all the time to do something. We take in remote walking spots, historic houses, castles and gardens, churches, Abbeys, Cathedrals, Battlefields, RSPB Sites, wildlife centres, niche shopping places (Barter Books!) Etc....
The greatest difference between touring with MH and touring with a van is that you don’t have to drop off your holiday home before stopping off somewhere, so travel days are very much doing days. So short, three night trips away are packed full of things we want to do. We have put together some great tours, from simple three nights away, to three weeks covering a much larger area. OS maps, mainly paper, but also via IPad provide a great deal of our inspiration. We also have some old AA touring books, some Ward Lock guides as well for rediscovering places that might be overlooked. We have done more City tours as well, where we do dump the MH on a pitch for a few days, perhaps to go to an event and do some in depth exploration.
Things of interest come first, then we find a site to suit. If we chose to tour like Nellie does, I think we would opt for caravan, stay longer on a site, then move on. We used to do that with our caravan just before OH retired. A week getting down to Cornwall, two weeks pitched up there, then a week coming home. We’ve split Scotland West and East Coasts as well.
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Do I infer that some people book a site just because it is a Club site, and not have a clue at all about what they might expect to find in the area in which the site is situated?
I don't know do you infer that
We don't visit an area just because there is a club site there, What I am likely to do is to look at a map with OH and say how about going up to Culloden (for example) We did that trip in 2016. We simply look for a series of stops between home and there and back. First trip can be a few hours but for most others around 2 hours generally. On that trip we used 9 sites. Penpont Floors, Markinch (CC) first visit there, Huntley Castle, Caravan Club at Culloden I had not been for 30 years and OH never, Kinlochewe (CC) last visited 9 years earlier, North Ledaig, Blair Drummond, Dockray Meadow (CC)
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David
That is very true so perhaps not such a large step for us. It did, of course mean, that we had to research those sites that allowed us to follow that way of doing things both her and in Europe.
David
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Yes it is smaller but it is still 6.6 metres long so not quite a go anywhere size. Having said that much easier to get into supermarket car parks if nothing else! We did look at the "smaller" motorhomes and van conversions advocated by others but felt they didn't offer the room and comfort that we wanted.
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We went down to a 6 metre PVC from a 7.4 metre.Coachbuilt,
and have found it the ideal compromise, small enough to go literally anywhere (except a multi story carpark). Yet big enough to live in for 6 weeks or so. Our ideal tourer. Nothing available at present I would swap it for. its an Autotrail V line 600 from 2014.
We love the Western Isles of Scotland and did lots of research before we went, have been back lots of times since, and still enjoy it. However went back to Cornwall after a 5 year gap, and found it far too busy for us, perhaps our tastes have changed ? Only Trewethett with its cliffside pitch and beautiful sunsets saved the trip.
So yes we do research before we travel to an area, but stay flexible.
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Not only is our 6m PVC more manageable in terms of length for parking, it is also narrower than most coachbuilts which again aids parking but also makes driving on narrow roads easier and the van less prone to sidewall damage from hedges.
The Scottish islands, both Western and Northern were places ideally suited to the PVC and I did do some research of them. Did you know on Lewis, in particular, it's frowned upon to hang washing out on a Sunday, amongst other things? How easy it would be to upset local folk.
Yes, Ray, Cornwall is busy in the silly season and much more pleasant in Spring or Autumn.
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For us it has certainly been a decision we have not regretted. Although there is the downside of not having a car, to visit places where the MH won't fit, this is more than made up for by the ease of moving on. Also of course no humping of water or waste. I certainly don't miss packing up and hitching in the rain, as when we left Cirencester on Sunday. I also find it easier to drive than towing, particularly if blustery. So we can travel further, if we want to, and I get there less tired than when I was towing. We certainly haven't got as much room, having gone for one at 6.94m and it's narrower than the caravan, however, we find it OK. The only reason we didn't do it sooner was I don't like throwing money away and wanted to get a few years out of the larger caravan we had bought. It also gave us plenty of time to thoroughly research our MH purchase.
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We usually take short breaks mid week in this country to places we've done some research on or have a particular reason for visiting and usually find a suitable CMC site - we stayed in July at Burrs Country Park and took the motorhome out to visit places in Lancashire bit also to visit Tatton Park garden show. We changed to a small m'home last year to make for easier parking. We have longer trips abroad where we tend to pick a general area /areas and spend 3/4/5 days in each place having researched sites etc. We don't often book abroad so can move easily according to weather etc. I have a disability so try to pick sites near places of interest/town/villages within mobility scooter reach. I spend lots of time on grotty winter days researching places to visit (which often get amended when we're actually over there)
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That's how we felt when we moved to a MH after 35+ years of caravans. However 6 years of owning a MH and doing 2 or 3 long trips abroad each year, we started to feel that we were 'missing out' on some places.
We are not lovers of cities or even large towns. With the MH we felt that it did in someways restrict where we would stay at night. So aires to visit these places were out.
Which meant that we had to find a site near enough to 'visit' but far enough away to have a pleasant stay. As we have good eBikes not always an issue.
We do however prefer to be on sites out in the countryside, mountains, by rivers, canals or by the coast.
As such last year we went back to a caravan, not a big one just 6.2m slightly smaller than our 6.6m MH. We have had 3 long european trips in it so far and have to say that we have loved every minute of them. We have gone to places that we would not have considered with a MH.
We do miss having water on board, have always disliked packing up and setting up in the rain (still do) and we do miss the fantastic personal weight allowance that we had with the MH.
Its very much swings and roundabouts when it comes to leisure vehicles. We will probably go back to a MH in a few years but more than likely it will be a PVC.
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