France Site Bookings Summer 2022
Does anyone know when the club website will go live with their summer 2022 reservations for France?
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Phone 01342 316101. They will be the ones who know.
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better still try to establish whether booking is necessary at all
but how does one do that in advance? How can one know if a site next year will need booking or not?
I know you book/reserve certain sites when touring aboard?
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I think the clue is in David’s comments “if….” in other words when one has all the information which was the point of the original question. Whether David does or doesn’t book sites is irrelevant.
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It may be that, when touring abroad, one doesn't need to book a string of sites in advance (we don't when in 'explore mode') allowing durations in each place to be dictated by the level of interest not the pre booked dates...move on or stay as the mood takes.
of course, to ensure a specific site/time or other request it may be best to call in advance...
when in 'destination/chill mode' we know where we are going and (roughly) for how long and are happy to commit...our 2021 booking (and deposit) has be rolled over to this coming January...getting on a popular site for a long duration at a popular time usually requires a booking.
however, when touring around, shorter stays almost certainly won't.
this winter we will be doing both...a longish stay and some exploration...
as David says, different deals may well be available by booking direct than with the club but the big difference is the level of choice of sites....
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No sorry Sb, the if did not (indeed cannot not grammatically) apply to his last sentence I would say.
It is highly relevant I would say, sometime he does books/reserves and therefore must know when to do so and would be useful for others to know how to establish if booking is required.
Now as you're always so keen to point out - stay on topic rather than discuss or answer for David's posts? I certainly will
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ACSI will generally provide better deals out of peak season than any CAMC advance booking.
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Booking is a bit of an art. Out of season we still generally book first and last sites. Sometimes we go direct, other times C&MC.
For June 2020 Belgium, obviously deferred, it worked out cheaper booking our preferred site through the C&MC and we only needed a small deposit. For the July 2020 return site near the ferry in NL we booked direct for cost and in advance as advised it would be getting busy even though in ACSI period. We will probably do the same for rescheduled visit in 2020
For Sept 2022 we have booked our main Loire pitch direct with the site, but as we are so late have missed the desirable riverside pitches.
Colin
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I would never book at a site I didn’t know.
Camping La Nautique at Narbonne sounded fine - swimming pool, restaurant, shop, and private toilet cubicles beside each pitch. But for the ACSI discount price you got a narrow strip of hard baked, rutted mud. Thank goodness we hadn’t booked - we stayed one night and left. Domaine de Massereau at Sommieres was another which was a bit of a disappointment, again with inferior pitches for ACSI card people, and for bookings via this club as well.
But it often went the other way - sites we didn’t know which turned out to be welcoming and comfortable, and a planned overnight became a longer stay. Examples were Les Micocouliers at Graveson, Moulin de Mellet near Agen, Belle Rive at Montfrin, and lots more.
I admit we were turned away now and then from sites which were full, - yes even in Europe - but hey, aren’t mobile phones great for ringing the next place down the road.
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The great thing about the longer out of season holidays a lot of us can do is the freedom. Apart from the first and last sights, on the couple of years we have been able to do this we have put together a route between the two. Along the way we identify areas we would like to visit with a few sites in each. We pull in and have a look around at the first and if we like it we stay, if not we move on.
The exception to this is as above when we know a site down to the pitch numbers we like. Usually when we leave a site if we like it and would return or recommend it we get a site map and make a note of the nicer pitches.
Colin
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'Camping La Nautique at Narbonne sounded fine............' We had a similar experience, (ACSI pitch) left the next morning after a night of rain, feeling that if we didn't leave we'd be stuck in the mud for days! We do similar to others, book for longer stay on a known site (rare) but otherwise wing it, but we always travel out of main season. When we needed to travel in the high season we booked sites, sometimes through the club sometimes direct depending on prices, offers etc. (doing a bit of research in winter is a worthwhile pastime
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Like others we rarely book ahead, although we do at times phone ahead to check availability, which this year was a good thing on some sites here in Spain, as they are busy.
Far busier than we expected given the very few Brits we have seen here. Lots of the other nations we normally see here but this year the difference is the amount of Spanish MHs we are seeing. The Spanish permanent pitches haven't been vacated as is usual at this time of year and there seems to be more than I remember.
Next year it may be much busier than previous years, there seem to be lots of folk pre booking this year. Might be just because of Covid but forewarned and all that.
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"For Sept 2022 we have booked our main Loire pitch direct with the site, but as we are so late have missed the desirable riverside pitches."
This made me shudder as it reminded me of one of the only two times that I recall booking.
Having stayed in the Loire Valley in 2011, and liking the site and area,when it worked for a return visit we booked after confirming by email that we would have a riverside pitch.
I recall clearly on the day of arrival being greeted by the owner, a Brit, who said "how upset would you be if I told you you didn't have a riverside pitch?" All he could offer was a move when a pitch became available.
The following day a neighbouring swiss family were packing up so, having checked they were leaving visited the office and asked the staff there if we could move.
Having agreed thats what we did, and were very happy till the owner appeared and asked what we were doing on that pitch. He claimed the staff did not understand what I had said, I disagreed and stalemate ensued.
The next 10 days were unpleasant but, as he refused a refund, I was not going to move.
So, even when you book, and as most are saying outside of July/August there really is no need unless you want a specific pitch/site, you are not guaranteed to get what you expect!
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The one thing about 'winging it' is that you have total flexibility so if the site/pitch/owner are not to your liking you can just move on.
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Long may that last but as I mentioned up thread this year much more travelers have been booking ahead. Hopefully just the Covid effect and next year will be back to normal.
We find it easier with the MH to wing it than with the caravan, lots of aires to choose from.
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Last Iberian trip (3 months) we stayed at our Valencia's destination stop for a couple of weeks before setting out for SW Portugal...several city stops and then a fortnight at Touriscampo...
on our return, along the Algarve, some stops took us only 20km and stays from one night upwards...we saw loads of the whole coastline (and more) just town hopping.
more of the above along the Costa del Sol until we arrived at our next 'destination' where we visited a 'new to us but recommended' site and we had a great three weeks there chilling out.
more coastal stops saw us into France with spring weather and a leisurely drive back to port.
whether this would be as easy now, I don't know, but will find out I guess
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Absolutely, our usual Europe touring period is mid April to early July and only book sites near hotspots like major cities, We’ve never found one that’s full, but sometimes find sites closed in April. Last trip was about 30 sites in 10 weeks, only booking was Lake Bled. Only once driven into a site and immediately left. Mostly use ACSI sites.
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We've booked a Eurotunnel crossing for next May (2 years worth of Tesco vouchers). Judging by some comments above re numbers of advance bookings I think I'll have a look at booking a one night stay at camping St Claire, Neufchatel in Bray..... winging it perhaps not such a good idea this time.
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30 sites in 10 weeks. Is that a holiday or a mission? You must spend 1/2 of your time setting up and packing away.
Colin
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We did 20 in six weeks in 2019, 18 of which were in France. No real effort with a MH. Have nearly completed similar in this country over the last six. We like to move to what we want to visit / see, spend 2/3 days and move on. It’s one of the reasons we changed to a MH, used to find it to much faff to stop for much less than a week with our caravan.
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That’s the difference between caravanners and motorhomers. For you it’s all about the destination, for me it’s about the journey. I can arrive on site and be set up in 10 minutes, enjoying a glass of wine while watching others faffing about for hours with their motor movers, awnings and plumbing!
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So true. We can now get a full pitch and awning up in about 45 minutes, and then sit back with wine in hand and watch some poor sod fight with a first pitch if a new awning. Oh the joys of owning a caravan.
Colin
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30 sites in ten weeks.................pitched an awning up in 45 minutes-its beginning to sound like the 4 Yorkshiremens sketch!!
Next year we will, fingers crossed, get abroad and, as said above, for us its about the destination rather than the journey. That's not to say we don't enjoy the journey rather that its a means to an end.
This year we stayed here and did a 27 night trip, as far as Glasgow, staying at 7 sites, with friends for 4 nights and a hotel for 2 nights for our wedding anniversary.
We had a great time but we would not want that to be the norm as it seems like you are always on the move, setting up, packing away, moving on etc.
Some clearly don't mind this and thoroughly enjoy it but its not for us.
On booking we are of two opinions-I don't mind not booking even though our favourite site has turned us away twice-this was in May-as they were full, but both times we got on the next day,
The reason was the popularity of the site due to the discount schemes.
Jean on the other hand would book every site if that was possible but as it is not usually possible with ACSI we don't have to choose between our preferences!
However you camp I hope that next year brings us all a bit more freedom to get back to what we enjoy doing.
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