Twin axle caravan in France
We have been caravanning for a long time now and have been to France and Spain quite a few times before the pandemic and stupidity of Brexit. We used our old caravan much more than most people do and simply wore it out. We liked the idea of a big double bed in its own room, the towing stabilty and the modern comforts so bought a twin axle. Having done a few trips with it now, we love it.
Now comes the problem. We decided we would like to go back to France next Spring but I sort of knew there were problems with with some sites, especially municipal sites accepting twin axles so have started an exercise of asking individual sites it they will accept us. However, I am wondering if there is an online database somewhere that has this information already.
Do you know of one please?
Comments
-
Does the ACSI App give any indication or perhaps the other apps like Pitch Up? I think acceptance depends on so many things. One site we were on charged a lot more for twin axles, possibly as a discouragement? Some sites say that don't take them but do if they are happy when they meet you.
David
0 -
Sorry we don’t know of any database but when we travelled to France with our twin axle (many times) we just looked on the sites website to find whether or not they did accept twins. We had few problems in finding places, yes occasionally we couldn’t use a particular place but it was never much of an issue.
0 -
Dunclair, I too don’t think such a database exists. I was going to suggest you could perhaps start to compile one if people give you names of sites where they have really and in actual fact been turned away, but those sites never seem to get named.
So I don’t think you need worry, but a bigger problem might be squeezing in to some sites with a really big caravan - I can give you names of a few of those if you have decided where you are heading.
0 -
The CampingCard ACSI App has such a filter.
Go into filters and down to Campsite rules and select it.
Then scroll down to twin axel vehicles permitted and select that before applying the filter.
As you can see on the photos the 4574 hits is reduced to 532. Although it’s not as great a reduction as it seems as the 4574 figure includes lots of MH Aires, whilst the 532 is just campsites.
2 -
That’s a helpful start for you, but as no one ever comes up with the name of a site where they have been turned away because they have a twin axle van it really does look as though you can go anywhere you like.
0 -
We were turned away from a site in Switzerland as they would not agree to having our twin axle van on their grass. We also left 2 sites in France as they wanted to charge us double the ACSI rate, one west of Marseille, the other in Besancon. It was a while back so the names are long forgotten!
In all cases, we found other, better sites, within a few kilometres
0 -
Camping Les Cochards at St Aignan sur Cher - saw an elderly English couple turned away (Caravan Club members) who were in tears. They had booked but didn't mention a twin axle. The site has very soft riverside pitches, easily churned up by trying to manoeuvre heavy twin axles into exactly the perfect position, and the site owner explained that putting a pitch out of action until it can be levelled again costs a great deal of money.
The municipal site at Vatan charges double.
Camping Les Coteaux du Lac at Chemillé-sur-Indrois, either charges double or doesn't take twins, depending on the season and the number of people travelling.
Seen it happen on plenty of other sites.
Camping Neptune at Grau d'Agde has such difficult access roads that a twin manoeuvring around the corners would have great difficulty, and this is the most common reason for twins being refused - the site being built in the days of twelve feet caravans being the norm.0 -
But things change and what was true in the past is not always true now.
The ownership of Camping les Cochsrds has changed and it is a very different site now. The campsite at Vatan is now part of tne Camping-Car Parking chain and has automated entry with no surcharges. And sites which were once municipal and controlled by backward looking mayors drop their restrictions as they become privatised.
0
