Camping Cheques - do you use them? (1 Viewer)

[suntorfan]

Just about to embark on our 2nd year of motorhoming - last year we set out knowing nowt about camping cheques and found that fellow campers were paying less per night!!!. Resolving to be better informed this year and trying to plan out a year of fun and frolics have just been on the camping cheque website - and looked at the Caravan Club's info on obtaining cheques thru them, have also looked in Archives on this site as I am sure the topic has been done to death but couldn't find anything. Would like to think new joiners to this site could be better informed on saving money than we were last year - never knew there was so much to learn! but loving it. Sorry, rambling on now, but any drawbacks people have found would be v. helpful.....thanks.

 

[Spacerunner]

We have used them and very good they are too.

You get full facility sites at, sometimes half price or less.

Ideal if you are going to use Aires or wildcamping, then every so often you can go to a luxury site for laundry and long leisurely showers etc.

 

[ArenqueRojo]

I guess there are horses for courses but...
We fulltime UK and Europe. Bought 200 last Jan before the price hike. Try to use them wherever poss. Got 100 left.
Gold card means we have 4 years to use them.
Winter in Spain and this year, Sicily, can usually do better price than CC if staying 1 month or more.
Summer they are not valid. Note Summer varies so in some places it is just mid-July to 3rd week in August for "high" season.
On very rare occassions we have been given 2nd class pitches as CC ones. Not a problem but, for example, Lake Magiore, the lake edge pitches were reserved for full rate cash customers...
More often we are asked to pay for our 4 meter trailer (Smart toad and folding boat) but even that is only about 20% of sites and then maybe 2 Euros a night.

Maybe the answer for lies in the decision to top-up what we have used this year to keep a stock of a couple of hundred. That way we will usually be paying no more than last year's rates each year
Patrick

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[lunarman]

To give us a larger selection of sites I usually take Camping Cheques, Touring Cheques and the ACSI card.

 

[potjoe]

Not for me

Tryed these before and no thank you better to go with ACSi book and card.:thumb:

 

[scotjimland]

Never used them because we never use sites, French Aires and German Stelplatz are cheap or free, in the UK we use CLs .. My way of thinking is, why should we pay for facilities we don't need or use.

If you do a search, there are about half a dozen threads discussing them.

jim

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[cpease]

we use them most times as we find the sites are of good quality, restaurant, swimming pool etc which we want, but not everybody want these facilites. What we do is book in at reception and when they give us the bill give a camping cheque or 2 depending on how we stay. we have never feel that we get not superior pitches. we end up paying about 50% less than if we payed cash/credit card

 

[sostas]

I would agree with one of the previous posts, with Camping Cheques, Touring Cheques and the ACSI card you have all bases covered. These schemes only cover out of season camping - this usually means July and August are excluded.
Add aires in France, stelplatzes in Germany throw in a bit of 'wild camping' and you have a full house.
NB C. Chs are only valid for two years without their Gold Card.
Sostas

 

[Carol]

Would recommend the Gold Card camping cheque makes life easier together with our ASCI card reduced our costs greatly quite often we were paying 14 euro approx with the cheque's or ASCI were campers on the next pitch were paying 28euro. We found no down side. Carol.

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[motorhomer]

Camping cheques have their place but, in my opinion, the ACSI card is vastly better. There are about 4 times as many discount ACSI sites as there are that take camping cheques, and I do not like having to "guess" how many I might want and buy in advance. Also, by the time you added the currency surcharge and the admin fee for buying them, the resulting price for me was getting on for £15 per night - more than the dearest ACSI site (€15).
That said, I bought a small number before my last trip to France and Spain last Autumn, and they had value because there were some sites that took cheques but were not ACSI. I would advise researching where you are going in advance and buying the camping cheques if their sites happen to be where you want to go. But be aware - one camping cheque site we stayed in in France was charging less out of season that we had paid for the camping cheques!

In France, most stops were in Aires and free - or very cheap. There are a few places to stop free in Spain, but I would advise some caution. I understand Italy and Germany are OK but I have yet to take the camper to either of these. (next year!)

 

[suntorfan]

Camping cheques

Thanks very much for all the very helpful comments - had forgotten about the ACSI card which I had meant to look into, and will do right now. We stayed on some Aires last year, some which were more successful than others, and will do again next year - we don't have Satnav this seems to be the way we might have to go - as many sites in the Aires book rely on you having Satnav.

 

[twooks]

we use ACSI a lot, CC v occasionally -also use municipal sites a lot
ACSI you pay once - up front then use as required
CC require a little more forward planning than we are normally into
municipal sites - rarely members of discount schemes - but usually well placed for town

also, just to add in another factor - look at getting a Camping Card International
cost about £5, doubles as passport at many sites and contains your name and address so don;t have to spell it out - occasionally get discounts from sites or other tourist type facilities, you have to be a member of one of the affiliated groups - caravan club, camping & caravanning club, RAC, cyclists club - see Link Removed

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[S&J]

Signed up for Gold card with two advantages perhaps not mentioned over and above the 4 years to use the credit,
You collect loyalty points which in part or full can pay for the next Gold Card
They send a new Guide to the Campsite/Site Directory and map every year "worth" £6...

We use aires but looked upon the CC sites as a way to top up water, use electric items like hair straighteners that you can't use without EHU and catch up with cleaning/washing. The off peak season is quite good if you are not linked to school holidays....

Steve

 

[pneumatician]

Camping Cheques

Yes we use them together with the Gold Card. We also use ACSI and C&CC Freedom book.

By using a combination of all three we can usually find a site near to where we want to be.
We do not wild camp and only on odd occasion use Aires.

Steve

P.s. Get your order in early for ACSI, they do run out.

 

[wiljoy]

Used Camping Cheques since 1999 and found them very good until 2009.
Most sites that we offered our Camping Cheques were happier to accept a large reduction for Euros Cash instead of the cheques. From now on we have given up the cheques, to expensive, and will use cash.
Wiljoy

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