Bad news from ACSI (1 Viewer)

Traveller_HA5_3DOM

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Having purchased the 2015 ACSI card and books I went onto their website to check if the downloads section had been updated for the Co Ordinates from the new book. I noticed that they are now offering a smartphone App for iplayer and android due for release sometime in January at quite a modest cost.
I have in previous years downloaded the GPS Co Ordinates in a CSV format and made a pushpin set for Autoroute to assist in planning trips. They are also useful for others who with the help of POI edit load them into Tomtom and Garmin devices.
I had the email address for ACSI so dropped them a line to ask when the CSV file would be ready for downloading, offering to pay the smartphone app price for it and giving the app code that is contained in the new book.
I got the reply as below:-
Many thanks for your email.
We do not offer the option to download coordinates.(CSV files.) at once any more. You can download separate camp sites.
You can already pay for your app on www.campingcard.com/app The app will be available in the appstore/playstore in January.
We hope we have informed you sufficiently.
With kind regards,
Linda Peters

Does anyone know if it will be possible to extract the information from these apps or are we stuck with using the books and maps if we do not have a smartphone?
I also hate the degrees minutes seconds format that the books use as I find I have to keep reaching for the character map to enter it into devices.
 

gozomike

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I guess they are trying to encourage people to buy the DVD with sites & Map on, I have done this in the past and it does have the advantage of having a number of search options such as dates open, which has been helpful to me in the past. The DVD also covers sites not in the books although these are the ones which do not offer a discount.

I had the 2014 books & DVD but have not stopped on any of their sites this year as I only used Aires & Stellplatz so may not bother in 2015.
 
Feb 16, 2013
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Having purchased the 2015 ACSI card and books I went onto their website to check if the downloads section had been updated for the Co Ordinates from the new book. I noticed that they are now offering a smartphone App for iplayer and android due for release sometime in January at quite a modest cost.
I have in previous years downloaded the GPS Co Ordinates in a CSV format and made a pushpin set for Autoroute to assist in planning trips. They are also useful for others who with the help of POI edit load them into Tomtom and Garmin devices.
I had the email address for ACSI so dropped them a line to ask when the CSV file would be ready for downloading, offering to pay the smartphone app price for it and giving the app code that is contained in the new book.
I got the reply as below:-
Many thanks for your email.
We do not offer the option to download coordinates.(CSV files.) at once any more. You can download separate camp sites.
You can already pay for your app on www.campingcard.com/app The app will be available in the appstore/playstore in January.
We hope we have informed you sufficiently.
With kind regards,
Linda Peters

Does anyone know if it will be possible to extract the information from these apps or are we stuck with using the books and maps if we do not have a smartphone?
I also hate the degrees minutes seconds format that the books use as I find I have to keep reaching for the character map to enter it into devices.
Must agree about the crap co ords , got us lost a couple of times last year till we discovered that there are two different types, just use the map and directions now

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Judge Mental

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being a garmin user I much prefer the convenience of having the file on satnav........someone (not me! not techy enough) will sort it out soon I bet and make one available:)
 

DBK

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That looks like a good resource SJ, many thanks.

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jumar

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I cannot confirm this but....... has the App replaced the DVD.
 

Judge Mental

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most just want file containing discount sites in scheme not all acsi sites.

its handy if on a separate file as then no need for cross referencing.

I am presuming the App can be viewed with phone off line?
 
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Traveller_HA5_3DOM

Traveller_HA5_3DOM

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most just want file containing discount sites in scheme not all acsi sites. its handy if on a separate file as then no need for cross referencing.
I am presuming the App can be viewed with phone off line?
Until they release the app it is not certain just how much information will be available from it, but it will be usable off line.

being a garmin user I much prefer the convenience of having the file on satnav........someone (not me! not techy enough) will sort it out soon I bet and make one available:)
The techy bit is pretty straight forward once you can get hold of some sort of electronic list of the sites contained in the book with GPS Co Ordinates and page numbers or ACSI ref numbers

I made this Google map of ACSI Sites some while ago .. can't recall where I got the GPS info from, and it may not be up to date..

Trouble is the discount scheme members change each year. Some drop out and others join it so even the year old stuff is no good.

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Soozywoozy

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I used the app last year and was very impressed. You can download the countries you are travelling to in advance and then use offline as a normal sat nav/ map. It also shows all the ones nearby and you can save favourites. I will be doing it again this year.
don't have the DVD anyway as it was windows based, and we are an Apple household.
 
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Traveller_HA5_3DOM

Traveller_HA5_3DOM

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I used the app last year and was very impressed. You can download the countries you are travelling to in advance and then use offline as a normal sat nav/ map. It also shows all the ones nearby and you can save favourites. I will be doing it again this year.
don't have the DVD anyway as it was windows based, and we are an Apple household.

When you say use it as a normal sat nav map, are you using it independent of a sat nav or has their app got all the features that Sat navs have and you can use it in place of your normal device?
 

Soozywoozy

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from what I remember, I could open up the maps for via google or apple maps and use that as navigation. Tended to use it for planning routes more than navigating as have a tom tom. Have now deleted it off my ipad ready for next years, so cant check. However that said I was very impressed

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Traveller_HA5_3DOM

Traveller_HA5_3DOM

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Just had a look at Archies site and it looks like he is waiting for ACSI to publish their info. His camping Card info is listed as unavailable.
 
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I've got both the books and App and can confirm that the App does have the coordinations along with the address of campsites, never had to use them as I have the coordinations of all the ACSI sites in my cheap Chinese Sat Nav which is great, some kind funster loaded them for me at Peterborough earlier in the year and it's been a God send. (y)
 
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Traveller_HA5_3DOM

Traveller_HA5_3DOM

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I've got both the books and App and can confirm that the App does have the coordinations along with the address of campsites, never had to use them as I have the coordinations of all the ACSI sites in my cheap Chinese Sat Nav which is great, some kind funster loaded them for me at Peterborough earlier in the year and it's been a God send. (y)
Thanks David but the point I was trying to make is that the 2015 Co Ordinates are not being published as far as the message from ACSI says so it will not be possible to obtain these as a file to load onto anything. The last years file will only work with the last years books and numbers so new additions or deletions will be unknown from it.
It will of course be possible to create an excel file of the sites for the areas that fall within your plans for 2015, but it is quite a task to keep converting GPS Co Ordinates verifying in google maps and then referring to the books and website. Even coping last years stuff involves altering page numbers and ACSI reference numbers to get a 2015 up to date document. It is then an easy task to pop it onto whatever device you use to plan and navigate with.
ACSI would have been much kinder to their loyal followers and members if they had continued to publish Campsite names, GPS, CoOrds and ACSI reference numbers as in previous years.

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Jaws

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Must admit, as ACSI prices have risen year on year anyway, we only use the books as a general reference thing nowadays
I was told by a couple of sites we were on early last year that while they do accept ACSI cards, the posted ACSI price was actually dearer than the sites off season prices anyway !
I have not bought a disk for a few years either.. The software is so darned slow and clunky it is slow hard work to plan anything ( This is on a newish Tosh lappy with plenty of ram and that works reasonably quickly with any other software )
 

MikeandCarolyn

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Why am I getting the impression that,for some,the planning is more important than the trip ?
I've just had quick look at acsi book-it's got all we need,and our Garmin can cope with the 3 different formats for co-ords. (y)
Our planning whilst in UK consists of deciding on date,deciding on which ferry and booking it.
We may book ahead if we intend doing a long stay in Spain in winter as sites seem to be getting booked early these days,but,apart from that we just have an idea of places we'd like to visit,a rough idea of a route and off we go.
When we are moving on next day,we,after dinner decide where we're going,look in relevant books and find a possible place for next night,put it in garmin-job done :)
Talking specifically about acsi-how many acsi sites would you use on any one trip ?-even if it's 3 mths we wouldn't use enough to bother about POI's,Apps,dvds etc etc-lifes techy enough as it is.:LOL:
 

SMB

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Just received the 2015 DVD, prior to that I used the 2013 disc. Much easier than using the books which I leave at home. I am waiting for this years app to be released as it is also very useful.

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Forestboy

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Why am I getting the impression that,for some,the planning is more important than the trip ?
I've just had quick look at acsi book-it's got all we need,and our Garmin can cope with the 3 different formats for co-ords. (y)
Our planning whilst in UK consists of deciding on date,deciding on which ferry and booking it.
We may book ahead if we intend doing a long stay in Spain in winter as sites seem to be getting booked early these days,but,apart from that we just have an idea of places we'd like to visit,a rough idea of a route and off we go.
When we are moving on next day,we,after dinner decide where we're going,look in relevant books and find a possible place for next night,put it in garmin-job done :)
Talking specifically about acsi-how many acsi sites would you use on any one trip ?-even if it's 3 mths we wouldn't use enough to bother about POI's,Apps,dvds etc etc-lifes techy enough as it is.:LOL:


We're exactly the same never plan anything just up and go haven't booked ahead for years and always find a place to stay. Not knowing is part of the fun.

Dont do regimented travelling rather random wandering.(y)
 

Jaws

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To be fair, yes, you are proly right about us.. but only as far as destination goes. The actual journey is rarely planned other than day to day..
As a really good example.. During the summer we wanted to visit 'the dams' in Germany, then after that it was all kinda open, though the basic intention was to stick to Germany for once
We ended up in Croatia !!

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sedge

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Well when we only went for a couple of weeks on the motorbike, it was more essential to know where we were going so we had used to book a site. Now short of booking the crossing we don't plan anything ahead. Depends on the weather when we get to France really.
 

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