Booking somewhere to stay - is it best to join a club, if so which is the best?

TinTentTourist

TinTentTourist

Free Member
Joined
Jun 26, 2019
Posts
49
Likes collected
65
Location
LA15 The Furness Peninsular, Cumbria.
Funster No
61,934
MH
Bailey Autograph 754
Exp
Day 1 will be 10th July 2019
There seem to be two main clubs that offer camping/caravanning and motorhome pitches via a directory of sites... but which is the best to join, or do you join all of them as you will save the membership on site fee savings? And there are apps too, so ...
What do you do?
 
You don’t really need to join either but if you did I would recommend the one WITHOUT caravan in its title.
Google “campsites UK” and you will find many independant campsites all over the UK.
 
Last edited:
Quite simply...
Some join one, some join both, some join none... it's up to personal choice & the way you want to use your MoHo
Only you can decide.
 
If one was "best", that is the one that everyone would join and the other would go out of business

These are generalizations:

With Camping in the name:

Tends to be cheaper
Sometimes has a minimum of 3 nights stay and a deposit upfront
Offers friendly rallies abroad

With Motorhome in the name:

Has a reputation for higher quality facilities
Offers "tours" abroad rather than rallies
Bookings can be made, for any length, with no deposit, so sites tend to get booked up and then cancelled at last minute

We do not use local rallies, provided by these clubs, so cannot speak about them

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
A lot will depend on what type of camping you plan to do. As a motorhome owner I have my own toilet and shower facility. All I need is somewhere to empty the loo and fill fresh water. So we do a lot of rally / club meets / temporary holiday sites. £8 - £15 a night.. camping and caravan club for me.

If you want a proper marked out "this is my land" pitch plus a Sargent to make sure you park in exactly the right spot. Toilet and shower blocks etc. Go with the old caravan club or whatever they call themselves now.

As said no need to go with any as there are many independent sites.
 
There are indeed many "independent" sites but it's my personal experience that standards can be hit or miss... and more importantly for me... more expensive.

There are Club sites which allow non members (at a higher tariff) so you could get yourself to one of these... see if you like/hate the way they do things, and whether the discount is worth the membership fee.
 
We've just rejoined camping and caravan club after a 5 year break. £46 but we'll save more than that using the THS (temporary holiday sites) ?
 
I am a member of both C&CC and CaMH for different reasons.

I like the quality of the CAMH sites - you can rely on clean, up to date facilities and good locations.

The C&CC sites are often in the middle of nowhere with dated facilities but their temporary holiday sites and local da weekend meets are good, cheap and mostly don't require booking. Their Out and About app is very good for finding last minute weekends away. Oh and they give over 60's a discount on site fees.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Depends whether you plan to tour UK or go abroad. The majority of our motorhoming is across the channel and we have never felt the need to join any clubs. We have a ACSI card and also rely on Camper Contact app (oh, and plus taking note of all the great suggestions on here).
 
I'm not a member of either club. I use a combination of independent sites and free parking spots using park4night (y)
 
Never had a problem booking. Only been a member of both for about 26 years. Most sites put up prices at main holiday times whether club or lndependebts.
C&CC temporary sites are great and from about £8 a night and most need no booking.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Horses for courses - you don’t need to join either or both but there are discounts and advantages in joining them. I saved a fortune one year with a 15% on already reduced sale items for clothing for our trip to Finland with one club so check if they provide any other discounts which suit you before you decide.
 
Although we don't tend to use the main sites, we're members of both the big clubs, mainly because we do prefer their small 5-pitch sites, called CL or CS. Have used the CCC Temporary Holiday sites a couple of times, good value and usually in a place we want to be.

We're in the preliminary planning stage of a tour of Ireland and have found that using the CMC discount we can save £100 (25%) on the ferry fare, which alone is worth the annual fee.
 
We joined both but will ditch C&CC next year, we'll keep CMC as we got our insurance with them.

I tend to use Search for Sites as my preliminary when looking for somewhere to overnight - we were in Scotland in June and all our overnights were done that way - from the car park in Kyleakin to the lovely Creagan Station (on the shores of a Loch) and only 6 pitches.
 
For years we were members of neither, however, found that we were frequently staying on CaMC sites, so we joined to save a few pennies. It's just what suits you best to be honest.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
Thanks everyone for your thoughts. Some very good points made for and against.
We were in the Caravan Club (No M back then) years ago when the kids were small, and facilities were of more value to us. Now it's the two of us, we are far more flexible and will try a wider range of stops, including wild and temporary. We always used to enjoy the CL's so far more choice for us now when we get the MH.
No plans for abroad at the moment, so UK options are what we are most after.
Thanks again, I'm pleased the decision is not clear cut, as I was not seeing a clear way forward... at least there is no wrong answer.
Cheers
Martin
 
Don't listen to the critics ( some of whom live in France and the others don't like "rules"
Join one yourself for £1 a week
I use the C&MC because the website is easier

If you dont like it, you have "wasted" £53 pounds....Im sure you are gonna waste more
 
We are members of both and have been for over twenty years. They have pro's and con's but the membership fees are relatively inexpensive and being in both gives much greater flexibility when touring.
 
I'm in this one

The Caravan and Motorhome Club

Join us with your tent, caravan or motorhome and explore the UK's largest network of sites from the Caravan and Motorhome Club (formerly The Caravan Club)
www.caravanclub.co.uk www.caravanclub.co.uk
Better known as CAMC though.
All the sites I've been to so far have been of a high standard, clean tidy and 99.9% of people are friendly and approachable. I say 99.9% as I had one Caravan owner departing at 6am one Saturday and he woke me up by using a Flipping battery impact gun to wind his stabilisers up..
FFFuuuuuuuuuu but apart from that lol... Perfect :D

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 
We don't need places with facilities other than somewhere to empty the waste and loo & somewhere to fill up with fresh.

When in the UK we tend to rally but don't want to book so CCC for us as no booking required usually. Also use the CSs - 5 van sites.

Our main holidays are in Europe and we use Aires/Stellplatz etc.

Denise
 
We are members of both clubs to give us the greatest choice of where to stay with the range of CL's etc. We have also used independent sites nearly as much as either of the clubs but usually find information on them harder to come across.
Location is our main reason for staying anywhere.
 
We’ve been in both but now only the C & MHC. This is because we prefer their sites, both CLs and club sites. We’ve found the wardens these days bear little resemblance to the ones you used to get.

We also really rate their overseas travel insurance.

Mrs QFour
 
We belong to both and tend to favour the Caravan and Motorhome Club because the facilities are generally of a higher standard. However, more importantly, we prefer to choose our own pitch and not have it allocated by a man on a bicycle, which isn’t a problem when short stay/overnighting, but irritating otherwise if inflexibility is imposed purely for ease of administration.
 
Both clubs tend to be fairly regimented and therefore come in for a lot of stick from motorhomers by en large want to be free wheeling and independent, however, you do get (mostly) a decent size pitch, clearly marked with room all around it, no one else's bikes, tables and assorted rubbish spilling over onto your pitch and very often clean and roomy washrooms. We all have a toilet and shower in our van, however, they have nothing like the room and free running water of a C&M club site facility (imho). Rules and regulations galore ensures selfish individuals don't ruin it for the masses. Usually peace and quite prevails unless you have booked a holiday site on the continent of course. I travel solo and occasionally use them for a good scrub and to change all the waters, can't remember ever speaking to a single sole so no good if you like socialising (in my experience). For me they have a place along with free Aires, wild camping and independents. I don't get good value for the fee because I don't use them enough, however, like to keep them in the mix.

Subscribers  do not see these advertisements

 

Join us or log in to post a reply.

To join in you must be a member of MotorhomeFun

Join MotorhomeFun

Join us, it quick and easy!

Join us

Log in

Already a member? Log in here.

Latest journal entries

Back
Top