# Pub Car Park stopovers, new website



## viator

Hi to all,
Found this in MMM mag., new website started my a pub landlord, who is himself a motorcaravanner. Check it out at www.motorhomestopover.co.uk

viator


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## Grizzly

viator said:


> Hi to all,
> Found this in MMM mag., new website started my a pub landlord, who is himself a motorcaravanner. Check it out at www.motorhomestopover.co.uk
> viator


Well done this man ! How can we support him ?

G


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## Rapide561

*Pub stops*

Hi

There was a similar article in Practical Motorhome ages ago. The link I have though takes me to this months edition, which does not feature the subject.

If possible, I would park overnight in a pub, and instead of spending a few quid on a pitch, pay for a tipple of two instead!

Russell


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## dbh1961

All for things like this - I wish they would make their comparisons fair though;

Most clubs are £35 per year, plus £15 to £30 per night??????????

The 2 big clubs charge that, but MOST clubs charge around £10-£15 per year, and MOST rallies run out about £5-£6 per night

A smallish "pub parking co-operative" can only fairly be compared with the (many) other small clubs, and the camping can only be compared with limited facility rallies.

IF they can get 100+ pubs on board, and keep annual membership for M/Hers around the £10-£15 mark, and stick with the 1 night free - THEn they'll be on to a winner, and I'll join.

If for example, they tried for around £25-£30 per year, claiming it's cheaper than the "usual" £35, then I won't be joining

It's a very good idea, provided they can build up the momentum, and that they pitch the prices right


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## carol

There was another thread on here about it, started by the new web site owner - who is presumably a motorhome owner but more importantly to this is a pub landlord.... I recall reading (after googling) an article from somewhere up north Yorks area, that he had written to say that it was very lucrative, as we needed somewhere to park and they had parking available, so why didn't other landlords join him.

I contacted him, to find out if he was going to be running it as a sort of equivalent to France Passion, but at that time it was still at the relatively early stage.

As many on here know I tried, and failed, to start up British Passion, I was and am not a landlord, but they were one of the main targets I tried to encourage to join the scheme, I did get a few....but for my part just phoning isn't enough, because obviously you need to know what parking facilities, access they had, as you couldn't and they wouldn't want their car parks to be taken over by motorhomes, thereby stopping other business. 

I was actually surprised at how few were interested, but of course the more rural a pub the better for us and probably for them, because of course drinking and driving is not encouraged and even the most foolhardy who continued (I have a son in law amongst this lot) seem to finally realise that it isn't good...so they do need our business..

The web site is not open to us mere mortals yet, as of course he is trying to get the stopping places first as I did....but he is I would think in a better position of course as he will be in the loop of other landlords in his area... trying to go nationwide is the hard part....but I do hope he succeeds, as we all need the places to stop safely overnight without harrassment, and as Russell says, I would far rather buy a drink or two than pay for a campsite's facilities that I do not need.

I hope he will get our supoort if and when he needs it.....as that will be the crunch bit.

I also hope he will try the farm shops and dealers, as some of the dealers were interested, but they have problems with insurance, but were definitely interested, one signed up with me....my other targets were the likes of the theme parks, like The Milky Way, The Big Sheep both here in North Devon....as they would have been great places for people with children on a short break looking for a holiday and something on tap for the children for the day....

Best of luck - lets get behind him when the time comes - as I don't see us getting the equivalent of aires here 

Carol


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## tikki

I think its a great idea.

I seem to remember a similar thing in Ireland around 10 years ago.
I know we stayed on 2 pub car parks from a list we'd been given.

I'm afraid I can 't remember any more details and am wondering if my mind has been playing tricks as over an hour on google can't find anything!

Can anyone help?

Chris


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## Bryanor

I have used several pub car parks over the years; I find most landlords are quite happy to let you stay if you are buying a meal. 

There must be a big difference between allowing one or possibly two motorhomes staying in the car park on an individual basis and having X number of vans with the 'right' (because of membership) turning up. How could the landlord feel that he/she is in total control?

I wish them luck and would certainly be interested.

Bryan


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## petie

*pub stopovers*



tikki said:


> I think its a great idea.
> 
> I seem to remember a similar thing in Ireland around 10 years ago.
> I know we stayed on 2 pub car parks from a list we'd been given.
> 
> I'm afraid I can 't remember any more details and am wondering if my mind has been playing tricks as over an hour on google can't find anything!
> 
> Can anyone help?
> 
> Chris


 The motorcaravan club of ireland have a scheme called the TAVERN TRAIL.


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## carol

tikki said:


> I think its a great idea.
> 
> I seem to remember a similar thing in Ireland around 10 years ago.
> I know we stayed on 2 pub car parks from a list we'd been given.
> 
> I'm afraid I can 't remember any more details and am wondering if my mind has been playing tricks as over an hour on google can't find anything!
> 
> Can anyone help?
> 
> Chris


Chris you are correct, it was called the Tavern Trail, and it used to be on their old website and if you had the password you could access it, not sure it is on their new one. Bill Lupton is/and was the instigator of this.

We used it a bit when we have been over there...

Carol


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## Alemo

I think that the best thing for us to do is register an interest on his website in the contact us link. Lots of emails from motorhomers will maybe help to encourage progress.
Often when making a long journey I look for a one night stop over where I can get a meal and get away from the van for a while.
Lets hope he succeeds.
All register now!

Alec


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## boskybee

Brilliant idea - just about to.
Annie


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## Telbell

...I thought Membership Registration was only open to Pub Landlords at the moment???
:roll: :roll: :roll:


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## Alemo

Pub landlords can register if they're interested in being a stopover.
There is a place for us to register an interest in becoming members and the more of us that do that, the more interested the landlords are going to be.

Alec


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## Telbell

Oh yes :roll: Ta Alec
See other Post too
http://www.motorhomefacts.com/ftopict-42671-.html


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## Annsman

Now up and running with 175 pubs signed up nationwide. Just joined for £30.00. Well worth it and we'll easily get our moneys worth. You could travel anywhere in GB and never pay a nights camping site charge for a year. Happy days!


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## Telbell

Just had a look at the site- what strikes me though is that you have to pay up before you can even see where the Pubs are! :roll: 

Now the two "big Clubs" get some stick but at least even with them you can see the club sites locations withiout becoming a member! This enables non-mmembers to see the "spread" of the sites, suitable areas for them etc.

Seeing as a member of this stopover scheme has to produce evidence of paid up membership before they stay, what's the harm in non-members seeing where the car parks are ??


Also- I see Kevin's started a motorhoming Forum (now that's novel!) He's recruiting Moderators. Anyone interested? :wink: :wink: :wink:


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## nukeadmin

ok everyone, well as promised I coded in the changes to our very own campsite database

You can now add in any pub stopovers into the database

simply choose the option of Pub Stopover as campsite type

the pub stopovers are also searchable using the standard search and also selectable as a filter on the campsite type dropdown on the main campsite map

So if you know of any pub stopovers please add them in, and its free


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## Telbell

THanks Nuke- to clarify-is this for pub "car park" stopovers (a la this thread) or would it include pubs with "sites" adjoining?


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## nukeadmin

hmmm i think we could include both with some clarification within the description text


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## androidGB

Telbell said:


> Just had a look at the site- what strikes me though is that you have to pay up before you can even see where the Pubs are! :roll:


Interesting point, also a tad limiting will be the pub of the month.

At the moment it's his own pub, presumably the only one he can give without divulging the locations to non members 

Andrew


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## tuffy

Hi

Brilliant idea, just joined, a little pricey at 30 quid but worth it for the list alone.  

Regards

Tuffey


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## pandalf

Great idea, but THIRTY QUID for access to just over 200 possible sites?

That seems like an incredible amount to pay when the a sizeable number of motorhomers are going to use the pub for drinks or a meal while they are there, helping to drive up profits still more.

If I compare this with the France passion scheme, which costs something like 29 Euros for about 3000 sites all over France, the price we Brits are supposed to pay seems pretty high.

We have actually become big fans of using pubs for overnight halts this year. We have had several walking weekends where we have parked up at a pub, seen around the area and had our meal at the pub that evening. On that basis, we are more than happy to pay a modest amount for accommodation and everyone wins.

Our first port of call when doing this has been this excellent (and FREE) link run by UKCampSite:

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/articles/view.asp?id=117

They may not have quite as many sites as Motorhome Stopovers has, but at least you can browse the regional availability without having to pay anything. And each time we find a good pub site, we submit the details to the MHF camp-site guide as well.

So I wish Motorhome Stopovers well. We need as many of these sorts of facilities as possible. But at a time when they are ramping up their offering, they should adopt a pricing policy that attracts rather than penalises early supporters.


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## ruthiebabe

You know what I think that we should take a leap of faith and join this because I think it needs support if it is to get off the ground, I agree that £30 initially seems a lot unless you will use it a lot but we keep on moaning about not having this sort of thing here so we mneed to support it and help it to grow. If he gets more members he can pursuade more pubs to join, etc etc, that's how it works. I know how hard Carol worked to try and get a British Passion off the ground and the decision to abandon it must have been hard. Solets give it a go


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## sallytrafic

I'm a member

Its good now that you can download a pdf of the participating pubs 

This year I was frustrated when I needed a site but couldn't get internet access to look up a pub in the scheme. 

His start up costs were large but I agree £30 is a bit high especially when the publicans hope to make a fair bit off you in bar or restaurant profit (so easily done with me  )

Still this is the sort of network we need to avoid the stranglehold of the CC and C&CC duopolies


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## 96299

I`m a member and have used one site to date.A lovely pub in the middle of the countryside which did superb food and a fine ale  The publican was also a motorhome enthusiast who was just finishing off a self build, so we had something in common and that got the banter started and we had a very nice stay.

steve


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## PIEDODGER

Hi can I ask how many pubs are advertised in Scotland seen something similar before, advertised as uk coverage but only had the 2 up here, thanks PD.


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## Waleem

I think this is a great idea, but £30 is just too expensive and will put a lot of people off. I would pay £10 or £15 even, but £30 considering other money they will make from people who stay is too much.
Just my opinion.....


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## pandalf

The various comments about the Tavern Trail intrigued me, as I am considering a holiday in Ireland next summer and I am already keen on the idea of using pubs for overnight stopovers.

I contacted the Motorcaravan Club of Ireland late last night by e-mail, and within minutes a great guy by the name of Bill Lupton had contacted me. Even though the Tavern Trail data is meant to be closed to club members, and even though it costs them money to produce the list, I now have the list on its way to me to help me plan my Irish holiday.

How can you ask for more service than that? I will send him some Euros to help cover printing costs anyway, and this greatly improves my motivation to holiday in Ireland and use pubs as my default accommodation. 

Building on Waleem's views, I still think that when you are in "start up" mode, you price your service competitively to draw the punters in. I accept that some MHF members will recoup the 30 pound cost over the year, but I bet most will not. Like others, I cannot understand why the organizers refuse to show the locations of each pub. For me, the major attraction of France passion was the clear proof that they have locations in hundreds and hundreds of towns and villages across France. Even if I had an old copy of the France passion guide, it would be useless to me if I did not have that year's sticker in my windscreen. 

Refusing to publish the locations of the pubs just suggests to me that there are either not many of them, or they are in poor locations, or the organizers know that the pubs will not show them any loyalty and they will allow motorhomers to stay regardless of membership. None of those are appealing reasons to fork out thirty quid.


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## Telbell

As ever it's a personal choice (re Kevin's scheme).

As some of you may know from (much) earlier threads I was put off by Kevin's less than honest introduction to us, and the scheme.

Given the availability of our own campsite databasse, *plus* the excellent "Pubs with campsites" databse on UKCS (yes they may be competitors but it is useful :wink: ) *plus *the fact that as someone stated on the m/home stopover forum "If you ask nicely most pub landlords will let you stay anyway" *plus* the rather large m'ship fee I won't bother.

When the original thread was first started way back at the start of the year there were many on here who welcoed it with open arms; it would be interesting to know how many actually joined, apart from Steve, Frank and those who have said so on recent posts here.

By the way anyone can join the "Forum" for free and have access to those Pubs already visited & lisstede by members to see where they are-they are shown in County order-not many entries though really.

Finally- I don't think a Pub Car Park can be comnpared to a France Passion location :lol:


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## CurlyBoy

*PUb car parks*

Hi tellbell, we joined early on in the scheme and have "had our monies worth" and have found some to be delightful,others not so, really just like our experience of france passion, where some can be very disappointing!
Both schemes have their advantages when looking for a stopover.
curlyboy


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## pandalf

*YES BUT...*

Yes but, the comparison seems to be like this:

You can either pay France Passion 28 Euros for access to over 6000 stopover locations, where you get to see where they all are up front.

OR

You pay Motorhome Stopover 30 pounds (which is about 36 Euros) for access to 210 pubs, but they refuse to tell you where they are until you cough up.

MMMM - tricky.......


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## Zebedee

I didn't join in the end, largely for the reasons given by Telbell.

On the one hand it does sound a good scheme, and anything which makes stopovers easier has to be welcomed, but £30 is a lot just for a list which *may *contain no pubs at all that would be useful to us.



pandalf said:


> Refusing to publish the locations of the pubs just suggests to me that there are either not many of them, or they are in poor locations, or the organizers know that the pubs will not show them any loyalty and they will allow motorhomers to stay regardless of membership. None of those are appealing reasons to fork out thirty quid.


Pandalf sums it up rather nicely for me . . . . though I still wonder if I should support the scheme as it will never get going if the punters don't join in? :roll: :roll: :? :?

Hmmmmmm??


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## CurlyBoy

*Pub stopovers*

My sentiments entirely zebedee, use it or lose it £30, is not a lot to gamble if the scheme really gets off, after all even France passion had to start small, as I recall it was about 700 sites when we first joined in 2002!
curlyboy


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## Telbell

> though I still wonder if I should support the scheme as it will never get going if the punters don't join in?


May be worth having a browse on their Forum to help you decide Dave. There's been a lot of debate there recently about Pubs which were making it a *condition* that the puinter should buy a meal-even for the first night's stay. Of course this was completely against the original concept.

Thanks to Andy C ( a member here too I think) Kevin has finally given in to pressure & removed those Pubs from the List.

Given the number of Pubs and members there doesn't seem to be a lot of activity on the Forum,, but worth the occasional browse.


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## PIEDODGER

*Re: YES BUT...*



pandalf said:


> You pay Motorhome Stopover 30 pounds (which is about 36 Euros) for access to 210 pubs, but they refuse to tell you where they are until you cough up.
> 
> MMMM - tricky.......


*

Spent £30 on worse things but would be gutted if there were very few pubs in Scotland, would be better if you could scroll over a county and it listed number of sites this might make me hand my cash over, good idea though. Spent £10 to be a member on here and get value for money. *


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## impala666

*Pub Stop-overs*

The new site showing Pubs with Stopovers at £30/ yr per book is a good idea but much too expensive. 
Abroad I always use France Passion sites . The £21 book lists over 1500 free stopovers....not really free as we always buy some of their produce & there are some really good sites ones which also serve meals. 
In the UK I am building up a list of pubs where we often stop , for a meal, They all have large car parks and water filling and toilet emptying facilities. All serve good and not expensive meals.
So far all the landlords have welcomed the idea of letting a few Motorhomes stop over for free, providing they buy some food and drinks. Most appreciate prior warning .
The MHF Forum data base is too complicated and time consuming to add new Pubs to
All that is needed is a data base listing Pubs in the various counties. 
1/ Phone the landlord .
2/ Set the address in your GPS and off you go.
Here are two starters . Both offer good food , with walking and cycling routes in the vicinity. Both have water taps and toilet emptying facilities.. Neither have electricic hook ups.

The Dog & Hedgehog
2 The Green , Dallington, Warwickshire, CV13 6JB Tel 01455 212629
www.dogandhedgehog.co.uk/ 
-------------------------------
The Horse & Jockey 
Bosworth Rd. Congerston, CV13 6LY Tel. 01827 880319

If all members just listed two such pubs in their area we would quickly have a useful data base of stopovers throughout the UK. Lets keep it simple, and be self sufficient, These pubs should be stop -overs and not long stay sites.


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## Jezport

I find it strange that there are less than 200 pubs on their list. There are 1000s of pubs in the UK. You would think that loads more would want to be on the list. I wonder what the agreement is with the owners, if members pay do the pubs pay to be on the list?


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## 96299

Jezport said:


> I find it strange that there are less than 200 pubs on their list. There are 1000s of pubs in the UK. You would think that loads more would want to be on the list. I wonder what the agreement is with the owners, if members pay do the pubs pay to be on the list?


I think the trouble is,he`s got to be a bit selective on the whereabouts of the pubs.You wouldn`t want to stay in the carpark of my local I can tell ya. 

steve


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## Jezport

I agree but under 200 is a bit low. I should offer my services and get out and do some site visits.


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## gaspode

*Re: Pub Stop-overs*



impala666 said:


> The MHF Forum data base is too complicated and time consuming to add new Pubs to


Hmmm..........

I'm not sure where you get the idea that the MHF database is too complicated. :? That is the right place to enter pub stopovers rather than some separate list.
Perhaps if you had entered a site there you'd be better qualified to comment? Give it a go, it's simple enough if you try. :wink:


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