# site fees



## 89992 (May 1, 2005)

we have just returned from a two week holiday and we were amazed by some of the price's for parking overnight, one site in westbury wanted £15 plus £1 per dog (we have two westies) total £17 and it seems like the average price is now £14 for a site with hookups showers etc. one in cheddar charged £14 plus 50p per shower. yet we can find small cl's for £3 per night. incidentally which is the best club for small type site's eg cl's hideaways etc. we are in the caravan & camping club and most sites seem to be commercial sites. over to you. :lol:


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## 88962 (May 10, 2005)

The Caravan Club sites are usually really good but at around £15 per night can be expensive. Have found one or two small commercial sites from between £7 and £10 but noticed that even over the last year prices have gone up. Not tried CL's yet as a bit worried about getting stuck - already done that on commercial site.
I suppose it depends on what you personally want but I shall be looking out for more small comercials as they usually have good facilities at a reasonable price. We also try and park so that we don't have to move so feel that what we spend on the site we save in parking. Lot more healthy for us and the environment as walk, cycle and use public transport.


Jean


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## 88790 (May 9, 2005)

There appears to have been a big hike since they had to include the cost of electricity, much nore than the cost of it before.

We even got charged for a Bichon Frise (my Mother's), but the site had no facilities for dogs at all. It was the Adults only site at Cheddar.


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## Malc (May 9, 2005)

Hi,
Easy answer to the charges for dogs, we have two, we don`t use any site that charges. 
Nor do we use sites that charge for awnings etc, they are greedy and are encouraged by campers using them. The main clubs CCC and CC are at the moment on a recriutment drive, coupled with the fact that camping is on the increase, the sites are usually well patronised so they thing they can justify the charges. (I note that their building programme does not keep pace with membership) The CCC are usually a bit cheaper especially if you are over 55 where on a lots of sites a discount is applied.
There are CL and CS`s where there is reasonable charges, we used one last week and the charge including electric was £4 per night.
We look for smallish sites within the network if possible, not many facilities and the charges are reasonable, last week at CCC site Bakewell we were charged £27.5 for 4 nights with electric. (No toilet and showers)
Regards Malc


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## Raine (May 10, 2005)

Ilfracombe- the site we went to was Watermouth Cove, but found out after we booked that the site next door was £5 a night with elec. The chappy also had a tractor and trailor and used to drive the kiddies round the park late afernoons. There was a whole row of Autotrails when we looked. but loads of space, the only trouble is (eeeek!) I don't know the name. Watermouth was £10 then £16 (easter) had nice toilets, showers, club house, only tiddy tiny beach / cove (you could get about 15 people on it!) The entertainment was quite good, and the Sunday lunch very lovely (drool) and reasonable. The tourist board might help with the name or phone Watermouth and ask them! hehehehe :rollf the site next door!


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## Anonymous (Nov 10, 2000)

Can't comment on Caravan Club but am a member of C & C C . As well as the Club sites & CSs, the Big Sites Book lists hundreds of commercial sites & gives a guide to the price so you don't get caught out.
An advantage of membership is access to the hundreds of District Association & Special Interest Groups weekend meets & temporary Holiday Sites. These are all reasonably priced & many are on sites with showers etc. I very rarely pay more than £10 per night, & then only if I am meeting up with friends who have picked the site. :lol: 
I avoid sites that charge for dogs - Jazz doesn't use the showers. :evil:


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## 89992 (May 1, 2005)

i am already a member of the camping and caravan club and i will be dropping out of it next year, because most of the sites in the book are(with the exception of club sites) are licenced sites, we stopped at the one next to the adults only site in chedder and some gypies came on site and the kids wrecked the ladies, good job we only stopped one night. we just drive to a area and then look for a site but have noticed that the caravan club tends to have more cl's which is what we prefer. after all we are self contained we use the shower in our van, we just need some where to park for the night pref a nice view.


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## MOTORHOMER (May 9, 2005)

Hi


We have just used th CCsite in Peteborough. One night with leccy £11. We arrived aprox 10am on Thursday & they let us stay till we were ready to go on the Friday. We actually left about 3pm but could have left later if we wanted. We did notice they had "use only the electric you need to prevent the lights going out" notices around the site. Sorry but if I have to pay for it I will use everything electric that we have as opposed to gas.



Motorhomer


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## peejay (May 10, 2005)

We stayed at the cc site at peterborough for easter, electrics were down for a large portion of the break due to 'technical' problems, i asked for a refund but it fell on deaf ears, complained to head office but all they did was apologise, no refund. The only reason we stay with the cc is because of cl's (and some of them are getting expensive) and their travel service, this inclusive electricity is a rip off, i don't want it so why should i pay for it?

i remember ranting about this in a previous post so apologise if you've heard it all before, it makes me so mad :evil: 

pete.


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## Anonymous (Nov 10, 2000)

calypso said:


> i am already a member of the camping and caravan club and i will be dropping out of it next year, because most of the sites in the book are(with the exception of club sites) are licenced sites, we stopped at the one next to the adults only site in chedder and some gypies came on site and the kids wrecked the ladies, good job we only stopped one night. we just drive to a area and then look for a site but have noticed that the caravan club tends to have more cl's which is what we prefer. after all we are self contained we use the shower in our van, we just need some where to park for the night pref a nice view.


Not sure what you mean by licensed Calypso - I thought all camping sites had to be licensed by the local authorities? 
As you are self-sufficient & use the shower in the van then you should look through the Out & About supplement that comes with the monthly magazine & you will find many places to camp all over the country where you will see nice views for only a few pounds a night.


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## 89992 (May 1, 2005)

first a cl or hideaway is usally a farmers field or sombodys garden for up to five vans (units) basic fac,s. a licenced site is run by a company or individual now if you trawl through the camping club handbook when you get to an area that you fancy and have a look in the book then nearly all sites are licenced. have a look in the book under stratford up on avon as we drove round and round trying to find suitable sites when the show was on, all i need is just a field to park up in. i think i will join the cc club for the cl's and i am now at the age when i can whinge about everything even the music teenages play and the price of milk.


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## Raine (May 10, 2005)

eek! you mean you have to be a certain age to whinge, oh no, whine moan groan hehehehe

I agree, if we pay for electic we use electric, (i have a gas and an electric kettle-can't pull the wool over my eyes!) and a Remoska (see kitchen gadget-review) or pans if its gas. 

:roll:


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## Anonymous (Nov 10, 2000)

Now I understand Calypso, you were referring to what I call commercial sites so what you meant was that there are not many CSs in the BIg Sites Book. 
I believe that the Caravan Club has a bigger network of CLs but C & C C does have 93 Club Sites & around 1,200 CSs so I think you were perhaps unlucky in the area you were visiting.


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## carolgavin (May 9, 2005)

I felt that we were overcharged somewhat on our recent trip being charged £36 for 2 nights. Ok it was a nice clean site with a small playground for the kids and a bar/resturant, but i was a bit miffed when charged full adult price for my just turned 14 year old son. Having just driven over 200 miles to get there did not fancy driving around to find something else.


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## Anonymous (Nov 10, 2000)

hi, we stopped on southsea caravan activity park not long after it first opened (expensive now- expensive then)there was my wife and myself +westie in our motorhome and our friend and his wife and three children in a caravan, it cost us £7.50p more over three night's because of the dog. i asked if there was a play area for the dog and got a strange look,all they said was no you must exercise the dog off the site. (so why were we paying extra for then? :roll:


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## 88915 (May 10, 2005)

As an old timer (over55) I do try to use the CCC sites as I qualify for a discount (Mrs Bognormike isn't old enough yet). This doesn't apply in the peak times, though. Also at least they have sites where you can pitch without having electric. Both clubs seem to have very good facilites, and if these are there, the cost has to be built in to the site fee. CC sites are very caravan oriented (as the name would suggest), but the CCC seems more laid back - I think it's the tenters being there - makes it more friendly.
The problem for modern motorhomes especially is that we don't need the toilets & showers on the sites, but will use them if we are paying for them. Likewise the electricity - "if we're paying for it we're damn well going to have our money's worth" (I've seen some caravans lit up like blackpool tower) - this is wasteful & not very ecologically sound! Surely they can come up with a better means of charging for the electricity? 
We have found that since we got the Pilote with a bg water tank & separate shower, we prefer to look for CL's / CS's. We hardly ever use commercial sites - especially in main season, and even more especially the huge ones with thousands of fixed units & "clubs" - the fees just are over the top, and we've paid our subs to the 2 clubs & try to fit in a trip using these. 
Sorry this is a bit of a ramble, but I've tried to respond to a few of the points raised above. (I may use my moderator hat to thin it out later!)


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## 89992 (May 1, 2005)

we did use a ccc site in the cotswolds a couple of years ago and if it was my first site it would have put me off, we arrived fri evening the warden(camp comandant, holiday site manager) call them what you like seemed put out that i hadn't booked, he managed to find a site when asked where the water point was he pointed into the middle, i couldn't get the van next to the tap, so had to use a bottle to fill it, the fishing lake turned out to be a small pond, the caravaners had reserved every spot so i couldn't go fishing, we decided to go off site for a look round and get some food, as we came on from the left we turned right and another warden stopped us and asked where we were going, when told he said this is not the way out wouldn't listen when we told him we had not used site before we then proceeded to drive to a turning point when another warden told us to slow down only doing 15 mph by then i had it i put foot down went off site and found a lovely peaceful site called the cotswolds rarebreeds centre. never put a wheel on a club site since even though it was a one off.


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## Anonymous (Nov 10, 2000)

wardens can be a pain, we stopped at the cc site at minehead,like you got a lecture about booking in advance,although this was the hight of august and we had three pitches to choose from.
anyway we mentioned that after we booked in that we were going down to the sea front to have our tea, and he said well you will have to put areserved sign on your pitch!. youv'e got one then i asked?,no havent you ?no i said well you'll have to leave your waste water container,i aid if you think that iam going to undo all those rusty bolt's just to keep a pitch,think again, youl'l have to leave your eletric hook up cable then,so the club will replace it then if it goes missing then,no,point is they actually book you a pitch and give you a number,so if someqne else turns up and takes your pitch surely it's their job to tell them to move/leave
pete


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## 88915 (May 10, 2005)

Pete, 
I think you're being a bit unfair to the wardens here- we always leave something on site, even if we've been allocated a specific pitch. Quite often you are told when arriving "go and find a pitch, then tell us the number once you're on it"; it can be a pain to get set up & then tell the warden & find it's already allocated to a motorhomer who's gone out for tea! Also a lot of sites are an open field with no marked pitches (is CC at Minehead like this?), so it's difficult to know what's occupied.
We carry a spare number plate on a post, to either drive in the ground, or stand up against a bucket, or leave the bikes on the pitch.


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## MOTORHOMER (May 9, 2005)

Hi Folks

For more than one night stops on a site we carry a wash room free standing tent from camping days. We erect that. Its useful to leave wet clothes, wellies table chairs in etc . Also comes in usefull to leave washing under cover on a wet day. Its usually nearly dry when we return.

Motorhomer


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## 89992 (May 1, 2005)

who would be responsible if you left the electric cable at your pitch and one of the little kids put their fingers in the end and got electricuted, i have a plate i leave to reserve my pitch


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## 88915 (May 10, 2005)

wouldn't dream of leving the cable plugged in - just there on the pitch.


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