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Don't forget to leave a review of the campsites you have visited this year or last!
14/6/2024 at 12:02pm
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Joined: 02/6/2010 Platinum Member 
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The problem with getting old is you remember how much things once were, so everything looks expensive! 30 years ago when we started camping £5 was a pitch cost, a pint was £1. That pint is now £5, so no surprise pitches are £20 plus.
A site we used to visit is now £37 for a non EHU tent pitch, it was about £20 when we last visited, but that was when daughter was 4, she is now 18!
Another was £14, it is now £26, but again we visited there in about 2010.
There has however also been a huge increase in budget accommodation over those years. Premierinns, Travelodge, Airbnb for £30-50 a night which does make stays in those a viable alternative.
This weather doesn't help either!
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Don't forget to leave a review of the campsites you have visited this year or last!
 via mobile 14/6/2024 at 1:56pm
Location: Ayrshire
Outfit: Auto-Sleeper MHs
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Joined: 10/4/2007 Diamond Member 
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On our recent trip round Galloway, all 3 independent sites charged £25 for 2 people. One charged per person, so solo was £4 less. All included EHU, 2 took tents, 2 were hardstanding, 1 was a fully serviced pitch, all showers free, all had free Wi-Fi, 2 had a pub or restaurant within 15 mins walk, all had a dog walk direct from the site. I’m ok with £25.
Popular CAMC site last year for similar features in Sept was £42pn, I think it’s £10 more for non-members.
Rarely use our CCC membership because of a dearth of Club sites where we go plus their refusal to let us book just 1 (sometimes 2) nights - frustrating to drive by our nearest one to go to an outdoor theatre show nearby & see vacant pitches when we couldn’t book one night to stay after the play.
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2024 = 18 sites / 38 nights. 2023 = 9/23. 2022 = 13/35. 2021 = 11/29. 2020 = 4/20. 2019 = 13/35. 2018 = 20/33. 2017 = 10/22. 2016 = 19/33. 2015 = 15 sites / 27 nights. Didn't count 1976 to 2014.
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Don't forget to leave a review of the campsites you have visited this year or last!
via mobile 14/6/2024 at 3:12pm
Location: None Entered
Outfit: Outwell Cleveland 5
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Quote: Originally posted by daveyjp on 14/6/2024
The problem with getting old is you remember how much things once were, so everything looks expensive! 30 years ago when we started camping £5 was a pitch cost, a pint was £1. That pint is now £5, so no surprise pitches are £20 plus.
A site we used to visit is now £37 for a non EHU tent pitch, it was about £20 when we last visited, but that was when daughter was 4, she is now 18!
Another was £14, it is now £26, but again we visited there in about 2010.
There has however also been a huge increase in budget accommodation over those years. Premierinns, Travelodge, Airbnb for £30-50 a night which does make stays in those a viable alternative.
This weather doesn't help either!
It definitely pays to do your research to find the right combo of price V amenities. We prefer somewhere with really good facilities but not bothered about play areas, bars etc.
You're probably right and I'm just getting curmudgeonly with cost of living and inflation in my old age. Even tents are inflated now! 
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14/6/2024 at 3:52pm
Location: London
Outfit: Lunar Cosmos 524
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It's a fairly common topic of debate! Even on posts that start on a different topic, they often drift on to the cost/affordability of camping these days! Those of us who've camped through the 'good years' of times past are now getting a little concerned about the ever increasing cost, and it's the inflation busting costs year on year as well! One particular concern, is the trend to 'accumulative pricing', where an already not particularly cheap pitch gets boosted to an often extortionate level by what for many is some pretty basic needs. I've got a dog, that can add between £1 and £6/night! - for absolutely nothing in return, and no cost to the site! EHU charges are often far in excess of potential usage costs. I've seen charges for groundsheets/awning carpets, there is no limit to what some sites will add charges for! Recent debate on a pull out Sun Canopy on a MH being charged extra for!
On one recent post on the cost of camping, someone (think it was their wife actually!) said 'where can you find a B&B for £30 or so a night, it's still cheap!', as I pointed out, the pitch cost is only part of the cost of a night's stay, add all the expenses of actually putting the pitch to use and the true cost per night is MUCH higher!
After that debate, I did actually work out what the real total costs to pitch my caravan is. Taking all the costs of ownership, like servicing, insurance, storage fees etc. etc., and dividing it by the number of nights I actually use it pitched on a site, AND adding the cost of the extra fuel (and it was ONLY the extra cost, not the total cost!) due to towing (roughly doubles the fuel consumption) to reach the same destination, and adding that to pitch fees (and I DON'T go for the expensive pitches, sub £30 is my aim) I came to some alarming numbers! Depending on how often I use the van in a given year, it worked out between £75 and £110 per night! In my case I probably only get to use the van about 2/3rds as often as I intend, 'life' gets in the way and trips just don't happen, but if I did all the trips I wanted to do, the nightly cost would fall to around £56-£83/night, which is still in the realms of staying in a B&B instead of messing around with the caravan!
I love camping, I love staying in my caravan, I love the destinations my caravan allows me to get to and be surrounded by, but realistically, these days that alone has to be the motivation, camping is no longer 'cheap', at least not with a caravan. A tent does have a cost advantages, but it's still not the shoestring budget holiday it used to be!
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14/6/2024 at 7:20pm
Location: London
Outfit: Lunar Cosmos 524
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Joined: 17/9/2015 Diamond Member
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Just frightened myself! 
Around 1990 I went camping (basic tent) with a new girlfriend and her son at Golden Cap in Dorset, money was tight, I'd not long been been made redundant and didn't have a new job yet, so REALLY didn't have cash to splash, so the camp site MUST have been pretty cheap (I don't recall how much)!
Remember it was all pretty new, hedges between pitches were mere twigs, the swimming pool was still free to campers, the on site restaurant was affordable – GEEZ, to take the caravan there now, I'd need to mortgage the house to finance it, and that's just for the pitch, everything else is in addition AND costly! The pool is now a chargeable 'leisure club' with EXTRA chargeable services, the bar/restaurant are now top end pub prices!
Guess I won't be reliving memories at that site! Pricing is somewhat above inflationary increases!
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Don't forget to leave a review of the campsites you have visited this year or last!
14/6/2024 at 7:51pm
Location: Devizes Wiltshire
Outfit: MWB VW Crafter PVC
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Joined: 19/6/2009 Diamond Member
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I would definitely shop around.
I belong to both C&CC and CAMC and am trying to use their sites to make the most of my membership.
Can't wait until next year as I shall qualify for their concessions! 
My van is my semi retirement project, and I am getting out and about in my van as much as I can while I still have all my marbles and am relatively fit and mobile; usually once every month from Easter to October, then over the New Year weekend at a pub site.
IMHO, taking my van out is still cheaper and more enjoyable than other forms of holidays, and I can take my dog with me.
He costs me about 20 to 25 GBP per day if he goes into kennel or homestay, and I need to take that into account when budgeting my time away from home.
Everything has gone up through the years, not just camping. I remember the days when a McDonald Big Breakfast (discontinued) cost only 99p, the same as 3 KFC Hot Wings. I am old enough to remember those prices fondly.
DK 
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14/6/2024 at 7:57pm
Location: East Herts
Outfit: 1992 Elddis Wisp 450CT + X Trail
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I can't remember what we paid for a pitch back in the 1970s and 1980s, but what I do remember is that the pitch was all we paid for. There were no extra charges unless you were one of the very few who had a caravan with electricity and needed EHU, which would have been metered. Hardly any sites offered it anyway. We were a family of 5 with 2 dogs back then, and in all probability we would never have bought a caravan if sites back then had adopted today's charges, such as per person and charges for dogs. It was the fact that all we paid for was to rent a patch of grass that attracted us, as we have never been well off. Boating was the other thing we went in for, and that was for basically the same reason. You hired a boat, for whatever that particular boat cost, and how many people and/or dogs you had onboard was irrelevant, as long as you did not exceed the number of berths. If you spent the night in a marina there would be mooring charges, but if you just moored outside a pub or on the riverbank, it was usually free.
One thing that has changed recently for us is that if we are only stopping for one night we often stay in a Premier Inn. Not really that much more than a site pitch just for one night, and far less bother. Big comfortable bed, our own facilities which we don't have to clean or empty, and someone else does the laundry. Only snag is having to book much further in advance than we would normally do for a caravan site.
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Best Regards,
Colin
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