I've just returned from another great weekend in my caravan, only spolied by the fact that I had to vacate the site (a CC site) by 12pm. I can understand that the site was busy, but for many of us who dont get a lot of holidays and rely on weekends away to follow our favourite pastime, it is a real pain in the neck. By the time you get up and have breakfast, there's not much time for anything else but to pack up - what a waste of the day! I could book for an extra night, but that would cost me more and perhaps prevent another camper from booking for that night. I think theres a much simpler solution - Caravan sites could change the the departure time for Sundays(only) to 4pm. My views are that: 1. Being able to stay on site until 4pm would allow the many people who spend their weekends caravanning camping to enjoy the full weekend and plan to do something on the Sunday. 2.. I would have thought anyone arriving at site on a Sunday would be arriving for an extended stay and so not being able to arrive until after 4pm would not be too much of a problem. I'd be interested to hear other members views on this.
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Most people arriving on a Sunday would want to be there before 4pm i am sure, often they have packed up and maybe even travelled part way so as to be on site as early as possible.
On our park, we do state no arrival before 12 and departure must be by 12 during August. This is clearly stated on our website & all paperwork, but still people arrival as early as 8am trying to get onto pitches. At other times of the year we have more flexible times and departure can be upto 4pm if it isnt leading upto a Bank Holiday. Some parks also offer a late departure and charge a 1/2 day fee, perhaps you could find one of those parks!
What you don't know is how many new units are expected to arrive on the site the day you depart. As Ang says most people, especially on a Sunday will time their arrival to as near as midday as possible. I think alot of CC sites are flexible with leaving times if they don't have a big influx of new people booked to come. Another issue on some campsites like Chatsworth and Cheddar is site access as units can't pass on the approach roads. I did see on another forum that the Club had introduced a late stay fee on some sites of £5 which would allow what you are suggesting but I suspect that would not be at the expense of people who arrive on that day.
My thoughts on this are that why not go for an arrival and departure time of 2pm. I don't want to rush to pack up on a sunday but still want to get home and get unloaded. I rarely get onto a site at 12noon so this would suit me but i'm not sure about everyone else?
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Just to clarify a point, I'm not suggesting changing arrival/departure times for every day of the week, only Sunday. If I was going away for a week I would be happy to arrive and leave at mid-day. I just find that for a weekend stay, its a shame not to get the benefit of Sunday.
Quote: Originally posted by decho on 23/8/2009
If I was going away for a week I would be happy to arrive and leave at mid-day. I just find that for a weekend stay, its a shame not to get the benefit of Sunday.
My thoughts exactly. I'm booked for a weekend in late September at the Southport CC site. Because of work commitments I can't get to the site before 6pm on the Friday, but I have to leave by noon on the Sunday, which only gives me one full day. Now the whole purpose of me going is for the airshow, which is only on on the Sunday - parking anywhere in Southport on that particular day is a total nightmare, so if I have to leave the site by noon what do I do with the car and caravan?? Maybe I should just cancel the weekend and go by train on the Sunday just as a day trip.
------------- Tigermouse
I have a very temperamental personality - 50% temper and 50% mental
We're very lucky in that we've just come back from a local (1/2 hour away) campsite which is very relaxed with regards to arrival/departures.
On Friday, you are able to arrive on site anytime after 9am and pick your pitch. Today, we left at 4.30pm (were told that we could leave at anytime) which meant we had 3 full days on site
We've used this site many times (Fen Farm in East Mersea) purely because it is very relaxed, and that DH can set up on Friday morning and me and the kids arrive after school time.
As a thought CLs and CSs tend to be very accommodating about arrival and departure times. We have found them to be a boon this summer. We tend to go for the no facility sites. Last weekend in Kent we were by ourselves on a 1 1/2 acre site from Friday night through to Saturday afternoon....
------------- Work is the curse of the camping classes!