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We have finally decided we would like to visit the Jura/Vosges region of France next year, probably travelling at the end of June, but now wondered which of the low-season cheques/cards you prefer.

Is there much difference between Camping cheque, touring cheque or the ACSI card?

Also, if we wanted details of Municipal sites, would we be better getting the Michelin Guide, or the Caravan Club France Guide?

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Use them all - that way you have a much wider choice of sites.  You can buy Camping Cheques/Touring Cheques without specifying dates, and your ACSI card (which does cost, so if you're only using it for a night or two it may not be worth it) can be good value if you can find sites in the correct areas.  We've mainly stuck to Camping Cheques who have the widest range of sites, but have used Touring Cheques for one particular site, and ACSI for others.  We've also got the Michelin Guide, the Alan Rogers Guide and the Caravan Club guide!!  I'd say we were good at getting the best deal.  Just check out available dates - towards the end of June sites some sites stop accepting Camping Cheques/other discount schemes.  Next year Camping Cheque state they will have 550 sites and the new cost will be £10.30 per night which is still a bargain!   If you need any more details I'd be pleased to help.

Thanks Val,  as we're no longer tied to school holiday dates, we will arrange our holiday around the availability dates of these schemes. 

Do the Camping/Touring Cheques have a 'use by' date?

Swizzie, I would endorse Val's advice. The Camping Cheques are valid for two years, so any that you do not use the first year will be valid through the following year.

Have you decided on where you want to stay? We had ten days in the Vosges in June, staying at 'La Vanne de Pierre' at St Dié des Vosges. This was a good, although not outstanding site, with very nice, clean showers and toilets. The pool etc were not open at the time we were there. The lady in reception was friendly and helpful and the surrounding area was very picturesque. The charge for 10 nights was in fact only 7 camping cheques, so we rated it as very good value. We had several days out from there to the Alsace region - because of the fairly narrow, hilly roads, it takes about an hour the get down into Alsace, but it was well worth the drive.

Incidentally, The Caravan Club guide, although accurate in respect of all the other sites where we stayed, got practically everything about 'La Vanne de Pierre' wrong. Alan Rogers, on the other hand was accurate in every case - but of course, it covers far fewer sites than the CC Guide.

The only site we have stayed on in the Jura is 'La Pergola' at Doucier, but that was a long while ago and it has been very much developed since then.

No Chrissie, we haven't made any decisions yet - this area is totally new for us, which is really exciting.  I would welcome any information that anyone can give me - it's nice to read your views.  We're not particularly looking for an all singing, all dancing site, just clean well-kept facilities and a picturesque area.

One question springs to mind about the Alsace region - as you say they are fairly narrow, hilly roads, are they suitable for towing a caravan?

Suzzie, we went down to St Dié, in the Vosges, with the caravan and stayed there, travelling into Alsace on day trips. We would not have relished towing the caravan on the roads which ran through the Vosges into Alsace (although we did see some being towed), but the road down as far as St Dié was fine. We took the A26 to the south of Reims, then the A4 to Metz and the N57 from there. If you were taking the caravan down directly to Alsace, I would suggest staying on the A4, which goes  via Strasbourg and Colmar right down to Mulhouse and the Swiss border. Although the area to the west of this road is mountainous (the Ballons d'Alsace) the area to the east, the Plain of Alsace, is quite flat and the Autoroute runs though this flatter area, (but has good views of the mountains).

Because we went on from the Vosges to Burgundy, on the return journey we took the N20 via Epinal and joined the A31 at Vittel. Again, we had no problems with this route.

Incidentally, although the days were fine, we did find that even in mid-June, night time temperatures often dropped dramatically in this area, so it is definitely worth having some warm bedding!

I have used Camping Cheques and the ACSI Card this year. In the past I have used Touring Cheques which are really the same as Camping Cheques but are only valid for the year of issue (Camping Cheques are valid for two years) The ACSI Card is a good value alternative the Cheques as the card itself only costs about £3.50 but if you want the very useful  CD ROM this obviously costs more but it is not required to use the card. Sometimes the same sites are covered by both the Card and the Cheques.

As far as guides are concerned I would always recommend the bible (Caravan Club European Guides) as the comments are written by members who actually stay at the site. This might have lead to Chrissie's view of the guide, not all CC members are as objective as they could be!!! Nothing wrong with the Alan Rogers guide as they are conprehensive for the sites they list which tend to be the well known holiday sites. Mind you even they don't get it right all the time as I discovered in Italy once! However we must remember that all these books are guides. Don't forget there are lots of resorces out there on the web. Do a Google for campsite reports. If you get several positive reports on a site you are interested in then its likely OK.

David