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Caravan Club (CC) has about 220 of it's own sites with about half open to members only and over 2500Cl's ( small 5 five van independant sites of variable standard licensed by the club for members only ) , the standard of it's sites is consistently high over the whole network, it provides every service that a caravanner could need and all the services are comparable with the best of service that you can find anywhere. When you arrive at a club site you book in and pay your fees, no deposits are taken so the whole fee is paid at this time, you are then given information about the site and are told to go go and have a look at the pitches available ( all empty pitches are available ) choose one, set up and then let the wardens know where you have gone. Should you decide for whtever reason that you need to leave before the date that you  have paid till, you can inform the wardens that you are leaving and will receive a refund of all fees for the days that you have paid for but will not be staying for.

Camping and Caravanning Club (CCC) has about 110 sites of it's own about half of which are members only  and a network of about 1000 CS's ( like CL's ), the standard of the sites over the whole network is of a more variable standard with the best sites comparing favourably with the CC sites. It also provides a full range of high quality services for the caravanner that are just as good as those provided by the CC. When you arrive at a club site you book in and pay the remainder of your fees ( a deposit will be taken when you book which if you have to cancel for any reason should be available for you to use at some later time in the same year), the warden will decide where you are to pitch and will escort you to it and ensure that you have pitched precisely as he requires. Should you need to leave for any reason the fees that you have paid will be forfeit ( though in some circumstances by special request to head office giving circumstances and doctors notes be placed on account for you to use in the rest of the year )

I have been a member of the CC for 17 years and have never regretted it, I have been a member of the CCC on two occasion in the last four years and have on both occasions resigned it just did not suit me. I know of a lot of people who like and use the CCC so I would suggest that it is worthwhile joining both clubs and seeing which one suits your purpose best

 This one touched a raw nerve.

We tried to stop at a C,C site near Stirling Scotland with our Older Range Rover and very clean Avondale only to be told abruptly " No, No we have no space for this"  we then asked if they knew of another site close by,  I was very tired after a long tow and really did need to get of the road ASAP  " No, No there is nothing near here for you" etc, and yes I did notice several empty spaces.

 I though that was quite rude, the outset is that we have not been on a C,C site since.

Now, my old Range Rover did not look as good as the new shiny towcars on-site but it has been over cliffs up here and works hard on rescue during heavy snow pulling people out of sometimes very bad situations which can be rough going and was badged accordingly, it has been photographed under the Eiffel Tower at the top of mountains and towing things like Rolls Royce's, it appears on DVD every second year working at our bi-annual local Classic car show.

Our van was very clean with not even a mark on it, I quickly formed the opinion based on the tone of the uniformed assistant gnome that we were not welcome as we didn't fit with the required shiny tool group, as did my very fair minded wife, my seven year old son was upset and crying at the response and frankly I was as mad as hell !!  (sorry)

Maybe we should try again with our shiny P38 Range Rover or my MGBGTV8 and leave the workhorse at home, the funny thing is that people wave to us in the old one and ignore us in the new one.

Baa Humbug !!!!

Can I ask what time of day this was? Many sites are frequently fully booked and will give the appearance of having spaces right up to 8PM and some spaces will be visible even later than that because a pitch might well be being used by a motorvan who could be out till much later. I was on a site in June where there were pitches being unused but the site was quite definitley full, I was in the office when one of the wardens said to her husband I have had to stop accepting any more people there are 78 vans on the site for our 77 pitches.

Hi, yes of course, it was around 16.15hrs, midweek the response we recieved was genuinly upsetting and had a profound effect on our thoughts towards C,C sites which is a shame as we enjoy our trips to the UK mainland and travel quite a lot. we are also members of the local club and like the better site's available

I accept that the site could have been full but there is a plesant way to put that accross, "Im sorry we are full"  and "yes there is another site 2.5km away" would have done.

We found that one and stayed 4 nights on it and will return again.

Quote: Originally posted by LegsDownKettleOn on 31/8/2009

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Personally, I avoid the sites of both clubs like the plague. They are overpriced and the number of rules can sometimes make you feel uncomfortable in case you inadvertantly break one. The CC sites are inevitablt booked up well in advance too, probably due to the flawed booking system. I have many friends in the CC and most of them, like us never use a club site.

 

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To be honest I have never ever noticed the rules in any CC site they seem to be a written down ersion of common sense and decency to me. As to the booking system being flawed I can not see how anyone can make a case for this to me it is the best system I have ever found and it never penalises the customer, what is more they always seem to be able to fill or nearly fill their sites so it must be a very profitable system for them.

Quote: Originally posted by janus on 31/8/2009

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Quote: Originally posted by LegsDownKettleOn on 31/8/2009

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Personally, I avoid the sites of both clubs like the plague. They are overpriced and the number of rules can sometimes make you feel uncomfortable in case you inadvertantly break one. The CC sites are inevitablt booked up well in advance too, probably due to the flawed booking system. I have many friends in the CC and most of them, like us never use a club site.

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To be honest I have never ever noticed the rules in any CC site they seem to be a written down ersion of common sense and decency to me. As to the booking system being flawed I can not see how anyone can make a case for this to me it is the best system I have ever found and it never penalises the customer, what is more they always seem to be able to fill or nearly fill their sites so it must be a very profitable system for them.

 

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Quote: Originally posted by normannbelson on 17/6/2009

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join the campingandcaravanningclub,if you have a family its cheaper,and more friendlier.

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Quote: Originally posted by janus on 29/8/2009

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Quote: Originally posted by kingy99 on 28/8/2009

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 We let the Caravan Club membership go because most of the sites we would want to book were forward (block) booked over all weekends and likely breaks we would be looking at. I assume this is down to the different booking systems (c & cc require a deposit).

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More to do with the fact that the CC has about 36 members for each pitch, the fact that they are booked says that the CC is better at filling it's pitches than the CCC.

 

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Maybe, maybe not. Imho I think the booking system contributes to the cc sites being heavily forward booked.

I was talking to folk at cc sites last year about booking and quite a few preferred cc over c & cc because there was no deposit system with cc. They could book ahead and then if they changed their mind at whatever point they could just cancel. A few said they had booked cc sites and then simply not turned up on the day (for weekends) as the weather was bad.

The fact of the matter for us is simply that when we looked forward in Feb this year we couldn't book any cc sites we wanted when we wanted. We could with the c&cc. As we had no preference based our experiences with both clubs it was a no brainer to continue with the club that offers the best availablity. Be it due to membership numbers or booking system c & cc works best for us.  Had it been the other way round we would have stayed with cc.

A bit of an old chestnut this one, but I think it broadly remains the case that as the names suggest the CCC is probably the club of choice for tenters and the CC for caravaners. The CC suits us for that reason and for it's large network of sites and excellant CL's.

Neither club is eltist that is frankly old hat if it ever was the case, anyway it's people who can be off hand or snobby not a club, but it's the same in all walks of life some folk are friendly some are not and some are just shy.

The CC sites are of a uniformly high standard and we've saved the cost of membership many times over on insurance, breakdown and ferry services. You always know what you are going to get and as for price another old chestnut, they compare in my view with commercial sites of the same standard - you can of course find cheaper but without the same quality more often than not.

I think both clubs provide a quality service, as I understand it the CCC has greater availability at times but that surely has to be seen as a sign of success for the CC as it's occupancy rate is high but generally on key holidays and certain very popular sites eg Rowntree Park York. Out of season occupancy is not such an issue. The overseas service is top draw and very, very good value.

We have come across really grumpy unelpful wardens and indeed the opposite but that applies to sites whether they are club ones or not.

Really there are some people who will moan about the clubs and for some reason label the CC as elitist and expensive, just not true in our experience and in any event nobody is forced to join!