We're returning to camping this year after several years break. What we want to know is whether we should pre-book our breaks or can we leave it until we check out the weather and then just turn up? We don't want to end up camping in torrential rain as its such a waste of money. We are thinking of using camping club sites - anyone knw the situation with those?
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If you join the C &CC when booking you pay a £10 deposit BUT if you cancel you do not lose your deposit it's credited against your membership account and can be used for your next booking. If you just dont show then you lose your deposit.
I always book ahead. No way would drive for miles and just turn up. you've got nothing to lose if you book then cancell
------------- Beauty is in the eyes of the beer holder
There are advantages to prebooking, you are more or less guaranteed a pitch. Much depends on the nature of your party. With two kids the thought of having to go from site to site, hoping to get a pitch, horrifies me.
Yes you can turn up at C&CC site - but when I was at one in August they were only taking prebookings, thanks to the ground being very wet.
Would not advise just turning up at any site during school holidays - at least give them a quick phone call to ensure they have availability. Site do get booked early especially for bank holidays. Outside of the main times you might be ok but that would also depend on where you are going.
------------- Ang
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Thanks for the advice. As we won't be going out during the school hols I think we should be okay, especially if we opt to camp inland away from main resorts. Will report back after we try it! CCC are asking for a deposit of 25% this year on pre-bookings.
By joining the C&CC, you get a book listing 90% of the sites in any given area. This allows you to move on and find another site in the area, if the one that you have arrived at turns out to be unsuitable.
Not all sites, club or commercial, are suitable for all campers but atleast by joining a club, be it UKCS and/or C&CC, you will have a better idea of what you are looking for in a campsite and be able to make more informed choices before having to pay any deposits.
Personally we do not book unless we are going to a real back of beyond place that only has one campsite every 50 miles or so.
Camping, for us, is all about freedom of choice, exploring unknown areas and moving along only when we feel that we are ready to do so. Even when we are signing into a campsite, we do not know how long we will be there for and so we only pay for a couple of nights, with the prevision that we may stay for longer.
This has backfired on us a couple of times during the school holiday period but overall it has saved us having to stay overlong in undesirable areas and/or sites.
If you look at C & CC out and about, their weekend rallies you just turn up and likewise on most of their temporary holiday site rallies and lots cheaper that main sites
We're lucky, neither of us work anymore so can go as and when, we avoid bank holidays and school holidays and often do Monday to Friday trips
We never book, the weather dictates when we go, we just get everything ready, ring a site and go the next day, often we have been the only unit on site, the most we paid in 2008 was £12 and the least price was £5 per night, we only need basic sites though
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we always ring ahead, means we get a pitch and a weather report, have called and been told "Don't come, it's too wet/windy etc", saves a wasted journey and less stress when you know you will have a space.
If you are happy with just turning up then carry on doing so. The only times that you really have to book up are the busy times i.e school and bank holidays. You won't be able to go to the cc&c sites in those times as they get booked up way ahead. If you do want to go away in those times then you will find a site but you will pay more because the cheaper sites are fully booked. We have been fine booking up during the week before we want to go away but have sometimes had to pay more during the busy times, at quieter times we could easily just turn up...
I book ahead, at least to start with, and then, depending on the weather, decide where to go and phone, we use CLs and CSs as much as possible so take both club books.
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Is Booking Advisable?
