Excuse my punctuation, or lack of it. It should state people don't go to commercial sites for the social club reason and prefer to stay on Club sites.You are possibly getting slightly confused because both organisations describe themselves as 'Clubs'. Actually, they are more or less just commercial enterprises that call their 'punters' members as it sounds better. You do however get voting rights at the AGM, but as these are usually pre decided Motions, it does not mean a lot.
They both offer excellent campsites but that is really as far as it goes. Evening entertainment is not normally on the agenda and you have to understand the wardens do need some private time as well.
As mentioned, join some of the Rallys where other activities are available, or again as mentioned, some commercial sites offer social clubs, but this is often a reason why people don't go and stay with the 2 main Clubs. Drunks falling out at midnight can put a damper on anyone trying to sleep.
You could also go to sites with friends, and make your own entertainment as a group. Unfortunately, television has killed much of the social intercourse that used to be part and parcel of camping. My wife bemoans the fact that people no longer sit outside under the awning in an evening drinking coffee and chatting, but prefer the latest shenanigans in Neighbours or some other such programme locked away inside their vans.
Sorry, we are getting to be a very antisocial lot in the UK, and we prefer to go to Europe where we cannot watch TV, and people are often more chatty. Also by 9 pm I am usually so pooped that bed is a welcome.
Thanks for the advice. We do normally go with at least one set of friends, but when everyone else are in their vans by 9.00 we feel a bit self conscious about being outside having a drink and a laugh, for fear of annoying others. However, we have felt a bit spoiled by the great shower and toilet facilities and general cleanliness of CC sites.You are possibly getting slightly confused because both organisations describe themselves as 'Clubs'. Actually, they are more or less just commercial enterprises that call their 'punters' members as it sounds better. You do however get voting rights at the AGM, but as these are usually pre decided Motions, it does not mean a lot.
They both offer excellent campsites but that is really as far as it goes. Evening entertainment is not normally on the agenda and you have to understand the wardens do need some private time as well.
As mentioned, join some of the Rallys where other activities are available, or again as mentioned, some commercial sites offer social clubs, but this is often a reason why people don't go and stay with the 2 main Clubs. Drunks falling out at midnight can put a damper on anyone trying to sleep.
You could also go to sites with friends, and make your own entertainment as a group. Unfortunately, television has killed much of the social intercourse that used to be part and parcel of camping. My wife bemoans the fact that people no longer sit outside under the awning in an evening drinking coffee and chatting, but prefer the latest shenanigans in Neighbours or some other such programme locked away inside their vans.
Sorry, we are getting to be a very antisocial lot in the UK, and we prefer to go to Europe where we cannot watch TV, and people are often more chatty. Also by 9 pm I am usually so pooped that bed is a welcome.
I do not agree on reserving pitches and believe it shoudl be on a first coem first serve basis.Caravan Club sites are always our first choice when booking our holidays just because you can more or less guarantee very high standard and immaculate facilities. We've been on quite a few in our short caravanning career and have just returned from River Breamish in Northumberland where, once more, the site was wonderful and didn't disappoint.
However, our one complaint is that they won't allow you to reserve pitches for friends/family when holidaying together. We went with 2 other families last week, one arrived mid-afternoon, the second early evening and we arrived last just half an hour later. We had been in constant touch by text messages as we made our way up the A1 and our friends knew we would arrive very shortly after them but they were not allowed to save a pitch for us. This meant that we ended up at the other end of the field which wasn't very convenient as we've 9 kids between us. I appreciate that this is the club's rule but what would it hurt to allow a little leaway? I just think that it's a silly rule as it encourages people to travel in convoy which I happen to think is quite dangerous and inconvenient for other road users (us caravanners have a bad enough name already!) or else we could have all waited for each other in the narrow lane outside the site which, again, would have been very dangerous. Our friends didn't even choose the best pitches, we were about as far from the toilet block as we could be, on grass pitches not hardstandings and were next to the tent field. Unfortunately the field filled up very quickly between our arrivals.
We had this experience at Longleat last year when on holiday with Rob's parents; they were literally 20 minutes behind us but we were not allowed to reserve them a pitch. Luckily, on that occasion, we did manage to pitch next to each other.
Maybe they could introduce a system where the first in a party to arrive could perhaps pay for the first night for their friends to allow them to secure pitches together. Or maybe the Caravan Club could just trust it's members when they're told that others (who have actually made bookings after all) are following shortly behind. I suppose it's to stop the problem of no shows that arise from the club's 'No deposit' system that's been debated on here many times. Just seems rather harsh when fellow members can confirm that others are definitely going to arrive.
This experience will make us think twice about using CC sites again for our little group which is a shame as, in our experience, they are the best sites.
