CC or CCC (or both?)

[Badgermoff]

Which, in your opinion, is better? Caravan Club or Camping and Caravan Club? I'm looking to join one and I'm leaning towards CC at the moment as I like the look of the Certified Locations. What are the benefits of joining a Club? I've heard you get discounts?

 

[carper2]

I belong to both as that gives me twice as many sites. We have tried to book some club sites and have not been able to get in and found the other club had a site in the same area. One of the benefits of the CCC is if you are over 60 you get a discount. I have not used the CCC CS's but have used CC CL's which I like.

Les

 

[Mel]

We belong to both. The CC for the Mayday cover as much as the sites. The CCC because they had a sensible "pay a deposit" approach to booking which mean't it was easier to get a pitch. I am becoming less fond of the CCC as they seem to have lost their way a bit, (see thread about their website) and appear to have turned into an organisation rather more fond of commercial developments than their members.
mel

 

[Willi-Wonti]

We are members of the CC.
My caravan is insured with them & I make my ferry bookings with them.
I find their staff very friendly & helpful. Cant comment on the CCC as not had any dealings with them.

 

[Badgermoff]

Do you get discounts at sites if you're a member of CC? We've already insured our new caravan so not looking for that but just wondering what other "benefits" there are to joining?

 

[WoodlandsCamper]

Do you get discounts at sites if you're a member of CC?

No, but if you are not a member you get charged an extra £8 per person per night at CC main sites. Non members cannot stay at the 5-van CL sites.

 

[Dustydog]

Join both.
The monthly magazine is worth the annual cost.
Both have access to excellent insurance covers.
The sites vary. CC are more caravan orientated. That said the CCC site near Portree Isle of Skype is wonderful.

Join both and hedge your bets

 

[Gafferbill]

Yes by all means join both but take note that the C&CC require a £25 deposit for any booking and that this is non returnable.

Thus if you make a booking and subsequently find that for reasons outside your control you have to cancel all or some of your stay then you will not get this deposit back.
This is fair enough for a commercial site but IMO not fair for a 'Member Owned' Club.
Last year I had to cut short a stay on a club site due to a car breakdown. My car and caravan were recovered from the site and the club retained £25 of the refund saying it is in their rules.
I have now left the C&CC after 19 years membership.

 

[Raywood]

We are members of both but you need to use the caravan fairly heavily to get your moneys worth if you do that.
The CC has the largest number of sites, they are generall marginally better maintained and you can pick your owm pitch. The C&CC has less sites but they tend to be easier to get on at shorter notice' You cannot choose your pitch but the wardens do try to make sure you get a suitable one and you can book hardstandings or grass. There is a small charge for hard standings where the CC do not charge.
The C&CC demands a deposit £25 or the full cost if less or 25% if more. This is lost if you cancel within 31 days.
The CC has no deposit but if you leave during the term of your booking you lose one nights charges. The C&CC does guarantee satisfaction and if you do not like the site you can move to another without any loss. Both clubs have various other services and there is probably nothing between them.

 

[waffler]

members of both for many years. Never had a problem with lost deposits even when we have moved at short notice. We feel the CC is more formal, all sites the same. The CCC a little more eccentric and all different. The advantage with CCC is that their meets and temporary holiday sites are generally organised so you can just turn up without booking. Both offer discounts on other things. The CCC has CSs (5 van sites) and numbers are increasing rapidly. The CC has CLs and numbers are declining (Down a 1000 since I joined a few years ago.) CCC sites do tell you where to pitch but we have always had a choice. The advantage with CCC is that you can book a non electric pitch and save money. In CC most sites only offer electric pitches. To show my neutrality the CC has many more Elsan points on each site than CCC.

 

[rosies]

Hello Badgermoff , all I would say is please enjoy your caravanning whatever you do and wherever you go . You ask CC or CCC ( or both ) . Myself I say neither and save you monies on club memberships . I find you can get all the necessary insurance , breakdown cover , booking , information and help from many other sources without being in a club system , Practical Caravan magazine being a perfect answer . Never having taken Rosie abroad to Europe I have never needed to join a club , if I did then I probably would . I have toured the United Kingdom extensively and thoroughly enjoyed over 40 years of caravanning and can still find sites with more than enough facilities for ourselves , family and grandchildren at a good price . If we need peace , quite and solitude there are also plenty of inexpensive first rate sites out there , The best thing to do Badgermoff is sit and think what you actually need and want rather than join a membership just because its trendy , mates do , or you think you must . Decide if it benefits your lifestyle and if so go for it and heed what the above messages say . Steve .

 

[Raywood]

I would not take anything but one of the clubs caravan insurance policies. The cover is wioder than any other I have seen, the cost is competitive if not the cheapest and the service especially claims unbeatable. You may save a few pounds sometimes going elsewhere but this may prove a false economy if you have an accident.

The breakdown service provided elsewhere will almost certainly not be sufficient and particularly is unlikely to cover you for recovering the caravan if it is on site and you have a problem elsewhere. This could be very expensive to get wrong so please read what you have signed up for. The cover is very competitive on price anyway.
The sites are always good and reasonably priced but may not be for everyone. What you get is a guarantee of a standard that random booking does not give.
The foreign touring service they provide is very good although if you do not go abroad it will not worry you.
We would not regard the clubs as trendy they are just a good safe bet if you caravan and to us justify the membership fees..

Hello Badgermoff , all I would say is please enjoy your caravanning whatever you do and wherever you go . You ask CC or CCC ( or both ) . Myself I say neither and save you monies on club memberships . I find you can get all the necessary insurance , breakdown cover , booking , information and help from many other sources without being in a club system , Practical Caravan magazine being a perfect answer . Never having taken Rosie abroad to Europe I have never needed to join a club , if I did then I probably would . I have toured the United Kingdom extensively and thoroughly enjoyed over 40 years of caravanning and can still find sites with more than enough facilities for ourselves , family and grandchildren at a good price . If we need peace , quite and solitude there are also plenty of inexpensive first rate sites out there , The best thing to do Badgermoff is sit and think what you actually need and want rather than join a membership just because its trendy , mates do , or you think you must . Decide if it benefits your lifestyle and if so go for it and heed what the above messages say . Steve .

 

[rosies]

That's exactly what I've said if you care to read it carefully ! I suppose paying Green Flag £ 42 a year for breakdown cover for car AND caravan anywhere in Europe is too expensive , perhaps the clubs give a cheaper better service ?? . Saga gives me absolute first rate caravan insurance cover for £ 83 a year and I'm more the satisfied . Sometimes it can be said that people look at things through rose tinted specs !
I have a number of years caravanning admittedly throughout the UK but I'm always open minded and open to suggestions . Steve .

 

[Raywood]

The CC breakdown cover is by Green Flag but gives far more cover and in particular the extra cover needed if the caravan is at fault or the caravan is on site when you have a problem that needs recovery home. Difficult to comment on the SAGA cover you have without knowing what you have taken but have to assume it is a low value caravan or very basic cover.

That's exactly what I've said if you care to read it carefully ! I suppose paying Green Flag £ 42 a year for breakdown cover for car AND caravan anywhere in Europe is too expensive , perhaps the clubs give a cheaper better service ?? . Saga gives me absolute first rate caravan insurance cover for £ 83 a year and I'm more the satisfied . Sometimes it can be said that people look at things through rose tinted specs !
I have a number of years caravanning admittedly throughout the UK but I'm always open minded and open to suggestions . Steve .

 

[mealsonwheels]

At one time we belonged to both the CC and CCC, which gave us more choice when touring the Highlands of Scotland.
With very long-distance towing now over, we only belong to the CC. We use their CL's most of the time and occasionally their sites. The CC Insurance is very good too and the monthly magazine is worth the subscription alone.

 

[colin-yorkshire]

That's exactly what I've said if you care to read it carefully ! I suppose paying Green Flag £ 42 a year for breakdown cover for car AND caravan anywhere in Europe is too expensive , perhaps the clubs give a cheaper better service ?? . Saga gives me absolute first rate caravan insurance cover for £ 83 a year and I'm more the satisfied . Sometimes it can be said that people look at things through rose tinted specs !
I have a number of years caravanning admittedly throughout the UK but I'm always open minded and open to suggestions . Steve .

hi Steve,
I am absolutely sure the cover you get is not as good as the clubs alternatives it my be cheaper to a lesser extent but it is only as good as the claims record,
I too had SAGA van insurance and was pleased with it until renewal on going over the small print I found some disturbing exceptions plus the excess had gone up to £500 goodbye Saga, so changed to the coop this was better but more expensive.
I also had 40 years worth of gold membership of the AA covered everything or so I thought, until the renewal dropped through the door. £219 for one year, wow.
I was going to pay it, until I read on this very forum about the CC mayday cover, so before renewing I asked some rather searching questions, "would they recover the car and van after a breakdown" yes. what if the problem was with the van but the car was ok, answer "no not covered for this" next question "if after a breakdown you take me to the nearest garage would you take me home" NO but we could arrange a hire car for you, would you pay for this, NO you have to pay on collection. goodbye AA.
to cut a long story short. I joined the CC and took out their mayday double journey cover, and insurance for less than one year with the AA, and this included the membership of the CC.
glad I did as the following year the car was almost written off while parked in Bude we got recovered to home and next day they picked up the car took it to the garage and brought me back home. a first class service that did not cost us a penny.

you may think that saving a few quid is good and it is, but just in case you get a blowout on the van which slams into the barrier damaging the van but not the car and you are left on the motorway with no cover or means of getting home it is just not worth it.
for me £39 for the membership of the CC and access to club discounts and services is worth every penny.
going it alone is a no brainer in my experience.

 

[rosies]

Thank you Colin, put in English and phrased the way I like it . Excellent suggestions and I will certainly look further into the CC membership if these are the availabilities possible , never needed this type of help in the past but then again I was younger then and unswerving in general . Good tips and recommendations , I live and learn , Cheers , Steve .

 

[colin-yorkshire]

your welcome.

 

[Southy1]

Hi
I agree totally with Dustydog, for the amount spent, £37 or so if I remember correctly, is well worth the money to belong to both. I prefer the CCC magazine as it seems a bit more....me, but the CC mag is also a good read. You also get more sites to choose from so if like me, you often decide to take a Friday off and shoot away for a weekend, you have a much greater chance of ending up in the area you want.

 

[FrintonMike]

We belong to both clubs and use both clubs sites on a regular basis as well as a CCC CS near to our son and daughter in law. Not yet used a CC CL
As we show dogs we tend to alternate sites when we are at a regular show such as when we are at Crufts, One year we use the CC site at Chapple lane and the next year the CCC sit at Kingsbury Water Park.
I have to agree about breakdown cover and have Mayday cover from the CC but I think the RAC cover from the CCC is similar, both giving extra cover than the norm, such as recoveyr of the caravan if the car is not affected.

 

[RogerL]

The apparent logic of more sites to choose from doesn't always stack up - in National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Scottish National Scenic Areas, they're both as sparsely available as each other.

 

[FrintonMike]

RogerL, agree that it does not always stack up but we have found in the past, when showing the dogs, that the nearest site to the showground is full but the other club has a site nearby that is not full. Having membership of both clubs is then useful
Some sites are close together such as at Malvern where both sites use the same entrance. To the right is the CCC and straight ahead is the CC site. This can be confusing as we have seen outfits pull into the wrong site and have to come out again.