Camping and caravanning club

[RichForrest]

A few questions
How many people on here are members of the C&CC?
If you camp on a bike or out the back of a car why don't you join the lightweight campers section?
What puts you off joining or coming out to meets?

There are currently 5 cycle campers on the ALC council, and of course Butterfly is chairman/chairperson/Madam Chairman? (delete as appropriate)

It would be good to get more people out to meets and if you like the cold there's going to be one in Devizes on Jan 15/16/17th

Rich

[Canardly]

Membership is a bit spendy?

[RichForrest]

It is yes, I didn't join up until Dawn started camping and the cost of a joint membership was worth it.
The price is soon got back when you use the sites a few times.

[Kim]

A few questions
How many people on here are members of the C&CC?

Barakta and I are.  Mainly because I wanted to use a couple of members-only sites last year.

If you camp on a bike or out the back of a car why don't you join the lightweight campers section?

I did.

What puts you off joining or coming out to meets?

Calendar clashes, mostly.

[Speshact]

I'd like to be tempted, and I admire Butterfly, but to be honest, I've never managed to determine the benefit I would have from becoming a C&CC member. I can't even work out from the website how much it will cost me to backpack camp at one of the C&CC sites, and I doubt I'll recoup my £37 (+£6 ALC) in a typical year.

A quick skim through the website shrieks 'caravan' 'car' 'motor home' to me.

Front page - highlighted benefits for spending £37 don't inspire me
Discounts on insurance, breakdown and recovery (but I travel by train and bike)
Free monthly magazine full of Club news, reviews and articles (I don't want a magazine, I have the internet)
Free technical and legal advice (that's what the internet, esp YACF, is for)
Oh, it turns out that I don't actually get a magazine with the £37 subscription

I'm not old enough to be an Age Concession Cardholder (and I think that excludes peak season, when I prefer to camp)

The ACSI card comes with a
A handy glove box size guide detailing all Campsites that accept the card for easy use. (I don't have a glove box)

Discounts - get the same from CTC / other, but since I have/buy most stuff second hand that's not very valuable anyway.

Help in buying a car (don't have or need one)
Courses in Manoeuvring and B+E (Breaking and Entering? - tempting, but I can work out how to get into a tent)

Social - Have you seen the photos that accompany the 'Elections' and 'Club AGM' parts of 'Your Club'?

NFOL"The annual national camping rally is being held at the Three Counties Showground Malvern, and is a fantastic way to celebrate the nation’s favourite pastime." I think the C&CC's concept of the nation's favourite pastime is different to mine.

okay, found the ALC page now - but hang on, that's another £6 a year. The rallies have coffee mornings. I'm not sure I want to hang out with lightweight tent obsessives - well, obviously I do but there needs to be more to it than just that and coffee mornings. Look at what's packed into a Long Itch weekend!

I like the look of the cycle touring page with routes around the country - hadn't noticed that before. Maybe a YACF cycle touring trip beckons?! http://campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/ukcampsites/tours-walks-trails/cycling-tour-britain/ but will it benefit participants to become C&CC members for one of these trips?

Am I missing something, and if so, why isn't it on the website where I can find it?

[Woofage]

The membership fee is worth it in shop discounts alone, IMO.

[RichForrest]

A quick skim through the website shrieks 'caravan' 'car' 'motor home' to me.
Yes, unfortunately it does, and I often just speed through the mag passing all the ad's for caravan stuff.

Front page - highlighted benefits for spending £37 don't inspire me
Discounts on insurance, breakdown and recovery (but I travel by train and bike)
Free monthly magazine full of Club news, reviews and articles (I don't want a magazine, I have the internet)
They are currently having a revamp of the website and as you found out you don't get a mag for the £37.

Free technical and legal advice (that's what the internet, esp YACF, is for)
Oh, it turns out that I don't actually get a magazine with the £37 subscription

I'm not old enough to be an Age Concession Cardholder (and I think that excludes peak season, when I prefer to camp)

The ACSI card comes with a
A handy glove box size guide detailing all Campsites that accept the card for easy use. (I don't have a glove box)
Ours is full of cd's but the big sites book is great when looking for sites in certain areas, sometimes these are not on the web.

Discounts - get the same from CTC / other, but since I have/buy most stuff second hand that's not very valuable anyway.

Help in buying a car (don't have or need one)
Courses in Manoeuvring and B+E (Breaking and Entering? - tempting, but I can work out how to get into a tent)
A lot of the C&CC have moved onto trailer tents or caravans and this does help, towing a trailer over a certain weight isn't part of your licence that you got automatically now days. Hence the B+E category training.

Social - Have you seen the photos that accompany the 'Elections' and 'Club AGM' parts of 'Your Club'?
Yes, and with the revamp of the site (mentioned above) is coming this will also mean a new page for the ALC.
The facebook page has not been updated in a while either, due to the admin having lost access, we are still trying to get FB to restore it. Social media and the web being updated are one of the important things needed, old outdated info doesn't convince people to join, as you have found. Some of us are trying to bring the club kicking and screaming into the 21st century, but it's taking a bit of work!


NFOL"The annual national camping rally is being held at the Three Counties Showground Malvern, and is a fantastic way to celebrate the nation’s favourite pastime." I think the C&CC's concept of the nation's favourite pastime is different to mine.
Camping has been known as "the nations favorite pastime" for years, now days it's probably sitting in front of a computer!
Also it falls on the same weekend as the Mildenhall rally, so some of us will never make it there.

okay, found the ALC page now - but hang on, that's another £6 a year. The rallies have coffee mornings. I'm not sure I want to hang out with lightweight tent obsessives - well, obviously I do but there needs to be more to it than just that and coffee mornings. Look at what's packed into a Long Itch weekend!
Yes, coffee mornings! It gives you something to do with the hot water from the stove lighting comp 
Currently most of the regulars that go out are retired, like walking and sitting in a field chatting. Each to their own.
Not all of the campers are lightweight. A lot arrive by car and have tents you can stand up in. A few of us cycle camp and some backpack  via local transport.
If there were more cyclists coming along I'm sure local rides and other stuff would be organised, we often ride out to a cafe on our own.

I like the look of the cycle touring page with routes around the country - hadn't noticed that before. Maybe a YACF cycle touring trip beckons?! http://campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/ukcampsites/tours-walks-trails/cycling-tour-britain/ but will it benefit participants to become C&CC members for one of these trips?

Am I missing something, and if so, why isn't it on the website where I can find it?

[cycleman]

I cannot afford both club and section membership .if you could just join the section .,.......

[nikki]

A few questions
How many people on here are members of the C&CC?
If you camp on a bike or out the back of a car why don't you join the lightweight campers section?
What puts you off joining or coming out to meets?

Not a member - I semi-frequently get frustrated by encountering campsites that say they are for C&CC members only, or have mahoosive fees for non-members. So I find a different campsite. It doesn't happen enough that potential money saved makes the membership cost seem worthwhile. I'm in a similar position to Speshact in that other membership benefits don't hold much value for me. Similarly to cycleman, if you could just join ALC I might go for it!

I don't know much about the meets, but assuming I was a member and there were a bunch of people I knew in a YACF weekend stylee then I'd probably go to a few. Like you say - once critical mass is achieved we make our own entertainment!

[Polar Bear]

Thanks for the recommendation Speshact.     I am available on a paid basis to organise your tours and events. 

In a previous life I was a member but couldn't see the benefit even then to joining 'sections' at extra cost.   Like Cycleman and Nikki,  I would be more interested if membership fees more reasonably represented the member's type of camping but as it is I see it as lightweighters subsidising the pensioner caravanning mafioso.   

There does seem to be a genuine gap in the market now for a dedicated club for lightweight walkers and cycle tourers.

[JBB]

Have looked at it but working out prices is at best bloody hard work 

[RichForrest]

There does seem to be a genuine gap in the market now for a dedicated club for lightweight walkers and cycle tourers.

There is, the fell club.
I could be wrong in this but I think they split from the ALC (whatever it was known as then) because they didn't want to allow personal motorised transport to meets.
I was a member until I had children and taking them along to meets would not have been allowed.

Have looked at it but working out prices is at best bloody hard work 

Yes, we couldn't work them out either!

[andrew_s]

Too spendy for me.
As a solo backpacker, joining would save me about £2 per night at club sites.
If there was a single person membership at ~£18, I'd consider joining for access to the certificated sites, but as it is, there's just what I view as family membership available.

[Oscar's dad]

We've been C&CC members on a couple of occasions but currently aren't members.

Despite their strap line being "The friendly club" we've found they aren't always. Some of the people working on sites can be quite officious and nasty.

The weekend before last we stayed on the C&CC site at Chertsey and making the booking as "backpackers" was more of a pain than if ought to have been.

My biggest gripe was staff at the site near Alton Towers refusing to enforce their no noise at night rule.

If there was a reason to join again we would grudgingly but at the moment we don't have to.  Which is a shame because the C&CC could be a wonderful thing.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I had no idea the ALC was part of the C&CC, despite knowing Butterfly is First Secretrary (or whatever)! I'm also not sure of the distinction between Camping & Caravan Club and the Caravan Club – and I now I see there's also a British Caravanners Club, another special interest section of the C&CC!. I have looked at the C&CC website in the past when looking for sites, but I've never been able to work out which ones allow non-members to stay and which don't, or how rigorously that rule is enforced (seems according to the site eg White Mark is theoretically members-only, but doesn't seem to apply when YACF go there!).

Apart from that, everything Speshact said.

[JenM]

I am a long standing member of the C&CC and also am currently a member of the ALC.

I agree that backpackers are unfairly treated re booking. It is impossible to book a backpacker online and the rates are not currently printed in the handbook. This should really be addressed.

Why don't I camp with the ALC? Good question. Until this year many of the meets were in the West Country / Dartmoor and I am not going to travel that far for a weekend. Admittedly, this year there have been a number in East Anglia and I am not sure why I haven't attended.

Having recently bought a camper van that I use as my car, I'm not sure that I am going to drive to a meet and then sleep in a small tent. I do still cycle and camp so should really plan some trips around attending one of the meets.

Why not advertise the meets more on YACF allowing 1-2 attendances without being a member of the C&CC? This may generate more interest and numbers.

One of my main reasons for being a member is that it is often cheaper to camp at C&CC sites than at commercial sites. Last week at Barnard Castle I was charged £10.10 / night for a camper van + electricity. The campsite at Dufton planned to charge me £20 / night......a one person discount was agreed, but this was still £17.

[Kim]

Why not advertise the meets more on YACF allowing 1-2 attendances without being a member of the C&CC? This may generate more interest and numbers.

And, crucially, would probably reduce the number of conflicting YACF events being organised.

[jamesld8]

We've been C&CC members on a couple of occasions but currently aren't members.

Despite their strap line being "The friendly club" we've found they aren't always. Some of the people working on sites can be quite officious and nasty.

us too, although for VW camper; found sites to be highly officious, you must go there attitude, expensive too

[Kim]

I always assumed "The friendly club" was a dig at the Caravan Club, so maybe it's relative?

I get the impression that the core demographic is Old People In Caravans, with a strong contingent of lightweights only in areas where hiking is popular.  It's common to be treated with suspicion (presumably of being rowdy revellers) at campsites if you don't meet these criteria, especially if you are unfortunate enough to be under 30 and in a same-sex group.  The tolerance for Families In Frame Tents seems to vary greatly from site to site, loosely related to how dominated by Old People In Caravans it is.

[Wowbagger]

Mrs. Wow and I became members in June last year when we camped at the Oxford site. From memory, the non-members' camping charges for a frame tent and a car for the weekend were £51 for two of us but when we enquired about membership we paid hardly anything more: membership allowed us to take advantage of the massive discounts available to over 55s which would not have been available to non-members (or something). I have visited a few of their sites since.

[RichForrest]

I am a long standing member of the C&CC and also am currently a member of the ALC.

I agree that backpackers are unfairly treated re booking. It is impossible to book a backpacker online and the rates are not currently printed in the handbook. This should really be addressed.
This has changed this year after I mentioned it in a meeting, I have just tried booking a 3mx2m tent online at Cambridge and it allows me to do it for £7, I have also added in the comments box before when booking that we will be arriving on cycles.
They will always find space for backpackers and cyclists even when they are full

Why don't I camp with the ALC? Good question. Until this year many of the meets were in the West Country / Dartmoor and I am not going to travel that far for a weekend. Admittedly, this year there have been a number in East Anglia and I am not sure why I haven't attended.
Next years are planned for Devizes Cambridge, West Mids area, shropshire, Ramsgate, to name a few

Having recently bought a camper van that I use as my car, I'm not sure that I am going to drive to a meet and then sleep in a small tent. I do still cycle and camp so should really plan some trips around attending one of the meets.

Why not advertise the meets more on YACF allowing 1-2 attendances without being a member of the C&CC? This may generate more interest and numbers.
I do plan to add them on here, not sure of the non member attendance without asking. Could be an insurance clause in there somewhere?

One of my main reasons for being a member is that it is often cheaper to camp at C&CC sites than at commercial sites. Last week at Barnard Castle I was charged £10.10 / night for a camper van + electricity. The campsite at Dufton planned to charge me £20 / night......a one person discount was agreed, but this was still £17.

[Butterfly]

Insurance is the reason for no non members. I agree that it would be good to have a system where you could camp a couple of times before joining, although there is nothing to stop you camping at the same site to see if you like us, without being part of the rally. You can camp with the ALC if you are  a member of the club but not the ALC though.

Any type of units are allowed at meets so it is acceptable to bring a camper van if you like, although you need to check with the steward that it isn't a tent only site or no motor vehicles on site which happens occasionally.

Under new rules coming in next year, rallies on club sites will be cheaper still.

I do agree that it is expensive for solo members and I think they need to address that.

[Speshact]

A few questions
How many people on here are members of the C&CC?
If you camp on a bike or out the back of a car why don't you join the lightweight campers section?
What puts you off joining or coming out to meets?

For a moment Mrs Speshact expressed interest in joining the lightweight campers section, but it turns out that she thought it was for the kind of lightweight that prefers a comfortable bed in a hotel to a mat in a tent.

[Oscar's dad]

 

[Polar Bear]

Insurance is the reason for no non members.   ...

I thought that non-members could use C&CC sites but with a surcharge.   Presumably the surcharge is for insurance?   We have camped at a C&CC site once and it did cost us a couple of quid extra.   How do independent sites run wrt insurance?   Surely all sites including C&CC have to have some sort of insurance?