Last month we had our renewal notice for the Camping and Caravanning Club sent through and we have decided not to renew it this year.  I don’t want you to think this was a thoroughly thought through decision, listing pros and cons for both and then rating each pro and con to come up with a scientifically calculated reason for the cancellation.  It was more a case of it popped through the door, it was £30 something pounds and because we are in the 2 clubs one had to go and we’d already renewed the Caravan Club so it was a no brainer.

Both clubs have merits and frustrations in equal proportion.

The CC can be a little bit regimental ( I was going to say anal but didn’t want to offend ) and the C&CC label themselves the “Friendly Club” but lack some of the organisation of the CC.  What we need is a hybrid club that’s well organised and friendly and treats you as adults who know what they are doing.  Ask me to park my Motorhome in the centre of the pitch but don’t tell me to park it in the centre of the pitch and tell me that there is a pitch marker in the centre so park the centre of your Motorhome against that and then show me a diagram of the whole thing.  Wow!!

One of my personal hates of the CC is the way they always refer to Motorhomes as Motor Caravans – why is that?  Just because they are steeped in caravan history doesn’t give them the right to create a new category of Motorhome.

The one big advantage of the C&CC is that booking sites is so much easier and the CC is usually always fully booked for the better sites weeks in advance.  Incidentally my home grown theory on this is that if the CC charged a deposit, as the C&CC do, then their advanced bookings would drop considerably.  I wonder how many no shows they have on a Friday night just because there is a no deposit forfeit.

Some of the facilities on the C&CC sites are not as modern as they should be and both clubs have a problem with determining the correct number of loos, showers etc to cater for the amount of customers. Last weekend we were at the CC site at Bladen Chains and the toilet block had more washing cubicles than showers or loos.  Bad planning or what?

These are some of my thoughts and I’d be very interested to hear yours, so please send them through and we’ll see if we can make a constructive list of the good and the bad ( and of course the ugly ).