Camping Club?

We go back to the days when caravans didn't have showers and electric, and it was normal to spend a lot of time outdoors, watching the sun set and making friends with whoever was pitched next door. It always seemed a lot friendlier, much more of an adventure keeping the milk cool and the butter solid in those days! I can remember the excitement of getting a caravan that had full electrics and a good shower though, we thought we had died and gone to heaven!

We go back to the days when caravans didn't have showers and electric, and it was normal to spend a lot of time outdoors, watching the sun set and making friends with whoever was pitched next door. It always seemed a lot friendlier, much more of an adventure keeping the milk cool and the butter solid in those days! I can remember the excitement of getting a caravan that had full electrics and a good shower though, we thought we had died and gone to heaven!

When I were a lad (late 50's early 60's) we and no doubt many other families took our 2 weeks annual hol in a caravan or tent as that was all we could afford. Necessity rather than choice. We didn't have a car. It was the same for most of the others on the holiday site.That was it for the year. I remember with great affection the hiss and warm smell of the gas mantle lighting (and the incessant Dorset rain on the roof).

Nowadays it seems that more people can afford to have a caravan holiday in their own outfit out of choice as well as a couple of weeks in Kos or Malta or Florida, or a river or Med cruise, plus long weekends throughout the year. Pensioners are relatively wealthy and more healthy so have a longer retirement for leisure instead of retiring at 65 and snuffing it at 68. And, 'we' may be the first generation to have inherited property or capital from our parents which adds to our own capital and disposable income.

Just sayin'....

Hi all

I've been really interested in all the posts in this discussion: some great points raised, interesting opinions and nice mental pictures/ memories!

As Markfhwest stated in his post, it has been the intention of The Club to diversify somewhat to make our beautiful sites accessible to all walks of life, with all manner of outfits: from classic caravans to modern day 9 metre motorhomes to trailer tents, folders or the humble stand-alone tent. By doing this we are trying to secure the future of The Caravan Club and show those who haven't purchased their own outfit yet what benefits there are to this glorious hobby.

With a young family of my own, yet to invest in a caravan, we just spent a lovely long weekend at Rookesbury Park surrounded by, I'd say, an equal mix of caravans and motorhomes as well as an entire field dedicated to tent camping. The site was full but the facilities were immaculate at all times. I can only encourage those who do not find facilities in this state to report that to the wardens as we always do try to keep our standards consistent.

Happy touring/ adventuring all - whatever that means to you as an individual!

Helen

Nice one Helen, but you are young , and the traditionalists are old. 

Hi all

I've been really interested in all the posts in this discussion: some great points raised, interesting opinions and nice mental pictures/ memories!

As Markfhwest stated in his post, it has been the intention of The Club to diversify somewhat to make our beautiful sites accessible to all walks of life, with all manner of outfits: from classic caravans to modern day 9 metre motorhomes to trailer tents, folders or the humble stand-alone tent. By doing this we are trying to secure the future of The Caravan Club and show those who haven't purchased their own outfit yet what benefits there are to this glorious hobby.

With a young family of my own, yet to invest in a caravan, we just spent a lovely long weekend at Rookesbury Park surrounded by, I'd say, an equal mix of caravans and motorhomes as well as an entire field dedicated to tent camping. The site was full but the facilities were immaculate at all times. I can only encourage those who do not find facilities in this state to report that to the wardens as we always do try to keep our standards consistent.

Happy touring/ adventuring all - whatever that means to you as an individual!

Helen

Write your comments here...What a nice attitude to holidaying Helen.   I agree that camping organisations should be open to all forms of accommodation for spending holidays on Campsites. 

The C&CC already embraces the scenario you described in your post. The CC being on average a much older age group, will probably find a certain resistance from the ( We don't want tents near us brigade ) in their membership to allowing general camping on their sites. But as time goes on this attitude will die out and the CC will then be all inclusive. 

K 

We began our membership of the club over 30 years ago when we camped in a trailer tent. The reason we chose the CC was the standard of the ablution blocks as we didn't have either shower facilities or a hot water heater in our tt. We rally mostly but joined 'the other' club about 29 years ago because we had friends who were members and we often camped together. We have caravanner for 20 years or so now but don't use either clubs main sites very often, preferring to rally with yet a third marque club. However, when we have camped with the clubs on main sites, we do find the mixture of tents, trailer tents and caravans leads to a generally wider age group. We quite enjoy the mixture but do understand the pressure on facilities that canvas canvas campers will bring. ... But it's those very facilities that we joined to enjoy. One thing I might mention is that where non- members are allowed, the block cleanliness does seem to deteriorate much quicker following planned cleaning by the site team.

We began our membership of the club over 30 years ago when we camped in a trailer tent. The reason we chose the CC was the standard of the ablution blocks as we didn't have either shower facilities or a hot water heater in our tt. We rally mostly but joined 'the other' club about 29 years ago because we had friends who were members and we often camped together. We have caravanner for 20 years or so now but don't use either clubs main sites very often, preferring to rally with yet a third marque club. However, when we have camped with the clubs on main sites, we do find the mixture of tents, trailer tents and caravans leads to a generally wider age group. We quite enjoy the mixture but do understand the pressure on facilities that canvas canvas campers will bring. ... But it's those very facilities that we joined to enjoy. One thing I might mention is that where non- members are allowed, the block cleanliness does seem to deteriorate much quicker following planned cleaning by the site team.

That means nothing, Chestre. Do you know for a fact that non-members were on site at the time? If they were, do you know they caused the mess? Have you made an in depth study of the cleanliness of facility blocks on both member only and non-member accepting sites? Such a study would, of course, need to have been carried out at similar times in similar areas to be meaningful. I fear you are making assumptions.

We joined the CARAVAN Club more than 30 years ago. I recently noticed that it is now a 44% Motorhome Club. More puzzling is that without any say in the matter, we are now members of a Caravan & Camping Club. How did that happen?

Doesn't really affect us too much - we are retired and can go out and abouit when sites are quieter but I do feel sorry for those members who have to go out at weekends or during school holidays when pressure on shower/toilet facilities is already causing problems on some sites. By definition, most if not all campers will look to use the facilities.

Write your comments here...30 years + a member well done , but times have changed & perhaps we as members need to change a little ourselves.............

We started out in tents 30 years ago and just accepted that the CC was not for us. It was for caravans and motorhomes.

Why can't others accept it?

We just spent two weeks at Morvich. They have 10 tent pitches which were mainly occupied by small back pack tents, owned by long distance walkers. On several nights most pitches were filled, at £12 a night that is useful income for the club, besides providing a valuable service to long distance trekers. The back packers normally did not arrive before 5 / 6 and were generally off again very early, so little facilities conflict.