Why does it have to be so difficult to book.....

Had to consult my list!.......earlyish in June.

Ah well we'll have been and gone well before then. Hopefully we'll get a H/S pitch at Diamond House next month.

We have used a few CLs previously, but this year we are using far more as we have to  be away partly in the school holidays and Club sites are in several cases just far to pricey for our budget.

Garlieston and Chirk are not too bad in June, and, for a couple of stopovers,  Thirsk (£14) costs no more than a CL  so they are booked.  For Easter we are using CCC sites as in Scotland Easter is not peak season so we also get the wrinkly discount.

Same in June and up to 20th July, so we have splashed out on Derwentwater, which is quite expensive, and Haltwhistle, which is not expensive.

Bookings all made now.

We have free calls at weekends so OH rang the one that wanted us to ring, they then needed 10 minutes to fire up the computer so took our number and rang back.  All booked quite quickly then, and, as per their original e mail  reply, no deposit requested.

There was still one who had not replied to e mail after  a few days, so OH also rang them and booked successfully, price confirmed and no deposit requested.

She did mention that she had e mailed, so that they would not be trying to book us twice, and the reply was along the lines of.....e mail....oh.....haven't looked at that recently!    

I must say, if it is always this frustrating trying to sort consecutive bookings for a trip, I admire your perseverence Nellie!

Kjell, I've plenty of time to sort things out, so it doesn't bother me too much if there's no response immediately. As it is I'm hoping to add an extra site into the list and see if I can delay the arrival at one site to fit it in. Hopefully I'll be able to do the change tomorrow, fingers crossed.

• OH is really getting into the CLs now!

She has rung today, immediate answer, and booked a CL near Chester, so Lady Margarets Park will be getting cancelled.  Another £19.50 saved.   

Will actually save quite a bit more than that as we will not be taking the van as far off the route to our next stop, and it is 5 miles each way less to drive to visit our friends.

However....much closer to retail opportunities,  so I can see the saving being used up quite quickly!

I'm going to delegate the booking to OH in future, she seems much better at it than me, plus her knowledge of the  geography of the UK is greater than mine, so working out which county or shire to search in for a CL comes easier to her.

We have an online booking system and I would be interested to hear your feedback on it.

We are 9 miles from Lady Margaret's Park at Chirk and charge £12 including EHU.  There is no charge for using our Wi-Fi.

Ian Kelly

01691 622951
Holiday@BirchHill.co.uk

Birch Hill, The Cross, Ellesmere, Shropshire, SY12 0LP
www.BirchHill.co.uk

Birch Hill Farm - an award-winning hideaway in the beautiful lake-lands of Shropshire - exclusively for members of the Caravan and Motorhome Club

Managed to book two more CLs and alter a date for a third. One took over two days to respond to an e-mail and we had to confirm our booking by phone while the other one took just one phone call. Neither asked for a deposit, as it happens. Only a couple more to book but we'll do that while we're away.

Kjell, we did get into Diamond House so will be able to give you our impression of it.

Hi Ian,

I looked at your CL last time we were going down to Chirk, looks really nice!

Unfortunately you are even further away from our friends who live west of Ruthin, so we had to rule you out for that reason.  However we make it there one day as there is plenty to see in your area.

Hope you have a good year.