Observations of Overseas Site Reviews

I think you could be right David.

Over the last 18mths we met quite a few 'Newbies' over there and they say the same thing, "this is not like the sites at home" 

They are not used to the hedges around the pitches, they like that. What they don't like is that every inch of the pitch can and often is full of pieces of camping paraphernalia.

They are not comfortable with no spacing between pitches. They are not comfortable with mixed facilities blocks or the fact that French sites often have no toilet seat or paper.

Often if they have booked through the club they expect to get the best pitch on the site, (they don't get that) what they get is often a cramped pitch under trees and in a not so nice part of the site. 

Once they have chatted to the well travelled amongst us and been give a few tips they abandon the club bookings and do their own thing. They find that if they want that extra space they can have it, if they want the best pitch they can have that too at a small cost.

What they do like is the ability to turn up at anytime and be allowed into the site. They like having a restaurant and take away on site, a shop and lets not forget the swimming pool. Add to that, they can stay for as long or short as they want and they pay as they leave. They like the prices.

So far I've not met anyone who says they want to go home back to the UK prices and rules.

Returning to motorhoming after a couple of years break and a new vehicle we stayed at the Club site at Morton-in-Marsh as a “shake-down” prior to setting off for France. Friendly welcome, nice serviced pitch with a bit of a hedge (but other pitches were all ligned up and regimented), superb sanitary bloc BUT £45 per night out of season!! Compared with many sites in France - hedged, large pitch with tap and drain but average sanitation but acceptable, maximum ACSI rate 25 euros per night. The problem is that the Clubs sites set an impossible and somewhat artificial standard.

I don't take too much notice of what reviews say of sites after all much of it can be subjective and a site is just somewhere to park up while visiting local attractions. I am much more interested in the objective reviews, nearest pub/eatery, whats within walking/biking distance, how far to so and so etc. Usually I couple all that with views from Google Maps.

peedee

I have  just returned from 8 weeks into mainland Europe, and reviews are not high on my list of things to read, but of high interest is places where we can cycle. I only stopped at one site I could liken to the CAMC at home where it was slightly 'clinical' and that was in Maribor, Slovenia. All the other 13 sites in 6 countries were a good mixture from enclosed hedging/open ground/shaded and park how and where you like.

Also if people are going to state ACSI rates, then mention the additional tourist tax that is anything upwards of €2 per night, and some charge an additional recycling rate.

We also never prebooked a site as we decided on the direction the day before leaving each site.

I think you're mostly right in your assumptions David. The ones that are repeat bookers tend to want everything done for them or they're frightened of going "off piste".

We've never used the club booking system for overseas sites. We did, one year, receive the vouchers provided in a ferry deal but we actually never got around to using those either.

With regard to reviews we only ever take notice if a site has repeat condemnation of something like the toilet or sanitary block.

We've tended to go our own way and done research online before arriving at sites that we definitely want to use but most times wing it. We have left sites after arriving and before pitching up but there aren't that many that we wouldn't visit again if we had our time over.

I think Tammy has described the first timer rather well. A lot of them go with their mind shut to the fact it's NOT the CAMC.

I suppose the overseas reviews on this website are for just sites where this club makes reservations. Is that right?

 As we only went to one of those sites in 40+ years touring overseas I never paid any attention to them, but  I read and wrote lots of reviews on other websites about simpler campsites that we visited. Having looked back just now at the ones I wrote  it seems that no one else admits to going to some of those sites in all that time. 

ET

Yes, what we used to call the ABS service. 

When we first went abroad it was long before the internet so apart from the Club's European Guides there was little information out there at hand. Perhaps En Route and a few of the caravanning magazines but not much. So it was understandable back then that members would see the Overseas Touring booking system as an extension of Club sites. Probably also worth pointing out that back them the majority of UK Club sites were more "rustic" than they are now so the difference perhaps wasn't so great?

Move forward nearly 40 years everything is so much different. Information everywhere. The opportunity to discuss the options everywhere but clearly there are those that prefer the comfort of booking via the Club. One does wonder how much research they have done outside the club to decide where to go. If you are going to judge sites abroad on the basis of a fully serviced hardstanding UK Club site it will be very surprised at the difference. It is also clear, I think TG mentioned this, that just because you book via the Club, doesn't mean you will get the best pitches on site. Been there and done that! Perhaps the problem is that if you have never been abroad its probably difficult to imagine what a site in a different country is like until you get there, especially one not so controlled by "rules". Last comment doesn't apply to Germany

David

Actually David, just thinking back to our last sortie into Germany, and of the 8 sites we stayed at 7 of them told us to park wherever we wanted in a specific area and the other one was just a 1 night stopover in a designated area. Can't remember many other rules beyond the common sense ones. Maybe your comment was tongue in cheek.

I did find the Dutch, who have a laissez-faire reputation, to be more controlling but they are restricted by space most of the time.

DK, you ask about overseas site reviews.  

As you and I know there are two sorts of overseas visitors - some want a destination site where they can stay for a fortnight then turn round and come home. They agonise about the particular choice of campsite - it really matters to them-  if they are going to Italy they research all the possible sites there before they book. The Club helps them by offering a selection and making a reservation and in return they write the sort of review you are seeing. Probably critical.

The second group says when we are in Italy let’s go and have a look at the Gran Paradiso national park and then go and see if we can find the Stupinigi Palace, and then let the kids go climb up the leaning tower of Pisa. Now the site at Pisa is  crowded, cramped, hot and dusty - and that doesn’t matter to them one bit. It’s close to the tower, it’s just somewhere to sleep, they are only staying a couple of nights and then going on somewhere else. The Club hasn’t booked that site for them  and they don’t bother to write a review on here. They come home saying they found Italy fascinating. 

I dont think the Club helps by implying that their overseas sites are Club Sites: "More… European campsites than any other UK touring club" from the website European sites page.