Observations of Overseas Site Reviews

I think it's a shame, as you say, that the Club don't do more to widen knowledge about European travel.  The group we hosted had very little background knowledge about what to expect.  I think the Overseas Travel Section could still do a great deal to prepare newcomers to caravanning in Europe about the kind of things they might expect to find, instead of making their Overseas sites sound as if they are just Club sites in a hotter country.

I remember in the early days of Club Together there was definitely a 'Them and Us mentality'.  Two different viewpoints about travelling 'Over There', the quality (or otherwise) of overseas sites, and quite angry words could be exchanged.  Even now there are a number of posts in this part of the forum where Moderators have their work cut out to keep a post 'on track'.  The Club could have done a lot to allay some of those misconceptions by members by being much more open about what one might expect to find on European countries - which as we know can vary from country to country, as well as site to site.


I'm interested to know which of the Les Castels sites has poor reviews.  I remember the long-ago days of  two particular members of that group of site owners 'clubbing together' to get the Camping Cheques scheme off the ground.  They put in some really hard 'lobbying' to persuade other Les Castels site owners to join and offer large discounts on dates when they wouldn't expect the sites to be full.  I also remember what a success Camping Cheques was in the early days with really discounted rates in low season on Les Castels sites.  Then commercial interests took over, less high quality sites joined, the business was taken over by a faceless group of financiers and the scheme declined.  Do I see a any parallell with what's happening with the CAMC - now seeming not so much a 'Club' for members, with their interests and needs at heart, but a commercial interest, with finance at the heart?  

Val

It was Le Château de Leychoisier which has received several very negative reviews. In answer to one of the reviews the Club tried to justify its inclusion as a bookable site. There was a more positive review but even that acknowledged there were shortcomings but as they had been using it for several years they were willing to overlook the short comings. We have stayed on some wonderful Castel sites but we have also stayed on a couple that weren't that good. What has changed over the years is the expectations of the quality of facilities you now get at home and clearly people expect that to be the same overseas especially when Castel sites are promoted as being amongst the best available rather than sites set in the grounds of historic Château. 

David

Some overseas site reviews reveal more about the person who wrote them than about the site itself.

Leychoisier has a clutch of reviews on UKCampsite and there are scarcely any critical comments about it there

Friends staying with us were 'warned off' Leychoisier by a Dutchman on the next pitch at another campsite, and stayed further north at a municipal site in Nantiat, which they loved and stayed for two nights..  This has now become a 'Camping Mon Village' and open all year if you are a self-contained motorhome,  The Sanitaires are open 01/04/2024 until 31/10/2024. 

Most of the reviews of Leychoisier on the Dutch Camping Club (ACSI) website reflect those written by members here.

If Club members are going to include  “No English spoken” as one of their criticisms of an overseas campsite then perhaps the Club should vet them before they let them book.

I can imagine a lot of French people might take exception to having an iPhone thrust in their face with a language App on it

When we first started going to France I spent a couple of years going to night school to get a basic understanding. I would not claim to be able to speak French but feel competent enough to handle day to day requirements. Perhaps so many people are used to package holidays where everyone speaks English they think everyone should do the same?

David 

I think it depends on the country and what little effort you make. When we were in Denmark some years ago, we learnt please and thank you, but were frequently told “no, let us practice our English”. Surely people don’t thrust phone in peoples faces. Google translate is becoming a widely used facility but it is only polite to try and ask to use it first. As for learning another language, I did French at school, failed my exams twice (despite passing everything else). Have tried various other ways of learning from cassette tapes to evening classes to online systems. I can manage a bit of translation from written material but spoken French totally defeats me. I can’t copy speech, and I just don’t hear the words. I also can’t identify birds by their song and I can’t sing.

I actually think it's quite insulting to the host country not to learn at least a few basics - please, thank you, hello etc. To expect everyone to speak English - although most do - is arrogant in the extreme. It just reflects that view of the UK being somehow exceptional rather than a middle ranking smallish country.

We have found that having a good tourist knowledge plus a little more of a local language has helped us innumerably over the years, often getting us into a packed restaurant or the "cheaper" entry tickets.

It's only polite after all.