New Booking System

I'd heard a few negative things about the new booking system over the last few months. Sadly I've been awaiting and recovering from surgery in the last few months since the end of summer so we haven't been out in our van much. Now on the mend I'm looking for new year trips and am saddened to learn that all the comments were true. The new system is terrible. The volume of bitty information on the screen on the booking pages is just awful. The booking system required far too much information and fell over several times requiring me to re enter all the information. This Club's webpage was previously the gold standard for booking where all others failed. I'm shocked at how bad things have become. 

On long trips we certainly leave home (or even the previous stop) without necessarily knowing where we are (ultimately) going...it's called touring and exploring...

we don't have carers either, thanks🤷🏻‍♂️

Similarly  for us, but not in the UK, here everything is booked.

..and this is where it all becomes too much like hard work...for us, anyway.

I can't say in advance that I'll want to be at xxx for 4 days then at yyy for 5 days etc...4 days at xxx might not be long enough and 5 days at yyy might be 4 days too long...🤷🏻‍♂️

as changing bookings with CAMC will now cost money if within 21 days (which it will be) it's just another reason not to get involved in trying it...

we tend to use CLs and also THS sites where you can arrive at any time and stay as long as you like without booking. Easy to join these together over a summer as plans can change without issues with deposits and other payments.

We tend to book our first few sites and then once we are away see where we will head, depending on the weather forecast, especially in the winter. We have booked our last two sites this trip that way so far and won't book our follow-on sites until we get to the next one. They will probably be CLs but perhaps a small comm site too, and it is of course much easier to do at this time of the year than later when the hoards finally set out. 

Have you tried the Britstops network YT? Obviously more for overnight stops rather than long stays, but we have been enjoying it on the ones we have used on the network. Bit of research required to get things right, but for long journeys, where it’s good to get in a simple stopover to rest, we have found it great. Not all pubs by any means either🙂

Thanks, I am familiar with Britstops and was researching one only last week..

If touring, we would probably want more than one night (depending on area) but as a resource for joining the dots it might be useful.

need to be a member though?...

Our normal way of touring when away for more than 10days. There is nothing worse than realising you have booked to long in an unknown area and have run out of things to see/do.

It's interesting to read the different approaches folk take to touring. We are pretty much the opposite to you, Mikey, in that, when we were touring in the van, and now, when we book cottages or hotels, we know exactly what we want to do in the area and will time our stay accordingly. If we are staying for a week we will have plans for 7 days of walks or visits, may just have to juggle them around depending on the weather. Probably goes back to the days when we were both constricted to school holiday dates and had to make the most of what was available. Even when we go abroad now, it won't be for a simple "package" break, we will have researched and know where we want to go. We recently booked a week in Madeira at the end of February - will hire a car for 3 or 4 days and then use public transport to get around the island. For us, that planning is part of the enjoyment of the holiday.

The only times we don't any longer do that is for our frequent trips to Cornwall which, as the saying goes, is just "living in another place". 

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