Sites without a toilet block

I think the OP might be pleasantly surprised by the Club's non facility sites if he has not used any of them before. Prices vary but they are pretty good value. They are quite different from CL's because you always have site staff available most of the day and usually company as well. A few of them also have easy access to towns and villages either on foot or by public transport. 

David 

We have owned a caravan for over 45 years, while we were working cost wasn't a factor. 

Now we are retired one has to take these things into account. We are comfortable financially but that doesn't mean that we just pay up whatever the price.

It's a fact club prices are now expensive and for some it will mean they will have to make decisions about what they consider too much. For some they will sell up, for others they will cut back on number of nights away. Others will look elsewhere.

We quite like non facility sites and CLs, so much so that I wish all sites were non facility. 

We first started out in a van with no electric or 12v just a gas light. Cold water foot pump to the kitchen sink. We are not alone in that many on here can relate back to those days. 

When sites started putting in facility blocks and heating them it was a pleasure to use them. However now that vans have all modern day facilities on board we no longer need them, we have paid vast sums of money for our vans to be equipped this way why not use it. 

Someone mentioned Covid, how did folk manage to tour when the blocks were closed, easy use your own. 

Long may the non facility sites stay open. 

If you were starting out now and in your current position of being retired then maybe, but if you were starting out now with the pay you were on back then scaled up for now would there be that much of a difference? Would it still put you off? You have to compare like with like.

I think that it is natural for people who have been members of the club for a long time to reflect back to when they started this hobby as TG has done above, but nothing in this world stays still. So put yourself in the position of the many thousands who have recently taken up touring, the majority of their units will have heating, toilets, showers, solar, TV's, WiFi  and other mod cons and they will see the facilities of club sites and todays Club prices as their baseline and not the prices of 5 or 10 years ago. I expect that those who remain members as long as some of you have  will be saying in 20 years time remember back when we started the average price for a pitch was £30.

I don't view club prices as an extravagance in any way. 

People keep saying they are yet there also posts about cruises, long trips aboard with or without an outfit ...  so I think it is not being expensive in the traditional sense of the word but rather people see better value in spending their money elsewhere on whatever type of site, holiday they like and that is how it should be?

Personally club site holidays are now the cheapest of my holidays per night by a long way. We're doing more holiday 'cottages' and all inclusive trips abroad trips, we've got several planned this year and the first one is now just six weeks away!

If we were just doing only caravan holiday for the same length of time we'd be saving quite a bit. 

For me (I am comfortably off) it is not about costs, its about why should I be paying for facilities I do not need. I can and do take other forms of holiday and if I am on a cruise or staying in a hotel, you do not take your facilities with you and rightly so you pay to use theirs. This is not so with modern vans which are fully self contained and you take your facilities with you. In many cases all that is required is a safe pitch, nothing else. 

As I have said elsewhere, with the recent increases it is becoming harder to justify paying for facilities I do not need.

peedee

Yes you keep posting this but are you being forced to justify to anyone or even forced to use club sites that offer you things you don't want? It does sound that way PD?

You have said there are better and cheaper sites out there so use them? What's to think about?

I've stopped using Sainburys and use Aldi now as it gives me better and if not as good value and quality. But I don't go on Sainbury's website (if they had one) to say so and how I can't justify using them anymore? 

(Apologies to Mousley for borrowing his original analogy)

The main problem for us is, as TG has said, that when one retires one often has to reign in spending a bit, or even a lot, look at what one has put by, and decide whether one can reasonably supplement regular spending from savings, or whether these need to be allocated to capital purchases/home upgrades/etc, or even whether savings need to be increased to cover future costs.

We have used a fair bit from savings lately on 2 bathroom refurbishments and a new boiler, and as everything in the house was/is now 34 years old, there will no doubt be a few other things that will need to be replaced in the next few years.

The huge increase in the cost of gas and electricity is something nobody, working or retired, will have planned for, or indeed the present rate of inflation.

And, of course, cars/caravans/MHs do not last forever and cost a lot to replace, and prices of all these have certainly risen a lot since I retired!   Our present van is 15 years old and the equivalent model, probably with a lot of unnecessary features, costs over twice what we paid back in 2008, so we  will not be replacing it, just keeping it going for as long as we can.

Our tow car is only 5 years old, so hopefully has many years of service left. When we bought it, which was not in our original financial plan, it made a bit of a hole in the savings, so we have been replacing the money from income, leaving less for other things, such as holidays.   £30+ every night for a site is certainly out of question now as far as we are concerned.

Like TG, for a few years now we have been using, and enjoying, CLs and a few no facility Club sites, and also some CCC sites when the age related discount is available.  That way we can use the caravan for long enough each year to justify the cost of insuring and servicing it.

Not complaining, just being realistic, and financially cautious.

We now have our daughter and family using our caravan for an additional few weeks in school holidays.   They consider it an "inexpensive holiday" as they are not paying for anything other than site fees and a contribution to the cost of us towing and siting the van for them.  

It would not be inexpensive if they had first had to buy the van, and a suitable tow car, and then get maybe only 6-8 weeks use per year.  

I expect that those who remain members as long as some of you have will be saying in 20 years time remember back when we started the average price for a pitch was £30.

Yes fully agree with that.It's been happening every year since I've been on CT with people posting how 'expensive' club are becoming for them.

When I first started with the club in 1999 petrol was about 55p a litre - ah the good old days!

When I first started with the club in 1999 petrol was about 55p a litre - ah the good old days

You may think so but I thought that price was scandalous!