Good CL’s EHU’s & charges

Location, location, location 

We have used very few CL's over our touring career, especially since we had the motorhome. For us it was all about location and that is generally the rub as far as CL's are concerned because many, probably the majority are not really near things. Now I appreciate that is why a lot of people like them. As far as fees are concerned if you have a CL with hardstandings and serviced pitches I don't think you can expect to pay less than £25 a night. You might pay a little less if the electric was metered. 

David

Yes, Oneputt has nailed our first criteria for searching out a CL. We have always loved the sheer variety of little 5 van sites out there, and because we don’t mind being happily and easily self sufficient, we can make use of the whole wide spread of provision. Probably happiest on quiet, off the beaten track type places, where there’s fantastic scenery, the wildlife comes to you, and there might be good local walking and safe cycling direct from the pitch. 
We have stayed on lots of farm based CL’s, and like the interest of what’s going on around us, we love coastal CL’s, those near NT, EH, Cadw, HS, HHA properties. We have even stayed on one owned by the late Queen, nothing but a field, a tap, a CPD and a bin, but a location to swoon over on the banks of a canal weaving its way through Wiltshire.

We don’t mind CL’s that have good facilities, but given the choice would prefer a lower nightly price, say £15 to £20, and then pay as you need facilities such as EHU, showers. That gives all potential visitors a choice. With a MH, a choice of grass or HS pitching is good, particularly as we tour all year round. Doesn’t have to be precisely laid out, but plenty of room (and I mean plenty, way beyond guidelines) is much preferred.

I’d add that the last few years, post COVID, we have found more of the CCC Small CS sites have suited our needs. Because they take tents as well, most give more option in terms of having hook up or not, but it’s easy to pay £15 per night with no hook up but very good facilities, so the choice is there.

Surely acceptable is totally dependent on what one is willing to pay on the facilities offered and will vary enormously from person to person? 

It is a personal choice and yes will vary enormously, that’s why the CL network is so good, because of this variety.👍🙂 We don’t always look for a low price, it’s what gives us the best value for money over a whole tour. So our D&G tour a couple of years ago, we varied between £5 for a rather lovely Aire, to £25 for a nice Loch side CL safe to leave our pooch in MH while we went cycling. That was a landscaped garden, HS individual pitches, with a clean loo, at £25 per night. By mixing and matching as required, we had 10 nights at about £12 per night. 

CLs and CSs are our preferred sites. What do we seek? Well, it depends! Recent visit to York we paid £25 for hard standing, ehu, and frequent buses to the city. That is unusual for us, but it was location. We would not pay more than £25 a night. Depending on weather spring and autumn we look for hard standing, but don’t care what sort eg grass over gravel or tarmac. Otherwise happy enough on grass. Definitely not looking for loos and showers. Much prefer no hook up or metered. We too are often finding that easier to obtain on a CCC CS site where we rarely pay more than £15. 
Location is important, needs to be handy for what we want to do, although we usually take our 6.4 m PvC off site for the day. Accessibility can occasionally be an issue. For example, this year in Scotland, on one part of our trip there were several attractions in close proximity and we wanted to stay for three nights in order to visit them (normally one or two nights and visit between sites). There were some nice CLs in the vicinity, but access was a bit tricky and going back and forth over a few days wasn’t what we wanted. We ended up on a Club site! But a no electric pitch.

I think the size of the outfit you choose, and how you want to tour, is definitely a consideration around how much you might enjoy using CLs. Caravans with tow cars (particularly 4x4s) can use CLs with ease, and go out and about easily. We do exactly the same with our small MH, but I can see how it might be more of an issue with a larger MH.

There are certainly some CL sites "pushing the envelop" as far as prices are concerned with £30 a night and even £35 being out there. Some of them are also very popular, and one gets rave reviews,  but perhaps their customers think of them more as Boutique Campsites rather than CL's in the traditional sense? To create these types of CL's does require a pretty large investment. With the restriction on only five units it can take several years to recover the investment.

David

I was never a CL fan. We tried a few but they were places where the owner had a bit of spare land and was making a bit of pocket money without trying very hard or putting in much time, effort or investment. Perhaps we chose badly. 

Clearly there have been improvements, and those owners deserve success, but we gave up and went overseas and found low key campsites without the restrictions which CLs impose.

 We do still wonder why UK has CLs for members only, and a strict five van limit, while other countries have campsites which are democratically open to everyone and where numbers depend on space available. CLs seem an outdated concept to me. 

We have used quite a few CLs in the last 10 years, and more so since Club site prices increased so much.

Location is not too important, we like to visit an area for a few days before moving on, rather than just a specific town or attraction.

We look for a hardstanding, preferably serviced, and EHU.  Not too bothered if EHU is metered as long as price takes that into account.

We do not need any other facilities, we prefer to use our own.  

 At present our top price would be £22-£25, depending on the area, if serviced hardstanding with EHU included,  but preferably not over £22.  We only go away April-October, so would expect a reduction of £2-£4 for metered EHU at that time of year.

Prices do seem very variable, and some areas are more expensive than others, but this year we have paid only £18-£20 for a serviced hardstanding with EHU included.  One site even had a toilet and shower available, though we did not make use of them.

We have seen these very expensive  CLs mentioned by David, but as we do not need fancy facilities we would never consider paying those prices.