There is nothing more frustrating when you’re away for a weekend or longer in the Motorhome and you want to make use of your PC or Phone to check emails or browse the Internet and you realise that the site has limited access or they charge a small fortune.

We are a nation of internet users and most of us access it daily for one reason or another and some of us need to access it for a living.

Both the Caravan Club and the Camping and Caravanning Club have wifi at a great number of their sites and this is increasing year on year but they all seem to suffer from two things, the strength of the signal depends on where you are on the site and the cost of access is prohibitive. Both clubs used to charge £5 per hour which I thought was extortionate given that an hour on the Internet or checking emails is no time at all and knowing that I only pay £7.50 a month for my home Internet service I refused to use site wifi.

The good news is that things are now changing with both clubs improving their service and charging more realistic rates.

The Caravan Club are rolling out a new wifi service and they will be charging £5 for 5 hours and the card will be usable at all of their sites for 6 months which is better news for us Internet addicts. Click here to have a look at their services.

The Camping and Caravanning Club offer a tiered service of £5 per hour, £7 for 1 day and £25 for 1 week.  These are metered from when you first log on though and can’t be carried forward. Click here to have a look at their services.

In the end though I still think the Clubs are overcharging for what is now a commodity and I would like to see them reduce their prices dramatically to something like £5 per month.  It would be interesting to know how much profit the clubs make annually from this service at the moment and how much they will be expecting to make going forward.

It would also be interesting to compare these wifi charges with the ones charged on private sites but of course that will not be easy to do.

As always with these things it is down to us as individuals to decide what we want to pay and whether we thing it worthwhile.

Related posts:

1. Caravan Club vs Camping and Caravanning Club

With reference to my earlier post about the forthcoming Motorhome shows at the NEC and Lincoln I’ve now realised that you need to take into account the new 20% rate of VAT that comes into play in January 2011.

What will this mean to you;

Announced by the new government in the recent budget, it has been confirmed that VAT will rise from the current rate of 17.5% to 20% in January 2011. If you are thinking of purchasing a new Motorhome then make sure you do it before the increase happens.

• On an average priced new Motorhome at £30,000 - you will save £750

• On a mid priced new Motorhome at £45,000 – you will save £1,125

• On a high level Motorhome at £60,000 – you will save £1,500

This is a considerable amount of money that you can save. This would finance your trips for the next 12 months and would be far better than giving it straight to the taxman.

So if you are thinking of purchasing a new Motorhome in the next 6 months then you need to do it before the end of the year to be sure you do not lose out.  In any case I’m sure there will be some great deals at these shows, but remember, spend wisely and not hastily.

Here’s another sweetener ; To celebrate the launch of their new Spirit of Britain and Spirit of France ferries that will take to the waters in 2011, P&O Ferries are offering a free return crossing for a Motorhome, and up to 5 people from Dover to Calais to all those who purchase a new Motorhome at the NEC show this October!

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1. It’s Showtime

There is no doubt that taking cycles with you on the back of your Motorhome wherever you go is one of the best things you can do nowadays.  There are so many possibilities for riding your cycle in safety from so many campsites that the opportunities are too good to miss.

We deliberated for years about whether to buy cycles simply because we spent most of our weekends walking.  We always knew that having cycles would be a good compliment to the Motorhome but we were never convinced we would get enough use out of them and certainly didn’t fancy riding on the roads.  However, over the years there have been more and more cycle routes being opened up around the countryside and more campsites being linked in with these, so that this doubt has now gone away.

The Sustrans organisation is helping here along with many local councils and everyone has now realised that riding your cycle is not only good for you but it is also good for the environment.  I guess that a lot of you reading this post will be nodding and thinking that this has been true and known about for many years so please excuse my late acknowledgement and realisation; better late than never.

The awareness of Sustrans is growing exponentially.  Sustrans is the charity behind the National Cycle Network, over 12,000 miles of traffic-free, quiet lanes and on-road walking and cycling routes all around the UK.  They have a really good website that has loads of information about these cycling routes, ideas for cycling, things to buy etc.  You can input a postcode onto the site and it will give you all the cycling route information for that area so you can plan ahead before you make that Motorhome trip.  The other great thing is that they will send you a free info pack so you can discover great places to cycle near you. As well as recommending rides and routes in your area, your pack comes with helpful advice about choosing a bike, getting it ready for riding, keeping it in tip-top condition, cycling with kids and more. Click this link to see what Sustrans has to offer you.

The Caravan Club have also worked together with Sustrans to produce cycling route maps for 23 of their campsites to date with more to follow I’m sure.  These are all available either from the site direct or can be down loaded. Click here for more information and access to the 23 maps.

I hope that this information proves helpful and that all of you already with cycles will benefit and those of you who are thinking of getting cycles, as we were, will be convinced of their usefulness and of their benefits to both you and the environment.

I’ve also found an endorsement by BUPA for riding a cycle so click here to read it.

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There are 2 major Motorhome shows coming up soon, one in Lincoln in September and one at the NEC in October.

Both of these shows have camping available at the venue and entertainment laid on at a cost.

The Motorhome show at the Lincolnshire Showground takes place on the 24th, 25th and 26th of September and the day admission rates are £6.50 adults and £2.50 children (5-14 yrs).  There is a  separate charge for camping and for the saturday night entertainment although there is other entertainment included in the price.   There are no electric hook ups but toilets and showers are available.

Click Here for more information and to book on line

The Caravan and Motorhome show at the NEC Birmingham takes place on the 12th – 17th October and the day admission rates are £14.95 in advance or £19.95 on the door which seems a bit excessive to me.  It does include parking and a show guide but given that this is a sales event it still seems very expensive.  If you’re a Caravan Club member you can get a day ticked for £12.45 but you have to book this in advance on line and quote promo code TCC2.  I’m sure the Camping and Caravanning Club are running a similar discount scheme.

There is a temporary campsite being run by the Caravan Club in North car parks 9-11 and fees are £27.50  per night including electric.  Entertainment is free and there are bars available.

These pitches should be booked with the Caravan Club directly by clicking here.

There is much more information available from the organisers of the show here

We usually go to the NEC show because it’s an easy train ride from Northampton and there’s always tons of stuff to see and spend your hard earned money on.  There are two pieces of advice I would offer if you are going for the day, take the train because parking isn’t always easy and there are often queues and take a packed lunch because this is much more convenient.

Whichever one you decide to go to have fun and spend wisely.  If you are going there to negotiate and buy a new Motorhome then fine, but if you aren’t then be careful, the temptations are huge.

Related posts:

1. It’s Showtime and the VAT Increase

We’ve just recently returned from a fantastic four week Motorhome holiday in France where we travelled down to the South, staying at a number of sites en route. Unfortunately  this also included a breakdown just south of Lyon which meant us staying the night in the garage yard – we get all the fun : )

I’ll give you a quick summary of the trip and then over the next few weeks I’ll talk through the sites and journey in detail.  We’d  pre booked some of the sites where we didn’t have to pay a booking fee and for the rest we were using Camping Cheques which we’d never used before so we weren’t sure how that was going to work out.  I’ve always worried about sites being full when we arrived and not being able to get a place to stay and although I was still a bit concerned we went for it.

We started the trip catching the Norfolkline ferry from Dover to Dunkerque.  This was the first time we’d used them and actually we don’t usually go by ferry but the £48 return was too good to miss.  The crossing went very well and I felt fine ( I’m the ‘if we were meant to take a ferry we’d all have gills’ type ) although I usually feel pretty bad by the time it’s over.  Not this time.  It takes around 2 hours so you’ve got plenty of time to shop and eat.

We then drove down to our first camp site, ‘Camping de Sorel’ at Orvillers Sorel on the E15 towards Paris for an overnight stay.  Campsites in the north of France are few and far between and in the end this one proved too far off our route although it was very busy, probably full, so obviously very popular.

Following that we headed south east towards Macon and stayed at ‘Camping du Pont de Bourgogne’ which was beautifully situated next to the river Saone and opposite the town of Chalon sur Soane.

We then set off to stay at a site just across the river from Avignon but never made it due to our water pump packing up just south of Lyon.  We then spent 3 unplanned nights there and had to miss Avignon out because we had booked into ‘Domaine des Naiades’ at Port Grimaud (adjacent to St Tropez) for just short of a couple of weeks.

This part of the journey down to the South was special for one reason only, it rained so hard that traffic on the motorway had to stop, you just couldn’t see where you were going.  We’ve never experienced anything like it before.

When we left the south we went straight up the motorway to stay at ‘Domaine du Chateau de L’Eperviere’ for a week which was fantastic except for the World Cup debacle that took place while we were there.

From there we drove up to Dunkerque and took the ferry home.

A great trip all round with lot’s happening to us and around us and in the end we were very sad to get home, we really wanted to stay.  France is a wonderful place for a holiday, especially in the motorhome, and the whole trip worked wonderfully well, even the breakdown had its upside.

I’ll post more details over the next few weeks.

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Last month we had our renewal notice for the Camping and Caravanning Club sent through and we have decided not to renew it this year.  I don’t want you to think this was a thoroughly thought through decision, listing pros and cons for both and then rating each pro and con to come up with a scientifically calculated reason for the cancellation.  It was more a case of it popped through the door, it was £30 something pounds and because we are in the 2 clubs one had to go and we’d already renewed the Caravan Club so it was a no brainer.

Both clubs have merits and frustrations in equal proportion.

The CC can be a little bit regimental ( I was going to say anal but didn’t want to offend ) and the C&CC label themselves the “Friendly Club” but lack some of the organisation of the CC.  What we need is a hybrid club that’s well organised and friendly and treats you as adults who know what they are doing.  Ask me to park my Motorhome in the centre of the pitch but don’t tell me to park it in the centre of the pitch and tell me that there is a pitch marker in the centre so park the centre of your Motorhome against that and then show me a diagram of the whole thing.  Wow!!

One of my personal hates of the CC is the way they always refer to Motorhomes as Motor Caravans – why is that?  Just because they are steeped in caravan history doesn’t give them the right to create a new category of Motorhome.

The one big advantage of the C&CC is that booking sites is so much easier and the CC is usually always fully booked for the better sites weeks in advance.  Incidentally my home grown theory on this is that if the CC charged a deposit, as the C&CC do, then their advanced bookings would drop considerably.  I wonder how many no shows they have on a Friday night just because there is a no deposit forfeit.

Some of the facilities on the C&CC sites are not as modern as they should be and both clubs have a problem with determining the correct number of loos, showers etc to cater for the amount of customers. Last weekend we were at the CC site at Bladen Chains and the toilet block had more washing cubicles than showers or loos.  Bad planning or what?

These are some of my thoughts and I’d be very interested to hear yours, so please send them through and we’ll see if we can make a constructive list of the good and the bad ( and of course the ugly ).

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There are a great number of outdoor events organised for 2010 and there’s always something for everyone so get planning.

The Caravan Club has put together a list that they have just sent through to their members so for those of you who didn’t receive it here is the link.

Have fun and enjoy.

Related posts:

1. Boat and Caravan Show Visit
2. Boat and Caravan Show
3. Our Holiday in France 2010

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The site is a sister site of simplymotorhomes and has been made to give people the opportunity to book a hotel at a great price anywhere in the World with a few clicks of the mouse.  When you have a Motorhome you love to travel and sometimes it’s good to travel but stay in a hotel for a change and this site will help you to find the best one at the best rate.

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We went to the Boat and Caravan Show last Friday and thoroughly enjoyed it although as usual found it very tiring.

Apart from just generally having a look around the stalls to see what goodies were on offer we wanted to take a look a good look at the Camping Cheque stand and decide if that was something we wanted to make use of.  I also had this notion that I’d read about the ideal Motorhome layout, a Rapido, and I wanted to have a close look at it to see.

We had a good look at the Camping Cheque and a long chat with the person on the stand and in the end we bought a silver card for £2 and the site book for £1 ( instead of £6 ).  We’re going to give it a go simply because we usually go to France out of season anyway and using the Camping Cheque is the cheapest way to do that and at around £14 per night is a real bargain. The silver card is a new thing that you use instead of the paper cheques and it means you can pay for the cheques electronically and then get them credited to your card when you arrive at the first site.  Easy; I hope.  There are hundreds ( 588 ) sites in Europe to choose from and even a handful in the UK. Have a look at the Camping Cheque site and see for yourselves.

The brand new all singing all dancing Rapido that I thought I’d read about turned out to be a figment of my imagination and doesn’t exist after all.  Never mind, one day.

On the subject of new Motorhomes we did have a look at most of the Manufacturers and Dealers but didn’t see anything that was better than our Autocruise Starseeker thank goodness.

We did the obligatory visit to most of the French site stalls and collected plenty of brochures but of course these have been superceded by the Camping Cheque sites list because we are determined to try as many of these as we can.  We have a 3 week French holiday planned for June and have booked the return ferry but no sites.  I’m a stickler for making site bookings normally but am determined to go on spec this year and see how we get on.  Incidentally we booked the ferry with Norfolkline ( never used them before ) and got a fantastic deal. We booked through the Caravan Club and got the return for the Starseeker plus the two of us for £48 return, going and returning on a Saturday. How good was that!!  Let me know if you’ve got a better deal than that!!

We also bought a couple of items for the house,weirdly, but I guess you do see a lot of innovative stuff at these shows.

We won’t bother going to another show this year but will try this one again next year.

Related posts:

1. Boat and Caravan Show
2. Our Holiday in France 2010

The Boat and Caravan Show is taking place at the NEC Birmingham between the 23 – 28 February.

Both the Caravan Club and the Camping and Caravanning Club were offering discounted tickets but only the Caravan Club have these still available.

Tickets are priced at Adults £10.95; seniors (60+ yrs) £9.00; child (5-15) £4.50, under 5yrs FOC.  The prices include a show guide worth £5 and parking £8.

If you want to take advantage of this offer then either ring 0844 581 3000 or visit www.boatandcaravan.co.uk and quote CLUB1 but you must do so before 22nd February.

My favourite chef James Martin will be demonstrating at the show on Thursday 25th.

You can see James’s motorhome here in a previous post.

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1. Boat and Caravan Show Visit