Caravan Club 'Wines of the Loire' tour

Jo001

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This is outrageous!

This trip is advertised in the Caravan and Mototrhome Club magazine. The cost, per person, based on two people using their own caravan or motorhome is £3,199 excluding ferry crossings etc. So a hair's breadth off £6,400.

What's included -
  • 16 nights on a Montsoreau campsite that we have used, it's nice enough but nothing special. At the dates of this particular tour, booking their premium sized pitch independently would cost you €427. For easy arithmetic, let's call that £400.
  • A Loire boat trip with wine tasting. Saumur is a bigg-ish town close by, the most expensive tour I can see from there is €95 pp, so let's say £180 for two. And you can bet the club will be able to negotiate a group rate.
  • A visit to the Forteresse Royale de Chinon. That's €10.50 pp, so a bit less than £20 but let's not quibble over the odds.
  • An unspecified number of visits to vineyards and wine tastings. These cost between nothing, and €55. So, if we said £50 per couple, visiting on seven of the fourteen days that are not already used up by other trips, that's another £350. You'd need to factor in transport to these places so let's round that up to £500, just to be generous.
That comes to £1,100 .

Some of the remaining £5,300 will be needed to pay tour guide staff, average salary for a tour guide in France is £23,014. That comes to about £500 per week, and I'm guessing there won't be wine tours every day - so over the fortnight, they probably do about a week's worth of hours at best.

If we say that salary is £500, that's a nice little £4,800 profit for the Caravan Club. If anyone is daft enough to pay for this.

Have I missed anything?
 
This is outrageous!

This trip is advertised in the Caravan and Mototrhome Club magazine. The cost, per person, based on two people using their own caravan or motorhome is £3,199 excluding ferry crossings etc. So a hair's breadth off £6,400.

What's included -
  • 16 nights on a Montsoreau campsite that we have used, it's nice enough but nothing special. At the dates of this particular tour, booking their premium sized pitch independently would cost you €427. For easy arithmetic, let's call that £400.
  • A Loire boat trip with wine tasting. Saumur is a bigg-ish town close by, the most expensive tour I can see from there is €95 pp, so let's say £180 for two. And you can bet the club will be able to negotiate a group rate.
  • A visit to the Forteresse Royale de Chinon. That's €10.50 pp, so a bit less than £20 but let's not quibble over the odds.
  • An unspecified number of visits to vineyards and wine tastings. These cost between nothing, and €55. So, if we said £50 per couple, visiting on seven of the fourteen days that are not already used up by other trips, that's another £350. You'd need to factor in transport to these places so let's round that up to £500, just to be generous.
That comes to £1,100 .

Some of the remaining £5,300 will be needed to pay tour guide staff, average salary for a tour guide in France is £23,014. That comes to about £500 per week, and I'm guessing there won't be wine tours every day - so over the fortnight, they probably do about a week's worth of hours at best.

If we say that salary is £500, that's a nice little £4,800 profit for the Caravan Club. If anyone is daft enough to pay for this.

Have I missed anything?
Upside is all that wonderful company you'd have !
 
This is outrageous!

This trip is advertised in the Caravan and Mototrhome Club magazine. The cost, per person, based on two people using their own caravan or motorhome is £3,199 excluding ferry crossings etc. So a hair's breadth off £6,400.

What's included -
  • 16 nights on a Montsoreau campsite that we have used, it's nice enough but nothing special. At the dates of this particular tour, booking their premium sized pitch independently would cost you €427. For easy arithmetic, let's call that £400.
  • A Loire boat trip with wine tasting. Saumur is a bigg-ish town close by, the most expensive tour I can see from there is €95 pp, so let's say £180 for two. And you can bet the club will be able to negotiate a group rate.
  • A visit to the Forteresse Royale de Chinon. That's €10.50 pp, so a bit less than £20 but let's not quibble over the odds.
  • An unspecified number of visits to vineyards and wine tastings. These cost between nothing, and €55. So, if we said £50 per couple, visiting on seven of the fourteen days that are not already used up by other trips, that's another £350. You'd need to factor in transport to these places so let's round that up to £500, just to be generous.
That comes to £1,100 .

Some of the remaining £5,300 will be needed to pay tour guide staff, average salary for a tour guide in France is £23,014. That comes to about £500 per week, and I'm guessing there won't be wine tours every day - so over the fortnight, they probably do about a week's worth of hours at best.

If we say that salary is £500, that's a nice little £4,800 profit for the Caravan Club. If anyone is daft enough to pay for this.

Have I missed anything?
This needs to be posted on their site
 
This is outrageous!

This trip is advertised in the Caravan and Mototrhome Club magazine. The cost, per person, based on two people using their own caravan or motorhome is £3,199 excluding ferry crossings etc. So a hair's breadth off £6,400.

What's included -
  • 16 nights on a Montsoreau campsite that we have used, it's nice enough but nothing special. At the dates of this particular tour, booking their premium sized pitch independently would cost you €427. For easy arithmetic, let's call that £400.
  • A Loire boat trip with wine tasting. Saumur is a bigg-ish town close by, the most expensive tour I can see from there is €95 pp, so let's say £180 for two. And you can bet the club will be able to negotiate a group rate.
  • A visit to the Forteresse Royale de Chinon. That's €10.50 pp, so a bit less than £20 but let's not quibble over the odds.
  • An unspecified number of visits to vineyards and wine tastings. These cost between nothing, and €55. So, if we said £50 per couple, visiting on seven of the fourteen days that are not already used up by other trips, that's another £350. You'd need to factor in transport to these places so let's round that up to £500, just to be generous.
That comes to £1,100 .

Some of the remaining £5,300 will be needed to pay tour guide staff, average salary for a tour guide in France is £23,014. That comes to about £500 per week, and I'm guessing there won't be wine tours every day - so over the fortnight, they probably do about a week's worth of hours at best.

If we say that salary is £500, that's a nice little £4,800 profit for the Caravan Club. If anyone is daft enough to pay for this.

Have I missed anything?
The Tours that were advertised as we were emerging from COVID Lockdown were led by volunteers [who, presumably got 2 free places plus some sort of gratuity? It's easy to be generous with someone else's money!] The exchange rates you use are very mean, Jo, the 'retail price' campsite fee will be nearer £360 than £400, and there will be group discount fees for each activity [we joined the Old Gits [Third Age] Club at the French hovel and had an afternoon show at the Cavalry School at Saumur, a visit to the Troglodyte Cave dwellings and a generous 3 course lunch in a smart restaurant for €95 a head!]

I suspect that the CAMH Club will be raking in over £5000 quite comfortably, especially if they self insure and/or tack the public liability insurance onto their existing policy. Does the small print include 'Licensed by the FCA & PRA to print money ...'? :ROFLMAO:

Steve
 
I think you'll find that price £3199 is for an outfit plus 2 people and probaly includes vat! Much cheaper to plan a tour yourself but having been on a couple of group tours it is a-lot of fun with the right group.
 
I think you'll find that price £3199 is for an outfit plus 2 people and probaly includes vat! Much cheaper to plan a tour yourself but having been on a couple of group tours it is a-lot of fun with the right group.
No, definitely the per person cost.

20240802_094625.jpg
 
Every single one of us pays more than cost on a daily basis. Everytime you buy something, or eat out in a restaurant, or get a takeaway, or buy a car, or get van valeted, we pay more than it costs. Sometimes the percentage is huge.

There’s a market price for everything, determined by actual cost plus perceived value. This trip will appeal to many and I suspect they will fill it. The same as those punters who have a package trip to Spain on holiday, or Greece.

I can’t say it bothers me to be honest.
 
Every single one of us pays more than cost on a daily basis. Everytime you buy something, or eat out in a restaurant, or get a takeaway, or buy a car, or get van valeted, we pay more than it costs. Sometimes the percentage is huge.

There’s a market price for everything, determined by actual cost plus perceived value. This trip will appeal to many and I suspect they will fill it. The same as those punters who have a package trip to Spain on holiday, or Greece.

I can’t say it bothers me to be honest.

Whenever topics like this come up it reminds me of the sign above the cooker in our kitchen which reads;

Dinner choices:

1) Take it

2) Leave it
 
Whenever topics like this come up it reminds me of the sign above the cooker in our kitchen which reads;

Dinner choices:

1) Take it

2) Leave it
My mum had a slightly smaller list when we were growing up.

1) Take it.

We only argued once 😂
 

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