rip off site prices

[lotty]

We are currently touring Devon and Cornwall and are proud to have only used one site so far but after our 6th night we ran out of gas, so we decided to book in a site, fill up on water use the showers etc and get a gas bottle. Well! After picking a pitch and going to reception she proceded to tell us it was £46 per night!!!!! WHAT!!! Needless to say we just exchanged our gas bottle and drove off!
We are now parked down the road in a famers feild, there is a loo and water tap and its only £7 for the night. AND another bonus, I'm using the free WiFi from the site in the next field, (he he) which is £35 a night!c:
How can they charge these prices?
Wilding for us newbies from now on.
:drive:
Lotty

 

[plattypus]

Hello Lotty

That is a shocking rip-off. No campsite is worth that money. Bet you couldn't get away quick enough.

End of July we Took 2 of our grand kids away with us , not far away on the road to Windermere, They had never been campervanning before so just booked in for 3 nights, We only have a small van, but it cost us over £100, Even charged us £2 per night for the dog. Lovely site with electric & water tap to each pitch. But still a rip off.

Plattypus

 

[wolfie69]

Hi,

having been a "Tent" camper for many years I noticed how a sites were getting more and more expensive - 5 years a go we paid £35 a night in the lake district - Great site, but we didn't need it.

And how they justify charging £2 for the dog I will never know - well I do, simple, people will pay it.

I have been motorhoming exacting one year this week-end - first night out paid £15 to a farmer for a pitch and thought never again. Have wild camp about 10 times -not including carparks at Chester and Bets-y-coed (both great spots and worth the few pounds to park).

We have recently just got back from 3 week in France (Fantastic) - we also ran out of gas as I was about to cook tea - no problem as another couple realised something was up and said cook it in our Van and sort it in the morning - Thankyou Jackie & Glen.

Picked up loads of good tips for extending my wild camping trips (Water & Waste) which has pretty much limited us to 3 days.

But the long and short of it is as people cut back and stop going aboard and stay in the Uk - the prices will go up!

 

[MOS]

Hi this is exactly why we wild and go to france ,we only have a set amount of money to spend whilst away ,so it can go on site fees and we do nothing else and live on beens on toast ,of we go to france and spend our money in the local shops ,we have a nice trundle round eat well have a little tipple and everyone gets a bit of what we spend .
we have friends that use sites in england ,this year they paid £400 for two pitches(1 for camper 1 for tent for kids ) in weymouth for 1 week ,just for the space, that tied up their camper for the whole time three miles outside town so they had to use taxi's and busses into town every day .
we on the other hand went to france for 8 days did 1500 miles stayed on aires in lovely places and had change from 400 quid total inc diesel ferry food drink and pressies .
supose its personal choice ,but i know where ime going later this month.MOS

 

[fofeg101]

If I lived closer to the channel ports I wouldn't consider Holidaying in the UK, as it is I have a 200 mile drive to Dover. Sometime ago, in the mid 1980s, in our touring caravan period, we stayed on a Caravan Club CS in Anglesey for a week, cost = £9.00!!, those were the days. The last cycle camping tour I did in France, for three weeks, my average campsite fee in GBP was £2.70 per night!!, of course with a bike I didn't have to pay for a car. On one Camping Municipal In Valet, the Guardian took 20 minutes to fill in all of the bureaucratic documentation then charged me F170 for the night, that was when there was F10 to the £, so the cost was £1.70. The term "Rip off Britain" is well deserved, take road fuel, we complain about the price then just cough up. Whilst we have MPs who can claim whatever they like on expenses nothing will change. The French wouldn't stand for it.

 

[nessalz]

o no....we are planning 10 days starting on the 8th this month in cornwall and devon, them prices are shocking.... i thought the site prices went down in september, as the kids go back to school....

 

[Deleted member 3011]

How can they charge these prices?

To pay for the internet:lol-053:

 

[Deleted member 775]

Hi,

having been a "Tent" camper for many years I noticed how a sites were getting more and more expensive - 5 years a go we paid £35 a night in the lake district - Great site, but we didn't need it.

And how they justify charging £2 for the dog I will never know - well I do, simple, people will pay it.

I have been motorhoming exacting one year this week-end - first night out paid £15 to a farmer for a pitch and thought never again. Have wild camp about 10 times -not including carparks at Chester and Bets-y-coed (both great spots and worth the few pounds to park).

We have recently just got back from 3 week in France (Fantastic) - we also ran out of gas as I was about to cook tea - no problem as another couple realised something was up and said cook it in our Van and sort it in the morning - Thankyou Jackie & Glen.

Picked up loads of good tips for extending my wild camping trips (Water & Waste) which has pretty much limited us to 3 days.

But the long and short of it is as people cut back and stop going aboard and stay in the Uk - the prices will go up!

you mention water . well many on here ask where do you get water from they say that that is one thing that limits the time wilding . we full timed for a while and i have said that water is available at nearly every fuel srevice station 90% of the time its free you dont need to fill up with fuel either ,one tip many of the water outlets are combined with the air dispencer and have the small lever on the top you press, a small electricians screwdrive fits in the top of the lever pivot ,it saves you having to hold the nozzel while you refill and for drinking used to fill a few plastic bottles at the same time never used the onboard tank for drinking from also the question of toilet disposal comes up , as long as you dont use these chemical loo liquids you will be ok using publc toilets we used the toilet cleaners you use at home to cleen the home loo in our porta loo whilest full timing ,used to get it from the pound shops you find good ,cheap ,and no smells

 

[jogguk]

It is the underhand way they have of pricing that bugs me, as if they make it up on the spot:mad2:

Last year Cornwall again, just outside Newquay I think it was called Newperren Caravan Park or something similar. First there is the pitch fee which varies to the type of pitch, then there is the per person fee, then the £2 for the dog and then a couple of quid car fee . When checking the receipt I noticed a £4 'online booking fee' so I asked what that was all about as I had just turned up at reception no pre-booking. " Ah, we still have to enter it on the computer system, hence the charge" :mad2:

I only stopped there because this huge site was practically deserted (being the dead period between Easter and Spring Bank Holiday). Only one CDP point and very difficult to drive up close enough to it to drain my onboard black tank, which was the whole point of me being there!!

Obviously installing fancy numberplate recognition cameras, auto barriers that won't let you out after 11pm, extensions to their restaurant and modernising the swiming pool is far more important than a few quid to create a level easy access CDP

John

 

[THE LITTLE MUTT]

Any more tips.

you mention water . well many on here ask where do you get water from they say that that is one thing that limits the time wilding . we full timed for a while and i have said that water is available at nearly every fuel srevice station 90% of the time its free you dont need to fill up with fuel either ,one tip many of the water outlets are combined with the air dispencer and have the small lever on the top you press, a small electricians screwdrive fits in the top of the lever pivot ,it saves you having to hold the nozzel while you refill and for drinking used to fill a few plastic bottles at the same time never used the onboard tank for drinking from also the question of toilet disposal comes up , as long as you dont use these chemical loo liquids you will be ok using publc toilets we used the toilet cleaners you use at home to cleen the home loo in our porta loo whilest full timing ,used to get it from the pound shops you find good ,cheap ,and no smells

Thanks mandrake. We are first timers arriving in October and prefer to WC & only staying in parks to top up and empty. (but not at these prices, what a rip off) You mentioned toilet disposal. Do you mean emptying it at public toilets. What about the the waste water ?. Any other tips regarding power for laptop,sat nav, and any other general observations you could pass on, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. John from Australia

 

[kimbowbill]

this is why we are labelled 'Rip off Britain' alot of it (not all) is to do with the councils charging stupid sky high ground rent, my friend has a caravan at skegvegas, they pay 4k ground rent, was 2.5 last year, lol, its barmy, people just keep on paying it, so they will jsut keep hiking it up, same with fuel, same with food, infact everything, we just sit around and moan about but no one seems to do anything about it, i'm guilty of that too but where do you start to make a noise to change things.

Jen

 

[Rubbertramp]

We are currently touring Devon and Cornwall and are proud to have only used one site so far but after our 6th night we ran out of gas, so we decided to book in a site, fill up on water use the showers etc and get a gas bottle. Well! After picking a pitch and going to reception she proceded to tell us it was £46 per night!!!!! WHAT!!! Needless to say we just exchanged our gas bottle and drove off!
We are now parked down the road in a famers feild, there is a loo and water tap and its only £7 for the night. AND another bonus, I'm using the free WiFi from the site in the next field, (he he) which is £35 a night!c:
How can they charge these prices?
Wilding for us newbies from now on.
:drive:
Lotty

A lot of this is due to the greedy, city attitudes of some of the people who've moved to Devon and Cornwall during the last 20 years.....They call them "premium" prices.... nothing to do with value or quality, just "we've got it, you need it so give us all your money and don't expect much for it". This applies to most things down that way.
My advice....don't go there in July to early Sept...It's crowded and they'll rip you off...In May and June they need you and you'll see how cheaper it is.

 

[kimbowbill]

A lot of this is due to the greedy, city attitudes of some of the people who've moved to Devon and Cornwall during the last 20 years.....They call them "premium" prices.... nothing to do with value or quality, just "we've got it, you need it so give us all your money and don't expect much for it". This applies to most things down that way.
My advice....don't go there in July to early Sept...It's crowded and they'll rip you off...In May and June they need you and you'll see how cheaper it is.

here here, it think cornwall is over rated theres much more out there, it was over 15 yrs ago since i went down there, i was in a local Sommerfield at the cheese counter, the lady in front of me was chatting with the assistant, she said 'cant wait til the tourists have gone, get our prices back to normal' i investigated further and it was true, they put the prices up in peak season, lol,

 

[John H]

Most campsites charge obscene prices in the high season - and the Caravan Club is among the worst offenders (sorry, a bugbear of mine!) but you can get some reasonable deals off-season. Devon and Cornwall are very pleasant and less crowded in autumn and we know of three sites (there must be more) which do deals for less than £60 per week - Tregarton Park near Mevagissey, Lower Polladras near Helston and Dolbeare near Plymouth (the latter offers that price only for one week at a time and only if you are over 55, which we are!). They all have websites.

But at the end of the day, is there anything better than wilding? Happy travels.

 

[Deleted member 7500]

Thanks mandrake. We are first timers arriving in October and prefer to WC & only staying in parks to top up and empty. (but not at these prices, what a rip off) You mentioned toilet disposal. Do you mean emptying it at public toilets. What about the the waste water ?. Any other tips regarding power for laptop,sat nav, and any other general observations you could pass on, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. John from Australia

Hi John,
Yes a cassette can be emptied into a public loo and it doesn't do any harm if it contains toilet chemicals either. I just pick a quiet time to do it discreetly so as not to alarm any members of the public that may not understand what I am doing. You can use some of your grey water to rinse the cassette through too.
As for the rest of the grey water, we have used car wash bays at garages before now. If you're using the garage to diesel up and fill with fresh, you could dispose of your grey water at the same time.
Hope you enjoy your UK wilding :have fun:
Jim

 

[Canalsman]

As for the rest of the grey water, we have used car wash bays at garages before now. If you're using the garage to diesel up and fill with fresh, you could dispose of your grey water at the same time.

Not sure this is a good idea - the car wash water is often recycled/reused.

I don't think I'd like to wash my car with someone else's washing up water ...

 

[maingate]

It is well worth joining the C & CC club to take advantage of the Temporary Holiday Sites (THS). We have used a few of these this year and most only charge £6 to £7 a night. There is only fresh water and toilet disposal available but with a 90 watt solar panel, we manage easily.

There is no way on earth that I would pay some of the prices mentioned on here.

 

[Channa]

If I lived closer to the channel ports I wouldn't consider Holidaying in the UK, as it is I have a 200 mile drive to Dover. Sometime ago, in the mid 1980s, in our touring caravan period, we stayed on a Caravan Club CS in Anglesey for a week, cost = £9.00!!, those were the days. The last cycle camping tour I did in France, for three weeks, my average campsite fee in GBP was £2.70 per night!!, of course with a bike I didn't have to pay for a car. On one Camping Municipal In Valet, the Guardian took 20 minutes to fill in all of the bureaucratic documentation then charged me F170 for the night, that was when there was F10 to the £, so the cost was £1.70. The term "Rip off Britain" is well deserved, take road fuel, we complain about the price then just cough up. Whilst we have MPs who can claim whatever they like on expenses nothing will change. The French wouldn't stand for it.

Well has we speak the french do accept 1.35 euros a litre for diesel and travelling on the Péage you need a small mortgage for. In these parts £2.50 to traveL one junction up the A8 each way. I think it makes our road tax look cheap. And their supermarkets are far from cheap so a bit of swings and roundabouts is what I am suggesting. France I dont think is what it was the pound v the Euro may be part of it but I dont think for a moment it is the cheap alternative to Britain it once was.

I would agree that for motorhomes the aire system etc puts what we do: dont have at home to shame, and their is a different culture acceptance of the outdoor life still thankfully.

The site I am based on also charged 50 euros a night last week ( high season ) to camp and here is probably the most unfriendliest part of France in terms of acceptance of motorhomes.

TBH I couldnt too spend or afford 50 euros a night, furthermore particularly for swimming pools etc I have no desire to use. But touring part of the site was full of motorhomes :scared:

How people spend their money is their business, but I could never justify it. I would also argue the real France is not the superficial region of the cote d,azur

Channa

 

[Deleted member 7500]

Not sure this is a good idea - the car wash water is often recycled/reused.

I don't think I'd like to wash my car with someone else's washing up water ...

I'm referring to a simple jet wash bay Chris. I'm pretty sure they just run on mains water, but all the waste water goes through an interceptor and is disposed of properly. I'm happy to stand corrected if anyone knows different. My thought was that this has to be better than dropping it down a surface water grid where it will go untreated into a water course.

 

[Firefox]

One can criticise them but it's a market.

Put it this way, if we were to sell an item on ebay, would we sell to the highest bidder or the lowest one?

They are just selling space in their field maximising the return on their investment, the same way almost anyone would.

Having said that I prefer to wild and don't pay more than £8-£10 a night if I have to pay at all.