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Our UK Camping forum has all the information you need on finding the right equipment for your tent or caravan.

Original poster

Booking direct rather than through Eurocamp

26 replies

PeachesMcLean · 29/01/2007 22:25

Does anyone have any experience of booking direct with a campsite rather than using Eurocamp or Keycamp etc? I think I'll get £250+ off my fortnight, but wonder:
a) is it a nightmare to arrange?(we sadly don't speak the local language - italian in this case)
b) are the mobile homes more grim than if you go with a company?

Any opinions welcome. thanks all.

OP posts:
slalomsuki · 29/01/2007 23:11

Its easy. Find the campsite and phone up, most of the big multinational ones have a website so you can email them with what you want and they will come back to you. Make sure the price includes VAT or TVA in France for example and then go for it.

You will then have to book a ferry crossing but thats simple.

You don't get a worse mobile than by going through the company, what you maight get is a better one which is privately owned and maintained and not used for every week of the season. At the site where we own one for example there is a couple from Jersey who have one and use it June and September but not during the school holidays and they let it out sometimes to the campsite. It gets cleaned for them inside and out, maintained for them at no cost and also it gets looked after.

Skribble · 29/01/2007 23:15

We were really surprised by the sites own accomodation at a site in Spain, lovely little bungalows for less than out caravan with Siblu.

We are off to Italy this year and booked direct this time, We are getting a double width caravan with heating instead of a caravan with no heating and a small fan. Going in April so heating a must at night.

Check out ech site for their own, many have online booking and availibility checks.

Original poster
PeachesMcLean · 29/01/2007 23:15

Excellent- thanks for replying! That makes sense re privately owned ones, and I hadn't thought of that. I'd feel so smug to cut out the tour company...
Anyone else got experience of this?

OP posts:
Original poster
PeachesMcLean · 29/01/2007 23:18

Hey Skribble, x post there. So do you think the private ones have proper bedding sometimes? Am rather put off by some people here saying all you get with Eurocamp is a blanket... We're taking sleeping bags for end May to be on the safe side.

OP posts:
slalomsuki · 29/01/2007 23:20

The ones through our campsite have duvets for each of the beds and pillows but you have to bring your own covers.

We ended up buying since it was cheaper than renting through a company and now I get 4 plus holidays a year!!

Tortington · 29/01/2007 23:22

with the cost of the ferry i cant possibly see how it can be cheaper?

Skribble · 29/01/2007 23:24

With siblu we got a travel rug, if we had booked bedding (which I thought was a sheet) we would have got a duvet. Check carefully to see what is included when they say bedding included.

The one we are going to in Italy says it includes bedding, if it is only a little blanket then I am going to the local market and buying bedding. We are flying so not taking bedding.

Skribble · 29/01/2007 23:25

For us it works out cheaper as we are in Scotland so driving down the ferry is expensive and easy to get cheap flights and hire a car. I suppose it depends how chea you can get a ferry.

Original poster
PeachesMcLean · 29/01/2007 23:29

Probably seems cheaper only cos we're flying rather than ferry, so I've only been looking at accomodation only. Didn't fancy driving to Italy. Would do France though. And still got to hire a car, so really need the saving on campsite.

OP posts:
Original poster
PeachesMcLean · 29/01/2007 23:34

Hi Skribble I thought about buying bedding there... it just seems so wasteful (can hear my green conscience as I type... Though yes, I know I'm flying so not that green) Am hoping the sleeping bags wil squash to almost nothing at the bottom of the suitcases.
Where are you going in Italy?

OP posts:
Tortington · 29/01/2007 23:34

ahh yes. flying would prob be very worth while - better thanbeingstuck in car with kids for hours

Skribble · 29/01/2007 23:38

Lake Garda, no way would I take sleeping bags, we took up enough room with sheets and pillow cases last year, infact I took duvet covers instead of two sheets per bad.

I will be green and donate my duvets or blankets to the reps from one of the companies, who ever is nicest . They will just be setting up for the year and probably glad of them.

Skribble · 29/01/2007 23:39

you've got me thinking perhaps I will take DH's fantasic 5 season sleeping bag that is very squishy and light weight. Bugger the rest of them .

Original poster
PeachesMcLean · 29/01/2007 23:47

I don't suppose by any chance, Skribble, you know how much a duvet will cost locally? (seriously- sceptical-but-worth-a-go-emoticon)??

Being seriously sceptical though, I have to say I've heard of this before - donating to the reps. Don't they have enough by now, and why don't the companies just provide enough blankets in the first place??? Grrr.... I did email Eurocamp (last week) to find out if there might be extra blankets but haven't had a response yet. I did feel like telling them to look at MN if they wanted an honest opinion....

OP posts:
Skribble · 29/01/2007 23:52

We are going at the start of the seasons so reps won't be fully kitted out with offcasts yet. Last year we gave them sangria and crappy crisps .

No idea how much a duvet will cost, but cheaper then buying lightweight down sleeping bags here, the cheapo rectangle ones don't squash up that small. Will try the local market for cheap bedding. Perhaps Eurocamp's bedding will be fine, if we had taken Siblus bedding we would have been cosy in our duvets the small balnkets were only meant to be in addition to these, but the wording in the brochure made it sound like you only had to take sheats.

Anyway I will be fine in my down sleeping bag .

Original poster
PeachesMcLean · 29/01/2007 23:56

Naaah, stuff it. Sleeping bags it is.
Mine's cosier than yours!

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KTeePee · 30/01/2007 10:54

We have booked direct and I reckon will save a fair bit - the basic prices quoted by Keycamp et al (around 1000-1200 during summer holidays) only include a midweek Dover-Calais crossing, you have to pay extra for a different route or at weekends. Most campsites charge about 700-800 euro (£500-550) so even adding on for the ferry you can save a lot.

We also found that some of the cheaper operators like Matthews only do 2 bed mobile homes and we wanted a 3-bed.

Tamz77 · 31/01/2007 16:47

I did loads of shopping around and booking direct would have been more expensive than going through one of the operators (we ended up with Siblu but that was after a lot of hoo-hah). We too are flying and I have requested duvets (for early Sept) and they put a note on our booking but said it was best to call nearer the time to check what was available. I too was put off by the 'travel rug' description!

Try to speak to someone in person if you can, there are a lot of online discounts out there but (this is what Siblu said) they are allowed to 'play' with prices a bit and if you call and cajole you might get a better deal. This may be true of speaking to the sites themselves, as well.

Skribble · 31/01/2007 22:10

The bedding pack with siblu is pillow cases, sheets and a duvet so you should be OK, I just forgot to book them.

littledetails · 01/02/2007 10:09

For us the cheapest and easiest way of booking a holiday abroad was to go through Eurocamp and drive. We did look into flying this year as we but flights alone would have cost £450 then we would have had to hire a car and had the problem of the bedding. I think driving to one campsite would be ok to book yourself but to drive to say the South of France/Italy/Spain and book a few overnight stays would be a knightmare and Im sure would cost more, we pay between £350-£500 for our summer holidays for 5 of us thats two adults two teenages and a toddler. We always take our bedding with us and the teenages sit on the pillows. We have driven to the South/West of France and Italy before, they have taken two days to get there but the scenery is fantastic and we always manage to get to the overnight stays at a reasonable time so the kids can have a swim. Doing the South of France this summer and Holland Easter, 5 nights in a caravan for the 5 of us with crossing £175 - bargain, and the crossing alone costs £101!

KTeePee · 01/02/2007 10:14

Littledetails I am fascinated that you can get a summer holiday from Eurocamp for £350-500 - is that in school holidays or outside?

littledetails · 01/02/2007 14:41

We normally go in whit half term but our 1st night of stay is never in the peak price bracket, so this means that the teenagers do need to take some time off school. We spend our 1st night in a tent which lowers the base price, always book early and have been more than 3 times. This year we got 25% discount and last year had 30%. Even if you dont book early there are always online offers.

littledetails · 01/02/2007 15:26

I have just priced up the holiday we booked last year and for anyone to book today it would cost £428 going on 24.05.07, which is only missing two days from school. Thats spending 1 night in a tent in Normandy and 5 nights in a caravan in South Vendee and 1 night in the tent in Normandy on the way back. With our bonuses last year it cost us £340. The main site was excellent it had pool, lake for canoeing & pedalos(free hire) and fishing, bicycle hire, horesriding, tennis, archery, football, and all the normal childrens clubs and evening entertainment (were not into childrens clubs and evening entertainment) but they looked good. With all that going on we didnt see our older children and they even meet up with some children from their own school! If anyone is interested the site was La Garangeoire St Julien-des-landes, Eurocamp VE 23.

KTeePee · 01/02/2007 16:26

That seems very reasonable. What was the weather like at that time of year? Garangeoire looks lovely (think that is where Cod is going?) but fully booked for summer holidays. We are going elsewhere in the Vendee this year but if we like the mobile home experience will look at booking Garangeoire next year. The people running the site sent us a brochure even though they had no vacancies for this year.

littledetails · 01/02/2007 17:04

We had lovely weather, sunshine everyday so the children were in the pool everyday. We went late June early July a couple of year ago and had a really nice tan. I dont know about you but Im not a fan of the heat and I cant think of anything worse than having a beach package holiday where its too hot to do anything and you have to get up at a certain time to get breakfast and a sun lounger by the pool and the whole day is regimented. For a family of our size it costs a fortune as well and the kids get bored. I really wouldnt swap our camping holidays in Europe for the world. Roll on Easter for our trip to Holland staying in a caravan in a safari park!!!!