The Club has relaunched its biennial campsite guide SiteSeeker 2017-2018: The Big Sites Book for Members of The Camping and Caravanning Club. Extensive consultation with members and senior Voluntary Officers has been undertaken to introduce improvements to the book, which has seen a move away from the previous structure of using OS sheets to find a campsite within the book.
Here are our top tips on how to make the most of the book, which features more than 2,600 campsites around the UK and parts of Europe.
Pitching up at a Club Site?
The
Club Site network remains at the start of the book and is structured in regions starting with Scotland. Within each region, Club Sites are listed in alphabetical order by name.
Each Club Site page includes key information such as address, telephone number and specific requirements for campers (such as sloping pitches) together with local attractions, and a map to assist navigating to the site. The same map is also repeated in a much larger size in the Club Sites map section starting on page 194, which is listed in alphabetical order based upon the name.
The 2017 season price guide for Club Sites is included with the book as a separate insert.
Take me to a Camping in the Forest site
Members can enjoy a 15 per cent discount at campsites in the Camping in the Forest portfolio – a joint partnership between the Club and the Forestry Commission.
There are 16 campsites across Britain in locations in England’s New Forest and Forest of Dean, the Scottish Highlands and Snowdonia in Wales.
Just head to page 248 in the book or look out for the green markers on the SiteSeeker map, which will contain the name of the
Camping in the Forest campsite.
The listing section for Certificated Sites and Independent Listed Sites
This part of the book has gone through a big overhaul to make it easier for to find a campsite. The section starts on page 273 and, although new navigation approach is intuitive, it’s still worth reading the ‘how to use’ section starting on the following page.
Campsites are listed by region, then by county or metropolitan area, then the nearest fair-sized town in alphabetical order, and lastly by the name of the campsite, also in alphabetical order.
If you know the name of a campsite, first flick to the region, then the county and scan through the list for the site. Each type of campsite is identified at the start of its listing, for example a CS has a blue lozenge with the initials CS followed by the site’s unique number, which is in numerical order.
The SiteSeeker map
The Club has reintroduced the map with the book to again help make finding a campsite within the book easier. The map contains all Club Sites, Camping in the Forest Sites, CSs and ILSs, each with different symbols.
The map is divided into regions that correspond with the book. It has indexes of Club Sites to help make it easier to find a site on the map. Each listing in the book contains the grid reference to make it easier to find the campsite on the SiteSeeker map.
CSs are listed on the map in a blue lozenge, each containing the site’s unique number to again make it easier to identify the specific location.
Additional changes to make the book easier to use
Apart from a new name and the easier ways to locate your chosen campsite, a small number of other changes have been made.
Listed Sites have been renamed Independent Listed Sites to reinforce the fact the Club is not responsible for the management of these sites.
Price codes that were previously listed as letters are now printed in ‘from and to’ prices for pitches. For example ‘from £10 to £25’.
How about campsites in Europe?
We’ve included in SiteSeeker a selection of Club-approved campsites across parts of Europe that can be booked through the Club’s
Travel Service. Turn to page 264 where you’ll find them listed by country and then by region.
And finally...
Once you’ve found the campsite of your choice, all you need to do is book your pitch and look forward to getting out into the countryside courtesy of our great pastime – camping!