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Tessa

Apologies if this topic has already been covered..................

Russ & I are planning to travel to Europe in January, staying until May or so. We are totally new to all this so have stacks of info to gather in a short time.

Reading through the CC literature, I see that they offer a service which includes Ferry Crossings, European Camping Cheque Scheme and Red Pennant Insurance.

Is this good value? How do prices compare with organising one's own ferry/Eurotunnel tickets? Is Red Pennant a good idea and are the camping cheques worthwhile?

Tess

Telbell

TEss- if you have the time and the inclination you could no doubt spend hours trolling websites to get individual prices for the products you want. The advantage of a "package" such as you quote is of course that it's all done for you without the hassle- but it may be that you are paying a tad more for it.

AS you are going out of season it may be worth going on the www.campinngcheques.co.uk website and getting them separately-they do ferries as well. THe Camping Cheques are good value if you want to use proper sites & you should save a bit compared to nightly site fees. Consider "Touring Cheques" also. (Do a Google)

I've never used Red Pennant but I understand it is a good quality Insurance and as you are away for a while it may be woth considering.

I'm sure other MHF members will give good advice- and of course you can do a Search on these Forums to find useful info on all the products you want info on.

Good Luck and enjoy!!

Don Madge

sng

We have red pennant (motoring and personal)... the costs increase significantly the longer the duration of each stay

e.g. they wanted £40 to extend the cover from 31 to 41 days!!

PhredC

Yes it has and many will give you their pet/favourite ways of travelling. It might be worth doing a search of some of the previous threads.

Is the CC Red Pennant scheme a good one? Yes it is but for whom? It's certainly good for the CC and, in general but not always, you will get a better price than booking direct with UK offices/agents. You might also look at booking with the same travel company through their continental offices - very often 30% cheaper even than the CC. Their insurance, like any other, is only worth having if you value peace of mind and need to use it. But, if you do need to use it it is brilliant. We had to use it once for the grey plug on our caravan (£5 the part, goodness knows what the next day delivery to Spain cost) which was unobtainable in Spain. Others have had major repatriations after heart attacks etc and the Red Pennant staff always seem to come up trumps. We've just bought our 60 Camping Cheques for our trip, but there are other schemes - the C&CC one, for example.

takeaflight

We are with RAC Arrival, its works needed them in France last year !

For off season we use Camping cheques we have always been pleased with the sites, of course some better than others but over haul of a good standard.

For the crossing due to our Charlie Dog we use the tunnel and book direct on line, again always an excellant service.

We also have E111 for health, now I think they issue cards, but ours are a simple form stamped at the Post Office.

So one telephone call to the RAC visit two web sites and maybe three for the E111 and off you jolly well go.
Oh we never book ahead because we are never sure were we will end up and how long for.
We also find the CCI card usefull again through the RAC

olley · Campsite DB Admin

Hi takeaflight, I don't think the E111 is valid anymore you need the european health card.

Olley

takeaflight

Olley you are right just read my own link. DOH!! Embarassed

Tessa

to all of you who replied.................

many thanks for taking the trouble to give me your input

now I need to go away and THINK!!!

Maybe the ACSI Card??

We are with RAC for our cars in the UK now so we'll get a quote from them and see what they can offer us.

I've always fancied using Eurotunnel rather than a ferry - how does the cost compare?

MOTORHOMER

Tessa we used the Acsi card last year but do check what the site will charge you before you say you have the Acsi card especially in low season as occasionally it is cheaper in off peak periods than using it.

We used ours in June & early July last year and sites cost us 14 euros instead of approx 30 euros.

Motorhomer