Which UK caravan club should you join?

Both clubs run their own national campsite network, both run a much larger network of small private sites open only to members, and both have been doing it for well over a century. The differences that matter are price, what you are allowed to pitch, and how much help you get once you leave Dover.

All figures below were checked in August 2026. Both clubs reprice annually, usually in autumn, so treat the numbers as a snapshot.

Membership cost

The Caravan and Motorhome Club charges £69 a year by direct debit. Paying by debit or credit card costs £79, which includes a £10 joining fee. One membership covers you, a partner and children under 18. Additional adults aged 18 or over on the same membership cost £10 each.

The Camping and Caravanning Club charges £56.95 a year for digital membership and £59.95 if you want the printed pack posted to you.

On the cheapest option from each, the gap is about £12 a year. That is roughly one night's difference in pitch fees, so membership price alone should not decide it.

The two networks side by side

Certificated Locations and Certificated Sites

Both schemes exist because each club is an exempted organisation under the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960. That lets the club certify a landowner's field for a maximum of five caravans at a time without the owner needing a site licence.

The Caravan and Motorhome Club has more than 2,000 Certificated Locations, over 1,000 of them in England. A CL owner must provide at least half an acre of level land, safe access, drinking water, a chemical waste emptying point, a rubbish bin and public liability insurance. Beyond that the facilities vary enormously. More than 80% have electric hook-up, over 900 have some hardstanding and around 540 have showers, so roughly three quarters have no shower block at all. Prices start from £2.50 a night.

The Camping and Caravanning Club has over 800 Certificated Sites. A CS takes five caravans or motorhomes plus up to ten tents, with six metres between units, for a maximum of 28 consecutive days. Site Officers inspect annually, and most CSs open March to October.

The practical difference: a CL will not take a conventional tent, a CS will take ten.

Tents

The Caravan and Motorhome Club accepts conventional tents only at specific tent-friendly sites. Trailer tents and folding campers count as caravans and go anywhere. Roof tents, tailgate tents and hitch tents are accepted across the network provided they carry no gas appliances.

The Camping and Caravanning Club takes tents throughout its Club Site network. If your grown-up children turn up in a tent for a weekend, or you want to run a small tent alongside the caravan for the grandchildren, that decides it.

Pitch fees and what is bundled in

The Caravan and Motorhome Club applies a £15 per night supplement to non-members, which is the mechanism by which four nights of touring pays back the £69 membership. Prices include electricity unless stated otherwise. Infants under five, dogs and awnings are free. Grass pitches run about £1 less than hardstanding, and a non-electric economy pitch is roughly half the hardstanding rate. Upgrades are charged on top: £4.90 a night for a serviced pitch, £5.90 for a super pitch, £8.90 for a premium pitch and £2 a night for a second car. Members get the first month of new pitch inventory before it opens to anyone else, which matters for August in Cornwall.

The Camping and Caravanning Club prices per person rather than per pitch, which suits couples and penalises a family of five. Members aged 60 or over get 25% off pitch fees in mid and low season. You verify your age once in person at a Club Site with a driving licence, passport or birth certificate, and the discount then applies permanently. It does not cover hardstanding or electric hook-up supplements. For 2026 the club also ran a 25% early booking offer at 43 Club Sites and 60+ Saver rates at a further 93.

Insurance, breakdown and overseas services

This is where the two clubs have genuinely diverged, and it is the section most comparison articles get wrong.

The Caravan and Motorhome Club withdrew Red Pennant Overseas Emergency Assistance in its old form. The underwriter, Astrenska Insurance, could no longer support the product. Policies bought before 30 January 2026 are being honoured to their end date. The club now sells two separate things: MAYDAY European Breakdown Cover, underwritten by Green Flag, and a refreshed Red Pennant Travel Insurance arranged by PJ Hayman, launched on 4 March 2026. The club states plainly that Red Pennant does not provide breakdown cover and MAYDAY does not provide travel insurance. Anyone who bought the old combined product needs to buy both.

The Camping and Caravanning Club sells Arrival breakdown cover provided by RAC, in UK and European versions, plus travel insurance through Howden.

On overseas touring the gap is wider. The Caravan and Motorhome Club books more than 350 European campsites across 17 countries directly, runs escorted tours in Europe, North America, Australasia and Africa, offers member discounts of up to 10% with the major ferry operators and LeShuttle, and sells Overseas Site Night Vouchers at £19.95 each.

The Camping and Caravanning Club no longer books European campsites directly and no longer offers package holidays, escorted tours or winter and summer rallies. It still negotiates ferry discounts, currently 10% with Stena Line, up to 10% with DFDS and P&O Ferries and up to 5% with Brittany Ferries, and it partners with Allcamps for access to over 1,000 campsites in 18 European countries and Eurocamp for accommodation discounts of up to 35%. It sells the Camping Card International and CampingCard ACSI.

Where each one loses

The Caravan and Motorhome Club is dearer on membership and dearer on pitch fees, shuts most tent campers out of its own sites, and gives no standard concession to older members. Its site wardens and pitch density draw regular complaints from people who prefer a field to a grid.

The Camping and Caravanning Club has a smaller network of its own sites and a small-site network less than half the size of the CL scheme. Its retreat from overseas campsite booking and escorted tours matters if you want a phone number in Coventry to call when the pitch you booked in Provence has been given away.

Who each suits

Join the Caravan and Motorhome Club if you tour in a caravan or motorhome only, you tour Europe and want the campsite booking and tours handled for you, you want the largest choice of small five-van sites, and you book popular sites early.

Join the Camping and Caravanning Club if anyone in your party camps under canvas, you are over 60 and tour outside peak weeks, you tour as a couple rather than a family of five, or you simply want the cheaper membership and a slightly less regimented feel on site.

Plenty of tourers hold both. At August 2026 prices that is about £126 a year, and on the Caravan and Motorhome Club side alone, five nights of avoided non-member supplements covers the lot. If you tour more than a fortnight a year and are not tied to one region, dual membership is the least stressful answer.