Campaign for Real Ale4 reviews
This score is based on 4 genuine reviews submitted via BritainReviews since 2026.
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Find companies you have experience with and write reviews about them! Your reviews contribute to a more transparent market and improve the reliability of companies.Membership mess — a slow fix
check your bank statements regularly and be ready to chase them if you join. I'm glad it's finally resolved, though I wish it hadn't taken so long or been so messy. If you've been burned by other organisations before, this will feel familiar. Honestly, I'd rather spend the subscription on a few extra pints at the local — less hassle and more immediate enjoyment.
Halfway through a Saturday walk
Halfway through a Saturday walk back from a crawl I found myself thinking how much this little group has slipped into my week — in a good way. I joined a bit wary, expecting a lot of bluster, but the whole thing has been mostly well run and actually quite useful. Booking events is dead simple, emails and reminders turn up when they should, and the membership pack arrived quicker than I thought (nice surprise). There was one night when timings changed last minute and I did roll my eyes, but the organiser rang round and sorted it without faff, which won me over. I use the socials and meet-ups as a midweek excuse to get away from the screen, chat about brewing, or just have a decent pint after work — fits into my routine nicely. The people are genuine, service is attentive, and delivery of info and tickets is reliable. Slightly sceptical at first, now I’m glad I stuck with it — good value for what I use it for.
Guide promises, quiet follow-up
they say they enforce standards, but the actual response was slow or non-existent. Small surprise though: when I mentioned my mobility needs in the follow-ups, a local volunteer offered a helpful tip about quieter opening times — that was useful, unexpected and appreciated. Still, the customer service from the national side felt perfunctory, like a form reply and then nothing. I’m left wondering whether branches think they can get away with things if national enforcement is lax. If you buy the Guide because you need reliability — for access, for safety, whatever — be aware that the service behind it can be patchy.
Not what I expected, but a small win in the end
I first heard about the membership from a mate in our local — he waved the leaflet across the bar and said “this is worth it”. So we signed up well over a year before the summer festival, thinking it would save us a few quid on our pints and make weekends easier. For most of the year it felt like a bit of a fiddle. The pubs we like to go to rarely showed the CAMRA sign, or if they did there was always some small hurdle about the vouchers. We didn’t push it, just shrugged and carried on. Then the festival came around and I was braced for the usual crush. I’ll admit, for a while I wasn’t happy — hardly any seating, no proper tables, and we were balancing glasses on a rickety bit of turf. But there was this one moment, late on the first afternoon, when an older couple near us noticed we were wobbling our plates and invited us to share their small table by the beer tent. Suddenly things clicked. We felt seen, the beer tasted better, and that brief spell of comfort made the whole thing worthwhile. I’m glad we went and I’m grateful for that little human touch, it changed the mood. Would I sign up again straight away? Probably not — we didn’t get to use many vouchers during the year and that was disappointing — but I’m glad we tried it, and glad we didn’t miss the festival. If organisers could borrow a leaf from continental events and add more seating, it would lift the whole experience. Small thing, that table, but it mattered.
About Campaign for Real Ale
Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is a UK-based membership organisation that campaigns for real ale, cider and perry, and for the preservation of pubs and related beer culture. It represents consumers and pub-goers and works with the brewing and licensed trade through advocacy and public awareness activity. CAMRA publishes information on pubs and beer, and organises beer and cider festivals across the UK. The organisation was founded in 1971 and is run as a not-for-profit membership body.
This information is based on publicly available data and is provided for orientation purposes only.
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Categories Campaign for Real Ale
Food and Drinks | Beer, Wine & Spirits Reviews & Experiences
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Last update: May 2026
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Review with most votes
Not what I expected, but a sma
I first heard about the membership from a mate in our local — he waved the leaflet across the bar and said “this is worth it”. So we signed up well over a year before the summer... Read onBy: A. Moore