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Discussing the option with MrsW, and there are a few things to consider, some of which I would appreciate input from the hive mind on:
-the extra driving test (we are both early 30s)- I assume this isn’t too difficult, and will cost, but is then on your license forever?
-storage- there are a few places locally (one of which our neighbours use) that seem well regarded- any ballpark ideas on what this is likely to cost?
-the van itself- our idea would be to spend no more than £5k, accepting some dated upholstery etc to try it out. Is this going to guarantee a damp, cold experience?
-caravan clubs- am I right in thinking you need to be a member to use lots of the little farm based sites that I see all over the place? Are we going to be annoyed by gammons everywhere we go?
Overall it seems to make sense vs a camper (we use 2 vehicles probably 3 days a week), and we already have a decent enough tourneo connect which should be able to tow (need to check that!).
You don't necessarily need to take the test, only if your car and caravan max weights combined are over 3500kg.
Our fully featured secured storage is £94/quarter. Cheaper is available.
Never buy a damp van. Dry ones are around at less than that but the cheaper you go the harder they are to find. Dealer sales are guaranteed for a while and shouldn't be turkeys, but are much more expensive for the same age of van. Super cheap vans can be the subject of rip offs. £5k should be plenty to find a decent can, ours was half that and is fine.
Yes, you need to be a member to use the small sites, but it's well worth it. Most people on sites keep to themselves, you do sometimes get old blokes coming over for a chat though, but they are usually talking about the local area, your car, or your caravan. There are still plenty of small cheap sites that aren't club locations, but they are harder to find.
The figure you need to know about for your Tourneo is the kerb weight. Stay under about 85-90% of that for the MTPLM of the caravan.
Gammons, yes. Caravan and Motorhome club is very stiff. Rules are rules. Pitch your van outside the pegs and you are in trouble! On the plus side. Clean tidy sites in good locations. We didn’t stay in any of the small ones with less infrastructure as we wanted the nice Loos and showers.
We spent £1500 on a 2001 van in 2017. It was consistently the shitest van in every site We used it a for several holidays and weekends and had good times.
We sold it as I got brassed of towing the thing. Setting up and taking down was a bit of a ball ache and Putting up and taking down beds was a pain in my back.
We got it for exactly the reasons you stated, to see if it suited us. It did for a while but not for the long term.
The amount of time we would get go use it v the cost we decided it would be nicer to rent a cottage or AirBnB.
Also, it cost us very little to test the water, and I can store for free at work.
Still basking in the glory of the chap opposite us walking over to say “nice reversing” when we got to a site on the south coast.👍🤣
-the extra driving test (we are both early 30s)- I assume this isn’t too difficult, and will cost, but is then on your license forever?
Rules changed last year https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-rules-for-towing-a-trailer-or-caravan-with-a-car-from-autumn-2021
I could comment on caravans, but I'd probably get a hyper Mjöllnir ban 🙂
Neighbours have one but seemed to spend more time prepping it to go away than time spent away. They've now pitched their tourer on a permanent site which saves on the size of car, towbar, electric car is now possible, etc, etc.
As DT's said, towing isn't what I call 'fun'. Although it depends on your outfit, but with powerful/heavier car with a light caravan & you hardly notice.
Yep setting up & packing up is a pain but once your done your done.
Big advantage is your mobility once your sited, plus car parking isn't the issue that you can have in motorhomes or taller campers.
We're in CAMC but rarely use the main sites as they're rarely cheaper or any better than some private ones, we stick to the Certified Locations of which there are hundreds.
Wouldn't be without ours now
Oh & take your awning down when it's dry!
One thing that we found was that weekends away were tricky.
Get away from work Friday pm, traffic issues with that, get to site late(ish) and setup. Stay sat evening, Sunday morning you need to be off the pitch by 10 so spend Sunday morning packing up then you have to clear the pitch. Some sites will let you park the caravan up for the day but sometimes you have to pay for Sunday night even if you are planning on going home. Leaving the site on Sunday with the caravan massively reduces your opportunities for going somewhere nice. Heading home in Sunday morning would have made the whole effort rather less worthwhile.
Less of a problem in a motor home but you aren’t going to get one of them for £1500 or £5000!
One thing that we found was that weekends away were tricky.
Luckily my weekends are 5 days long cos I only work Thursdays and Fridays. 😎
That’s the thing, the sites needed to clear off all us hard working, “weekenders” to leave space for all the semi/retired people with their Jags, Range Rovers and brand new £45k caravans 🤣
Caravan and Motorhome club is very stiff. Rules are rules. Pitch your van outside the pegs and you are in trouble!
That is true of many organised sites as the same safety regs apply, for fire reasons. The only time we ever got bollocked for pitching up wrong was in a non-CAMC site. But these comments are about the big CAMC sites which are usually terrible, in my view. Good facilities but sterile, populous and expensive. We rarely stay in them. Very few are in good locations too, unlike some CLs.
You can do weekends, if you're organised enough. Especially if you have the van on your drive. Just don't go too far if you're worried about traffic.
It wasn’t a case of not being organised or trying to go too far, tbh. It’s the having to be off the pitch by 10 that we felt was restrictive and not being able to get into a beach car park with a van in tow.
Don’t get me wrong we had some great holidays and long weekends but the cons started to outweigh the pros for us.
As already mentioned, towing licence for post 97 went out the window nearly a year ago so is a free for all.
Having a size advantage over what you're towing really helps so the tail doesn't wag the dog.
We have a grand tourneo connect at work with 1.5tdci and can't imagine it easily pulling much over 1.2t. Whilst checking what it's rated to tow also look up nose weight on the ball. The trailer nose weight you achieve versus claimed can also vary depending on how you load your vehicle and chicken shed.
It’s the having to be off the pitch by 10 that we felt was restrictive
That's not universal. Sometimes it's 12pm, but if you stay in a CL it's often just a farmer and his field, so they don't care if you leave it packed up in the corner until the afternoon, as long as you ask nicely of course.
Re 1200kg, older vans are often much lighter. Our 5 berth 18ft van is 1250kg loaded up.
We sold it as I got brassed of towing the thing. Setting up and taking down was a bit of a ball ache
I don't mind towing - our set up is over 43ft train length and 8ft wide. Recently packed this lot up on a Thursday afternoon, towed back to Derbyshire, set off to the Lakes Friday morning - set up by lunch time, packed up, towed back to Derbyshire on Tuesday, was set up in London (well, Welwyn Garden City) again on the Wednesday. Once you get used to it, it's second nature
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Oddly I drove to Germany and brought a brand new Hobby Caravan back years ago.
English caravans were very expensive at the time and er way less advanced than the German ones that had a ladder so you could get on the roof.
We had it on a site in the Brecon Beacons, I loved the bike riding but never really saw the great fascination of living in a caravan, nice when we had a heat wave but meh.
I always thought it was an expensive hobby(you want something nice to tow with) and with the prices of some sites nowadays I can’t see why you’d choose it over something Airbnb.
Never joined the caravan club so may have missed out on the swinging side of it thou.
Mines about 1100 kilos, fully loaded and ready to roll, one of the smallest 4 berth nordic spec ones we could find.
Have towed it behind a van with 99 horsepower. Was slow and steady everywhere, but fuel consumption barely changed. The ex couldn't tow it as she has the 3500 kilo limit on her licence and the van was about 3000 kilos GVW
Current set up is behind a mediumish estate, barely even notice i'm towing on most roads until i look in the mirror (obviously, i am aware due to the speed limitation, but you know what i mean).
We leave it pretty much prepped and ready to go from may to october, clothes, dried food etc then put the perishables in as we left, used to get two weekends a month in (not so much now i'm on my own). It's also really well insulated and heated (nordic specs!)
Also, not sure if the 4250 kilo limit applies outside the UK. They've been talking about it for EU licences, and some exceptions/tweaks for EVs but not sure where/when either of the changes will apply. So who knows if your UK 4250 limit will apply, as you'll still only have a B licence code.
Also, sites here are far more lax with location and timings. Usually stay until 3 ish on sunday afternoon and pitch to face the morning sun if we can...
I always thought it was an expensive hobby(you want something nice to tow with) and with the prices of some sites nowadays I can’t see why you’d choose it over something Airbnb.
It needn't be expensive. We pay £12 a night usually for fabulous locations overlooking the sea or mountains etc. And the accomodation is always the same.. I feel far more at home in my own van than in a guest house, and I can cook my own food and eat cereal for breakfast or whatever instead of having to go out and look for and buy food every meal.
Last year we booked (and paid for) 3 nights in a Travelodge at Christmas whilst visiting my folks. It was so shit (the hotel, not my folks) we drove home at 10pm on Boxing Day rather than stay another night. This year we are taking the caravan. There's a local CAMC site which will be only slightly cheaper than the Travelodge but we'll ironically have more space and be more comfortable.
There are still plenty of small cheap sites that aren’t club locations, but they are harder to find.
There’s one I know of, a lovely spot, where you put money in an honesty tin! £10/night to camp, £15/night for a caravan, IIRC. When I was still at school, the village just down the hill had a caravan site with a couple of rows of static vans, with space for touring vans and camping behind, we used to take an 18’ van down, with an awning where I’d sleep. On going back, thirty, forty years later, I got down into the village, got a pint in the pub, and sat, wondering just htf we’d managed to tow a body caravan down there! It’s difficult enough driving a car down there, it’s single-track road for several miles, with 1:6 and 1:4 hills with very few passing places. I learned to pull in just where you turn off the main Dartmouth to Kingsbridge road and wait for a bus or a delivery truck, then follow it - everyone else has to give way to that. 😎
Honestly, having been caravanning in the (distant) past, I genuinely wouldn’t ever want to do it myself. I’m not even sure I’d want to take a bloody camper down those sort of narrow steep lanes, despite those being the sort of out-of-the-way, quiet places I love. Bad enough taking my old Octavia down there, my new-ish EcoSport is ten inches wider!
Bad enough taking my old Octavia down there, my new-ish EcoSport is ten inches wider!
Erm.....
I've seen you assert this quite a few times now on various threads over the last couple of years. I don't read every thread on STW, so you may have posted it even more times than I've spotted.
This kind of statement sounds so unbelievable that somebody usually checks and shows that you are incorrect. Surely you must also remember that you have previously written this, and that you have been corrected multiple times. I mean just type "ford eco sport width" and "Skoda Octavia width" in to a search engine.
Love our caravan.
Home from home.
Never pay for expensive sites. Prefer farms etc. £15 a night usually gets you an awesome view, water and electric.
Last year for example we stayed in Ludlow, £10 for water and leccy. On a farm yard it was, but the view was great. The farmer took the kids to see lambs and did bacon and eggs for a minor fee. Ideal.
I always ask if we can stay late on the day of departure and normally it's a yes on these small sites.
Great family holidays.
Last year for example we stayed in Ludlow, £10 for water and leccy. On a farm yard it was, but the view was great.
Monstay Farm? Right in the middle of Mortimer Forest and Bringewood. Take a bike. We've been there at Easter and watched lambs being born, it was great.
Re lanes: most people don't put caravan sites in places that are hard to get to by caravan. However there is often advice when you book (or in the CAMC book/on the website) telling you how best to get in. Even with that we choose sites that don't look too difficult and we check them out on Street View first if we're not sure. Not had a problem yet, but it is possible.
As Molgrips said we too like the fact that a caravan is a home from home. Also love the certificated locations from the CaMh club. The rules for the bigger sites work well as everyone complies and the facilities are always top notch.
Learn the rules of towing (I still get overtaken on motorways by towers going a good 7 mph plus over the speed limit).
The gammons have always been friendly and helpful and believe me as a newbie, there will come a time where you will need to ask for help.
On our very first trip we spent a couple of days on a local site to learn how to set up, learn how the van worked and to make sure it was a hobby we were going to carry on.
This kind of statement sounds so unbelievable that somebody usually checks and shows that you are incorrect. Surely you must also remember that you have previously written this, and that you have been corrected multiple times. I mean just type “ford eco sport width” and “Skoda Octavia width” in to a search engine.
Depending on the which specific generation of Octy and Eco Sport it's an inch or so.
We had some great trips away in ours and don't regret them. However, some of the frustrating parts which made us change to a campervan: - We didn't keep ours on the drive, so you had to sacrifice time either end of your trip going to pick the van up from storage / dropping if off and packing it / unpacking it. We were lucky that we could park it hitched up outside the house ready for a sharpish getaway, usually on the Friday pm after the kids had finished school / work. Unless you can get a 'late stay' at the site, you are booted off by 10.30 / 11am in the morning, at the same time as all the others c'vaners, campers and holiday cottages. Unless you can find somewhere to park in a layby, etc., you're stuck with travelling home in heavy traffic and loose a day of holiday.
Are we going to be annoyed by gammons everywhere we go?
Avoid the 'adult-only' swingers' sites and you'll be reet 😉 and run away quick if they have pampas grass pot plant out front 😂 allegedly there's something about flying a jolly roger upside down too. YMMV 🤣🤣🤣
Edit: In reality, they have been amazing holidays for us as a family. A true adventure for the boys as they've grown up. And regardless of annual running costs, it's still way cheaper than going abroad during kids' school holidays. Again, YMMV
I dont think there is a solution that works for anybody "forever"
We love our van and it has so many advantages for us at the moment. A caravan is likely to be a better choice in a few years time as we tend to stay put a sites and walk or use public transport to get around. We may do some proper touring over the next few years. Given we arrive on site and stay a caravan has advantages. Horse for courses. I like to think we will keep the van forever and my kids can use it in future.
We go somewhere every day during our holidays, by car usually, but sometimes there's a local beach we can walk to.
Had the place to ourselves at our favorite CL site in the Lakes for August bank holiday week.
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Just over the hill in the background is the now ironically named Quiet Site that we used to go to years ago. Had a walk over and it was rammed full with every square inch taken up with glamping pods, tents and caravans - couldn't believe the contrast when back at our
little site.
I know which I prefer (£16 a night vs £60 too!).
Nobody has ever corrected me, to my knowledge. I checked the dimensions of both cars not long after I bought the ‘Sport, because I couldn’t figure out why I was struggling to manoeuvre it in tight spaces, and when I converted the difference in width between the two into imperial via a conversion app, it converted to a total of 9.55 inches. I got the dimensions for both from the manufacturers own websites.
I’ve no idea who you are, but please, take your snotty attitude and shove it.
I just checked the manufacturers websites earlier, the only way you'll get 9.55 inches is if you take one including wingmirrors and one just with the width of the body. Which is, incidentally, what i got when i searched for the two cars, first hit on each one was stated with mirrors (just over 2m wide) and one without (just under 1.8m). So i went to manufacturers, which both quote both dimensions.
You'll probably find the ecosport harder to maneuver due to the increased height, it sits about 20cm higher.
Avoid the ‘adult-only’ swingers’ sites and you’ll be reet 😉 and run away quick if they have pampas grass pot plant out front 😂 allegedly there’s something about flying a jolly roger upside down too. YMMV 🤣🤣🤣
We were directed to a hardcore christian site for a race weekend many years ago, it was literally 200m from the start line of a marathon event, so good location. They'd done a deal with the site owners.
They had rulez.
No drunkenness.
No smoking.
No loud noises.
No noise at all after 10pm.
Church was available 7-8 every morning (not compulsory).
The police were there twice during the night. Arresting people who *weren't* there for the race...
Good, god fearing christian fellows
Firstly, buy a damp meter. At your budget you are going to need it, and will most likely look at a ton of caravans until you find one that isn't a disaster area.
Even at a £10k budget you are going to be in the same situation, caravan ownership exploded during the pandemic... prices went mad and also demand for caravan pitches. last minute weekends away are a thing of the past in my neck of the woods, you need to book weeks/months in advance but I appreciate YMMV
you get nice holidays in them, it's the outdoors life with at least some comfort, but booking a posh glamping pod most weekends would probably work out cheaper. You have to love the lifestyle and not mind the crap bits.
And Clarkson was right, you do have to take your poo for a walk.
My advice is choose a caravan well and see if you get on with it, if not just sell it on.
also demand for caravan pitches. last minute weekends away are a thing of the past in my neck of the woods, you need to book weeks/months in advance but I appreciate YMMV
Is that down the South West as opposed to ooop North.
(I’ve been watching a YouTube thing with having an £85k Motorhome and paying big site fees (admitly the biggest were abroad), I didn’t get the economics of paying out so much to only still pay out tons more once you arrive anywhere.)
Re. the early Sunday depart thing... If you're not at a super expensive site just pay to stay the Sunday night too and leave as late as you want Sunday evening?
We ended doing that with self-catering places we booked in Orkney when we lived in Shetland. The ferry back north wasn't until 11pm, so hanging around all day and to late night with kids if the weather was typically northern or dark was no fun. Paying the Sunday night meant another days chilling and doing what we fancied rather than scrabbling about filling time.
My parents have had a number of caravans of which we've had free use. I enjoy the actual staying they can be very cosy while still being connected with the outdoors.
The downsides though include the cost of pitches, extra transport costs, fixing stuff costs, plus the hassle of moving and set up - a weekend away was a lot of work we found a weeks stay the best. Buy wisely and I'm sure you can enjoy a caravan, use, then sell for the same price.
Even with free use we stopped using it and went YHA / Airbnb instead, that's not to say it wasn't enjoyable more it wasn't cheap enough for us to put up with the hassle.
A friend of mine sold his caravan after a few years so he could have, and I quote 'a proper holiday' by which he meant when you have one it's pretty much the only kind of holiday you can justify.
Also it reminds me my Dad, despite being an experienced caravaner, still managed a 180 on a motorway once (no real harm done) and it didn't put him off.
We're also caravan curious ... There are lots of 2 berth ones on Ebay for £2-£5000 ish. Are most of them likely to be damp, then?
And Clarkson was right, you do have to take your poo for a walk.
House rules...no number 2 in the caravan loo!!! Never had to empty a poop yet 🙂 Thats what site bogs are for 😉
I have a 5k Caravan - Hymer Nova. Superbly built german caravan that while a little dated in many ways vs new, is also still better than a box fresh one in others. Zero damp, super warm and cosy, everything works.
Looked at many crappier ones before I bought this one, although I only saw one bad Hymer. They are just better built for the age you will be looking at. Working out so far and no I don't pay Airbnb prices to stay on campsites. I think the most Ive paid is £60 per night in the UK but that was school holidays, on a beachside site, with an indoor pool. Most of the time its £20 - £30 peak.
There are lots of 2 berth ones on Ebay for £2-£5000 ish. Are most of them likely to be damp, then?
Not necessarily no. The cheaper you go the more likely they are to be damp, but it's far from a certainty. Cheaper vans for sale are of a few different types:
- Good but old vans for sale legitimaitely
- Vans with a little bit of damp where the seller is honest about it
- Vans with a little bit of damp where the seller just hasn't noticed. You don't always know immediately.
- Vans that have had a leak (either from rain or e.g. the plumbing once exploded over the winter because it wasn't drained), some interior wall went soft but it's been fixed
- Vans that are leaking currently and haven't been fixed, but you shouldn't pay £5k for one of these, more like £1-2k
- Vans that are leaking and have been hastily patched up for sale, where the seller is "selling it for a friend"
- Vans from dealers that have fixed the damp.
Trust your nose. Buying at this time of year is good, because you'll know about damp vans. If it smells and feels damp, or if it stinks of cleaner or air freshener, then walk away.
Always poo in mine and shower and use the oven
I don't understand the mentality of some that like to leave it nice for the next owner
I use mine a lot in winter, sod getting half dressed when it's cold and wet, tramping to the loo/shower block and back, when I can do it all in the nice warm van
Always poo in mine and shower and use the oven
Same here. My mate bought a new motorhome & had it 2 years before using the loo for a poo!
Although I’ve currently got the top off our toilet cassette & it is a bit manky inside, even though it gets a proper good rinse every time I empty it along with using decent chemical.
It’s 8 yrs old mind.
Prices have certainly shot up in recent years. We paid just over 5k for an 2008 4 birth Bailey about 3 year ago and they're closer to 8k now. Don't do what we did and get the first one we saw because we were all excited. Found out that when we got it on site, the dirty git hadn't emptied the bog. Was wretching for ages after dealing with it. 🤮
Although I’ve currently got the top off our toilet cassette & it is a bit manky inside, even though it gets a proper good rinse every time I empty it along with using decent chemical.
It’s 8 yrs old mind.
Who gives a crap. (Pun intended)
I use mine for going for a dump. At least I know the bit I'm sat on and the room I'm in is clean.
But as for the cartridge being a bit dirty ...it's literally receptical for holding poo. It serves no other purpose. Your not going to use it as a gravy boat with Sunday dinner are you ....
Whatever way you dress it, emptying the cassette is a pretty awful job. We didn’t shit in ours as it didn’t flush properly but did pee. The one time one of the kids did do a Tom Tit, it was bloody horrid!
To be fair The artist’s van look’s palatial compared to our circa Y2k Avondale Dart.
Whatever way you dress it, emptying the cassette is a pretty awful job. We didn’t shit in ours as it didn’t flush properly but did pee. The one time one of the kids did do a Tom Tit, it was bloody horrid!
What cassette you got. I've a Thetford c200 and honestly. Emptying shit or emptying wee.... It's neither here nor there for me. Using the correct chemicals it's all pretty much liquid anyway. ....
We don’t have it anymore, it was a thetford. Yep, did use chemicals👍
Haven’t read all of the posts but had several caravans over 10 years. We were lucky and could safely park on our driveway using it as a spare room for visitors too. Easy to load up and keep the battery charged for trips.
Observations:
Every second hand caravan will have damp, it’s just how much and where. Inspect the latest damp report from the last service to see where the problems are. Speak to the servicing tech if in doubt for their opinion. If it doesn’t have a damp report/service and you’re keen you should pay to have one done.
£5k will get you something useable. As above though - there will be problems so it’s
A matter of seeing where and what (check all appliances on gas, mains, 12v).
We used ours loads in the early days - weekends away, week long holidays and 3 weeks in Europe too. That makes the expense worth it. Latterly we didn’t use it so much.
Factor in annual maintenance, servicing and insurance costs. Factor in increased fuel usage on trips. Factor in repairs to appliances and the odd bit of damp work if you’re unlucky (£1k to have the front of ours rebuilt).
We loved it with the kids and dog for quite a while. Never underestimate the power of. A play park for a few quiet hours if you have kids. It ended up feeling like going on holiday in a muddy cupboard though and we sold our last one a few months ago. We figure booking a cottage for a few weeks a year in various places will be reasonably cost effective and fun than using the van.
Never had an issue emptying the khazi, just make sure you don't point it at a stupid angle when ejecting the contents. Hose in, bit of water, lid on, embrace your inner Tom Cruise, rinse and repeat as necessary.
As for smell, there shouldn't be any beyond the chemicals.
We've towed with normal cars rather than SUVs and our fuel economy is about half what I get solo - around 30mpg. However, 30mpg seems to be what the caravan gets so you probably get the same towing with a van or SUV.
30mpg seems to be what the caravan gets so you probably get the same towing with a van or SUV.
Under 20 with the Disco. Caravan is 2t though
With current fuel it cost me about £150 to drive up to Scotland in August. Would've cost £300 with a caravan, so that's a fair old whack. 500 miles tho. To be fair, with the Passat I could get about 34mpg on a good day without bikes on the roof.
bought ours second had about 6 months before the pandemic as an experiment after years of camping. lockdowns aside, we've used it more often than we would of gone away camping in the same time period
some general thoughts in no particular order;
- towing isn't an issue if you've already got a big enough car and haven't bought a ridiculous size van. ours is a 2 berth coachman 380 towed by a skoda superb, and whilst you know the van is there it really isn't a problem. the only thing you do have to be cautious of is your route and pay to plan it in advance and not blindly follow your sat nav, easy to get into some fairly tight situations on lake district b roads etc
- buy the size of van you actually need, not what you think you need. i see loads of couple in massive 4 berth vans which look like a pain to tow / manoeuvre / store. whilst it's nice to have a fixed bed and the extra space, a small van still feels like luxury compared to camping and it takes all of 5 minutes to set the bed up
- personally I'm pretty sure we wouldn't use ours as much if we couldn't store it on the drive. makes it easy to prep the van for going away and keeping it in good nick. also means we use it as an overflow bedroom / extra work space when required so get additional value out of it. i'd think hard about it if away form home storage is your only option
- get a motor mover even if its a small van, just makes everything easier and far quicker for us due to having awkward access on the drive
- we tend to pay between £15-25 per night at different sites, that's comparable cost with camping on many sights these days and far more comfortable. definitely cheaper than air bnb's. obviously have the initial outlay of the van, but they seem to hold their value fairly well
- you need a long weekend to make a trip worth while imho. we're lucky that only 2.5/3 towing hours from north wales and lakes, so have done a few friday night to Sunday morning trips, but the effort to reward is a bit off, so we tend to take a days holiday for 3 day weekends which makes it far more enjoyable
- don't really understand the comments people make about the hassle of setting up / packing down. unless your attaching massive awnings, it really isn't and takes us far less time than camping
- main caravan club sites can be a little 'rigid', although perfectly friendly. get out the the small CL sites and they're far more relaxed
overall, using the caravan as a base for outdoor activities is great. the ability to get clean, dry and warm in comparative comfort and then have a cold beer out of the firdge after a wet day on the hills is brilliant. also opens up more of the year for going away - we're off to coniston next weekend for 4 days, with the current weather forecast there's no way i'd be going camping
We've done smallish campervan, caravan, and now back to a big tent.
T5 campervan was perfect for our use when it was just Mrs a11y and me. Still OK with 1 young kid but arrival of #2 and the plethora of stuff plus our bikes etc was just too much for the size of the van. We were forever moving stuff to get to other stuff, not much fun with 2 + 2 in a van that size even combined with a driveaway awning. Great for short weekends/overnighters though.
Caravan bought when kids were young. Great for family holidays: space, comfort (-15degC in the snow at Aviemore), easier to use a vehicle during a longer stay than packing a campervan up. However, it was a PITA in other ways. We couldn't keep it at the house and access to storage was a hassle and costly. Already mentioned, but stopping off enroute or on the way back from trips away takes a lot more planning, as does the roads you can use. And dampness: our <10yr old Hobby had a water leak 'fixed' by the dealer a few months after purchase, but it reappeared 18 months later. Was facing a potentially big bill to try to fix it again without guarantee of success.
We currently use a big tent for family hols, generally use it 2-3 times a year. Short trips away just use hotels etc but as the kids get older I'm pining for another campervan so we can avoid hotels if possible for overnighters. Adding a poptop and seat/bed to our current van is costly though.
Put my awning up in the dark last night I've got that used to doing it
get a motor mover even if its a small van, just makes everything easier and far quicker for us due to having awkward access on the drive
We used to have one but I got rid of it on the last van because it weighs a lot and we were happy to use the extra payload on other stuff. It was useful moving it by the side of the house, but I can do that with a car with a little more effort. We weren't using it on sites.
I would hate to go back to a large tent. Miserable when it's windy and raining, but being in a warm dry caravan watching the rain outside is great 🙂
The setup time isn't bad if you are organised. In fact it's one of the joys - park up and get the kettle on in ten minutes, but only if the site is flat enough. If you have a sloping pitch you have to spend time levelling it up.
the ability to get clean, dry and warm in comparative comfort and then have a cold beer out of the firdge after a wet day on the hills is brilliant
Yeah. The shower might not deliver much water but it is warm and having your own warm shower without having to be on a fully featured campsite is just fantastic.
FWIW I've got two awnings, a little roll out one (4x3m) and a full clip on awning.
Little one stays attached all the time, so i can use the caravan for a quick weekend away whenever i want, the full awning goes in if i'm away for longer with the kids, takes longer to put up, but gives loads more space. Especially if you have a bit of bad weather to contend with
See thread about canal boats.
Add water.
Last year we booked (and paid for) 3 nights in a Travelodge at Christmas whilst visiting my folks. It was so shit (the hotel, not my folks) we drove home at 10pm on Boxing Day rather than stay another night.
I've spent quite a few years travelling with work over the last few years, and Travelodge quickly turned out to be the very worst of all the commonly available hotel chains. Only to be used as a last resort, and certainly never to be used for anything resembling a nice weekend away.
Yeah well we had no choice other than spending several hundred quid.
Yeah well we had no choice other than spending several hundred quid.
I'm not having a go - sometimes these things are necessary. Just amused that you picked on the chain that I'd drive an hour to avoid. 😀
Only to be used as a last resort, and certainly never to be used for anything resembling a nice weekend away.
tbf, when their prices are often down to £30 a room, ie cheaper than caravan site fees, I have pretty low expectations
I’m not having a go – sometimes these things are necessary. Just amused that you picked on the chain that I’d drive an hour to avoid.
Yes quite, it was 90 mins in our case 🙂
Oh one more point from up there ^^ the biggest pain for us when towing is stopping on the way. It's fine in motorway services (usually - Abington I'm looking at you here) but you're never sure if you can pull in when you want to stop at a cafe etc. Petrol stations are usable, if sometimes a little tight, because they're designed to allow tankers in of course. I've never failed to be able to fill up but I've found it a bit tight. Fortunately it's rare to be going far enough away from a motorway to need to do this. And google Streetview can help you plan.
The way around the lunch/pee stop issue is stopping in laybys and eating in the van, which I actually quite enjoy if it's a nice location. But if you have to stop to pick something up it can be hard. I once realised on the way somewhere that I'd forgotten a bike lock, so we had to stop at a Halfords in a retail park. We scouted the location on Google Maps and parked up temporarily at the back of a car park so I could run in. For some reason a dim-witted security guard thought we were travellers colonising the place (despite very obviously being on a family holiday, bikes on roof etc). My wife got all flustered, cos she's like that - I'd have told him to piss off because I knew I was only going to be 5 mins and simply being present with a caravan doesn't mean you're actually camping...
If you have a sloping pitch you have to spend time levelling it up
The shower might not deliver much water but it is warm and having your own warm shower without having to be on a fully featured campsite is just fantastic.
Get a Buccaneer my dear - electric self leveling legs and hydraulic rams 😉
Shower is actually decent in mine, red hot if you want it to be. Standard setting is 2kw, but you can turn it up to 3kw on the Alde panel. Uses 16-20l of water for me to have a decent enough shower and a good flow too - you can get fancy shower heads now that make the water seemingly come out with more force
Get a Buccaneer my dear – electric self leveling legs and hydraulic rams
Well, we're not all as rich as you. Thanks for reminding us.
Well, we’re not all as rich as you. Thanks for reminding us.
🤣 I'm not rich. In the slightest. The van is funded through my business and offset by a big saving not staying in hotels
The van is 6 years old. I'd have to be pretty well off to afford a new one though, they are eye watering
Get a Buccaneer my dear – electric self leveling legs and hydraulic rams 😉
Can’t you afford a motorhome that has those?
That’s like saying, ‘ I drive a Porsche Boxter cos I can’t afford a 911 Turbo. 😂😂
Can’t you afford a motorhome that has those?
Can't see National Highways letting me plaster a motorhome up with Chapter 8 and pull into motorway closures to be really honest 🤣
It’s not a motorhome, it’s a welfare van!
It’s not a motorhome, it’s a welfare van!
🤣🤣