Have had a caravan for 10 years but thinking of being more mobile with less hassle. DH and I in the throws of the great debate as I don't want one that is too big that it just becomes as cumbersome as the caravan and he doesn't want one too small as he is very tall. Our two kids are aged 10 and 12 se we have at least another five years before they don't want to come with us and we can leave them at home.
I like the idea of a decent sized two berth which would do us the rest of our lives with the kids camping out in the awning (though I can see this might be a bit of an ask). Four berths seem very expensive and the beds always seem to be two doubles which doesn't really suit. DD and DS fight the best of times without sharing a bed. Not hugely thrilled about sharing with DD while DH shares with DS either.
All advice and tuppence worth welcome.
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Campervan/motorhome advice please
voluptuagoodshag · 08/07/2015 20:19
We have a Compass Avengard, it's ten years old and we bought it six years ago in a spotless condition with less that 9000 miles on the clock.
It 5.8m long, so one of the shorter vans and easy to drive. It's a 5 berth! Two doubles, in in van body and one in the overhead cab, and the single is the long bench seat. My DH is 6 feet tall and had headroom. It has full size four ring cooker with oven, sink and drainer, fridge and shower room. We have only used the awning once in five years. Having said that it's usually only the two of us, though occasional nights have been four adults (cosy but doable).
There are lots of pros and cons with campervans, but I imagine you have already thought of those.
My best advice would be to go around showrooms and especially big camping exihitions, like the one they have at the NEC, and look at all the layouts to see what would suit your needs the best before you buy.
Good vans do hold their value, but getting a second hand but fairly new one will get you a lot more for your money than buying new. There are still a group of people who buy new then find after a couple of years that they perfer a different type of holiday and you can get a bargain like we did.
We have three vans in all, the first 2 were did conversions with elevating roof, and we had a small caravan for a couple of years but never really took to it, don't know why. Love our campervan now, everything we always wanted.
Best of luck with your search. 
I obviously don't know your budget and where motorhomes are concerned the sky is literally the limit. - they do tend to hold their value though
But there are motorhomes with bunk beds in the back
Such as this sort of thing
If you were to buy something like Practical Motorhome mag - most newsagents/supermarkets seem to stock it there is a section there with all the different layouts and a key for which ones apply, so say bunks is all numbered 7 or 8.
But deffo go to a show, the NEC in October is usually very good
The other thing to check are your driving licences and that you are able to legally drive 3.5ton vehicles as obviously that will effect your choices. It will show as cat C1 and automatically given if you passed before 1997. Not all motorhomes are over that weight limit, but obviously if you can drive over then you will have more choice.
We went from caravan to motorhome, it is a different holiday as you can't just nip out in the car for example, you have to pack everything away. Although there isn't an awful lot to pack. We don't tend to leave the site, we take bikes and plan our holidays around that.
I would buy the biggest van you can afford, as having more space makes your life so much easier. I would make sure you have a bed for everyone as if you are doing stopovers touring you wont want to be putting the awning up every night and if it is cold your DC might want to sleep inside. We have a 9 metre burstner. Big enough for 6 of us. Mostly my teenage DC camp, but we do have nights on the autoroutes where we all sleep in the van. We love our van and use it about 6 weeks a year - we even go skiing in the alps in it 
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