To impulse buy a caravan?

You can pay to store it closer to the coast, then you drive most of the distance without the caravan and hitch it up for the last part of the journey. Or you can pay to have it all year around on a pitch or you can pay for the site to store it and get it out for you when you need it.

Have you had any holidays in a caravan? Would be a good place to start. A caravan that's got bedrooms etc is expensive and the site fees get expensive and the van has to be replaced every so many years on many sites. A caravan you tow is fun but quite a lot of work, adding an awning gives a lot more space.

Good luck

Caravans are great but they can be money pits. I would consider the age of the caravan, was it regularly serviced, do they have a recent damp report? Caravans can and should be serviced just like cars, they can be subject to damp and mould easily so that would be a major consideration for me.
The other thing to think about is the price. Although they are more expensive post lockdown, they don't generally keep their value well so make sure you check for similar prices if looking at a specific model.

If it's a towing caravan you'll also need to check your car is good enough to tow one and if your driving licence was issued in lat 10/15 years you may not have a towing licence.

There is a lot to consider but it’s not so ridiculous. You are planning to use it a fair bit so it should be value for money.

You have thought about storage - the other big one is tow car…. What do you currently drive and would it be able to tow - typically modern caravans weigh between 1400 and 2200 kg and you need a car capable of towing safely.

i would recommend a towing course if you have towed a caravan before as well.

i would start by thinking about your budget and what age/ layout would work for you.

Do you mean a static caravan on a permanent site?

I've been looking into these. You can often buy them reasonably cheaply but the ongoing costs are steep. You really need to look into it. One site I was looking at has annual charges of £6k, on top of that you have to pay for your electricity which they charge you at a rate they set. Add on insurance etc too. When the caravan reaches a certain age you have to pay to take it away or upgrade to a newer one.

The fact that they set the costs and can put them up at will really put me off.

No to impulse buy.

other things to consider: Would you need to upgrade your car to tow a caravan, or is your car able to cope with the excess weight of towing? Does your car already have a tow bar? What's the insurance cost like?

Join holiday park action group on fbook before you pay anything!

We know plenty of people who have a caravan by the sea so it definitely can be done, and they go even weekend every summer, and so do their friends. We would like to buy a live in vehicle one day too. We did just impulse buy what we thought was a good one but it failed its MOT massively and we sold it on losing money. Next time we will do more research. But it's a great idea I think, you can sleep over really easily and go to loads of places.

You'll be doing yourself a massive favour if you join some caravanning groups online.

They're brilliant and very much more informative than AI.

Quite a friendly bunch in general too from what I can see.

I wouldn't "impulse buy" one but would definitely buy one after some proper thought.

I have been planning my retirement-lump-sum caravan - and that's still a few years off. I am almost certainly going for one of these https://www.go-barefoot.co.uk/barefoot-lite/ as I don't want the hassle of a permanent pitch and want to be able to pick and choose where I go. I may choose a different one when the time comes though!

Check out the costs of a pitch on a site, they can be quite expensive. Also where will you store it?