AIBU to think it a good idea to get a caravan!

[Effnjeff]

Was thinking it would be nice to get a cheap 2nd hand touring caravan for spontaneous breaks/cheap hols etc.
DH def not keen, says they're a PITA and way too expensive for what they are

You could pick up a very nice van for about £1500.

I remember once when my mum was setting up to reverse the van into a space on a site a man coming over and knocking on the window of the car offering to do it for her - she took great pleasure in getting it into the space first time! Her own brother once doubted her ability to two out of a muddy field!

It's amazing what women are capable of that men don't realise

Really Dowser? Is eBay the best place to look?

We bought a tourer last year and pitched it on a site near the sea for the season; we have just moved it to a slightly cheaper site that is walking distance to the beach (and pub and nice cafe). The site itself doesn't have loads of facilities but does have a reasonable playground, field for ball games, and outdoor pools. We are paying just over £1300 for the season. We; definitely couldn't be bothered with towing it around the country but it's great for a quick getaway. We used to go camping but found that we were taking more and more gear with us, plus the caravan is much better if it rains as you can make a cup of tea without getting wet :)

Tbh I am more keen on it than DH but he tolerates it! We paid 4k for a 10yo caravan from a dealer, it's in good nick and will hopefully last us a few years.

We just bought a motor home after having g a little camper van for a few years.
I took the kids on my o an on Thursday and wit h in minutes of arriving we were swimming in the site pool..
My two dd love the discos and putting g on their dresses.
I am being strict with food tho and so I cook everything the van.
I'm planning to stock it as much as I can to be able to go at short notice, dh works a lot Of weekends which can be well lonely so.I'm.hoping to get away often.
We are lucky to have a great site half an hour away which is really good just for a weekend.

eBay or preloved. Got my latest one from preloved.

I loved ours when i was a kid, and so did the whole family.

Load it up, hitch it up, off you go...

my fiance isn't keen, so since he drives and I don't, we won't be getting one :(

YABU.

But if my hand was forced I would prefer a campervan / small motor home over a caravan. Caravans just seem like a PITA deathtrap to me.

Probably cheaper to buy a caravan to hitch to your existing car than paying for a motor home. My brother has a camper van which is great for him but would be a cramped nightmare for us as a family of 5. If you need to pop to the shops once you've arrived on site, you need to pack everything away again safely. But clearly cooler for some reason. I know several mum friends who would love a caravan but their husbands say no way not cool so they have to suffer cold nights and bad backs in damp tents.

Thank you viva

Used to absolutely hate caravans and swore that I would never have one. Then one week we were going camping for a week at an event, and it threw it down for three weeks beforehand. The thought of being soaking wet with a child and two wet dogs in a tent was seriously depressing me. So we looked at Preloved and ended up paying £1200 for an old caravan. The trip was wonderful. We were dry and warm with comfortable beds, a wardrobe, bathroom and good cooking/storage for food. I fell in love!

We never do the typical campsites, we often stay in the grounds of stately homes for horse trials, or in quiet little known sites. I can't imagine wanting to go back to the same place all the time, or the perfectly manicured housing estate sites, not our thing at all. CWe had four years with that 25 year old van, staying nice and dry. We sold it this year, wanting something more modern.

I'm now debating waiting to buy until the backend of summer, as prices have shot up for summer, but I can't bear the thought of having to go back to a tent for this summer!

We are lucky that we can store it at home, so it doesn't cost us much.

God no. Damp bedclothes, cassette toilets, sweltering when it's warm, freezing when it's cold, damp awnings, sharing muddy showers with strangers, damp towels, noisy neighbours 2 feet away on busy sites. Just URRRRGGGHHHH!

Are you Jeremy Clarkson?

Busted

I have no idea how much a cheap 2nd hand caravan costs but it's worth working out the annual cost.

We have several weekends away during the year in a static caravan and it's generally around £200 for 3 nights. Even if we managed once a month from April-October it would cost £1400. The reality is that we wouldn't manage every month - things just get in the way.

Having a caravan would be great if you know that you'll use it but you need to work out the cost of buying, site fees, storage etc.

On average we pay around £20 per night for the four of us for a pitch in our touring caravan. We bought it 2nd hand off a dealer on Ebay three years ago and it's the best thing we have ever done. I never thought I was a 'camping' person but I really love it now. We have stayed on some fantastic sites with some great facilities.

I generally tow the caravan myself and it's not too bad once you get used to it. It's actually quite pleasurable just tootling along as you can't go that fast anyway.

Once the caravan is stocked up on the basic equipment all you really need to do is pack clothes and a small amount of food to keep you going for the first day or two.

We have had so many holidays that we would not normally have been able to afford and been to some great places all over the country.

You will have to factor in: fitting a tow bar to your car, insurance, storage fees (if you can't keep it on your drive), maintenance and repairs. But overall I'm convinced that we have been able to take holidays in this country a lot cheaper with a caravan.

If you passed your test after 1 Jan 1997, you are limited to the weight you can tow rules

Get a tent. We have spent the last four weekends in different lovely places, each no more than an hour or so drive from us. We've been to Cumbria, the Peak District, Northumberland and the Yorkshire dales and each weekend has cost about thirty quid. You can get pitches with electricity too if you want it.

I've enjoyed reading this, and it made me think of this film.

It is not a DIY guide to caravanning. OK it is, in a way.:o

We're on our 6th year - 2 in a caravan and the last 4 in a motorhome. As per others we have been to some fabulous sites in UK and twice a year to france (you can use your Tesco vouchers on the Eurotunnel) and we try and go somewhere at least once a month even if it's 20 miles away for the weekend.

I like the fact it is good ole family time, we take the bikes and go off for the day. Eat together and do family things like play cards etc.

I love it. I'd say do it.

Don't get a tent.

I used to camp then got a campervan. Ha to sell the van and got a lovely bell tent. Used it twice and remembered why I didn't like camping anymore.

Cold, wet, uncomfy bed, cold, cold, no fridge, cold, no oven, cold. Takes ages to pack the car up. Takes ages to dry the tent out.

Caravan is warm, dry, oven and fridge on hand, own toilet, own shower, plug sockets, tv.

You can probably find a long list of pros and cons if you look long and hard enough - not every option will suit everyone and the different variety of layouts for tents, motorhomes, caravans and campervans is huge.

For me the part of tenting I loathed was packing the tent up on that last morning and loading up the car. When we go away in our campervan for longer than 4/5 days we take a drive away awning and the worst part is always packing it up. Compared to this weekend when we just took a pull out sun/rain shade one we spend the entire morning taking it down. This weekend 15 minutes and we were ready for the off (and most if that was spent rounding up the kids)

We considered a caravan but we both have cars through work so getting permission and then replacing the tow bar every two years would be a total faff.

I did watch a couple who had obviously come to open up their permanently sited caravan this weekend and he spent three days lovingly washing, drying and then polishing his caravan. Now that's dedication!!

Would def have to be caravan with shower. No way am traipsing across freezing muddy fields to stand in freezing wash blocks
(Seem to recall lots a time spent at swimming pools when camping as a child!)

We bought a caravan 2 years ago and absolutely love it. We got a top of the range one which has a full sized shower, fixed double bed and is very luxurious. There's just the two of us and our dog, so it suits us. There are caravans and sites to suit everyone though... sites range from just a tap in a field to fully serviced with swimming pool, leisure facilities, childrens' play parks, etc, etc.

With your own caravan you know what the accommodation will be like and if you don't like the location you can move on.

We keep ours at home but our daughter has hers stored on a site a few miles away from home. The site owners take her caravan to the pitch when they want to stay, the price of which is included in the storage fee. This means they can easily take their family away for weekends - for their longer holidays they go to France where they stay on a site right next to the beach (it would cost a fortune to stay in a hotel or B&B at such a location).

Before buying one though you'll need to check the towing capacity of your vehicle. Its also worth going to a large caravan stockist to get an idea of layouts, etc.

I would recommend it to anyone at any age!

The sites we go to there are no cold washblocks most are very warm, and have spacious clean showers