To ask for your caravan / motor home experiences / opinions?

[Babooshkar]

Posting for traffic..

DH and I are thinking of investing in one for taking family (4 of us) on UK hols in summer and for weekends more locally throughout the year.

We are total novices though and could do with some stories / tips etc from the MN massive.

When our children were younger we had a trailer tent the kids loved it but in bad weather it was hard work.

We also hired a touring caravan - I loved it and DH did not.

We hired a campervan for 6 weeks in New Zealand (6 berth for 2 of us).

It was brilliant but there were places we couldn’t go in the van. Large cities restricted parking etc

Given the choice I would go for the touring van. But at least 1 meal a day is eaten out (usually lunch or dinner).

Hire one for a week first in order to gauge what you need and how you would use it.

We had a motor home briefly. Very briefly. We’d had VWs in our youth. We’d converted an old ambulance. We’d had great fun....
The Bedford camper van was the worst purchase we’ve ever made. A night in Norfolk. A four year old, a two year old and heavily pregnant. It had a built in loo but I wasn’t allowed to use it as it was beside the bed head. Loos half a mile away and pregnant is uncomfortable. It’s made worse when it rains heavily.
Trying to get comfortable on an inch of foam wasn’t easy.
Light flooding in at 4am wakes the children in their over the cab bed. Peacocks prevented and pretence at sleep. The two year old discovered they were terrified of peacocks.
We’d bought a television with a six inch screen but at 5am it was OU maths or nothing. Kept the four year old happy waiting for big bird at 6am.
We were back on the road in stoney silence by 7:30am. Closest we ever came to divorce.
The camper van was on the market the following week.
We had no regrets but are getting occasional urges now the children are grown. We quite fancy matching VWs with an awning between the two. Camper van beds are too small for two people over about 35 years.

I'm currently in my touring caravan bed.

We go away 2 weekends a month plus a few week long holidays, it's stored on a camping and Caravanning club site and we pay £450 a year to store it here plus £15-£20 per night for a family of per night we use it.
They put in on a pitch for us then back in storage after we've left.

The kids love it, we came here straight from collecting dd on Friday and they've barely been indoors since, they make different friends each time and spend the day outside playing then in for bed, dh & I relax or read or do a bbq.

It's definitely worth visiting a dealership and having a look, there are so many different layouts to consider, ours has a side dinette that makes up into bunks but we're thinking about switching to permanent twin beds because the bunks are always made up and I don't like the look of them 24 hours a day.

We had a bailey senator single axle 4 berth caravan. It was great.
Get a motor mover though. You park the van with your remote control (unattach from your car first though).
It saves burning your clutch out.
You can dump sooo much in the van for the journey.
We had an awning and electric heater for that.
We got an aquaroll for constant water.

But a mate had a park home.
Cost 9000 per year site fees.....that's like a mortgage! She could only use 10 months a year too.
The site decides where your home is.....not you.
When the home gets a bit crusty....they move you out of sight. You pay.
When it's really crusty...they move you off site. Whether you want to leave or not.
You pay.

My parents have a caravan and often take my kids for a few nights, they absolutely LOVE it. I am seriously considering getting one. If we go away in school holidays there are loads of other children around and they play outside until the sun goes down which is a real treat (they’re 6 and 4). One thing I’m not keen on is the shower/bath situation so we tend to choose sites which have shower blocks. One tip that has stuck with me is not to personalise the inside of your caravan too much, as if it was stolen it feels so much more an invasion if they have your family photographs, special souvenirs etc (that may seem cynical but we are in a ‘naice’ area and have had a few caravans stolen from seemingly secure locations). Invest in a motor mover! Also, I would take a towing course to make sure you’re happy with driving it around.

The difficulty with a motor home is that you can arrive on site and set up, but as soon as you want to take a trip into town or to the shops, you have to pack up again. This is why you often see them towing smart cars these days.

My parents have a touring caravan they store on a site in Devon. DH and I often go and use it with DS and the dog. We just book up and it's towed out for us. I think it's well worth storing on a site you really like as you can use it a bit like a holiday home if you don't want to go far with it (or, of course, you can! DPs often take it to Europe).

I think a campervan is a romantic choice, but in terms of comfort and practicality a caravan trumps it.

I love my caravan. So do the dogs - they're straight in it if I open the door (it lives on the drive). It's new enough to have most mod cons but old enough that I've been able to have fun redecorating, painting the inside etc. I don't really bother cooking though I have cooked Christmas dinner in it! Just stuff the fridge full with lots of grazing food and wine. I sleep like a log in it with the bed permanently set up at the back. It's my girly shed. There's nothing really to towing and setting up but I would definitely get a motor mover. I had a wonderful holiday a few years ago - Northamptonshire, Kent, South Wales and finally the Lake District before home to Scotland. It has all its own kit, including glasses, plates, pans, bathroom stuff, duvets and sheets, just add food, drink and clothes, though I do leave slippers, undies, dressing gown and night things in it and return them once washed so we can go anywhere really quickly.

And you've always got your own loo with you, just find the next layby! 😃

We have had 2. Both bought brand new and sold after about 7 years for a great return.
Loved them but alas we have older teens and uni students who aren't interested now.
We might get a lovely 2 bert for just me and DH soon. Theres nothing like waking up in your own cosy and peaceful little house in the middle of nowhere.
My only advice would be to always carry spare fuses! So many people dont and DH has bailed out many campers with his toolbox.

As I’m currently ripping out rotten wood from my caravan, I’m going to tell you to get a damp meter before the go buying!

Thankfully I have no experience enabling me to contribute to this discussion (shudder)

We had caravans when I was married, we started with a grotty old one which we paid £250 for, then after about 2 weeks & realising it was awful, we bought a bigger more modern one that we kept for a couple of years. That was a 4 berth with a fixed toilet & shower, we kept that until DS was a toddler & then chose a 6 berth that was 18 months old & had fixed bunks for DS, a modern kitchen, a separate dinette & a bathroom with electric flushing toilet, a round shower & walk in wardrobe. Although we has touring caravans, we kept ours on a seasonal pitch that meant we could leave the awning up & all we had to do when we arrived was plug in the electric hook up, fill up the water & unpack. We used ours at least 2 weekends a month & as many weeks as we could afford every year. It was our bolthole, somewhere to go & relax, we went fishing, walks every day, there was space for DS to play & feed the ducks every morning.

We had a VW campervan before DC. It was great - we went away in it around 8 times a year, including longer trips to Europe. You could rock up at a site, park, hook up and be having a cup of tea within 5 minutes. We took an electric heater and used it year round. It was very heavy on fuel consumption though, could be inconvenient to park and it was a pain having to pack everything away whenever you wanted to go anywhere. We still used it when DC1 was little but found it too small when we had two children.

For the past year we've had a cheap caravan. It's quite small and fits on our drive so we don't have to pay to store it. When we researched, storage in our area would have cost £400-£500 per year. Look at the set-up inside to see if it suits your family. Some have two double beds rather than a double and bunks. We could use it all year round, but find it too chilly in the winter even with a heater. More modern ones than ours have better heating so can probably be used all round. It's better insulated from sound than a tent and darker, so the kids sleep better than they did in a tent. If you want to use it for longer than a couple of days, get one with an awning to give you extra space.

The DC love it. I do find campsites give them more freedom than they would have at home.

@Hiddenaspie1973 wasn't that a static caravan though?

Think the op is asking about touring caravans or a Motorhome. Totally different.

Go for it! Invest in a good one. Also my preference is to always have one with a toilet and shower but if you plan on always being at a campsite then you may not need this. They take up space.

I'm typing this from my touring caravan, sitting up in bed!
As previous posters have said, you have to find out what size van your car can tow. We are in a small 2 person caravan partly because that's what our smallish car can pull.
We're in the camping and caravan club because they have a brilliant network of cl's - small and quiet sites that take a maximum of 5 vans. And often we're there by ourselves. But we can also use their bigger sites, which are always really well run.
If you're not going to keep it outside your house, think about where you'll store it.
I love my caravan.

At one stage pregnant I wanted to get a dry caravan (no loo) because they take so much room. But I don't think they are available.

When your looking at vans, check out the electric socket provision. Our most recent van has badly sited ones, which is irritating.

I think a campervan is a romantic choice, but in terms of comfort and practicality a caravan trumps it.

Really, having had both & spent many nights in both, I certainly found the campervan more comfortable. The furniture/ fittings were much better. I always found the campervan more solid and the caravan less so.

I would say the campervan in Europe is easier than the uk, parking anywhere in Europe always seems fairly straight forward, even in towns there are rarely height restrictions

But in the uk it’s never as easy to stop in a town and pop to the shops

We always took bikes with us so that we used those to get to the shops or town. Again this is easier in europe with more infrastructure, but not difficult in uk

PIL got a Hymer van when FIL retired (at 55 😭). They set off for 3 months at a time round Europe and had a whale of a time.

Key for them was the drop down bed over the cab so that they didn't have to re make the bed each day. They also got a winter proof one for best insulation.

They didn't actually stay on campsites though, just looked for somewhere safe to pull in (!) and had lots of 'adventures' as a result. (Don't sleep in Aires in France).

Top tips would be about the insulation; not too big and enough seat belt points. They wanted to take DC out as the motorhome was a 4 berth but with only three seat belts so I said no!!!

My parents and brother both bought VW camper vans with drive away awnings and love them. We have a touring caravan with a blow up awning.

I adore being in my van. We’ve been all over the UK, and on the continent in it too- the sites in France tend to have larger pitches with more greenery for shade. It’s great for my DD who struggles with transition because she has her own bedroom with her things in. DS usually sleeps in the awning bedroom on a double divan aerobed . There’s room in the van for him on winter trips though, and it’s toasty with the heating on.

It’s my favourite space in the world. I love being neighbours with my family in their campers too- we’ve had such great times together!

We had a 5 berth Bailey touring van. I hated that the sofas had to be turned into our bed every night. The lack of space and the constant mud and grass on the floor from children, dogs and us drove me nuts. We only used the van five or six times in the 4 years we owned it as I would rather just stay home than be stressed all weekend. We sold the van and used the money to overpay on the mortgage - much more satisfying. On the other hand, my parents had a big Autotrail motorhome which they loved. It had proper beds, lots of space and a decent kitchen. They went all over UK and Europe in it.

We brought a motorhome a few years back, it was something we always wanted so initially it was a dream come true. But, and it’s a big but! We only kept it for a year or so, the lack of spontaneity was a big stumbling block for us, you couldn’t just think oh shall we go away this weekend? Because the sites get booked up so much in advance. Sites are usually in the middle of nowhere so you need to tow a car or have bikes etc. It didn’t give us the freedom we wanted. We sold ours, only saving grace was not losing too much money as motorhomes do tend to keep their value. Lesson learned!

And caravans on holiday parks, great way to lose a shed load of cash, expensive to buy, high site fees and offer you peanuts when you want to sell.

Can anyone recommend a good soft topper to sleep on in the caravan ?

Duvalay are brilliant and you can get a fitted sheet to fit it so if you have to put it away it all rolls up. Simples.