Should I buy a caravan instead of paying so much for holidays?!

[Flossyts]

There’s five of us, so even in the uk a hotel price is wild to me. Most of them aren’t dog friendly too.
Am I crazy to consider buying a caravan? Are there hidden costs for me to consider? Do they hold their value if I want to sell?
Any warnings, hints and tips anyone wants to give me?
kids are 9,7 and 3. We also have two small dogs.

You can be spontaneous depending on what you want, obviously the sites with all the singing and dancing will get booked but if you just want to get away u will find something

Camping! Great fun, and with electric hook up can be quite luxurious these days! 😊

Get a really super duper large camping trailer, a good tent, sleeping bags and some camp beds and go from there.

You have many hands and your DCs won't be cramped like in a caravan.

We have an Outwell Montana 6 person tent with awning that we LOVE and is perfect for 3 kids and 2 adults (you need two adults ideally to put it up). We started with a smaller/cheaper 4-man tent which we also still have.

DCs will LOVE camping, it's probably on a par with the work of a tourer, and just so much more relaxed/flexible.

The ‘drop of a hat’ notion is not the reality. Especially during peak seasons, sites can be fully booked weeks in advance.

I hated our touring caravan. Was bloody hard work packing/unpacking. Miserable in British weather and took forever to get anywhere.

I’d love a beach based static though but sadly don’t have the budget!

Love our caravan. We bought a “cheap” one from marketplace with the plan of using it for a few trips to see if I like it and then selling in a year for an upgrade. Maybe we got lucky but we love it, it’s been a few years and we aren’t planning upgrading after all! Best £3000 we’ve spent!

You need a good tow car. You need to know the nose weight and how much your car can tow, ie, the. mTLM amount of your van. You must not overload your van and balancing is important. Weigh everything you put in the van.
Costs: insurance - around £350 ish annually: servicing: replacing tyres every fourish years. Storage - major cost annually. I pay around £800. Then you need water hose (food consumption), water barrel, grey waste container, wheel clamps. Awning (divorce in a bag). Always put the awning in the car.

I would go for a good quality second hand van from a dealer and see how you get on. You can get fully serviced pitches so on tap water and grey waste ( you will need the pipes). There is a lot of 'stuff' involved in caravaning and a bit of faffing around but once set up it is great. Most importantly, if you do go for it, teach your kids camping etiquette such as no walking across other peoples pitches, no ball games near vans, all noise travel.
Get a van with a decent loo and shower room for keeping wet coats!

We also use our shower for all the wet stuff as we prefer to use the site showers so I put a shower mat in the shower and use it for our shoes, boots and wet coats and some other stuff.

We also bought a couple of small water containers to keep in the caravan for drinking water as I don't like to use the water out of the barrel and caravan pipes for drinking even though we clean it all out with the chlorine stuff.

Our caravan has a fixed bed but there is only two of us, with a family a fixed bed might be a bit cramped

Grew up holidaying in a caravan as a child.

Pros:
●We saw loads of our country (over many years of travelling)
●Great family bonding time and lovely memories were made
●We used it for sleepovers with our friends when it was parked up at home

Cons:
●Sites often booked out so the spontaneity doesn't happen very often
●How much longer it takes to get to a destination pulling a caravan
●It was parked up more than it was out, so make sure you have adequate storage
●Surprisingly easy to hear neighbours / not very sound proof

Very rarely have problems with sites selling out from last minute trips - have always been able to find decent places (I have a camper van)

And much easier to find last min pitches for tents

Why? Lots of houses on our road have vans on the drive, including ours! If you mean that when it's not there the house is empty, it isn't, plus we have heavy security and a full alarm system. Burglars choose easy targets.

Look on Auto trader, they advertise caravans from both dealers & private sales.Buy Practical Caravan Magazine, they have layouts for all tourers so you can find layouts you like & then look at the ones for sale on Auto trader, YouTube often has videos of caravans so you can look exactly how they are laid out, just put in the manufacture name, model & year.

I’d look round a caravan dealer to find a caravan with a layout you like, and then look for used ones for prices.
I love our caravan, but it took a lot of getting used to at the start, setting it up, taking it down etc took far longer than I anticipated. I have become far more minimalist as a result.
I agree with you about being out and about. We use ours as a base, and go out on day trips.

Just seen this is ZOMBIE THREAD

You also need to check if your driving licence what it allows you to tow. From memory I think it depends if you got your licence pre or post 1997.
Also, an awning is known as a divorce in a bag.

There are pros and cons like all things. We switched to a caravan after a few horrendous camping weekends doing English Civil War reenactment.
Pros- we keep our van at home (but in a very rural location) so it’s just take stuff out of the front door into the van.). When you get to a site it’s put the stabilisers down, hook up, connect the water and get the kettle on, no faffing with tents and poles, airbeds etc. (awnings are a different matter altogether, there’s a reason they are known as divorce in a bag…)
Cons- cost of regular services (you might be able to do some yourself but gas systems need a qualified engineer). Insurance, regular wear and tear(tyres need replacing regularly even if not worn). Fuel consumption rockets when towing. Prices for sites have gone up tremendously but if you aren’t fussed about huge amounts of facilities the Caravan and Motorhome club do small sites with 5 vans on that are basic but you can usually get space.
A rule of thumb is two more berths than the number of people in the van, but that might not be possible. Also need to be very aware of towing weight. We totted up the weight of stuff we took with us last year and it’s surprising how quickly things mount up. I think a lot of accidents happen because an overweight caravan starts to snake a smaller car. I’m a very nervous tower, I will do it but I think we will swap the van for a motorhome when we downsize the house

Friends have a caravan and love it, plus daughter uses it as a hang out base when friends come over which is very cool. They do find it hard as good places get booked up quickly so it’s not as spontaneous as they’d like but they still enjoy it. We have a camper van and it’s amazing so would suggest that maybe? We have an awning so can make it a cosy home with beds in the van and living bit in the tent

Statics are a money pit. Check out Holiday Park Action Group on Facebook. The site owners are usually crooks.

We had a folding camper after tenting for years with younger kids. Best thing ever, easy and light to tow, quick to put up, can pack before you go and can camp on hardstandings. We got rid of it when I went back to work full time as I now work weekends, but I miss it so much. It’s the best of both worlds imo.
sold it last year to pay for a holiday in Greece - had a fabulous holiday but bitterly regretting it now!

Caravans are not my thing personally. We are a family of 5 and do Airbnbs and booking.com villas over hotels. We have never had a problem of finding anywhere and at last minute too.

If you want spontaneous you need to join Facebook groups where people share some tiny yet lovely camping places. There are some lovely places in Scotland £10 a night honesty box system with breathtaking views. No pre booking gems. As they are more stop over type sites with nothing great for self contained for a night or two.

A Tourer is a much better option than a static, a motor home would be even better mind if budgets allowed.

YABU to say that holiday prices are “wild” compared to buying a caravan.

You have to buy it, furnish it, pay the costs associated with lugging it around, pay to pitch it, store it. How much do you estimate that would cost per night that you use it?

You say you want to go to the north east or Scotland for the weekend at the drop of a hat without winning the lottery? Then do it. I’ve just searched for 5 of you and a dog this coming weekend, popular as it’s the first weekend of the holidays and you’re spoilt for choice. £120 a night roughly

Absolutely love taking kids in the campervan and we get loads of holidays and weekends away this way but I like it as I mainly love wild camping and not expensive sites which can feel crowded and noisy. Not sure caravan gives this flexibility so I would go campervan or tent or even one of those roof tent things.

Could you rent first and see how that goes. If you have a hater in your family, it’s better to discover before you buy, and until you try it you don’t know how much you’ll like it.

You’ll also have a much clearer sense of what features to look for, and what kit you would want to add.

We have a motor home and went away 3 out of every 5 weekends when the dc were your ages. The attraction has faded a bit now that they’re teens and aren’t as easily delighted with a new playground. But it was terrific when they were small, especially for my autistic lad. We went everywhere and had so many adventures because we could bring his safe and familiar space with us.

I much prefer the mh, and campervan, to a caravan, but that’s all personal preference. It’s expensive staying on sites (Ireland is bad, and UK not much better) compared to Europe, and there’s no comparison in facilities.

One thing I’ll warn you is that it completely spoiled me for hotels and air b&b.

We have a tourer. Absolutely love it. Ours is in storage when not in use (cost £440 a year). Only 3 miles away from our house.
Setting up/away? Now takes us no longer than 20 mins. We divide jobs. DH lowers the steadies, sorts the electrics out, TV out. I sort the chem toilet out, loo flush out, water and waste.
We are on our 4th tourer now and have finally got the layout we love.
Check out the forum Practical Caravan.