Sooooo.... today DH took me caravan shopping :-O

[PacificDogwood]

I am not sure what to think: I liked the caravans as such, but am not entirely sold on the concept .

Background is, he used to go on caravanning holidays with his parents and 2 sibs when he was a child. My family used to go camping (car+tent) or do some kind of self-catering type thing.

We have 4 boys, aged 9 to 2.
I just cannot imagine not being able to get away from them how to cope with all our stuff. We have a lot of stuff. And it breeds on holiday... And the mud - oh the mud my darling offspring attract. No bath. No washing machine - communal shower blocks don't put me off too much, but we'd mainly be caravanning in Sunny Scotland .

So, oh MN Collective, I am looking for experiences, good and bad. Are you the proud owner of a touring caravan and love it? Did you have one and came to hate it? Do you ever take it abroad??
It seems a lot of money for something we apparently cannot test-use (there are no touring caravans for hire, apparently ), won't be used for most of the year and is 1/10 of the size of a holiday cottage.

TIA.

It'll be fab. I wish dh would agree to a caravan. I used to have a campervan but had to sell it as cost so much to keep on the road. You have more space in a caravan than a camper and we managed fine.

The kids will spend most of the time running round the campsite with new friends while you drink wine and read a book. Get an awning for bikes and muddy boots.

I lurve our caravn. Took me a long time to admit to that - thought it made me very middle aged. But DCs are so easy going and carefree when away it makes it all worthwhile. We have been aboard to France, Belgium & Germany and even a stopover for one night is no hassle (not like a tent or trailer tent).You def need at least a porch awning. We had one and also a big frame awning for the long hols. Now we have a porch awning and a huge porch style obne that is up in 10 mins to hide all our junk . Worth every penny.

Thanks, Viva, see campervans are cool, whereas caravans are naff .
I did a good few campervan trips in my misspent yoof in various interesting parts of the world and would gladly go again. With DH. Or a Best Friend. Or another Entertaining Adult.
'Tis the Most Noisy Pack of Boys that I cannot imagine spending a fortnight with in limited space...

Awning - a must, I've come to understand this today (as I am a caravanning virgin, I learnt quite a lot today)
Apparently one 'needs' a remote controlled turning-around thingmy - 'needs' in paratheses as DH is a gadget nerd and his definition of 'need' is quite different from mine: I, for instance, would never 'need' surround sound. Or a BluRay player. I have admit, his tendency to 'need' lots of things is what also puts me off any potential caravans as I can just see that lots of extras and upgrades and things will need to be purchased in addition to the actual bloody thing..

What about heating? Is it actually effective?
Showers in a caravan? Are they actually usable? I need a degree of water pressure to rinse my hair!
And towing the thing? How hard is that? How many gate posts does the avarage caravan tower take out until they learn??

milimat - x-post, thanks. Aha, a porch awning: another word added to my new caravan vocabulary .
How may DCs do you have? What age groups?

four boys in a caravan???? eek!!!!!!!!

i went caravanning as a kid, but there were only two of us kids.. family of four, i CAN'T imagine a family of six in one, they can be a bit... erm... claustrophobic when it rains.. (at least in a tent you mainly head outside).

Caravan club run towing courses.

Ha ha I agree with the 'need' thing, although DH is adamant a true caravanner does noneed a motor mover, nor unhitch and push into place. Apparantly it's all a matter of good driving . Our caravan is one of these with garde 3 insulation, and it does mean we can go away in it all year long. TBH it's warmer than our house! Showers work well, though not a huge amount of pressure, and the water runs out quickly unless you are on a fancy pitch with water connection.
I am yet to tow - whyever would i need to when I have the best driver ever !!!!!!!

And I would imagine heating is good, I had a propex heater in my camper and it was lovely and warm even in winter.

OOh dreadful typing but you get the gist. Our Dcs are 5 and 8, but started when DS only 1 and had more paraphenalia (and noise) than 4 boys could possibly have?

maybenow, you've got my concerns in one . It's funny how a tent does not faze me at all and we've done it with 3 of them - why should a caravan that is somewhat more whetherproof worry me??

Being a family of 6 we need a 6-berth caravan which limits the market somewhat and means a longer beast. More room during the day, mind...

Ok, so heating sounds ok, shower doable, towing courses available

OP you can can hire or borrow one for a week away before committing to it

We bought a do-er-upper elderly caravan last year and traded it last week for a shiny nearly new one, which had its first outing last night near Edinburgh.

DH, DS and the dog spent a good hour playing football this morning in the frost whilst I read a book.

Love my caravan!

We are currently being tempted to The Dark Side. Mostly due to a caravan extending the season beyond what we can comfortably manage in the tent with 2 young children. Plus the enhanced catering facilities in a caravan appeal whilst the kids are little.

i find that my constitution changes in a tent and when there is no 'indoors' i can sit outside in silly temperatures with a down jacket and blanket on my knees quite happily... but when the sleeping is indoors you still get that 'brrr.. it's cold outside' feeling when you go out.. i don't know, can't really describe it really.
our plan if our family gets bigger is tent and campervan together (van mainly for stove/table for food prep.

Even in Scotland you can use it pretty much all year....

Modern vans gas and electric heating is good - just make sure you use propane not butane....

Awning - get a tent style one - much quicker to put up or take down and lighter for lugging around...

Boys.... Pop up tents outside for bigger ones whenever possible especially on small sites, meets or rallies

Motor mover.... Good for when you get brave enough to go away without your chauffeur and also for parking van at better angle for evening sun

Mud n outside stuff - that's "his job" incl toilet emptying - your job is in side... Wine, etc

Remember even cooking (BBQ) is outside and if you get it right, so is washing up and hosing down muddy boys

Well, I went to my toddlergroup this morning, mentioned the caravan and was greeting by laughter of derision . Let's just say, they were NOT a caravaning bunch... But one of my long-time friends pointed out that the will-we/won't-we re caravan is a fight I have 'already lost' as DS3 aged almost 4 walked up, heard us talking and started moaning 'I wanna carwavan' - I fear she might be right.

Catering facilities look fab in the caravans we looked at - I was well impressed! One of them had a fridge AND freezer - more than we had in our first flat.

What do you do in the evening? Go to be when the DCs go to bed?? The evening is my most prescious time of the day FGS - keeps me going for the next day

We never use the shower in the caravan, just book somewhere with decent facilities and use theirs.

I second a porch awning (or full awning) to leave muddy shoes, bikes etc in. A full awning might be worth getting if you think your older dc might want to sleep in there at some point.

We have one dd and tend to book places that have some childrens entertainment in the evenings, so we can sit back and have a glass of wine while someone else entertains her. When we go away with friends this is less important as she'll happily run around all evening if she has someone to play with.

Think carefully about layout, you'll have less choice because you need more beds, but for us an end bedroomwith a fixed bed is important because we can have the TV on/light on to read after dd has gone to bed at the other end of the caravan. You might want a large bathroom, we'd rather have more living space, its all personal preference.

My mum and dad are avid caravanners, they absolutely love it and go all year round. They even spent Christmas and New Year in their caravan.

We have a tent and a part of me would love a caravan but the cost and the lack of storage for it at home stop me.

I spent my childhood going away in the caravan most weekends and for all holidays. Space can be an issue when it's wet but not a massive one. With a 6 berth caravan there will be loads of seating space and if you have a full awning you can stick the dc's out there.

The other thing that makes me favour a tent though is that rom what I have seen most caravanners tend to spend more time in their caravan, particularly in the evening. Me and dh sit outside our tent until we go to bed and really enjoy that connection with the outdoors. I think the temptation of the warmth and a tv would be too enticing and then I might as well be at home iyswim.

So much easier to just hitch the caravan and go though.....packing and pitching the tent can be miserable. Don't even get me started on taking the tent down in the rain. When we had to do that I was very envious of the caravanners.

We borrowed a caravan for a week last summer and absolutely loved it. I agree with millimat re carefree children which in turn means you relax. And you can fill it with all your own stuff so it's comfortable and a home away from home. With four dcs you need a full awning and prob outdoor cooking facilities and I'd be thinking of the older 2 sleeping in a tent on your pitch if not this year next.
I'd buy one like a shot if we took more holidays.

I also agree that when you have a tent you are more likely to sit outside in the evening, but that was one of our reasons for a caravan. I would sit and freeze, then go inside the tent and attempt to read in dreadful lighting. Now, the children go to bed and I can sit and read in peace (don't really get the chance at home so it's a real treat).
Layout is def important, for us the children have fixed bunks that can be shut off into their own bedroom area, leaving us to chat and have lights on with no issue. The downside is that our bed needs making every night, but that's a small price to pay.
Tha amount of times we can afford to go away in a year, compared to when staying in B&Bs highlights, for us, being a sad caravanner the benefits of a house on wheels

Need to add that I do still reminisce over tents, they are so cool, and I always have to look at the links to see what tents people are considering getting on this camping thread. Funnily enough, I always forget at those points how cold I would get!

We got our caravan for last year and just love it. Ours is old and simple. No oven, fridge but no freezer. We have a shower tho have not used it yet. It's cosy, we choose not to have a tv and I love the simplicity of not having room for much stuff. At one favourite site, we asked to be next to the play area which, while noisy, meant that cd (6) could throw on some clothes then run out to play to her heart's content while we got breakfast.

Thanks again, all.

putthehamsterback, I like your way of thinking!

Re layout: I think we'd opt for living space over bathroom space everytime. I can only see myself using the caravan shower as a last resort...

I like the idea of being able to just shove DSs outside and let them get on with things .

DH has just let on that if/when we buy a caravan, we'll just have to accept that we will lose the deposit on this year's holiday cottage . Noooooo! It takes me years to make this kind of a Massive Decision, years I tell'ya, I am the world'd most dithering ditherer and he is a Man Wot Makes Decisions. Aghhhhhh!

Oh, almost forgot: those of you who borrowed/rented a caravan: where did you get it from?? We are in the Central Belt in Scotland and the nearest place to us would apparently be York?

How much does a caravan cost? Surely you could go on lots of cottage holidays with washing machine, proper cooker, shower and even a bath, etc and more room, maybe five to ten times you could go to a lovely seaside cottage, even in August, for the cost of the caravan alone?

Do you have a plan on where/how you'll store it? (Last better if stored under cover.) Will your car pull it? Insurance?
Know it used to cost my parents a fortune.

Was also one of four and hated these holidays. Beds always had to go away (at the crack of dawn) to give us room to move around / eat etc and we had barely any room for our stuff even with awnings etc. Remember whole faff of emptying loo, water, trying to keep it clean etc etc being an awful lot of work too. The cold also sticks in my mind.
Am scarred by memory of those holidays!