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.

nice seaside cottage for a week. Like your house only tidier because you haven't got all your junk. And walking distance of the sea. And the rain doesn't rattle on the roof in that tinny way.

a1b2, you are preaching to the converted here: I like my holiday cottages for all the reasons you quote - DH is obsessing...

yomellamo, thanks for that - I shall read your post out to DH, word for word. Hope you have lots of lovely civilised holidays now .

a1b2, that rattling sound is so comforting... I love the rain on my conservatory roof because it is so like the sound of rain on a caravan. Proust may have had his biscuits, but for me it's rain on a caravan roof every time (this may have something to do with all my childhood holidays having been in North Wales).

To give you some idea of costs....

Storage 0 - £400 ish annually depending on where - anything from your own drive to indoor secure storage with CCTV etc

Insurance ... New for old cover around £350 on a newish caravan that would cost £16k to replace

Towing - ideally you'll need a match that the van is no more than 85% of kerb weight for stability - legal max is 100%....
Our 1st 5 berth weighed 1400kg so needed a car weighing 1610kg ideally - roughly a large family saloon or estate, or small 4x4
Current van weighs 1600kg so is just about a legal match for large family car but 4x4 is better....

Motor mover ... Around £700 upwards depending on size of van / power needed

Wine .....££££££ .... It's what you do when the kids are in their tent.....

One other thing.... How long have you held driving licences? You may find you can only legally drive an outfit of no more than 3.5 tonnes unless you are old gits like us sometime in the 90s they stopped giving all drivers the class of licence to tow a heavier trailer...

Costs are a bit if you only use it for a summer holiday, we typically have about 6 weeks plus loads of weekends every year so it's much more reasonable....

Pacific - there's a place near Stirling that hires both campers and tourers. Off to
Google it - watch this space

Ok can't link from phone but its camper-hire.co.uk

putthehamsterback, thank you for taking the time to post v pertinent info.

And also thanks, DistantShip

Must hurry as DH is about to flex our his credit card

We love caravaning. ds's 8 and 3. No showers in the actual caravan, we use the very good facilities on site. We have a huge awning , with an extra bedroom on the end, which helps storage of cricket bats and water guns etc. We also have a huge gazebo, and a fab cadac, which we use to cook steaks, stir fry's, kebabs, and goes well with all the bottles of wine we drink. Our site in Blandford, Dorset costs £200 to store it over winter. But caravaning is not cheap. You can get b&b's that are cheaper. It used to be th epoor man's option, but no more.
Mind you, wehn we go, we want for nothing. People have laughesd at our 'set up' and taking over the whole site. but it really is fab. will see if I can find a photo from last summer!!

I agree oblomov the cadac is fab!

Op, beforew you let dh 'loose' witht eh credit card, why don't you try it first. We bought out first caravn for £200 from our neighbours. 5 bertgh, with an awning, bbq, and even clothes pegs. We liked it so much we bought exactly the same model for 2k. You don't need to spend 6-10k straight off, only to find you hate the bloody thing !!

Try a motorhome, some have huge 'garages' for all your stuff. We love ours and use it all year round.

All family holidays growing up were in a caravan, and were great.
I don't have one, but borrow my parents outfit which they leave on site for us.

The layout is important - theirs has a fixed bed, which i probably wouldn't choose. I'd go for a pair of fixed bunks, a convertible double for DH & I, and a big awning with sleeping pods and/or a pop-up tent for the older DC.

We don't use the shower. The loo is for 'liquids' or 'nighttime emergencies' only. Whoever empties it gets to dictate the rules! We also have a Cadac for outdoor cooking, table and chairs for the awning, and a couple of comfy chairs for the evenings. Electrical hook-up is great, so you can have a decent reading light in the awning. If we are abroad and staying put for a week or two, we hire a fridge-freezer from the campsite to supplement the caravan's little fridge.

If you look at second-hand vans, they often come with loads of extras like awnings and motor movers, loo, water containers, gas bottles etc.

Thanks, Chippy.

We (v briefly) looked at motorhomes, but they are v v expensive, huge and I don't like the idea of always having my house with me when we want to move about ie sight-seeing etc.

Cadacs - which particular model do you all recommend?? I am bamboozled by choice.

Oblomov, I've just looked at your link - thanks a million! DH is interested in 'try before you buy' during the Easter week; he might not like it... hopes

Cadac - the safari chef, but it's a bit too small for a family of five. I'm looking at getting a bigger one to use this year, nt sure what yet.

Resurrecting an old thread here, but I know Pacific Dogwoog is still on the site and I'm wondering if you got your van.

The reason I'm asking is because my dh and I have bought a static because we are getting old and want more space.We don't tow our current van. Just kept it on a site where we packed a couple of bags and 45 minutes later were in beautiful countryside.
Our van was a 6 berth, but we had 4 removed to put in a fixed bed. So it can sleep 4. The thought of having 6 bodies in here screams too small and ours is one of the bigger vans.

Would love to know if you took the plunge?