Calling all caravanners! Circle your wagons over here....

[DistantShip]

First thread so be gentle please!

The tent-addicts and campervan people have their own quiches; so I thought we caravan types might like a place to hang out too.

So far, DH, DS and I have been away 4 times this year in our Adria - we are trying to use it at least one weekend a month, on a cheap m cheerful sote where possible, with 2 longer breaks over the summer.

Come tell tales of central heating, an almost-proper bed, and inside toilets ;)

Hi DistantShip I always wondered if we had our own corner on MN :)

At the moment DH, 2 DC, 2 dogs and I have an Avondale. It is currently for sale though as I am off caravan shopping this weekend

We use ours as often as we can, often staying quite local for one or two nights. We always take it away for two weeks in the summer.

I read many of the threads in here and think those that camp are brave souls :)
I couldn't be without my heating and almost-proper bed

Hello, I too have wondered if there was somewhere we caravaners could chat!
We have a Bailey 6 berth at the minute for DH, 3 ds's and me. We try to do a weekend a month and then longer at Easter, summer and half terms.

Can I ask if you have an awning? We have a large heavy frame one and a smaller light weigh one, I am unsure yet wheather we really need it and if so do we just keep one and sell the other? But which one??

Oh I'll join you, DH, DS, myself and our two dogs are off to Skye for three nights next week, so hoping the weather will cheer up a bit, although have enough stuff to keep us entertained indoors if necessary!

Hi! Count me in!

We bought a Swift ex-display model last August. There are 4 of us - DP, DD(14), me and a large bouncy labrador. In the past we have had various small tents, a family tent, and two ancient camper vans, but this is our first caravan. We have used it 3 times so far - for 4/5 nights each time. I am currently trying to find somewhere nice for 2 weeks in early July in Scotland or the North of England. Any recommendations?

We have an old second-hand Avondale Dart. Love it but it's just started leaking, gah! Redone the window seals and now hoping for the best :(

tigger32 What kind of Bailey do you have?? I am drooling over the Olympus 620/6......
I have a huge full awning which we really only use for our 2 week holiday. We have an easy to put up large porch awning for all other outings. I am unsure whether to get a full awning with the next caravan, love it, but expensive for such little use

TwoJRs hope the Skye weather is kind!!

Purple What kind of site do you like? We head towards Dumfries quite often, having said that we too are looking for a new 'nice' site in that area.

RubberDuck Our first caravan was an Avondale Dart - lots of happy drunken, pre DC memories in that. Hope you have solved the leak :)

What bit of equipment would you not be without??

We have n old 5 berth swift. it is second hand, but is mint, no leaks, no problems. We are the Harrods++ and Harvey Nicks++ of the camping world. Seriously. We camp better than we live at home. We have a huge awning, plus an add on bedroom to our awning, that we use to store chairs, water pistols and swingball etc. We have a huge gazebo.3 windbreakers. we alos have a tent put up, to store bikes etc. We practically take over two pitches, but no one seems to mind, and there is a huge amount of space on each pitch, at our campsite in Dorset.
We have a table to prep food on. A huge cadac bbq. I pour dh a cider. myself a glass of wine, (first of many). we cook HUGE pots of pasta or steaks with mushrooms and minted new potatoes. we lie down on our sun loungers, and let the world pass us by. ds's play on thir bikes, and in the park bit. at night we put our electric fan on and sit in the awning, watching tv, or dvd's. often we watch football.
which bit sounds like cold slumbing it to you ? No, me neither !!

Hello
I shall be having a foot in two camps, having tentage and more recently expanded our outdoor recreational accomodation to include an ancient Lunar Ariva 4 - 14 feet of 4 berth loveliness. So far I am very impressed by the swiftness of setting up (compared to the tent) and the absolute bloody luxury of a near proper bed

Ooh hello! We are new to the world of caravanning! We borrowed one last summer ad had a lovely time in Cornwall.

We have a 5 berth lunar and an awning we are yet to use! We went to the north York moors over Easter, it was cold but we had heating.

We are off for a week over whit and Cornwall again in he summer!

Our caravan is second hand, but has had laminate put in the kitchen area and new carpets at either end!

I'm going to make some really pretty curtains to replace the awful pink Drayton style ones that are in there at the moment!

We've just the caravan club so we can get our Scotland holiday for cheap, tenner a night including awning for all of us!

We're not taking a dog on this holiday because we want to go across to Ireland for the day and it wild he unfair to keep it in the van all day. ( we have 3) our dogs are very, very lucky in that they can go and stay with my mum and dad on their farm for their holidays instead!

ManyMomentsOfMadness - the problem is, I can't decide what sort of site we want!

I am in Scotland, and since our School holidays are a bit earlier this year I think we will go south of the border and take advantage of cheaper prices and quieter campsites. I spent a few evenings searching ukcampsite last week and flicked through the 2007 AA campsite guide, but I still can't decide. We might do a 2-site holiday, but if we are at the same site for 2 weeks I would like one with a reasonable range of things to do on site, or a short walk away, but not too holiday-campish iyswim.

We have been to Brighouse Bay near Dumfries, but with a tent, not a caravan. I did wonder about that for this summer as it ticks a lot of the boxes, but we were there only around 5 years ago. We did find the area we were pitched in there a bit noisy, but with a caravan we would be in another section, so that drawback wouldn't apply.

One option I am currently considering is a week at Kielder and a week at Spiers House in Yorkshire.....

Hi All

PurpleFrog we are also looking at somewhere near Kielder for a week in early June and am waiting on DH sorting out the dates with work would love to be either there or Northumberland on the coast for one of our longer breaks.

We were coverted from the tentage last year when we got an ancient Elddis which is still in the family as DBro has acquired it when we changed to a bigger van early in the new year. We moved as having 2 year old and a dog in a tent with no "sealed" edges was a nightmare the previous "summer". Also decided that foreign holidays are a no-go-area until DS is at least 8 years old!

Have experienced both the big and smaller awning and prefer the porch one as it can be put up and down in the rain by one person, and is perfect for the clothes dryer, a small table and 4 foldout chairs. The big one that we had on the last van was a monumental pain in the rear to erect and dismantle especially since we tend to just go for a weekend. We carted it all the way to Orkney last year and didnt use it . . . .

TwoJRs I'll blow weather wishes your way; step away from the long range forecast!

Rubberduck we did loads of work on the Elddis last year and it really made the van feel like ours.

ManyMoments a proper electric kettle is the my one indespensible piece of kit imho. I can survive without most things, but a freshly made cup of coffee (with those one-cup filter jobs) is a non-negotiable start to my day.

Nice to see we have a place to chat about not slummin it!

manymoments we have a Bailey Ranger 550/6 it is about 8 years old.
We moved from tent to caravan about 18 months ago, we decided that with 3 lo it was time to make life easier! I have to say I love it!
We are going to a site in York in the summer for week, there seems to be a lot to do around there.
Has anyone stayed anywhere in the midlands? We'd like to do a weekend nearish home in may (east mids) but haven't really used many of the sites near here.
It's always good to get recommendations of sites.

York is awesome, you'll love it Tigger - so much to do there. I can really recommend the National Railway Museum if you get a rainy day - it's free and a really great day out - we spent hours in there and still didn't see everything.

Good sites in the Midlands - well I really love Kingsbury Water Park. A CC&C site, it's not terribly quiet as its near a motorway, but actually I found that the white noise actually helped me sleep at night and your brain soon filters it out . The site is lovely and clean, great facilities but the really awesome part is that you can walk through to the park - acres of ponds and lakes to walk around, a miniature train that takes you through some of the grounds, a lovely cafe, playgrounds, a children's farm. It's fab.

The NRN is indeed fab! We have spent many, many happy hours there!

Oooh thanks rubberduck that site sounds perfect! We are members Of c&cc. Thanks also for tip on NRM we'll take a look there as I'm sure my 3 boys will love it.

We have a caravan- a Swift Conqueror, great big thing. However we dont' tow it - as our cars aren't big enough (and wecan't be bothered).
it is kept on a site in Lincolnshire - and when we want to stay they pull it on to a pitch.

Not been for a while though - am missing it.

Had everything repaired recently. The water and toilet hadn't been working properly - so we had an overhaul last summer. I don't like to usetheloo much though - the public facilities on the site are fine.

Hope to get away soon - but if the weather improves I will look forward to it more...

I second Kingsbury Water Park , think it was maybe you who told me about it rubberduck, thanks if it was, we loved it. I hardly heard the road noise it was so peaceful and could go for miles walking/cycling.

distantship yeah agree with the kettle, except mine takes forever to boil , I also love my moon chair - soooo comfy.

Hi there

we got a 10 year old Eldiss and started caravanning last year with 8 and 5 year old DD's and loving it so far

I love the general freedom for the girls and the relaxed nature of it all, and being able to visit lots of new places for a fraction of the price

Have been to Cardiff at Easter (site in the middle of huge park in city centre, good for a city break when you are not sure if the weather will spoil outside activities), going to wales next bank holiday and again for the jubilee. Will do another long weekend in July (any suggestions in debyshire?) and then a 11 night break over summer hols - 2 nights, 7 nights 2 nights to travel further afield with stops on way there and back. Will prob do a final break in spet

I doubt I would ever be a camping girl, but I particurly like the longer caravanning season, the ability to curl up with the tv at about 10pm in the warmth (only had to use the heating twice, both our march /april breaks), not been woken by the light / sun at 6am and its easier to keep clean. Having said that we may get a simple tent soon for occasional kids mess around nights so I may well get converted...............................

Just pitching up on this thread!

We have a Coachman Laser for 5 of us.

We had a wet and windy week in Dunkerque over Easter. Lots of board games!

But looking forward to a 6 week trip of sun and sandy feet around France and Spain in the Summer.

We did something similar last summer and I really didn't want to come home. In fact, felt the caravan had become our home.

Anyone got good recommends for a site on the Isle of Wight?

Essentials: clean facilities, hard standing, pitch that can accommodate a 6.8m x 2.1m caravan (didn't think that was overly large but one site I looked at only had 6m x 6m pitches )

Nice to haves: sea view, some sort of entertainment suitable for 11 & 8 year olds, bar suitable for us , availability in August.

Oddly, it's the clean facilities that seem to be the issue for most of the sites with entertainment - some of the reviews on ukcampsite are shocking.

at mouselings 6 weeks in the sun.

We live in central Scotland so trips to the continent would add a good few days/stops and at least a tanker full of fuel to the journey.

DH and I are tentatively planning a 3 week trip for summer 2013 before DS starts school in the August and are musing about ferry travel from Newcastle; has anybody got any advice or experiences to share?

The sun is shining here today from a beautiful blue sky - shame we arent away in the van till next weekend. Loch Lomond-side here we come for the May bank holiday weekend. So tempted to look at the long range weather forecast to see if it will be a wet dog, wellies and umbrella weekend or not

I tend to take ukcampsite reviews with a pinch of salt, particularly as facilities are what most people whinge loudly about. What some reviewers have a tendency to forget it that its their fellow site users who wreak havock for the most part with their odd habits/lack of consideration for other users.

We had an experience recently where the fire alarm in the toilet/shower block went off at approx the same time every morning - as a chap was ahem "sitting" in there with his newspaper and a cigarette. Every day, the warden had to go switch off the alarm and open the windows until he caught the culprit.

Has anyone used a temporary holiday site before?? There are a few within easy travel of us during the summer and at around £6 per unit per night I'm tempted to try . . . . but may need some convincing on having to rely 100% on the van facilities.

I do tend to be lenient with ukcampsite reviews but when review after review talks about the toilets not being cleaned and used tampons and dirty loo roll constantly littering the floor then it does put you off a bit

May I join

We bought a old Lunar Chapman this year and have done it up.

Spent a weekend in Weymouth in Feb, about 2 hours away just to try it out.

We are heading to Witches Craig near Stirling the week of the 12th May, stopping off at Elm Cottage nearChester on the way up and Brompton on Swale on the way back.

Any ideas if they are ok?

DistantShip - which Loch Lomond campsite are you heading for? Have you been to that area before? We spent 5 nights at Lomond Woods at Balloch during the recent Easter holidays. I much preferred the look of those on the East shore but decided that Balloch was more central for the things we wanted to do.

I think that the reviews on ukcampsite are very useful. They let you see campsites from lots of different angles, and give you hints and tips that the official blurb doesn't. You have to decide which features are most important to you.

Shoshe - I have passed Witches Craig many times but never stayed there, so can't give you any useful information on that. Make sure you have a good street/road map of Stirling as we have managed to get "lost" there a couple of times in the last couple of years. The road signs in some places are not very helpful if you don't know the area.

mouseling very jealous of your 6 week jaunt.

when we have no kids to consider - probably in acouple of years! me and DH plan to buy/rent a small motorhome and bugger off for months at a time. Will be lovely :)