Can anyone answer a stupid question about caravan beds.

[TheSkiingGardener]

I KNOW it should be obvious and it probably is. We're trying to decide between a caravan, a trailer tent and a tent. I've been looking at 4 berth caravans and a lot of them seem to have a big seating area you turn into a double bed, and then 2 small seats opposite each other with a table inbetween that seems to make up the other 2 beds. How does that work? Or am I missing something?

I'm talking about this sort of layout.

Is there not a bunkbed above the dinette bit

It didn't look like it, that's what confused me, it just looked like the usual cupboards and I've seen quite a few caravans where that seems to be the case.

Hi, usually the table top drops down to fill the area between the 2 seats to make the base of the first bed.
Then there is a second bed - a bunk, hidden away on the wall which folds out to provide the second single bed. The cushions from the seats fold out to make the mattresses for both beds.

Do check the length of the bunks, often they are only suitable for children up to about 10.

Actually, I may be exaggerating. Thinking back, I reckon our boys slept in the bunk beds till they were 12/13. But honestly you do need to check.

Thanks JustGettingByMum At the moment we only have 1 2 year old and are hoping for a second, so they'll fit for a few years. Although DS is used to a double bed at home so it may take some selling.

You're welcome!
Other things you might want to factor in are whether you would be happy with a young child sleeping in a top bunk (assuming no 2 comes along ), and whether you would actually use the shower in the 'van. All good campsites have separate family washrooms which will be roomier than in the van, and often have a bath as well.
If you decided you would be more likely to use these, then you can do away with the big end wash room, and look at layouts that give you 2 normal height single beds, or a back dinette that converts to a double for 2 children to share.

Thanks for that. We would like a decent sized bathroom as my parents do a lot of the DA sites, without facilities, and even on the bigger sites it's nice to have the choice to jump straight in the shower of a morning. What complicates things is both of our cars can only tow about 1385kg. So we have to make some compromises somewhere.

I hadn't fully thought through whether I'd be happy for DS to be in a top bunk in a year or so's time though, will have a think about it now.

Good luck with it all. We think caraavanning is great, specially with younger children.

Hope you find what you need x

My youngest is 14 and there is no way he'd fit on the top bunk anymore - they really are not very wide.

Instead the eldest sleeps in the awning and the youngest in the single bed.

I think with caravans like tents you need to go bigger than they suggest ie. 5 berth for a family of 4.

We're thinking smallish caravan we can tow and a massive awning, and when they are older they can sleep in a tent on the side of the awning or a pup tent. I think we ned to buy an old cheap caravan on the basis we're bound to get it a bit wrong first time round!

We did the same - hence 16 year old sleeps in the awning (and he was happy to do so as he likes his own space).

I would not really worry about the size of the caravan if your car is heavy enough to tow it. A longer caravan is actually easier to tow/reverse/manouvre than a small one. You can get a really good lay out though in a 4 berth with a fixed bed. Some of these have a full width shower room behind the fixed bed area, so you get a large shower, separate toilet and sink, and then the lounge area turns into a double bed for the night time.Or ours has a separate shower room and a separate toilet/handwash basin between the end bedroom and the lounge, making it ensuite, when you close the separating door.These layouts are ideal for a younger family as the children can be put to bed in the fixed double and the door closed. You then have the lounge/kitchen as an adult area for the evening.

You could get a good quality 2nd hand 2009-2010 one of these for circa £12500 upwards.

We'd love a big caravan, but as I said above we have quite a small weight limit on what we can tow. And the cars are brilliant workhorses we don't want to replace, so we have to go small.