Thoughts on folding campers please!

[Fedup83]

Started a thread in chat but have been recommended to post here.

We had a folding camper for several years and loved it. Much more comfortable and a lot easier to put up than a trailer tent.

We also have a folding camper. Have had for about 10 years. It's pretty easy to put up and down. It's annoying that you have to put it up to put stuff in it, but the pros outweigh the cons. We don't go away in it too often, but that's due to our life changing since we bought it.

You do have to be very careful not to leave it packed away wet. You can pack up wet, but must put it up when you get home. We travel with the beds made up. We don't put up the awning for a weekend. We don't have a toilet built in ours, but did used to take a cassette toilet away with us when the DC were younger. It's great that you can leave the beds up during the day. I hope you manage to find a lovely one. If you're in the southeast, can I recommend Camping International in Gillingham and specifically Terry who works there as a mine of information.

We bought ours through Terry at Camping International too

We bought a secondhand folding camper off ebay, after finding that our incredibly ancient rapido folding caravan was just too difficult to put up with health problems, pregnancies and babies! It's lovely and easy to get up, and nice to have all the stuff ready in it (that's what we enjoyed about the folding caravan, being able to accumulate all our bits and bobs in it- exciting to go on holiday and find the camping lego for example)! We find that we can hurl stuff through the door if we need to, so don't need to put it up for adding the odd extra thing. It sleeps six. We're a family of seven, so have a small tent that we put up in the awning for two of the kids. Can squeeeeeeze in all of us if we want just a night or two and can't face the awning (much more bother than the camper).

Love our folding camper. We have a pennine pullman and put a loo in the awning with a decorous shower curtain arrangement. If you are not tall then putting up the awning could be tricky. Take mini folding step to help. Beds are very comfy and we have a cooker in the awning and don't take the inside hob with us. It is a pain folding up when wet and you do have to dry them if you have the canvas covers. It's also a pain if you've gone for a big family hols, know it's going to rain on pack day so take the awning down the day before but then have to put the awning stuff in the car overnight etc. However, they are brill, huge fun and much cheaper and nicer than renting a static.

There's a place in Northampton that sells them!

We have a Conway Cruiser. The beds are lovely and cosy! The awning is a real pain to put up so we don't usually bother with it. We usually put up a day tent instead. You can load it full of stuff which leaves space in the car.

Try the 'Trailer Tent and Folding Camper' page on Facebook. Its really informative with loads of pictures and people are more than happy to give advice/help.