Going abroad is awesome! I’d sack off the UK and Ireland... although Scotland was ace for motorhoming.
One of the main attractions with a van is being self-sufficient, so you don’t need campsites and can camp ‘wild.’ If you plan to just use campsites, get a caravan, it’s cheaper for a start. We’ve done quite a few trips in the UK camping wild, avoiding campsites to places like the Lakes, Cornwall, Devon, Snowdonia but you have to know where to look for the perfect spot and topping up your fresh water can be a pain. It just isn’t easy like it is abroad. In the UK wild camping/ motorhoming is generally discouraged, but like I said it is possible. Whereas France, Spain, Portugal, Italy etc many small towns, villages, cities have ‘aires.’ The local municipality actively welcome motorhomers, because they recognise they will visit local attractions, businesses and shops and spend money. Aires are designated parking areas specifically for Motorhomes to park overnight. You can expect a service point to Top up your water tanks, a drain to ditch your grey water and a toilet disposal point. Often the water is free. Some will have WiFi and electric for free as well. You can stay in some amazing, beautiful places, others are just practical/ safe overnight stopovers. We did 5 months travelling in France, Spain and Portugal last year. We didn’t stay on a campsite once, mainly used aires and camped wild (which is tolerated unlike here). During the entire trip we spent 5 euros on overnights and 2 euros on topping up water. There are books you can buy from ‘vicarious media’ listing many of the aires. There’s also a book called camper stop which lists aires and ‘tolerated’ overnight parkings. In the UK there are Facebook groups where people share overnight spots. There is also something called ‘Brit Stops.’ You basically join for a fee and can park at various pubs and farm shops or free. We joined once but never used them as we always found discreet, lovely spots to overnight in.
Those are excellent suggestions for working out the configuration that suits best, so hopefully you can get it right first time. There are certain times of year that are good to buy. Once you know what you want and have set a budget you can pick up a bargain. Unfortunately some people buy them, don’t get on with them and/ or don’t use them much. Both our previous and current motorhomes were bought for a lot less. Our previous motorhome had been used very infrequently so the mileage was very low. Our current one has quite a rare but very unpopular configuration, so the equivalent with the different layout sells for 10k more!! It’s also worth looking round dealers so you can get a feel for the second hand market. Both of ours have come from dealers despite being second hand which I’d probably go for over buying private. Purely because they’ve been under warranty so the wear and tear type stuff has been sorted under warranty. This would have been quite pricy otherwise.
I really do find having a fixed bed fantastic. At night we don’t have to move cushions and tables to form the bed... it is ready made with all the bedding there to fall into, just like home. Personally I find it more comfortable as I found sleeping on cushions pushed together played havoc with my back.
I would highly recommend a van with a solar panel. Ours tops up the leisure battery and trickle charges the vehicle battery. This means we aren’t reliant on needing an electric hookup or needing to run the engine or have a generator.
We have a hob and oven which are perfect and can cook all the meals we would normally have at home. Some don’t have ovens. Some only have a microwave. So you need to think about what kitchen equipment you need.
Think very carefully about storage and if it meets your needs. Eg if you are cyclists you’ll need a bike rack or garage and additional space for tools, clothing, helmets etc. Otherwise you’ll have to compromise on other things you take. There was one particular van which had the exact configuration we wanted, but storage was a joke, lots of wasted dead space and a lack of cupboards making it completely impractical. Others seemed to lack kitchen storage, presumably because they are aimed at people that mostly eat out. We don’t, so space was need for utensils, crockery, cutlery and lots of food.
Make sure you have space for deck chairs and an outdoor table for picnics and meals outside.
Think about the shower room configuration. We have a separate walk in shower cubicle which suits us. Some vans the tap in the hand basin pulls out and forms the shower, that would have seemed like hard work and also having to wipe everything dry after.
Think about where you’ll park it when not in use. Ours is parked outside our house on our driveway... we couldn’t have had anything longer as it wouldn’t have fitted up our lane or onto the drive. Friends of ours misjudged size and pay for storage... not great if you wanna be spontaneous and head off for the night/ a picnic/ the weekend.
If you plan on going to cold places you’ll need some degree of winterisation. The pipes froze on our old motorhome. They won’t on our current one as they are all internal.
We have a large fridge/ freezer which limits the number of supermarket trips required.... rather handy if you are exploring really remote places. Our old van had a tiny fridge/ freezer.
If you plan to travel I would really recommend converting one of your gas bottles to a refillable LPG one. We had it done by a company called Gasit in Nottingham for half the price of the big brand whose name I can’t remember. This means we top it up at petrol stations with LPG which is significantly cheaper than buying bottles, it paid for itself pretty quickly. If you plan to travel abroad for longer than your bottles last, you’ll find that each country has their own style of bottle and adapter... so having the refillable ones gets you round that.
With regard to packing up and going about your daily business... we had no issues in our 7.4 metre long 3.12 metre high van. It’s actually more manoeuvrable than my car!! Supermarket shops aren’t a problem, you just find a quieter area of the car park. City driving and day trips aren’t a problem - we visited places like Barcelona, Granada, Lyon with no issues. In fact it’s just a whole lot easier in a motorhome as you have everything with you. Beach days are the best as you park up on the sea front with your home around you. We’ve been over mountain passes, round hairpin bends and through gorges all without a problem. Stopping for picnics is wonderful. It’s not about the destination but the journey... we picked out the small scenic roads, if we saw an interesting village we’d stop and explore, or a lovely spot stop and picnic or stay the night.
In terms of packing up... all that needed doing was attaching the child seat, popping the bathroom stuff back in the bathroom cabinet, making sure the windows are shut and cupboards are locked, spin the cab seats round and off we went. Occasionally you might have to winde the awning in or bring the blocks in (used to level the van out on uneven ground).