Do you have a camper van? Would you recommend it?

[CokeEnStock]

Interested in pros and cons, though I could only afford a 2nd hand one.

I sometimes dream of taking off in my fantasy camper van.

But when I go camping I like being actually outside, the feeling of being in my tent. And I cook outdoors, including over the fire. And explore the area so the idea of stowing everything away in the van to drive for a day out makes it seem quite labour intensive.

Maybe camper van enthusiasts can set me right and dispel my doubts.

We have a 1970's VW and I LOVE it!! We live in France and drive it to England and Ireland to visit family in the summer. So far we have driven via Italy, Spain, France, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg.

I love being able to pull up, sleep and then drive off the next day. We usually take a pop up tent so we can offload most of our stuff if we are staying for a few days.

It makes me smile when I drive it!! Yes, it breaks down but life is an adventure!! (I would prefer if it didn't of course!)

We also sit outside a lot and cook outside too. The indoor cooker comes in to it's own when we stop for lunch. Last year we ended up on a road blocked off for the tour de france in the middle of no where so we pulled in, cooked lunch and waited to see them cycle past.

My friend had one and found that stowing everything away was a pain and you cannot drive anywhere without taking the awning down. You are also making up your bed all the time if you want seating in the van. They took a portable bbq for outside cooking where permitted. She found her NZ boyfriend (in his 70s) loved it but they are heavy on fuel and he just drove it. They have their limitations and are very small if it’s raining!

The good thing is you can keep essentials in it at home and can leave home fairly quickly as the mood takes you. My friend had a second hand VW one and it kept breaking down. Another friend had a new one and hardly went anywhere in it! Just to their local beach for a dog walk and a picnic lunch. So great in theory but not always great in practice. I think having a large tent and an estate car is better! More flexible.

Depends what you go for but worth noting that.fir some models you can buy detachable awnings ie you can leave the awning up and drive away from your site having stowed excess goods on the awning which makes the concept of packing up every time you want to go somewhere easier.

Before you buy I'd definitely suggest renting something similar to see how you get on.

A key issue is how much you would use it.

Compared to a tent or caravan they are much more expensive to buy and run and arguably a caravan (though less cool) is more practical as you can detach from the car and it means you're not running two vehicles rather than one.

I really, really want one.

Coke En Stock is my favourite of all the TinTins!

Sorry, not helpful, I know

Well, anyway, I would use it to visit the sea every weekend, because my DD and I miss it so much.
Camping is just too uncomfortable once you're past a certain age about 35.

We have one. Quite small but bigger than a normal VW, a fixed bed over a large storage space and a loo.
It's fantastic. Handbrake on and we are set up. We are both so missing travelling, lazy slow travelling.

It depends if you are actually going to use it. There are many people who get one and then it sits on the drive. If you already go away camping regularly through the summer and do some camping holidays then I would say yes. But if you think buying a camper will convert you into this kind of family then the novelty may wear off quickly. We have had one for nearly 20 years now but we also use it as our car so it is run regularly and used for more than just camping. It is less faff than setting up camp with a tent, but increasingly we need an awning (drive away) to decant everything into so there is space for us all to sleep! So set up these days is a similar time I guess to tent set up. When it was just the two of us it was just a case of pull up, bed done and camp ready!

Last time we were between vans we tried the car plus big tent set up but I decided I just can’t cope without a bed To be honest, although we don’t use it as much as we used to, I can’t really imagine life without it, it’s part of the family! It has meant we have got to some really far flung different places over the years that we probably wouldn’t have without it. And when the kids were tiny it was so brilliant to pack all the paraphernalia of babyhood in and for them to be in a home away from home.

I’d recommend hiring one for a week to try it and see what you think before buying (although that can be expensive it’ll give you an idea of whether you actually enjoy it and it’s a good way to try out a certain van format). Do plenty of research if you are buying second hand. Gum tree and preloved are good places to look.

Absolutely hire one. There are so many compromises and everyone makes different choices.

And yes, if you just travel to one campsite for a fortnight holiday once or twice a year, a caravan might be a better option

Definitely recommend a caravan instead - you don't have another vehicle to tax, maintain and insure, there's more living space and you don't have to keep putting things away when you want to go anywhere.

I would dearly love a camper van. There’s terrible parking where I live and I don’t know where I’d put it, or store it over winter.

We had one (a toyta Hiace) when the DCs were little, it was wonderful. However once we had to work round school holidays and they were too big to sleep in the roof together (5&7) we sold it. Still miss it.

There are places that provide storage

Currently on our fourth, we are now considerably posher as its a motorhome! We had a caravan for about 10 years, we once had a camper van and a caravan at the same time.
They are both great in different ways, really good for days out with kids you have all the facilities on hand.
Its a different sort of experience, people who don't like the faf of packing up are taking too much crap with them.
The advantage is you can just park up and eat or sleep, nothing to set up ( well possibly a bed) last year we did a weekend and just parked, the money we saved on sites was spent on beer and food. We currently have a trip planned to Anglesey for after lock down staying at two pubs who allow you to camp on the car park providing you buy Dinner or breakfast in the pub so its cheap weekend away. This is getting more common as its costs the pub nothing and gets food sales in.
Disadvantage 25MPG, sometimes difficult to park, as ours is older we have a classic insurance policy fully covered etc £200, Tax is about £225 I think.
I feel its best to hire one and see what you think before you buy, Motor homes are prone to leaks so buy carefully, do your home work. Not much about under £10K Bedfords are cheap but our petrol one did 15MPG! Talbots are better but the newest ones are 25 years old so must be well checked over before you buy.
We also dont use it enough to justify owning it but if we sold it the money would just disappear! We find it quite therapeutic and like pottering fixing bits and bobs on it, it now has solar and much better central heating.

A family member had a Bongo. Really reliable.

We had one for 5 years what a fantastic vehicle it was 8 seats all in comfort never slept in ours just used it as a minibus, sold it for double what we paid 5 years later which was a result, still miss it now.

Yes we have a VW T4, it's amazing, I love it and cant wait to hey back out. Took a while to set up, best thing we ever did. Cant recommend highly enough.

We bought one 2 weeks before lockdown ( yup ...after years saving, planning and dreaming and finally being able to retire early )!

And its still in the dealership waiting for us (which is still closed) .... .. Spectacular bad timing..

Ah well hopefully an Autumn big trip can be had rather than the one we had intended.

Had a transit conversion. Loved the bloody thing. Small but had everything I needed.

Got a drive away awning for a few hundred quid which basically gave a huge living room area. Put down some old rugs to cover the plasticky ground sheet. Cosy.

Would love to get another but difficult to find an affordable camper of any kind. I paid £1500 for that transit back in 2004. Utter bargain.

I had one.

Was very small. A vw one. After being stuck in it for a very wet week I got rid and got a caravan. Expensive to maintain as well.

We’ve been looking at buying a t5, but just not too sure we will use it enough to be worth the outlay we are now looking at rent boxes

Not rent boxes - tent boxes!

One of these

We have had 3 caravans over the last 20 years. Been very happy. But, They always need a little job doing to them, says Dh, every May bank holiday!

My friend bought her a campervan and it was just no end of problems and they sold it the year after.