Camper van or caravan?

[FleetwoodRaincoat]

Never, ever thought I'd contemplate buying a caravan, but DH and I are looking forward to next year when DS will go off to uni, and thought we'd take the opportunity to travel around the country (both freelance so time off not an issue).

I can see pros and cons for both, but still can't decide.

Can anyone offer any words if wisdom please?

Budget up to about 12 ish K

Definitely agree with the suggestion to rent and see if you like it, Bunk Campers are very good and have a big range to choose from, or Bumble Campers are more cheap-and-cheerful.

We've just sold our caravan as DS13 and DS10 had outgrown the bunks. I don't miss it as it was an eyesore and I hated towing it! This year we've rented a cottage week and a canal boat week instead. I think having tried it for a few years I definitely feel 'freer' without it.
If we ever did camp again, which I doubt, I think we'd go for a folding camper instead.

Can I jump on and ask about the driving away thing with a camper van- is it not ok to take a tent to pitch alongside the van to pop stuff in while you're there? We might be getting a camper but as we still have a couple of tents we were planning on using one to give us some extra covered space- is that not ok? Does it have to be an awning?

I think it depends on the site @Heyha and if you would be taking up two pitches. Best to enquire.

We use the shower in our caravan. It’s in a separate cubicle, just like a shower at home. You just open the top vent to let out the steam afterwards. We have a fixed double bed (so don’t need to convert the seats at the front) and we store the van in a secure storage site on a local farm. Buying it is the best thing we ever did and we try to go away a couple of times a month. It’s like taking a little self contained flat with you wherever you go.

We had the campervan/caravan dilemma. We’d already ruled out motorhomes.
The caravan won due to the loo/shower issue. We use it at festivals with no electricity and can have a lovely hot shower while all around us are doing their best with baby wipes
My DH is tall at 6’4 and the campervan beds didn’t fit. We didn’t fancy forking out £££ when he’d still have to sleep in an awning.

Many of my friends have recently switched from tents. Nobody got it right first time, us included - we’re on our second caravan. So hiring first is a really good idea

We had a T4 until this year, we’ve just bought a T6 ready to covert to a camper.

Pros - it’s our second car, this would not work with a larger motorhome. We do a lot of watersports so even when we aren’t camping we have space for everything and somewhere to change/eat/make food at the beach. It’s fits into a normal space and we had/will have a poptop rather than a high top so we can use multi-storey car parks (mostly, we check carefully!). We used a drive away awning with previous van but this was a faff - whilst we had the extra space lining up and attaching was time consuming so we now have a tent and this will be a stand-alone awning for longer trips. When we sold our van we got back what we paid for it in itself BUT we had spent thousands over the years maintaining it. Our new van will be designed exactly how we want it and it will be soooo pretty

Cons - an older van will cost a lot in upkeep (see above) and the awning faff (see above) or packing up before going anywhere. No toilet in a small unit. You will need to be organised about putting things away.

Hiring one for a few days is a good idea but for £12K I’m afraid that your budget won’t stretch to anything less than 15 years old if you want a VW (which are very well made and if well looked after will easily last that long and more!)

We went away for 12 months in our camper & I am now looking for another one because I miss it so much.

Packing away to move can be a pain, but so long as you give everything a space there is very little to pack up before moving. Having fixed beds, junk pockets, and carefully chosen kitchen wear that fitted together helped.

The layout has to work for you - go to the shows / dealers to see what you love and what you can do without. Then hire a similar one to check.

It was lovely to just pull up and be set up, especially when it was wet or cold. Also in Europe we could just park up in an aire or supermarket carpark and overnight. Many villages / towns have places where you can empty the tanks, refill with water and recharge the batteries for a couple of Euro. That way you aren't tied to arriving when teh campsites are open - driving at night in summer was so much more comfortable and meant that we could capitalise on cheap sailings. Also you can get space on freight boats.

How about a trailer tent? I've seen some beautiful ones on site and the air beam ones are easy to put up and take down.

Caravan, 100%. We love our caravan so much so that after 5 years with a second hand one we purchased a new one and absolutely love it. We are in our late 40’s and want an easy life and tbh as much as I love the look of campervans and like the idea of just taking of for the day, when I watch them on the sites they look like a complete faff to us. I also like using our own facilities especially now during Covid and have never used the public toilets on the sites. I also love that with a caravan you pitch up, set up and that’s it, all done, you have your holiday home all set up and you are good to go for the duration of your stay. Even with a drive away awning everything looks cramped and awkward with a campervan.

@Hotcuppatea

How about a trailer tent? I've seen some beautiful ones on site and the air beam ones are easy to put up and take down.

Good call. Folding camper would be my choice as it has a kitchen. My brother has an ancient trailer tent and the beds are huge and really comfy. So lightweight that a tiny car can tow it and easy to store

We had a campervan with a little loo. But it wasn't big enough for 4. 2 would have been fine.
We have a talbot motorhome now. Its brilliant. I could live in it. I'd find caravans too restricted. We do loads of pubstops in ours

A trailer tent can be a faff to put up though - I had a Dandy for a while and loved the space and the gas heater, but as a solo traveller it was just too difficult to get up and down.

Interesting thread. We have been caravan'ers for 15+ years and 3 of our friends who were caravaners aswell, who now have uni children who don't want to go anymore, have just bought motor homes.

Love caravans but remember what is going to happen when cars go electric? My mon and dad are already worrying about this, they wanted to spend retirement in their caravan but when they need a new car to tow it in ten years time- electric cars will not do the job!

I love the thought of campers but have friends with older VWs, all of which are very often out of action and need to be slowly and expensively fixed. The ones who have had most use out of them are the ones who don't mind having a tinker themselves, but even they go to professionals for some jobs. I reckon if you could afford newer it would be okay, but if not personally I'd avoid.
In your situation I think I might look at a second hand teardrop caravan? We are still camping (well, trailer tent) but when ds older we might do similar.

@Littlepaws18 good grief....you’re saying that the op should miss out on 10 years of happy holidays for what may happen in the future? 😐

@Bananasareyellow

I love the thought of campers but have friends with older VWs, all of which are very often out of action and need to be slowly and expensively fixed. The ones who have had most use out of them are the ones who don't mind having a tinker themselves, but even they go to professionals for some jobs. I reckon if you could afford newer it would be okay, but if not personally I'd avoid. In your situation I think I might look at a second hand teardrop caravan? We are still camping (well, trailer tent) but when ds older we might do similar.

Some of my Campervan friends have Mazda Bongos which seem utterly reliable.

I'd love one of these but a bit out of my price range.

Thanks for all the comments - thinking about a pop top caravan now, as it would fit into our garage (so no storage issues) and also would be free to tow in France, if we ever get to go there! The Trigano Silver 310 looks likely, as it has toilet and shower in. I think that campervan won't really work for us, as it would be too big to use as an everyday car and don't really want the added cost of tax, insurance, MOT, repairs etc.

I'd agree with a PP about hiring both and trying them out.

We have a 1970s camper and a stand alone awning. Very basic and only has the rock and roll bed. The awning is key for a camper I think, it allows you to pitch up and leave your stuff at the site when you go out for the day so you don't need to pack it all up. I love the van, but it's certainly more aesthetic than functional, and we're young. We're about to have a baby so will probably see it become less functional soon, but we we're both raised with camping hols so it's not really any different to me in that respect except with a comfy bed. We mainly use it for festivals so it's great in that respect, but if you're going on holiday it can be a bit of a pain driving around small village lanes etc. The good thing about it being old is that it's narrow so it's not THAT cumbersome compared to modern vans. The only thing I wish for is a toilet so I didn't have to shlep to the toilets in the middle of the night.

Caravans don't appeal to me just yet tbh, but my parents who were very ardent campers got a caravan several years ago now and haven't looked back. The comfort won them over lol.

Funnily enough we looked into Mazda Bongo! I think they've stopped making them or importing then or something, so there weren't many around. We went with a nice trailer tent in the end and it is lovely, but might want something even more comfy and with less to set up in due course.

Bongos are very popular but if you’re not mechanical yourself take someone with you who knows what to look for - they’re prone to rust.

Camper. Unless you are seriously willing to become competent in towing and REVERSING a caravan. I mean proper reversing round corners in narrow lanes. You need to be willing and able to reverse 100m+ if you meet another vehicle and trailer coming in the opposite direction.Far to many incompetent caravan towers about who cause carnage on the roads.

If your not willing to do it properly for gods sake don't buy a caravan unless it's permanently sited.

@Bananasareyellow

Funnily enough we looked into Mazda Bongo! I think they've stopped making them or importing then or something, so there weren't many around. We went with a nice trailer tent in the end and it is lovely, but might want something even more comfy and with less to set up in due course.

There is a company in England that imports 2nd hand ones from Japan. Mines is 21 years old sailed through the mot. Came with a three year warranty, costs about 500 quid a year in tax and insurance. I think it was about 7k all in

Ive had both and I say for a couple definitely a camper van. DH and I had one pre-kids. We had a VW and it was great for touring. You park up, hook up the electricity and can be having a cup of tea within 5 minutes whereas the caravan takes longer to set up. You can get drive-away awnings if you want to go somewhere to store things. We never had any problems with parking etc although it was a fairly small van. I think a large motorhome would be annoying.

The caravan is great with kids because it's more spacious and we tend to holiday in one place rather than touring but we plan to switch back to a camper van when it's just us two again. I am always happy to use the shower facilities on sites but I would get a van that had a toilet, especially as I seem to need to see in the night more these days!