Talk me out of a camper van.

[KangarooKenny]

Sorry if this is in the wrong place !
Since I was a kid I’ve wanted a camper van, I’ve even been and looked around some. But I’m not sure it would be right for me. I’m aware of insurance, MOT and servicing, but what other financial things are there ?
Now I’m approaching retirement I’d love to be able to explore all corners of the country.

Ooh yes, buy one and drive it very slowly round the North Coast 500. Park it in passing places on single track roads. Take all your food with you, to avoid giving any trade to local restaurants. Sleep in it to avoid giving any trade to local hotels. Leave plenty of rubbish, particularly human waste.
Drive home with a warm glow about all those friendly locals who kept cheerily tooting their horns behind you. Especially the midwife, GP and paramedic.

Make sure you fit a solar panel to the roof - not needing electric hook up makes it massively easier to just book into campsites at the last minute (because pitches with electric always sell out first)

My brother, mum and uncle all have one of various fabulousness....I'm very jealous!!! My uncles was bespoke top of the range and has been stolen twice off his drive......please get a tracker! My mum kept theirs in a lock up facility but they're thinking of selling because they were fed up of packing up everytime they needed to get shopping etc. but they love it. My brother had a VW transporter but recently sold it for much more than he bought it for. SIL got fed up of it.

Our camper van has insulation and heating. We stayed away in it for three days over New Year and it was perfectly comfortable. Also black out curtains.

Rubbish and dumped human waste is caused by ignorant people not camper vans.

Do it, do it, do it.
We have a touring caravan and love the freedom of getting away whenever we want to.
When we get a bit older I would like a Motorhome as I love the idea of popping out for the day and if we want to come back home we can but if not we can find a nice site and stay for the weekend.
In saying that, I personally wouldn’t have a campervan as I like my own loo but as most touring sites have good facilities (especially the Caravan and Motorhome Club, their toilets/showers are usually immaculate), having no toilet/shower shouldn’t pose a problem if you aren’t fussed about things like that.
If it is something you have always wanted and you can afford it, then go for it, you won’t look back.

Some of the comments are a little unfair - as I said earlier our VW fits into a normal space, it doesn’t ‘stick out’ anywhere. We are also perfectly capable of reversing it thanks .
I have never wild camped in my life, so I pay to use a campsite - or does that not count as supporting the local economy? We don’t eat out every night but then if we were in a self catering cottage we wouldn’t either (and that comes with it’s own issues - I live in Wales where locals are being priced out of the areas they grew up in). We don’t fly either so I am fairly sure the carbon footprint of our holidays is far less than someone flying to Spain for their holidays.
People leaving their rubbish behind are absolute scumbags but they come from all walks of life!

I am investigating converting a van and adding a platform with hoist for the motorbike. Sounds a good option as I hate camping

My parents just got their first motor home and absolutely love it!!! They cancelled their summer holiday to Spain just because they’d prefer to travel around the UK with their 3 dogs haha. Sorry, not really talking you out of it. Go for it!

You are deluded if you think VW campers fit in a normal space. Take a look around Tesco carpark and see all the campers sticking out into the road. I would pay good money to see anyone parallel park a camper. And at the local beauty spot or beach, you cant park next to a bloody camper as they have the doors open and are lifestyling and BBQing all over the next space. And if it has a toilet, but you don't use campsites, where does the human waste go? Our beach carparks are full of used toilet paper. They are filthy animals with no thought for anyone else. They drive them about 35 and you can't see past them to overtake. Luckily our Parks are cracking down on them hogging beach carparks and the police are giving fines out to all the "wild campers".

@bluedomino That's very odd because I routinely park mine in supermarket carparks to go shopping. It's a short wheelbase VW and doesn't stick out - the front end is very short.
Handy to have the fridge freezer to store cold stuff if I need to go somewhere else after shopping too.

Not so keen on parallel parking, I grant you that, but reversing sensors make things a lot easier.

When it comes to wild camping and bad behaviour, it's like a lot of things - some people ruin it for everyone else with inexcusable behaviour.

I’ll invite you to watch dh park if you like, have you never seen a van parallel park then? Because that’s what it is - a VAN

And how much shall we charge you to watch this amazing spectacle?

I don't have a VW, but a quick Google tells me that a T5 is between 4.9m and 5.3m long (depending on wheelbase length chosen, plenty of campers are short wheelbase), which is about the same as a large SUV or 4x4 (see below for examples):

BMW X5 - 4.9m
LR Discovery - 5.0m
Ford Explorer - 5.0m
Audi Q7 - 5.1m
LR Defender - 5.4m

Those cars all fit in parking spaces, so why wouldn't a small van like a VW? Larger vans might not fit, but if we're specifically talking about the popular T4 / T5 type vans, they're not large vans.

I also have a vw t4, have had it for over 20 years and can assure you it fits in supermarket carpark spaces and I've shocked many a man with my parallel parking in a small space! I love it😍

We have a T5 described as a 'day van' - storage and a cooking space. We have a Tentbox on the roof and the van is pretty much full of bikes.

But there is little to go wrong! We depend on campsites for electricity and toilets. Just spent 6 weeks travelling round Spain and it was the most magical experience ever.

We saw lots of camper vans (mostly French and German) and many people were contending with minor inconveniences. Our basic set up seemed pretty good in comparison.

We did this calculation as we fancied one, in the end we decided against it because

• storing it on the drive would block out the light to the living room


• cost of buying it would not be recouped for many years in terms of holidays


• when you're on the campsite you either need to pack up to drive out for the day or have a driveaway awning and I didnt like either option


• no where to store bikes on campsites safely


• parking tricky


• car park height restrictions


• getting one that has good headroom vs the smaller ones which wont have headroom in them


• tax, insurancde and petrol costs


• when we're on holiday we drive around exploring, more tricky on narrow country lanes in one of those, alternatively could tow along a car behind but thats extra costs/diffiicult or could take bikes but we dont cycle on roads as Im not confident enough so exploring the local little towns and villages would be a nuisance


• I dont want a camping holiday for every holiday

Packing up a campervan takes about 5 mins - everything is always stowed away after use as it’s a small vehicle. All we have to do is fold up the camping chairs & pop the roof down. And swivel the front seat back to forwards facing.

We have a large campervan, a Mercedes Sprinter. It has a loo and a shower, also a fixed bed. We don't tend to stop too long in one place so stop at sites where we can either walk in to town or get a bus or train.

Yes of course you are paying for the upkeep of the actual motor so we try to use it as much as possible. We use it for all our holidays. Can usually manage to find a site somewhere. We've been to both France and Spain in August and not pre booked still managed to find a space somewhere.

Oh and when we went to Scotland we did eat out, did pull over in to passing places and stopped on campsites.

So, can't talk you out of it, best thing we've ever done.

Got a converted VW T6. Live it. Power steering, automatic. Footprint no bigger than a Volvo so not like driving a bus.
Top tip - if you get a conversion make sure it's insulated to the hilt. And prioritise bed size over everything else. You don't need an on board oven, just a fridge. We cook with a top of the range Primus under the awning. Like proper camping.
Love our van!

We had a Bongo, which was great but they are all old now and not hugely reliable.

We've just bought one of these Very little to go wrong, no road tax, no MOT. And a bed that's bigger than a king size.

You will need a tow bar, but it's so small and light that virtually any car can tow it.

Might be a cheaper option?

We’ve got a converted VW transporter. I love it, it’s one of the greatest ideas I have ever had and probably my best ever purchase……..however, it’s not for everyone. It’s very much camping. It’s way more comfortable than a tent, it’s darker, warmer and quieter and it’s a lot less hassle but it’s camping, no two ways about it. That suits me fine because I love camping and now I can do it all year round but it’s not an alternative to a holiday cottage, it’s an alternative to a tent. You do have to think about things a bit, pack light, choose sites carefully. Even with a driveaway awning there’s still stuff to do before you can drive away. If we’re on a long trip we’ll work on several days where we know we won’t need to drive, we make sure we shop when we see a supermarket and don’t arrive at a site and decide to go shopping etc. otherwise it can be an endless cycle of packing and unpacking.

The advantage to this size of van is that there are few places you can’t take them, they fit in a single parking space and the vast majority of multi storey car parks and you can use it as a car and park it on your drive. If you get something bigger that needs to go in storage and can’t be taken on some roads or car parks it’s another layer of planning again and starts to feel much less like the carefree dream.

We really love it, as I say, but lots of people get one thinking it’s something it’s not and are disappointed.

Exactly how I feel about our T6! It's a camping upgrade!

With the added advantage that during our years of hefting student children and their stuff around the country, we had a vehicle big enough to do the job!

We have a caravan and have often thought of getting a camper but with rising fuel costs our holidays are getting longer and less often so a week or two at a place rather than many weekends. I am not sure I would want to forgo space, a fixed bed, large toilet and shower area where we put our damp stuff for a very small camper for a week and having to pack very carefully. Also we can just go out for day trips without packing everything up

Go rid of ours last month and l was so glad to see the back of it!
It was old and not the most reliable and we had to put e5 fuel in which was really expensive.
I thought camping would he a cheap weekend activity but it is more expensive than staying in a Premier lnn and if the weather isn't great, it can be miserable.
No spontaneity- everywhere gets booked up so far in advance.
Just wasn't for us but renting one is a really good idea- you may love it!

Hiring is a great idea. We hired one to do the NC500, we enjoyed the holiday but I'd not want to have that sort of holiday every time. Booking sites in advance means you are not as free as you thought you'd be.