Tell me about caravans- and by folding caravans!

[Twoshoesnewshoes]

I am hankering after a campervan, however my budget is around £50…
I am not familiar with caravans or caravan holidays but I’m wondering if it would be a compromise? I’d like to go for overnights or weekends, probably within a couple of hours of home.
is or a nightmare? Is towing really difficult? Or is it okay? We have a big car which can tow.
and I’ve seen some vintage folding caravans which look fab! Any experience?

Don’t know why’by’ is in there

Anyone?

You won't get any caravan for £50!!! 😎

I can't comment on caravans but we did have a folding camper (think luxurious trailer tent). The first one we had was small but then we got a much bigger 6 berth one which was fab, like a caravan base with a canvas roof. Heating, loo inside, cooker, running water and comfy beds.
I towed the smaller one no problem with my little 1.4 car as long as I was going forwards. My spatial awareness is shocking and I couldn't reverse it to save my life. Many times me and DS had to turn it round by hand if DH wasn't with us. Frustratingly had to leave the bigger one to hgv driver DH.
Setting up was dead easy and I imagine folding caravan is similar.
I'm hankering after a cheap camper or small motorhome and can't decide whether to spend the money on this or a few foreign holidays.

Ive never had a caravan but i think the advantage over campervans is you unhitch them and can drive off site in your car to the shops.

I had a trailer tent. It was good. Better than a normal tent, particularly the bed. But it was really really heavy to put up and down and didnt have a loo.

I like the look of modern foldinb campers but they cost a lot.

We had an Opus folding camper but had to keep it in storage as we didn't have a big enough drive. This meant we didn't have anywhere to leave it set up to dry out when it got wet. We now have a long wheel base camper van (with loo etc.). The folding camper had more space but the camper van is more convenient for us.

Thank you!
@CaptainMyCaptain and @Fizzadora sounds like you both prefer a campervan. Is that cos of the towing aspect? And would you consider a campervan which could be a useable car - like a bongo?
im a bit confused 😐 about what I want/need.

We have our camper van in addition to a car each but I acknowledge we are lucky to be able to do that and may not always be able to. When get to the campsite we always leave the van parked there and walk or use public transport although it would not be too big to drive around if you wanted to. It's quite a bit bigger than a Bongo. We considered getting a Basecamp caravan but DH didn't want to tow. I would have done a towing course but didn't want to take on all the driving.

It's just a dream with your budget unless that's a typo!

Campervan much easier to drive than towing but you have you pick everything away each time you want to drive somewhere.

Caravan needs to be stored somewhere and while it is easy to tow once you get used to it reversing is quite tricky

I assume your OP had some zeros missing from the budget figure....

We have an Xplore 304 caravan. Technically 4 berth but we're retired and kids long grown and flown.

Towing it in a forward direction is easy; reversing less so!! If you go down the caravan route it's worth doing a course.

Also you need to factor in the upkeep of another vehicle with a camper

I’ve had a camper van and a folding caravan. Out of the two I preferred the folding caravan, we had an ancient 1986 Rapido which folded down into the size of a trailer. We could just arrive at our pitch, level it out and have it ready to put the kettle on in about 10 minutes. It was kept in the garage when we weren’t using it - but then DS decided it was a good playhouse so it went on the driveway!

Also had a Mazda Bongo. It was good but not very spacious inside. If I had the bed down I couldn’t access the fridge. Little niggles like that. It was my only vehicle and probably only did about 20 mpg. Great to drive though.

Now back camping in a tent and loving it.

I was being ironic with the budget - basically I don’t have any!
hmmm that’s helpful @Iheartmysmart, silly question but is it considerably easier to tow the folded caravan (in the trailer) than a normal caravan?
I am rather tempted…there’s one for sale on Gumtree for £900 with cooker and sink.

I imagine a folding caravan for 900 will be a pile of crap. They need to be road worthy . Our electrics were constantly going on the blink for example . Older caravans need to be checked for corrosion and leaks. And I would advise a habitation service before using.

you can do towing courses. I could drive with the caravan but I never got my head round reversing.

We had camping equipment - cheap, cheerful and easy to store. Could go on a whim when weather was good and great fun for a few nights. Im not the sort that enjoyed long holidays camping in a tent but a few nights was great. If it rained when we came home we had to erect it in the garden to dry out and we had quite a few planned breaks that never happened due to the weather forecast.

Campervan (Bongo - no facilities - sleeping only witha roof tent too for the kids) - fun when kids were small and used it as a second vehicle. Better than camping as could go in the rain - even though we took most of our camping equipment with us. We still didn't go for more than 4 days though.

Motorhome - small but with full facilities. We tended to avoid using the toilet and shower as it was small and use site facilities but it was useable if we stopped somewhere busy or without facilities. This mobile was great as we could go away for longer. Loved it but it got old and a bit rusty and we had a few years when we didnt go far and the costs for services, reapirs and MOT etc were high, so we sold it. The disadvantage when away was having to use it to go shopping or explore and leave the pitch but ours was quite small so would go down lanes and could be parked in a normal parking spot. You could choose sites where cycling or buses are available and that would mean you could stay "moored up".

We sold the above before COVID with the idea of buying a newer small mobile home in a few years time but the prices currently are too high. We cannot store a caravan on our driveway, so havent looked seriously at one. I think they are better designed for longer holidays to be honest but I dont have the experience to know.

With a low budget stick with a half decent tent, folding caravans can be full of issues, at a low price be very wary. My friends leaked so much!

We've got a folding camper - Pennine Pathfinder, it's like a proper caravan when you're all set up, got a washroom, kitchen, comfy beds, heating! It's 20 years old, cost us £1600 a couple of years ago and it's great. Easy to tow, can be stored on our driveway, loads of space inside and has an awning too. The cons: takes a while to set up/take down so we usually go for a minimum of 3 nights, more often a week. And needs to be fully dry when stored so if you take it home wet, you need to be able to fold it out at home until it dries out. But we love ours - price of holiday accommodation in cottages etc was becoming prohibitively expensive for us so this is like having own wee cottage on nice campsites and much much cheaper.

It is easy to tow a folding camper because it doesn't obstruct your view - you can see over the top of it.

@Twoshoesnewshoes Dead easy to tow as it’s not high so you’ve got good all round visibility. Lightweight as well. I had a Hyundai i10 at the time which apparently would have been able to tow it. We generally used the bigger car though to fit all our stuff in.

Never bothered reversing ours into a space, it was so light we’d just unhook it and physically move it into place. Even up our sloping driveway wasn’t a problem.

We bought ours off eBay for about £1500 then spent about another £750 getting it serviced, new tyres and reupholstered.

Was sad to see it go to be honest.

Ive been eyeing these up 😍

It took a bit of setting up and putting away but it was very spacious inside and had two fixed double beds so no pulling out the seating and making the bed up every night. We had the original poled version I think the air version would be much easier.

Oooh lots of ideas, thank you!
id probably only go for a night or two - maybe a small campervan which can be a second car is the best option?

I'm looking to replace my daily drive with a micro camper so I can go away on my own with my dog, and then the folding camper is for family holidays. Micro camper is basically a large car that can become a camper - have a Google!

It is easy to tow a folding camper because it doesn't obstruct your view - you can see over the top of it.

They are a lot easier to reverse too, for the same reason.

There’s no such thing as a cheap camper van buying trouble