To buy a caravan at a holiday park?

[Porky54]

DH wants to buy a caravan at a holiday park 1 hour from our home. Has anyone else done this? I'm just a bit sceptical about the whole thing. We have two DS aged 13 DS aged 9 and another DS on the way in November.
DH thinks it will save money on holidays for the next 4/5 years as he doesn't want to travel with a little one. I think the teenagers will get bored with visiting the same place weekend after weekend and for holidays throughout the year. He has the idea of renting it out to help cover the cost, I just think £35,000 could be spent on better things! Like a bigger house!
We have ordered the caravan but not actually signed for it yet so we can back out and get our 10k of hard earned savings back but husband is convinced it's the right decision... HELP

Mine is 2 hours away. Best thing ever, we go straight after school on the Friday and back on Sunday night.

We spend Easter, summer and October holidays there. We also have long weekends there too.

Site fees are v expensive but worth it for us.

I wouldn't have one an hour away although I know those that do.

I might think about it if you live in a flat, but not otherwise.

We did it, I spent every week cleaning and packing to go, and then cleaning and packing to come home. 2 gardens to care for as well, it was relentless. Never again.

Would you not be better off buying a motor home , at least you can then do different places .

Tbh it's not really a money saver once you factor in site fees and van depreciation.

My ILs own a lodge on a popular caravan park. Lodges don't depreciate as much and they are year-round so they use it a lot but it's REALLY not a money saver.

They enjoy it because it's in a place they lived in and loved for about 15 years and they have a lot of friends there as well, they are also retired and can take off at the spur of the moment and enjoy the state-of-the-art facilities on site, but the site fees are staggering (to me).

I have friends who inherited a sort of summer cabin on the beach. I know they always intend to use it more than they do. It’s a great asset but then it didn’t cost them much. If I had a spare £35k I’d probably buy a touring van.

My friends have one and use theirs every spare moment they have, their daughter is autistic and sees it as a second home so for them it’s amazing.

However we looked into it and honestly the site fees put us off.

If you buy brand new then many sites run letting services so you can let the caravan out to recoup some of your costs. However if you buy a second hand van then you often cannot use the letting service.

In the end we decided (after also getting input from MNers) that it wouldn’t be worth doing.

It's a money pit but something I've thought about over the years. Depends on the location and the eye-watering annual costs really. On the plus side, he could take the children off your hands some weekends and leave you in peace! If he's a hands-on dad and does his share of cooking and cleaning etc it might not be so bad but otherwise the constant packing and unpacking every weekend just to do the same druggery but in a lesser, smaller space is not something that would fill me with joy. How much do you spend on holidays now? It's worth comparing that to the c.5k annual fees that you will have to pay on top of the monthly balance of the caravan. I would say no and just holiday in those type of places for the next 5 years at a fraction of the cost.
When our dc were young we had a seasonal pitch for years for our touring caravan thinking that we would use it a lot on weekends etc. but realistically we didn't cover the pitch fee as there were lots of busy weekends and packing etc for a family got to be a right chore.

Why on earth would you want to pack 2 teens and a baby into a car every week to do the same old chores in a smaller place? Only a man would think that was a holiday. Just out your foot down and say no - or you may LTB

Well we have had long discussion about it and praise the lord he can see it's a silly idea. In hindsight it's a great idea but not for us! Thank you for your opinions they have really helped to make me realise that I don't want to own a caravan. Only 1 of the 3 DC said they would enjoy going time and time again but I think he said that to be awkward! DH thought it would save us money on holidaying if we had a caravan but I said a divorce would cost more than a holiday and I wouldn't want the holiday home!! So he has called it off. I'm surprised you didn't hear my cheers!

Let him buy it, let him do the work, let him go there with the kids.

You don't have to do anything you don't want to

Well done porky!