Campervan/motorhome advice please

[voluptuagoodshag]

Have had a caravan for 10 years but thinking of being more mobile with less hassle. DH and I in the throws of the great debate as I don't want one that is too big that it just becomes as cumbersome as the caravan and he doesn't want one too small as he is very tall. Our two kids are aged 10 and 12 se we have at least another five years before they don't want to come with us and we can leave them at home.
I like the idea of a decent sized two berth which would do us the rest of our lives with the kids camping out in the awning (though I can see this might be a bit of an ask). Four berths seem very expensive and the beds always seem to be two doubles which doesn't really suit. DD and DS fight the best of times without sharing a bed. Not hugely thrilled about sharing with DD while DH shares with DS either.
All advice and tuppence worth welcome.

We have a Compass Avengard, it's ten years old and we bought it six years ago in a spotless condition with less that 9000 miles on the clock.
It 5.8m long, so one of the shorter vans and easy to drive. It's a 5 berth! Two doubles, in in van body and one in the overhead cab, and the single is the long bench seat. My DH is 6 feet tall and had headroom. It has full size four ring cooker with oven, sink and drainer, fridge and shower room. We have only used the awning once in five years. Having said that it's usually only the two of us, though occasional nights have been four adults (cosy but doable).
There are lots of pros and cons with campervans, but I imagine you have already thought of those.
My best advice would be to go around showrooms and especially big camping exihitions, like the one they have at the NEC, and look at all the layouts to see what would suit your needs the best before you buy.
Good vans do hold their value, but getting a second hand but fairly new one will get you a lot more for your money than buying new. There are still a group of people who buy new then find after a couple of years that they perfer a different type of holiday and you can get a bargain like we did.
We have three vans in all, the first 2 were did conversions with elevating roof, and we had a small caravan for a couple of years but never really took to it, don't know why. Love our campervan now, everything we always wanted.
Best of luck with your search.

DH and I have this discussion annually! Currently have a caravan, have had 2 campervans in the past but when the kids were 1 & 3 we just ran out of space with the carseats etc. Now they are 6 & 8 and require less kit I'd love to swap back but he won't give up the Super King size caravan bed for a tiny fold out van bed.
In a dream world I'd like at Autocruise Quartet or a Autosleeper windrush. Both have bunkbeds and a fold out double in a Van conversion. In reality, I love the space in the caravan.

I obviously don't know your budget and where motorhomes are concerned the sky is literally the limit. - they do tend to hold their value though

But there are motorhomes with bunk beds in the back

Such as this sort of thing

If you were to buy something like Practical Motorhome mag - most newsagents/supermarkets seem to stock it there is a section there with all the different layouts and a key for which ones apply, so say bunks is all numbered 7 or 8.

But deffo go to a show, the NEC in October is usually very good

The other thing to check are your driving licences and that you are able to legally drive 3.5ton vehicles as obviously that will effect your choices. It will show as cat C1 and automatically given if you passed before 1997. Not all motorhomes are over that weight limit, but obviously if you can drive over then you will have more choice.

We went from caravan to motorhome, it is a different holiday as you can't just nip out in the car for example, you have to pack everything away. Although there isn't an awful lot to pack. We don't tend to leave the site, we take bikes and plan our holidays around that.

What everyone else said - go and look round showrooms at the second hand ones there. We bought one 6 weeks ago with a fixed double over the cab, and large bunk beds at the back, perfect for us, DS and dogs. Most motorhomes have garages underneath to store BBQs, surfboards, windbreaks etc too.

Liking the idea of bunk beds at the back. That's what we currently have in our caravan and it works well as a layout. My DH is 6'6" so he'll need to compromise a bit I think. Going to a showroom today where they have lots of second hand ones. No way we could afford a new one.

I would buy the biggest van you can afford, as having more space makes your life so much easier. I would make sure you have a bed for everyone as if you are doing stopovers touring you wont want to be putting the awning up every night and if it is cold your DC might want to sleep inside. We have a 9 metre burstner. Big enough for 6 of us. Mostly my teenage DC camp, but we do have nights on the autoroutes where we all sleep in the van. We love our van and use it about 6 weeks a year - we even go skiing in the alps in it

Have to be able to park it next to house too. But that sounds fab. Love the idea of going skiing in it

Well so far it's an Autotrailer Apache, Swift Escape 696 or a Windax Solaris XL.

The Swift has bunk beds and a layout similar to our caravan, nice and spacious,but will it manoeuvre into our drive. The Apache is nice and the kids could have a bed each whilst we have the lounge bit at the end as a bed.

Love the Windax and the way everything is compacted in but is spaciousness a compromise too far.

Decisions, decisions

Hello, just found this thread as trying to make a similar decision. We've been dithering for AGES. Agree the Wildax looks fab, but DP thinks it might be a little bit cramped and not much storage. Have you tried hiring? I know Wildax have vans to hire from their website (they're near Halifax). We've hired a couple of motorhomes previously - not quite the same as having your own, but it gave us a lot of ideas about what did and didn't work. Also cost around £100 a night, both vans had only been used once before, and someone else cleaned it up afterwards! We're also thinking of a bunk, or maybe fixed double at the back and drop down bed over the dinette. Chausson do a 616 with bunk at the back (and built in BBQ) which looks good. Made any decisions yet?

Yes, yes - we hired one for a few days and had a great time. It was a 4 berth with fixed bed above the driving area and another make up bed at the back. Not an ideal layout with two waring kids as they had to share space so we decided on the 696. At least they will have separate bunk beds. We will have a roomy bed above the driving area so no need to make up beds and that leaves the seated area as an optional extra bed.

After 30 years caravanning we decided to investigate campervans. We were looking at a budget of £10k so probably had less to choose from than you but I was surprised at the lack of choice because of our need to have 4 travelling seats. The vans are advertised as 4 berth but many of them only had 2 or 3 travelling seats which seems a bit strange.

That's a whole other avenue of investigation - and agree, it's very weird. Ours is a 6 berth but with 5 travel seats. There is an optional 6th seat where we could get a belt fitted but this would then affect the payload max. And there is no clear answer from anyone, anywhere. It's all very subjective regarding 'being a responsible driver', 'insurance', 'police may consider it an offence'. Really annoying