It's something we've thought about for a couple of years now; buy a caravan and then leave it pitched somewhere for the year and have somewhere to poddle off to from time to time.
The idea behind leaving it pitched - Mrs D doesn't fancy the idea of towing it but would sometimes go for a few days on her own or with the child during school holidays etc so it would be better left somewhere semi permanent. Then of course at the end of the year we would either renew the pitch or move it somewhere else.
The bit we're not sure about is the ongoing costs of ownership; insurance, consumables, pitch fees etc. Can anyone give us a loose ballpark annual figure for what we're thinking of doing?
The mother and father in law had a caravan permanently in whitby at this site
https://www.northcliffe-seaview.com/
From the top of my head it's around £2000 a year or more if you want add ons. Unlimited access to it between March and November.
They loved it, in fact they loved it so much they've just bought a static caravan on site.
We have had a touring van on a seasonal pitch and when the kids got bigger / more numerous changed to a static van on the same site.
The static is so much better with a proper toilet / shower / kitchen etc.
It's stocked with everything we need for holiday except fresh food which means we can go on a whim without having to pack and only need the key and a quick trip to the supermarket.
Our annual site fees are about £1500 a year, we use two 47kg propane bottles at £70 each but that includes two weeks of central heating at Easter and October, plus all the cooking and at least 5 hot showers a day when we're there. Electricity is about £30 a year. Insurance is £13 a month. Also pay a local caravan guy about £100 a year to properly drain down the water system / boiler / shower etc and reinstate it in the spring to avoid frost damage.
Make sure that it's a site you love if you're going to be there a lot. I've been going to our site for 30 years and my wife for 40-ish.
We use it for a week at Easter, 4 weeks in summer ( wife and kids only, me at weekends), a week in the October half term and about 10 other random weekends throughout the year.
Worth every penny.
£175-200 for annual service, maybe same again for insurance. Seasonal pitches are expensive. A common formula seems to be 100x the (low season) nightly charge + electricity on a meter. A lot depends on the kind of site you are looking at. There's a price list on the application form linked here if you want a concrete example: https://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/ukcampsites/storageseasonalpitches/ but independent sites can be much less (and much more). For semi-permanent without towing hassle, also consider storage with a towing service near the site (or sites) you like from year to year.
Thanks all - agree a static is much more appealing from a living standards point of view but also much more expensive to buy so for now we want to dip our toe in so to speak.
I'll have a look at some of the prices etc and @damascus - Whitby is one of the places on our list to pitch at so will have a look at that one 🙂
@dannybgoode it's also on the cinder track so perfect for cycling into whitby, Robin Hood Bay or Scarborough.
The facilities are also exceptional. The site is highly recommended and I've stayed on a lot in my campervan over the years.
I use a tourer and have resisted a seasonal pitch so far.
It's been on Innerliethen site for 5 weeks out of the last 6 lol.
I think prices at the moment are quite high for cheaper tourers. The Elddis I have just sold after 3 years use made a small profit of £200 above the buying price.
Depending on your confidence,buying privately normally saves you money and you might get a load of gear thrown in.Buying a quality awning,waste/water containers,hitchlock,etc,can soon add up.If it's been recently independently serviced with a damp report then that's more or less what you'd get at a dealer. Take a damp meter along and be wary of dealers damp reports.
As somebody mentioned,the Caravan and Motorhome Club and Caravan and Camping club offer seasonal pitches and some sites have storage facilities.
One thing I'd say is to do your homework regarding the sites, especially with a static. My old man got heavily burnt by a static and in the end just emptied it and left it. Probably not the cleverest move but he was that sick of it. Ever increasing fees, getting charged "council tax" and supplemental maintenance fees got to the point of ridiculousness. Plus you have the problem of units with a maximum age for the site.
Caravans also have their issues but if you have the licence (b+e) and means to tow a double axle behemoth then you could be pretty damn comfortable. Even a 7m single axle is comfortable, just not to the same degree. If you get a big van decide whether you want a fixed bed or a bigger bathroom. Personally I'd err towards the former if you are going to be on "nice sites" otherwise the latter if you want a shower you can actually move in. Serviced pitches are massively better than unserviced, mains water and drainage just makes life so much easier for longer stays, it's amazing how fast you can fling water from one butt to the other and find out you're empty at 2 in the morning.
Unless you are going huge with Hobby, the best of the normal bunch are Buccaneers.
They do a few different twin axle models, which are basically the same van, but with differing bedroom/washroom layouts.
I've got a 2016 Cruiser - automatic self levelling (no winding legs down), motor movers, underfloor wet central heating, onboard water tank - holds 40ltrs as does your aquaroll, decent sized usable shower and toilet, full oven, microwave, big fridge etc, solar panel, aircon.
They are 8ft wide, meaning you can have a transverse bed - I'm 6ft and don't hang out of it. I spend most of the year living in it for work. Bit tight towing down country lanes sometimes though. Paid £22.5k for it a year ago - they generally depreciate a lot (if you buy new, you lose the vat straight away), but seem to be holding their money with the current situation.
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One thing I’d say is to do your homework regarding the sites, especially with a static. My old man got heavily burnt by a static and in the end just emptied it and left it. Probably not the cleverest move but he was that sick of it. Ever increasing fees, getting charged “council tax” and supplemental maintenance fees got to the point of ridiculousness. Plus you have the problem of units with a maximum age for the site.
^This.
My father paid £14k for a static, we used it reasonably often, all family contributed to fees and costs.
After 5 years though we ended up giving the van away as the site had new owners, with new rules about age of van, new maintenance fees, more vans being squeezed in etc. The cost of transport to get it off-site was at least £400.
The van we gave away 8 years ago is still sat with my old employer who uses it as summer staff accommodation - it is warm, dry and functions well.
We've got a tourer on a seasonal pitch (well not this year because the site is closed).
We've had it for the past 8 years whilst the kids are growing up.
The twin axle six berth van (2009) was £6k about 4 years ago. It's still great.
We pay around £2k for the summer pitch (April - October), winter storage is £300, insurance is another £150?
We first got it when we lived somewhere with neighbours that were a pain in the arse.
Are new place is much better and so it's nice just being out in the garden here.
With kids getting older I'm not sure we'll take the pitch on next year.
Is the age limitation thing on statics still a thing? I thought I'd read somewhere that this was changed a few years back?.
I've toyed with the idea of a static on many occasions, but going to the same place always puts me off. Not really into the faff of a tourer.
Bed and breakfasts it is.
Is the age limitation thing on statics still a thing?
It's up to the individual park owners.
We bought ours new 15 years ago. Ours isn't the oldest on the site by a long shot. There is a nominal limit imposed by the park of 20 years but I only know of it being enforced once for a van that was in a state of disrepair.
going to the same place always puts me off.
It has it's advantages.
It's a place that's "yours"
I taught all 3 of my kids to ride their bikes there. I've taught them to climb trees, find conkers and play golf there. I proposed to my wife there. My kids have had a group of constant friends from when they were tiny kids. We know all the staff and all the neighbours. There's more of a community there that we have at home because we have the time to interact with people without all the home / work stuff getting in the way.
All just an hour away on a Friday night.
Aye, I get all of that Perchy, completely. I'm at a different time of life, daughter probably only a few years away from uni/whatever, we really should have done it when she was young, but ended up prioritising getting mortgage done, which is imminent.
I’m at a different time of life, daughter probably only a few years away from uni/whatever,
My daughter is just about to turn 17. As long as she has data in her phone she still wants to go to the caravan.
I'm secretly looking forward to the point when the kids don't want to go and we get the place to ourselves.
We’ve a tourer we keep on the same site most of the year apart from taking it somewhere else during main school holidays. It’s a very basic site with no services and you have to be brave to visit the old washrooms so you have to be self sufficient. Decent shower in the van and a generator for electric. The place is perfect for us as the kids have the whole field to charge about on, play on the beach and as it’s such a quiet place they don’t disturb anyone. We only pay £70 per month and I think it’s £300 for winter storage. November to March.
I’m secretly looking forward to the point when the kids don’t want to go and we get the place to ourselves.
...if the van's a rockin'! 🙂
Plenty of sites do storage too.
My parents love their caravan but are too nervous/old to tow. Their tourer is stored and the phone ahead and it's taken to a pitch. All they have to do is plug it in and put the awning up. A lot cheaper than taking a pitch for a season.
My favourite site in the SW does this too but we don't store it there.