I guess you could get a camper with a pop-top and stick the kids up there, but I reckon it would get a bit claustrophic over six months. I’d maybe invest in some really good luxury camping mats and a biggish tent or an awning. That way you kind of use the van as a kitchen and somewhere to sit when it’s wet and for sleeping on short overnight stops, but for longer stays you use it as part of an extended tent/van combo living arrangement. You could always chuck in a pop-up two-person tent as well. Can you hire a van and do a weekend trip and see how it goes maybe, but we found having an awning complete with sleeping area, table etc made a big difference. It just gives you more options.

Edit: a mate of mine ran a Mazda Bongo, which is on the small side admittedly, with a pop-top for himself, wife and two small kids. They ended up upgrading to a medium-sized mobile home thing.

MrsIHN and I toured Europe for six months in a SWB T5 camper with a small porch awning, we rarely felt the need for more space. You have to remember that, bar the odd rainy day, you’ll be spending nearly every waking hour outside the van (assuming you’re heading to the warmer climes)

Friends of ours (and he’s a poster on here) have a LWB T5 camper with a poptop for the two for them and their two girls, who are about the same age as yours, with a larger driveaway awning. Suits them down to the ground, and they do multi-week trips to Spain etc in it. That’s what I’d be looking at if I were you.

From experience, on a long trip like that you don’t want something too big as, as well as the ‘holiday’ type stuff, you’ll also be doing some ‘normal’ type stuff, like going to the supermarket, parking in town centres, etc etc, where a big motorhome would be more of a PITA.

Why not save the cost of a campervan, get Interrail tickets and stay in hostels?

It’s worth remembering that you get to keep and use the campervan after the trip. We still have ours, eight years later.

I would love to go Interrailing around Europe mind.

Can I come? I won’t take up much room.

(Having said that, I’m probably going to feel the same after 6 months!)

Yep. I took a year out in total, and it’s ruined the world of work for me…

Well, I am not much help but I think the OP has got the idea spot on. I would put on a pot of coffee and get the atlas out.

I would love to do something similar in both North America and across Europe. I can dream…

We bought a Scudo camper for my (Now) wife an I to away with with an eye for using it for a month’s road trip round Europe for our honeymoon. Size wise this is the same size as a T5 and fits in a tesco parking bay.

We’ve since found that for a weekend/long weekend it’s brilliant and have used it a lot over winter. However when we were away for over a week last year, we were looking forward to getting back to a bigger bed – ours is around 1m wide in our ‘van.

In your situation I’d be actually looking more at caravans tbh – I can’t imagine with 6 months away you’d be wanting to move locations each & every day so with a caravan you get more space plus the ability to pop to the shops easier in the car.

Alternatively I’d be looking at coach built motorhomes for the extra space.

I’ve got a LWB T5, and two young kids. I’m going to respectfully put my opinion to be considered alongside IHN’s.

A t5 type is too small for this trip. Get something much bigger, especially for a longer trip. Fair enough loads of people, including me, have a t5 as a compromise for day to day life. But the idea of using it for a six month trip in preference to something that will do the job much, much better mystifies me.

Get a heuge van. End of.

Six months means you’ll have seasons to benefit from or contend with. The Summer will be hot in the south (but you’re used to that) so the north seems a good idea. At the start of the season Spain is really pleasant.

I’d buy a L2, H2 Fiat Ducato or Renault Master panel-van based camper with a fix bed at the rear and a convertible dining area. I’d throw a tent in for when on campsites for the kids. Don’t underestimate the time you are going to spend on campsites (and the cost). Camper vans are not welcome in many of the places you’ll want to visit and you’ll end up on a campsite.