It’s not *that* bad, just a lot more difficult than a motorhome in sidewinds, when HGV’s go past, plus the additional stresses of driving on country lanes or through towns with a large ‘van.
And if you ever have to reverse back on a narrow road due to an hgv or tractor a caravan is a liability, especially uphill when the brakes decide to engage

You’re not wrong! I used to holiday with my family in South Devon, Beesands, near Kingsbridge, in fact. I didn’t go back there for over thirty years, and driving back down the lanes to the village I was astounded that we managed to drive along those lanes in a Ford Corsair towing an 18’ caravan! I remember us having to reverse back up hill into a gateway, the only passing place for probably several hundred yards, because the lanes down there are single lane, with twenty foot hedges and banks dropping vertically to the edge of the road, and driving my Octavia around steep, narrow roads with blind corners really brought home to me just how difficult it was.
There’s no longer a caravan site in the village, it closed in 1982, but cars are bigger than they used to be; it’s just easier to reverse back into a rare space without an 18-20’ box on the back. 😁

@molgrips it’s a Bailey Phoenix 642

To be fair only the caravan club site at fort William was stroppy about the peg lining up. Most other sites were just be in the area of the peg.
Forfar, a shit club site, were grumpy about me driving on the grass.

but not sure I’d buy a new van – they depreciate like cars.

I agree. We were looking at changing ours & spotted a new 2019 Coachman VIP 2 berth with 3k off the list price & 10K trade in for ours. We hummed & haa’d but I think we’ll wait till next year now & see if there’s a used one (same model) kicking about.
They seem to lose a fair bit in the 1st year then nowhere near as much after that.

Genuine Q: apart from the door being on the wrong side, why aren’t European caravans more popular here?

Some of the ones I’ve seen in Europe are amazing.

European vans tend to be wider than UK vans – for many years they were wider than were permitted, so it was very rare to see them. I’m no expert but I think logistics is one of the reasons, you;d need to ship them across somehow

why aren’t European caravans more popular here?

the larger ones are often illegally wide for UK roads.

Layouts and facilities often don’t match UK expectations/tastes – no washrooms, no ovens for example.

Limited dealer support in the UK.

Imagine buying an American car – you can do it and people do but it’s not for everyone.

Genuine Q: apart from the door being on the wrong side, why aren’t European caravans more popular here?

As said – caravanning is a bit different, you often end up without a shower or even a toilet, because all sites have them. In the UK a fair bit of caravanning is done on un-improved sites without showers or toilets.

Also (not sure why this is) they tend to have a longer A-frame which makes them more stable to tow, but quite a bit longer. And with many of our sites down little lanes, even reasonably large sites at seaside locations, this could be tricky. This is something that puts me off. You sometimes get fixed beds without much interior seating, you’re expected to do your living in the awning or outside cos it’s always so sunny and warm over there…

Some Euro manufs now make vans to UK design though.

it’s a Bailey Phoenix 642

Nice, I like these. Glad to see manufacturers have FINALLY moved on from floral designs. A plain textured fabric!

I’d probably have a 650 though, prefer that layout. But these are getting a bit heavy for our car now.

I’ve also noticed on the longer A-frame they often have bikes there too.

@molgrips we looked at a 5 berth but didn’t like the layout. The boss is going back and is taking her aunt who is a very experienced cravanner… I get the depreciation, but this is likely to be the only one till we sell it for a 2 berth motorhome when we retire! 😁

Nice choice @daftvader.

European caravans (e.g. Hobby, Adria, LMC, Tabbert etc) used to be wider than typical UK caravans, but most now are 2.3m with some 2.5m. Always found it interesting that those-who-live-permanently-in-caravans favoured these brands over UK ones. Perhaps because they were (generally) better built with nicer interiors, although UK brands have certainly caught up over past decade.

Ours was imported by previous owner, hence ‘Mein Hobby’ rather than ‘My Hobby’. 2010 Hobby Vita Veneto 495 UL. No battery, no shower but usual washroom/cassette toilet. 12v lights/taps/etc work off inverter but requires hook-up. Has oven/grill. Onboard water tank. Extremely well insulated. Underfloor electric heating (!) plus the usual blown-air. All 240v sockets are UK 3-pin. As @molgrips says, longer A-frame aids towing stability at expense of greater overall length. Hasn’t been an issue and coped fine with my unwise choice of roads recently in north Wales. Unusual exterior not being white and having weird windows and dimpled/hammered finish on the sides, but hides dirt and small dings. And interior like no other similar-age caravan we could find at the time, although newer UK caravans are thankfully moving away from traditional floral style. Loads of subtle LED lighting around interior. It’s even got net curtains…

We love it. Would have another Hobby but layout works so well for us that no reason to change at the moment.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/a11y_m/SXi5Jr

Limited UK support not been an issue, but I also drive an Australian car so I’m used to having to source bits from non-traditional sources.

One thing I find strange is the increasing appearance of bike racks on back of caravans. Surely that must have serious negative effect on stability having heavy objects that far from the centreline/axle, and must play havoc with noseweight? We could fit 3 bikes on our A-frame but we already find it a challenge to keep noseweight within range due to storage locations throughout the caravan, so have never bothered.

Yes, My van is very carefully loaded, I’d have no chance of getting it right with bikes on the front or the back. Maybe front AND back…!

@daftvader our kids are young, they need somewhere to sit and play make-believe with their little figures or colour and stuff. I don’t want to share a space with them doing that when I want to relax – hence we’d always have a second table for them to sit at. Whatever works for your family tho!

What is the British thing of ovens in caravans!

Has anyone here ever used an oven in a caravan? What a waste of space.

The euro caravans tend to have bigger fridges instead.

Has anyone here ever used an oven in a caravan? What a waste of space.

Steady on!

How else are we supposed to make our breakfast toast if we don;t have an electric hook up?

How do you make Yorkshire’s for your roast?

What is the British thing of ovens in caravans!

Has anyone here ever used an oven in a caravan?

Yes. French Breakfast Puffs in the morning, also supermarket pizzas in the evening.

How else are we supposed to make our breakfast toast if we don;t have an electric hook up?

Ours goes under the grill, I can’t imagine oven toast is any good?

Ours goes under the grill, I can’t imagine oven toast is any good?

you have a separate oven and grill in your caravan? Now that is taking things too far.

I’ve just booked a campsite (tenting) and one of the rules is ‘no european touring campervans with the opening door on the right’

why?

what possible difference does that make? 🤔

what possible difference does that make?

It mucks up their pitch spacing/layouts as they assume the ‘vans will all be parked on one side of a ptich and it keeps them separated for fire regs – one parked the wrong side of a pitch and it all goes to pot.

I’m with Picton.

You just park you van the other way round.

Hell I’ve been known to turn my van round on certain sites because the evening suns been on the wrong side of the van.

I am almost convinced by a caravan for family camping (especially in autumn / spring) but everytime I go camping either the site we choose doesn’t take caravans or the tent camping area is so much nicer i take a step back.

My cousin lives in Canada and she has a caravan not a 5th wheel one) and the sites they have over there are nice and much more sucluded but the caravans are very different, more ground clearance etc. Maybe when our child is a little older we have to compromise.

I agree, particularly with motor movers (or even if you’re not a septagenarian with two duff hips who has to use the car to park the van) it’s not difficult.

Most motorhomes have the access door on the drivers side and attract no penalties.

Most Canadian campsites(in British Columbia and Alberta anyway) . Are not tent friendly …. Well not tunnel tent friendly anyway.

Free standing tents pitched on gravel pits for the most part..

@ally Love the interior of that.

@trail_rate. Yep they are Alberta BC boarder. Good point.

We do a full Xmas dinner in our caravan when. Oven and separate grill are essentials.

@molgrips our kids are 4 and 11…. pretty easy to deal with, plus we intend to have a decent size awning so we can separate the buggers when they get too much! 😁

what possible difference does that make? 🤔

Some sites quote fire regs that they need to be able to yank your van out if it sets on fire away from other vans. To do that the drawbar always needs to be outwards. If thats true I’m not sure why it doesn’t apply to every site, I think maybe some site owners have OCD for a neat looking site, I’d avoid those.

—-

Mission creep – I’m now thinking Elddis Xplore 304 might be a better van for 2+ 2 tiddlers holidays. Although bigger than the Kip I’m now thinking a washroom may be useful to open up to cheaper and toilet less sites whose owners have less OCD.

https://www.gumtree.com/p/caravans/elddis-xplore-304-lightweight-4-berth-caravan/1349609364

Bikes I think are best on the car roof, then stored under the van locked to the chassis on site.

hmmm.

When our kids were younger we found fixed bunks for them was *really* useful – they got their own space to nest in permanently, little lights so they coudl read without disturbing each other.

We had an end washroom for a while but, tbh, we always ended up on sites with washign facilities so it was just dead space for most of the time.

our kids are 4 and 11

Ours are 8 and 10 – they don’t argue, they play constantly together. Often noisily.. So they need a place to do it.

Mission creep – I’m now thinking Elddis Xplore 304 might be a better van for 2+ 2 tiddlers holidays.

Those are good – you can stand up in them unlike the tiny little things. When I was a kid (up to 16) the four of us went all over the place in a van that big, so it can be done. Nowadays I like our size of van but back then that was the normal size so that’s what we used.

We had an end washroom for a while but, tbh, we always ended up on sites with washign facilities so it was just dead space for most of the time.

Our inside toilet still gets used even when we have on site facilities. I never fancy trekking to the toilet first thing or last to go brush teeth etc.

I’m now thinking a washroom may be useful to open up to cheaper and toilet less sites whose owners have less OCD.

Our door is on the back and we have no toilet, its never been a problem, but then we are not caravan club members.

Yes, the Caravan club of stiff Britain! Nice sites and facilities but they are sticklers for the rules. Had to move our entire “outfit” (including awning) 2’ to the side as we weren’t close enough to the peg. Oh how we laughed.

Didn’t the Caravan Club recently rebranded itself to The Caravan & Motorhome Club due to the negative publicity?

We took our last self-build campervan to a few Caravan Club and Camping and Caravan Club sites and they were always happy to have us. Once at a Camping and Caravan site we were asked if there was ventilation. I said it vented through the door step and all was well. I haven’t found either club snobby or difficult at all… Until you want to use the toilet between 1200 and 1500 obviously.

We are both equipped with an optional home-counties accent and bought membership in advance so that might help.

I remember my parents upping sticks from a site that got upset with the door being on the wrong side of our Dethleffs caravan. The site was half empty and they were not happy with us nose in, nose out, car parked the other side etc. We had no immediate neighbours. They also didn’t want to refund any of the weeks fee despite clearly not wanting us…I think we stayed one night and popped the circuit breakers on about 6 outputs as they had silly 5 amp limit on them, and then buggered off to a nicer campsite without little white sticks everywhere!

Just come back from 2 weeks away in our caravan. First week was in London, at Crystal Palace so we could do museums, shows, sights etc. Week was in the Forest of Dean, lots of biking, long walks with the dog etc.

Double dinette layout has served us well for the last 8/9 years that we’ve had it. It’s 1500kg so needs a heavy(ish) tow car. Used a TDi Galaxy for a long time but changed it last year for a new 1.4 Petrol Tiguan that does an excellent job of pulling it. MPG is horrific though, low 20’s at best, but it rarely gets abound 33 solo. 🙁

Caravanning has a lot of bad press but my boys still love it. Younger kids love camping, the make friends the instant we pitch up & have had some truly memorable holidays throughout the year. The boys have their jobs to help set up, we timed it recently & within 15 mins the caravan & awning was all set up & tea made. 🙂

We wouldn’t go back to tent camping for a main family holiday.
Summer is fine but weekends away between Sept – Apr are better in the caravan. We have two boys, 12 & 13, the eldest now prefers to sleep in the annexe we bought for the awning.

Yes, the Caravan club of stiff Britain! Nice sites and facilities but they are sticklers for the rules. Had to move our entire “outfit” (including awning) 2’ to the side as we weren’t close enough to the peg.

That happened to us in a non-club site.

The Caravan Club are a bit ridiculous, we joined to get access to the CL site network. I may switch to the Camping and Caravan club.

Mission creep – I’m now thinking Elddis Xplore 304 might be a better van for 2+ 2 tiddlers holidays.

Ooh that is a nice layout