Discussing the option with MrsW, and there are a few things to consider, some of which I would appreciate input from the hive mind on:

-the extra driving test (we are both early 30s)- I assume this isn’t too difficult, and will cost, but is then on your license forever?

-storage- there are a few places locally (one of which our neighbours use) that seem well regarded- any ballpark ideas on what this is likely to cost?

-the van itself- our idea would be to spend no more than £5k, accepting some dated upholstery etc to try it out. Is this going to guarantee a damp, cold experience?

-caravan clubs- am I right in thinking you need to be a member to use lots of the little farm based sites that I see all over the place? Are we going to be annoyed by gammons everywhere we go?

Overall it seems to make sense vs a camper (we use 2 vehicles probably 3 days a week), and we already have a decent enough tourneo connect which should be able to tow (need to check that!).

You don’t necessarily need to take the test, only if your car and caravan max weights combined are over 3500kg.

Our fully featured secured storage is £94/quarter. Cheaper is available.

Never buy a damp van. Dry ones are around at less than that but the cheaper you go the harder they are to find. Dealer sales are guaranteed for a while and shouldn’t be turkeys, but are much more expensive for the same age of van. Super cheap vans can be the subject of rip offs. £5k should be plenty to find a decent can, ours was half that and is fine.

Yes, you need to be a member to use the small sites, but it’s well worth it. Most people on sites keep to themselves, you do sometimes get old blokes coming over for a chat though, but they are usually talking about the local area, your car, or your caravan. There are still plenty of small cheap sites that aren’t club locations, but they are harder to find.

The figure you need to know about for your Tourneo is the kerb weight. Stay under about 85-90% of that for the MTPLM of the caravan.

Gammons, yes. Caravan and Motorhome club is very stiff. Rules are rules. Pitch your van outside the pegs and you are in trouble! On the plus side. Clean tidy sites in good locations. We didn’t stay in any of the small ones with less infrastructure as we wanted the nice Loos and showers.
We spent £1500 on a 2001 van in 2017. It was consistently the shitest van in every site We used it a for several holidays and weekends and had good times.
We sold it as I got brassed of towing the thing. Setting up and taking down was a bit of a ball ache and Putting up and taking down beds was a pain in my back.
We got it for exactly the reasons you stated, to see if it suited us. It did for a while but not for the long term.
The amount of time we would get go use it v the cost we decided it would be nicer to rent a cottage or AirBnB.
Also, it cost us very little to test the water, and I can store for free at work.
Still basking in the glory of the chap opposite us walking over to say “nice reversing” when we got to a site on the south coast.👍🤣

-the extra driving test (we are both early 30s)- I assume this isn’t too difficult, and will cost, but is then on your license forever?

Rules changed last year https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-rules-for-towing-a-trailer-or-caravan-with-a-car-from-autumn-2021
I could comment on caravans, but I’d probably get a hyper Mjöllnir ban 🙂
Neighbours have one but seemed to spend more time prepping it to go away than time spent away. They’ve now pitched their tourer on a permanent site which saves on the size of car, towbar, electric car is now possible, etc, etc.

As DT’s said, towing isn’t what I call ‘fun’. Although it depends on your outfit, but with powerful/heavier car with a light caravan & you hardly notice.
Yep setting up & packing up is a pain but once your done your done.
Big advantage is your mobility once your sited, plus car parking isn’t the issue that you can have in motorhomes or taller campers.
We’re in CAMC but rarely use the main sites as they’re rarely cheaper or any better than some private ones, we stick to the Certified Locations of which there are hundreds.
Wouldn’t be without ours now
Oh & take your awning down when it’s dry!

One thing that we found was that weekends away were tricky.
Get away from work Friday pm, traffic issues with that, get to site late(ish) and setup. Stay sat evening, Sunday morning you need to be off the pitch by 10 so spend Sunday morning packing up then you have to clear the pitch. Some sites will let you park the caravan up for the day but sometimes you have to pay for Sunday night even if you are planning on going home. Leaving the site on Sunday with the caravan massively reduces your opportunities for going somewhere nice. Heading home in Sunday morning would have made the whole effort rather less worthwhile.
Less of a problem in a motor home but you aren’t going to get one of them for £1500 or £5000!

One thing that we found was that weekends away were tricky.

Luckily my weekends are 5 days long cos I only work Thursdays and Fridays. 😎

That’s the thing, the sites needed to clear off all us hard working, “weekenders” to leave space for all the semi/retired people with their Jags, Range Rovers and brand new £45k caravans 🤣

Caravan and Motorhome club is very stiff. Rules are rules. Pitch your van outside the pegs and you are in trouble!

That is true of many organised sites as the same safety regs apply, for fire reasons. The only time we ever got bollocked for pitching up wrong was in a non-CAMC site. But these comments are about the big CAMC sites which are usually terrible, in my view. Good facilities but sterile, populous and expensive. We rarely stay in them. Very few are in good locations too, unlike some CLs.

You can do weekends, if you’re organised enough. Especially if you have the van on your drive. Just don’t go too far if you’re worried about traffic.

It wasn’t a case of not being organised or trying to go too far, tbh. It’s the having to be off the pitch by 10 that we felt was restrictive and not being able to get into a beach car park with a van in tow.
Don’t get me wrong we had some great holidays and long weekends but the cons started to outweigh the pros for us.

As already mentioned, towing licence for post 97 went out the window nearly a year ago so is a free for all.

Having a size advantage over what you’re towing really helps so the tail doesn’t wag the dog.
We have a grand tourneo connect at work with 1.5tdci and can’t imagine it easily pulling much over 1.2t. Whilst checking what it’s rated to tow also look up nose weight on the ball. The trailer nose weight you achieve versus claimed can also vary depending on how you load your vehicle and chicken shed.

It’s the having to be off the pitch by 10 that we felt was restrictive

That’s not universal. Sometimes it’s 12pm, but if you stay in a CL it’s often just a farmer and his field, so they don’t care if you leave it packed up in the corner until the afternoon, as long as you ask nicely of course.

Re 1200kg, older vans are often much lighter. Our 5 berth 18ft van is 1250kg loaded up.

We sold it as I got brassed of towing the thing. Setting up and taking down was a bit of a ball ache

I don’t mind towing  – our set up is over 43ft train length and 8ft wide. Recently packed this lot up on a Thursday afternoon, towed back to Derbyshire, set off to the Lakes Friday morning – set up by lunch time, packed up, towed back to Derbyshire on Tuesday, was set up in London (well, Welwyn Garden City) again on the Wednesday. Once you get used to it, it’s second nature

[url=https://www.flickr.com/gp/85252658@N05/cj6GLS2U44]2022-10-16_04-51-51[/url] by davetheblade, on Flickr

[url=https://www.flickr.com/gp/85252658@N05/c65V3SKatf]2022-10-16_04-50-44[/url] by davetheblade, on Flickr

Oddly I drove to Germany and brought a brand new Hobby Caravan back years ago.

English caravans were very expensive at the time and er way less advanced than the German ones that had a ladder so you could get on the roof.

We had it on a site in the Brecon Beacons, I loved the bike riding but never really saw the great fascination of living in a caravan, nice when we had a heat wave but meh.

I always thought it was an expensive hobby(you want something nice to tow with) and with the prices of some sites nowadays I can’t see why you’d choose it over something Airbnb.

Never joined the caravan club so may have missed out on the swinging side of it thou.

Mines about 1100 kilos, fully loaded and ready to roll, one of the smallest 4 berth nordic spec ones we could find.
Have towed it behind a van with 99 horsepower. Was slow and steady everywhere, but fuel consumption barely changed. The ex couldn’t tow it as she has the 3500 kilo limit on her licence and the van was about 3000 kilos GVW
Current set up is behind a mediumish estate, barely even notice i’m towing on most roads until i look in the mirror (obviously, i am aware due to the speed limitation, but you know what i mean).
We leave it pretty much prepped and ready to go from may to october, clothes, dried food etc then put the perishables in as we left, used to get two weekends a month in (not so much now i’m on my own). It’s also really well insulated and heated (nordic specs!)

Also, not sure if the 4250 kilo limit applies outside the UK. They’ve been talking about it for EU licences, and some exceptions/tweaks for EVs but not sure where/when either of the changes will apply. So who knows if your UK 4250 limit will apply, as you’ll still only have a B licence code.

Also, sites here are far more lax with location and timings. Usually stay until 3 ish on sunday afternoon and pitch to face the morning sun if we can…

I always thought it was an expensive hobby(you want something nice to tow with) and with the prices of some sites nowadays I can’t see why you’d choose it over something Airbnb.

It needn’t be expensive. We pay £12 a night usually for fabulous locations overlooking the sea or mountains etc. And the accomodation is always the same.. I feel far more at home in my own van than in a guest house, and I can cook my own food and eat cereal for breakfast or whatever instead of having to go out and look for and buy food every meal.

Last year we booked (and paid for) 3 nights in a Travelodge at Christmas whilst visiting my folks. It was so shit (the hotel, not my folks) we drove home at 10pm on Boxing Day rather than stay another night. This year we are taking the caravan. There’s a local CAMC site which will be only slightly cheaper than the Travelodge but we’ll ironically have more space and be more comfortable.

There are still plenty of small cheap sites that aren’t club locations, but they are harder to find.

There’s one I know of, a lovely spot, where you put money in an honesty tin! £10/night to camp, £15/night for a caravan, IIRC. When I was still at school, the village just down the hill had a caravan site with a couple of rows of static vans, with space for touring vans and camping behind, we used to take an 18’ van down, with an awning where I’d sleep. On going back, thirty, forty years later, I got down into the village, got a pint in the pub, and sat, wondering just htf we’d managed to tow a body caravan down there! It’s difficult enough driving a car down there, it’s single-track road for several miles, with 1:6 and 1:4 hills with very few passing places. I learned to pull in just where you turn off the main Dartmouth to Kingsbridge road and wait for a bus or a delivery truck, then follow it – everyone else has to give way to that. 😎

Honestly, having been caravanning in the (distant) past, I genuinely wouldn’t ever want to do it myself. I’m not even sure I’d want to take a bloody camper down those sort of narrow steep lanes, despite those being the sort of out-of-the-way, quiet places I love. Bad enough taking my old Octavia down there, my new-ish EcoSport is ten inches wider!

Bad enough taking my old Octavia down there, my new-ish EcoSport is ten inches wider!

Erm…..

I’ve seen you assert this quite a few times now on various threads over the last couple of years. I don’t read every thread on STW, so you may have posted it even more times than I’ve spotted.

This kind of statement sounds so unbelievable that somebody usually checks and shows that you are incorrect. Surely you must also remember that you have previously written this, and that you have been corrected multiple times. I mean just type “ford eco sport width” and “Skoda Octavia width” in to a search engine.

Love our caravan.

Home from home.
Never pay for expensive sites. Prefer farms etc. £15 a night usually gets you an awesome view, water and electric.
Last year for example we stayed in Ludlow, £10 for water and leccy. On a farm yard it was, but the view was great. The farmer took the kids to see lambs and did bacon and eggs for a minor fee. Ideal.
I always ask if we can stay late on the day of departure and normally it’s a yes on these small sites.
Great family holidays.

Last year for example we stayed in Ludlow, £10 for water and leccy. On a farm yard it was, but the view was great.

Monstay Farm? Right in the middle of Mortimer Forest and Bringewood. Take a bike. We’ve been there at Easter and watched lambs being born, it was great.

Re lanes: most people don’t put caravan sites in places that are hard to get to by caravan. However there is often advice when you book (or in the CAMC book/on the website) telling you how best to get in. Even with that we choose sites that don’t look too difficult and we check them out on Street View first if we’re not sure. Not had a problem yet, but it is possible.

As Molgrips said we too like the fact that a caravan is a home from home. Also love the certificated locations from the CaMh club. The rules for the bigger sites work well as everyone complies and the facilities are always top notch.

Learn the rules of towing (I still get overtaken on motorways by towers going a good 7 mph plus over the speed limit).
The gammons have always been friendly and helpful and believe me as a newbie, there will come a time where you will need to ask for help.
On our very first trip we spent a couple of days on a local site to learn how to set up, learn how the van worked and to make sure it was a hobby we were going to carry on.

This kind of statement sounds so unbelievable that somebody usually checks and shows that you are incorrect. Surely you must also remember that you have previously written this, and that you have been corrected multiple times. I mean just type “ford eco sport width” and “Skoda Octavia width” in to a search engine.

Depending on the which specific generation of Octy and Eco Sport it’s an inch or so.

We had some great trips away in ours and don’t regret them. However, some of the frustrating parts which made us change to a campervan: – We didn’t keep ours on the drive, so you had to sacrifice time either end of your trip going to pick the van up from storage / dropping if off and packing it / unpacking it. We were lucky that we could park it hitched up outside the house ready for a sharpish getaway, usually on the Friday pm after the kids had finished school / work. Unless you can get a ‘late stay’ at the site, you are booted off by 10.30 / 11am in the morning, at the same time as all the others c’vaners, campers and holiday cottages. Unless you can find somewhere to park in a layby, etc., you’re stuck with travelling home in heavy traffic and loose a day of holiday.

Are we going to be annoyed by gammons everywhere we go?

Avoid the ‘adult-only’ swingers’ sites and you’ll be reet 😉 and run away quick if they have pampas grass pot plant out front 😂 allegedly there’s something about flying a jolly roger upside down too. YMMV 🤣🤣🤣

Edit: In reality, they have been amazing holidays for us as a family. A true adventure for the boys as they’ve grown up. And regardless of annual running costs, it’s still way cheaper than going abroad during kids’ school holidays. Again, YMMV

I dont think there is a solution that works for anybody “forever”
We love our van and it has so many advantages for us at the moment. A caravan is likely to be a better choice in a few years time as we tend to stay put a sites and walk or use public transport to get around. We may do some proper touring over the next few years. Given we arrive on site and stay a caravan has advantages. Horse for courses. I like to think we will keep the van forever and my kids can use it in future.

We go somewhere every day during our holidays, by car usually, but sometimes there’s a local beach we can walk to.

Had the place to ourselves at our favorite CL site in the Lakes for August bank holiday week.


Just over the hill in the background is the now ironically named Quiet Site that we used to go to years ago. Had a walk over and it was rammed full with every square inch taken up with glamping pods, tents and caravans – couldn’t believe the contrast when back at our
little site.
I know which I prefer (£16 a night vs £60 too!).

Nobody has ever corrected me, to my knowledge. I checked the dimensions of both cars not long after I bought the ‘Sport, because I couldn’t figure out why I was struggling to manoeuvre it in tight spaces, and when I converted the difference in width between the two into imperial via a conversion app, it converted to a total of 9.55 inches. I got the dimensions for both from the manufacturers own websites.

I’ve no idea who you are, but please, take your snotty attitude and shove it.

I just checked the manufacturers websites earlier, the only way you’ll get 9.55 inches is if you take one including wingmirrors and one just with the width of the body. Which is, incidentally, what i got when i searched for the two cars, first hit on each one was stated with mirrors (just over 2m wide) and one without (just under 1.8m). So i went to manufacturers, which both quote both dimensions.

You’ll probably find the ecosport harder to maneuver due to the increased height, it sits about 20cm higher.

Avoid the ‘adult-only’ swingers’ sites and you’ll be reet 😉 and run away quick if they have pampas grass pot plant out front 😂 allegedly there’s something about flying a jolly roger upside down too. YMMV 🤣🤣🤣

We were directed to a hardcore christian site for a race weekend many years ago, it was literally 200m from the start line of a marathon event, so good location. They’d done a deal with the site owners.
They had rulez.
No drunkenness.
No smoking.
No loud noises.
No noise at all after 10pm.
Church was available 7-8 every morning (not compulsory).

The police were there twice during the night. Arresting people who *weren’t* there for the race…

Good, god fearing christian fellows

Firstly, buy a damp meter. At your budget you are going to need it, and will most likely look at a ton of caravans until you find one that isn’t a disaster area.

Even at a £10k budget you are going to be in the same situation, caravan ownership exploded during the pandemic… prices went mad and also demand for caravan pitches. last minute weekends away are a thing of the past in my neck of the woods, you need to book weeks/months in advance but I appreciate YMMV

you get nice holidays in them, it’s the outdoors life with at least some comfort, but booking a posh glamping pod most weekends would probably work out cheaper. You have to love the lifestyle and not mind the crap bits.

And Clarkson was right, you do have to take your poo for a walk.

My advice is choose a caravan well and see if you get on with it, if not just sell it on.

also demand for caravan pitches. last minute weekends away are a thing of the past in my neck of the woods, you need to book weeks/months in advance but I appreciate YMMV

Is that down the South West as opposed to ooop North.

(I’ve been watching a YouTube thing with having an £85k Motorhome and paying big site fees (admitly the biggest were abroad), I didn’t get the economics of paying out so much to only still pay out tons more once you arrive anywhere.)

Re. the early Sunday depart thing… If you’re not at a super expensive site just pay to stay the Sunday night too and leave as late as you want Sunday evening?

We ended doing that with self-catering places we booked in Orkney when we lived in Shetland. The ferry back north wasn’t until 11pm, so hanging around all day and to late night with kids if the weather was typically northern or dark was no fun. Paying the Sunday night meant another days chilling and doing what we fancied rather than scrabbling about filling time.

My parents have had a number of caravans of which we’ve had free use. I enjoy the actual staying they can be very cosy while still being connected with the outdoors.

The downsides though include the cost of pitches, extra transport costs, fixing stuff costs, plus the hassle of moving and set up – a weekend away was a lot of work we found a weeks stay the best. Buy wisely and I’m sure you can enjoy a caravan, use, then sell for the same price.

Even with free use we stopped using it and went YHA / Airbnb instead, that’s not to say it wasn’t enjoyable more it wasn’t cheap enough for us to put up with the hassle.

A friend of mine sold his caravan after a few years so he could have, and I quote ‘a proper holiday’ by which he meant when you have one it’s pretty much the only kind of holiday you can justify.

Also it reminds me my Dad, despite being an experienced caravaner, still managed a 180 on a motorway once (no real harm done) and it didn’t put him off.

We’re also caravan curious … There are lots of 2 berth ones on Ebay for £2-£5000 ish. Are most of them likely to be damp, then?

And Clarkson was right, you do have to take your poo for a walk.

House rules…no number 2 in the caravan loo!!! Never had to empty a poop yet 🙂 Thats what site bogs are for 😉

I have a 5k Caravan – Hymer Nova. Superbly built german caravan that while a little dated in many ways vs new, is also still better than a box fresh one in others. Zero damp, super warm and cosy, everything works.

Looked at many crappier ones before I bought this one, although I only saw one bad Hymer. They are just better built for the age you will be looking at. Working out so far and no I don’t pay Airbnb prices to stay on campsites. I think the most Ive paid is £60 per night in the UK but that was school holidays, on a beachside site, with an indoor pool. Most of the time its £20 – £30 peak.

There are lots of 2 berth ones on Ebay for £2-£5000 ish. Are most of them likely to be damp, then?

Not necessarily no. The cheaper you go the more likely they are to be damp, but it’s far from a certainty. Cheaper vans for sale are of a few different types:

– Good but old vans for sale legitimaitely
– Vans with a little bit of damp where the seller is honest about it
– Vans with a little bit of damp where the seller just hasn’t noticed. You don’t always know immediately.
– Vans that have had a leak (either from rain or e.g. the plumbing once exploded over the winter because it wasn’t drained), some interior wall went soft but it’s been fixed
– Vans that are leaking currently and haven’t been fixed, but you shouldn’t pay £5k for one of these, more like £1-2k
– Vans that are leaking and have been hastily patched up for sale, where the seller is “selling it for a friend”
– Vans from dealers that have fixed the damp.

Trust your nose. Buying at this time of year is good, because you’ll know about damp vans. If it smells and feels damp, or if it stinks of cleaner or air freshener, then walk away.

Always poo in mine and shower and use the oven

I don’t understand the mentality of some that like to leave it nice for the next owner

I use mine a lot in winter, sod getting half dressed when it’s cold and wet, tramping to the loo/shower block and back, when I can do it all in the nice warm van

Always poo in mine and shower and use the oven

Same here. My mate bought a new motorhome & had it 2 years before using the loo for a poo!
Although I’ve currently got the top off our toilet cassette & it is a bit manky inside, even though it gets a proper good rinse every time I empty it along with using decent chemical.
It’s 8 yrs old mind.