Caravan - yes/no?

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figbat

Slippery scientist
As a family we have done tent camping and got on OK with it. Our last camp was during storm Francis and whilst we and the tent survived with just superficial injuries, it wasn't a lot of fun. What with going abroad now being unsavoury it is likely we'll be staycationing more, so our thoughts have turned to a caravan.

As a kid my family went caravaning - these were our summer holidays and with rose-tinted glasses on I remember the times fondly. Looking at caravans these days they are far more advanced than the '70s Sprite Alpine that we used, with such luxuries as power hook-up, hot and cold running water, showers, full kitchens, TVs, heating, motor-movers etc.

We have a car capable of pulling something modest (a Volvo XC40 T4 AWD) and it has a towbar fitted already. I've been scanning the classifieds and it looks like you can pick up something reasonable with 4 berths for under £10k. My concerns are that it'll sit, unused for months on end and go stale/mouldy, that it will require ongoing servicing/fettling/money to stay roadworthy, and the big one - it'll take a big chunk of our front garden/drive and be all we can see from the front room window.

Any input, advice or pearls of wisdom?
 
I owned a caravan for around 5 years when the kids were 11-16 , it was bought for weekend sailing mainly though I did take it to Cornwall 3 times as well. ( the whole family sailed and it was free caravan pitch at the sailing club on weekends) . It made sense as I bought it cheap ( around 1.5K) and we used it a fair amount and I had a huge garden to store it in. We were not bothered about keeping up with the jonese's caravan wise and as long as it was watertight and the cooker worked,shower worked all good.
Caravans make sense if you are going to use it a fair amount and the depereciation in its value is less than paying out for B+B or hotels etc. Plus you can take shed loads of kit with you.
In my opinion if you only use it once r twice a year it is more cost effective to stay in a hotel etc.
If you do not want to use your drive there are usually a few places ( certainly in Essex) where you can store your caravan for a fee. Looking at some places in the past they were quite expensive.
 

byegad

Legendary Member
Location
NE England
Please don't do it. Far too many of the blessed things on the road already. Having twice dodged disintegrating caravans on the A1M in County Durham as a snaking of the caravan down a windy hill flipped the wretched things onto their sides, I regard them with great reservations.
 
OP
OP
figbat

figbat

Slippery scientist
I owned a caravan for around 5 years when the kids were 11-16 , it was bought for weekend sailing mainly though I did take it to Cornwall 3 times as well. ( the whole family sailed and it was free caravan pitch at the sailing club on weekends) . It made sense as I bought it cheap ( around 1.5K) and we used it a fair amount and I had a huge garden to store it in. We were not bothered about keeping up with the jonese's caravan wise and as long as it was watertight and the cooker worked,shower worked all good.
Caravans make sense if you are going to use it a fair amount and the depereciation in its value is less than paying out for B+B or hotels etc. Plus you can take shed loads of kit with you.
In my opinion if you only use it once r twice a year it is more cost effective to stay in a hotel etc.
If you do not want to use your drive there are usually a few places ( certainly in Essex) where you can store your caravan for a fee. Looking at some places in the past they were quite expensive.
Thanks. Should've said this would be for two parents and two kids, currently 10 and 12. I was around that age when my family caravanned. My hope is that if we got one we'd get on and use it - one worry about putting it into storage is that it would be out of sight and out of mind.
 
Indeed they can be out of sight and out of mind, I bought my caravan from a storage facility, someone bought it used it for a couple of years then just left it there. They had not paid the landowner for 5 years so he informed them he would sell it. They never replied and had moved house so he could not get hold of them. When I went to view it he had removed it form covered storage years before and it was completely green on the outside though inside still pristine.
Took 2 days to clean the mould off and it came up sparkling. The cheap price reflected it looked a state from the outside and it was questionable whether the landowner really had the right to sell it. He reckoned it was legal as it was in his rules and that the guy had signed and it had been put on a auction site for the best price. I sold it to a mate in the end for not a lot less than I bought it for.
 

Electric_Andy

Heavy Metal Fan
Location
Plymouth
My partner spent £10k on one a while ago, kept it for about 6 years. They had great fun with it, but by her own admission it was not a cost saver compared to staying in hotels. If you google prices in Cornwall for example, they are £60-£70 per night for a basic pitch (up to 7m caravan). It's not usually cheaper anymore, but people do it becasue they love caravaning, not so they can save money.

If it were me, I'd buy an older one that needs some work, do the work yourself, and see if I like it first. You could always do a short break, assess your needs and then invest in something bigger and better if you still like the idea of it?

Edit: You can do it cheaply though, like anything, if you discipline yourself and don't buy any meals/drinks that you haven't prepared yourself then it does save 20 or 30 quid a night by not eating out, which you'd have to do in a hotel. But there are Air B&Bs with kitchens now for no much money, so it's all about whether you like the caravan experience or not. I'd be thinking about what there was to do in the evenings (board games etc) so that my 8 year old wouldn't be bored. He likes board games though
 
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How many holidays could you have for the 10k ?

If you're a busy family I'd just pay for holidays in static vans. Then maybe join the camper van thread once you've retired and have the time.
 
D

Deleted member 26715

Guest
We've had a few, once when the kids were young, never expensive ones, always on sites where there were no clubs or anything, had great times, then once kids moved out we bought another just for the 2 of us, didn't use it as much as we should have but enjoyed when we did. Last one bought for £2200, sold 4 years later for £1800, just make sure it's dry & damp hasn't got in, you can buy a cheap meter to test.

Storage is an issue though, we had to pay & it was 10 miles away, so to go away it had to be fetched to the house the night before, packed up, then away, then brought back, emptied then taken to storage the day after, if it had of been on the drive/garden I'm sure we would have used it a lot more.
 
£10K, plus associated costs - extra fuel and tyre wear on Volvo, ongoing maintenance of van. (Plus the PIA of towing the thing, parking etc.)
All that will pay for an awful lot of rented holiday accomodation, and you won't be buying a depreciating asset.
You will even have a view out of your front window.
 
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OP
figbat

figbat

Slippery scientist
Some good food for thought. We were thinking about it as an upgrade to tenting, which we already do, as well as a reaction to global circumstances meaning abroad is less attractive and all those AirBnBs and cottages will get snapped up (I guess touring pitches will too). A relative of my wife has offered to lend us theirs for a try-out, but they use it a lot so finding a slot might be tricky. We're not interested in groups or on-site 'activities', just getting the family out and about with something warm and solid to sleep in.
 

CanucksTraveller

Macho Business Donkey Wrestler
Location
Hertfordshire
If you google prices in Cornwall for example, they are £60-£70 per night for a basic pitch (up to 7m caravan).

Gosh can it be that much for a caravan pitch? The few I just researched were more like 25 pounds a night for a pitch with hardstanding, electric and water / waste hookup.
I paid 70 pounds a night for a really nice 6 berth static caravan in Scotland, direct access to the beach, all mod cons and it even had a washer and drier in a shed at the back. And I didn't have to drag it up there. If some campsites are charging that for just the pitch I can't see that I'd ever be tempted, a static maintained by someone else seems to make far more sense.
 

HMS_Dave

Grand Old Lady
A slightly related story from my youth. I remember helping my dad to pick up the caravan from the lock up. He hitched it up and I got out to help him navigate around a tricky bit. He drove forward and ran over my foot with caravan as I shouted out he stopped and shouted "what!" I shouted "you're on my foot!" He said "eh?" I shouted back "you're on my foot!!!" He turned the engine off, got out and said "whats up?" I repeated it again. He then rushed in and finally reversed off it:laugh:. It was a bit numb and bruised but wasnt too painful actually. A Benny hill moment for sure!
 

cosmicbike

Perhaps This One.....
Moderator
Location
Egham
If you google prices in Cornwall for example, they are £60-£70 per night for a basic pitch (up to 7m caravan). It's not usually cheaper anymore, but people do it becasue they love caravaning, not so they can save money.

I'd want them to bring me the bath for that. We stay at very nice sites, normally privately owned as opposed to C&C etc. Max is £50 a night and that's in the holidays with EHU, water and hardstanding with a big awning on a camper van. Show me a half decent hotel in the same place for the same money...

On caravans, I shudder at the thought. How about half way house, a trailer tent?
 
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