One Year Later: Switching From A Motorhome To A Caravan- Did We Make The Right Choice?

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Caravanned for years, then Motorhome for 6 years. Sold Moho last year and thought we were done but realised 10 months on that hotels weren’t our thing but loved having the freedom of the car whilst visiting places. Pick up new caravan next month! This vlog summarised our feelings and was great to hear somebody else feels the same as us.

Picking our caravan up tomorrow. Our motorhome up for sale. Being retired now I think will be better for us. I agree with everything you have said.

Had caravan for years. Had planned to move to motor home in retirement, but having toured Spain for 7 weeks and other long tours in Europe we spoke to many motor home owners who were trapped in their van because they are too big to tour the local roads. Sticking with a new caravan and tow car. With you all the way.

It’s great when you find the ideal outfit for you. We loved our caravanning and were happy for over 30 years with a caravan. More recently we needed fresh challenges and our coach built motorhome and now van conversion have given us new challenges and opened up opportunities to travel differently. Never say never, there’s no right or wrong, just different. Safe travels 😃 Trev

Had my first caravan in 1974, and several caravans later decided to try a motorhome, in 2020, after two trips to Spain, plus loads of weekends away, the motorhome was great for long journeys but missed the flexibility of caravan, July 2023 have sold the motorhome and ordered a new caravan for November 2024, my verdict, enjoyed both but 40% motorhome 60% caravan.

After years of camping in the UK and France in a trailer tent followed by ten years of ordinary holidays we began to yearn for our camping adventures. A trailer tent wasn’t a consideration so, it was the age old Caravan or motorhome debate. After 12 months of research, visiting dealers and sitting in dozens of caravans and motorhomes we finally bought a new caravan, a Coachman VIP 575/4. It’s been faultless and we still love it. I do have occasional thoughts about swapping it for a motorhome but, videos like this remind me exactly why I shouldn’t. Thanks😊👍

Agree with all that's been said, a caravan is an ideal base for a holiday, set up and go out in the car. From a cost point of view a good motorhome now costs almost 100k, for that price you can have a lovely new caravan 30-35k and a new VW camper to tow it with. The Dub provides you with a place to stay if just nipping off for a night or two when it is not worth taking the caravan, a tow vehicle when using the caravan, and somewhere to make a cup of tea when exploring, as well as another vehicle to use at home. Thinking this will be the best option for us, in early years of retirement when we no longer need two cars, and will be using the caravan more.

Hi Andrew & Karen, you’ve just reiterated all the reasons why we chose a caravan over a Motorhome. I thought I wanted a motorhome until we really researched it. You can buy a beautiful caravan for almost half the price of a Motorhome. Life is all about choices. I love to watch Motorhome and Vanlife vlogs too but for now, we’re staying with a caravan. Great open, honest video. Cheers Dave & Helen.

Totally agree with you on the Caravan V Motorhome issue.

I am very new to caravanning, having my first trip away today and have never owned a motorhome. I never understood the attraction and massive cost of a motorhome and you confirmed it for me. As you say pitching somewhere and then unhitching and travelling around locally sounds much easier than driving a huge motorhome about.

Glad it worked out well, it’s a big decision and there are so many caravan choices to consider. You made the right decision 🙂

Interesting video, thank you. 15 years ago we had an old motorhome and when we were looking for a newer one, we just by chance had a look at a caravan and decided there and then that was more for us with our family of dogs. About 6 years later on, we had to sell the caravan (long story), moved house and bought a campervan with a portapotti. It was ok apart from the fact that I always had to get the portapotti out of the back before we could use it. 2 years later we bought (part exchanged) the van for a 5m campervan with a proper small wet room inside that we use as a day van. If we didn’t have the dogs, we could sleep in it, but now we are considering getting another caravan to tow with the campervan (being of a certain age, and because of our dogs, we really need to have a toilet on hand instead of having to look for bushes). We are making the decision this week. Your video has helped us make this decision.we love the freedom of the campervan, being only 5m we can still get/park everywhere but the caravan will give us extra “home” space.

If thinking about travelling Europe is the caravan more difficult to find places to stay unless at campsites

We love your channel Andrew! We caravaned for 35years (15 Tourers in that time) We loved every minute of our times doing it! Don't do it now but love watching people like yourselves enjoying it. I could probably write a book on it on the different experiences we had and the characters we ever met. Keep on going as long as you can it's a great hobby!😊👍

Hi ,did the same as you.got new car and caravan for what we sold motorhome for.As you say height barriers and parking in 2bay fines they are coming up with, also a lot of villages you cannot park in the summer with a motorhome. Glad it worked for you to.

We started off with a lwb campervan, which costs many tens of thousands of pounds, which we still have. It is great for things like the NC500, single track roads and constantly touring, day trips out and the likes. Further to that we have very recently bought a second hand 7.5 metre fixed bed, 4 berth caravan because we also wanted fixed holidays with more room but still have the ability to park easily. The caravan literally cost 1/4 of what the campervan did but we find ourselves gravitating to it mostly now when we go away. We have even towed it 300 miles to Bunree. If we had bought the caravan first, I don't think we would have bought the campervan. Side to side levelling was the only thing we found problematic, because the motor mover made the caravan pirouette, when trying to climb a ramp with it. We found the only way to do it was to re-attach the car and pull it up, which was a pain. Since then we have bought a lock n level and put a rubber mat under it and a rubber mat beneath the opposing wheel as well to replicate the friction on each side, whilst using the motor mover and levelling is now simplicity itself. As for a motorhome, I would never consider one at all. I could see the problems they present, with a parking and security nightmare.

Thanks Andrew, very helpful

thank you for the interesting video ! I'm about to buy a caravan or motor home. I was looking for some comparison and this video gave me great insights 😉🙏

Glad your happy with the caravan as opposed to the motorhome. I have to agree with everything you’ve said. One thing that you never mentioned was??……. The seating in a caravan is so much better (I think) I always feel that motorhome seating looks so uncomfortable the seat backs are too upright if you know what I mean. Have a great time in Scotland you’ll love it, I look forward to you vlogs. I live in Scotland East Lothian so can recommend yellowcraigs Club site near North Berwick. Have a great trip. We’re currently in Belgium just now then heading down into Germany for w weeks then back home with our caravan and I just would not want to do it with a motorhome. All the best David Bowie