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We have also asked ourselves the same question as my OH is a lot older than me, but its my health that is less than perfect and I need a mobility scooter to be able to get around on when it comes to town centres and anything further than a few yards walk from the car to the caravan for example.

The positives are that theres no need for any of the hitching/dehitching process, you can park in a layby for a few hours rest when needed without any major restrictions, and can often pull up alongside a motorhome service point on CC sites so no need to have the heavy job of towing heavy water containers by hand or emptying the toilet cassette after a long tow to the disposal point.

The negatives for us would be to find a motorhome that was compact enough to fit on our drive, yet still had space to take my mobility scooter away with us and keep it secure when not in use. Then the fact that you still need to pack everything away inside and out, whenever you want to go out for the day, and reconnect and relevel up on your return each day. The difficulty in some towns and places of intrest of finding a parking space large enough to take a motorhome, and avoiding any height barriers that so many carparks seem to have installed rather makes trips off site not so practical if you just want to nip to the shop or takeaway down the road whilst in a rural area.

There is of course the financial and expenses side of things when you invest such a large sum of money into something thats going to probably be used on average for around 10weeks per year, unless your plans are for 'full time' use as your main abode. It is of course true that you will need servicing and insurance no matter what type of unit motorhome or caravan that you choose, the higher fuel costs and extra RFL payable on a motorhome is the only extra expense.

We came to the conclusion that we would stick with our caravan for the forseeable future, and as long as we could manage the hitching up part of the hobby.

 We would almost certainly not be caravanning now if it wasnt for the invention of the motormover, not just for onsite use, but for getting it on and off our drive where space is tight, and no way could either of us manage to do this manually.

The main advantage of being able to have our car on site, and easy access to car parking spaces at shops, pubs and supermarkets ect whilst away is really what keeps the caravan in favour more than a Motorhome, plus the fact that my mobility scooter fits easily into the cars boot.    

Julia

Quote: Originally posted by murano on 05/2/2012

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Mods if this is in the wrong place please move.

Due to my husbands illness , and we don't know how it's going to progress, we are thinking of changing to a motor home, it's just seems easier to go off in a motor home, where as if my OH isn't feeling so good, I find it hard going sometimes to hitch up , level van , awning , tow and all the other things that need doing on my own.
This has only been made possible as we have inherited some money, but before we take this leap, has anyone done it and wished they hadn't
I'm aware the motorhome will need taxing ect ect, and will not be as easy in the fact you can unhitch the van on site leave it and still use the car..

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Quote: Originally posted by murano on 05/2/2012

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Mods if this is in the wrong place please move.

Due to my husbands illness , and we don't know how it's going to progress, we are thinking of changing to a motor home, it's just seems easier to go off in a motor home, where as if my OH isn't feeling so good, I find it hard going sometimes to hitch up , level van , awning , tow and all the other things that need doing on my own.
This has only been made possible as we have inherited some money, but before we take this leap, has anyone done it and wished they hadn't
I'm aware the motorhome will need taxing ect ect, and will not be as easy in the fact you can unhitch the van on site leave it and still use the car..

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We have done both and would definitely not recommend a MH. Parking is the biggest problem. They are also uncomfortable and cold. Visiting the shops and places of interest are also near impossible. You could tow a car but then you might as well tow a caravan.

If you intend to tour Europe then perhaps they are a good idea but the UK is not the best place to use a MH.

If you are intent on taking this further I would hire one and try it first. Wish we had and it would have saved us £thousands!!!!

The arguments for and against have been made many times with people making the changes both ways and then some not liking the change. Generally a motorhome is a far larger investment than a car and caravan and therefore likely to be a more costly mistake if the wrong decision is made, However it does seem, and something overlooked by some contributions, that you have special circumstances in terms of the health of your other half. This might well trump all other arguments  and if its the only way forward obviously it needs serious consideration.

David

we used the inlaws MH for three years but we now have our own caravan. I loved the MH and to me the only downsides were the lack of a car and a full awning for some covered outside space. The MH has a wind out Omnistor canopy which was great in good weather but not so in the rain!

A huge plus point to us was the ability to be set up in a matter of minutes and we could pack up and be off in less than 30 mins (that included taking all outside furniture and storing in the hold and winding in the canopy). I loved being able to pull into a supermarket and then pack the shopping straight into the MH and fridge.

We went for the caravan in the end as I found we ended up looking for sites with shops etc very nearby rather than picking the sites we really wanted to visit. As for comfort, their MH is a Burstner and the comfort was second to none, insulation far superior to our caravan and had an extremly comfy fixed bed.

I reckon it depends on if you like to tour round several sites or like to stay set up on one site for the duration of your holiday.

Lastly, UK parking can be a nighmare whereas we found France the opposite and extremly MH friendly.

HTH

not done ourselves,murano, although we have considered it, but we know a man that has, our friends have been campers for years, like some of us ,they started in tents, moved on to caravans, after several caravan upgrades ,they decided to move onto a 'camper', they bought it brand new, had several holidays in it, but after 2 yrs of owning the camper he has sold it and moved back to a caravan, he sited fuel / insurance and tax as the main reasons for selling off the camper, he also says he has more space in the caravan than he had in the camper.

i guess it would all be down to personal choice and ease of use for the individual really , as things are i think we'll be sticking with the caravan

Yes, it is peronal choice. Horses for courses so they say. We changed from caravan to motorhome and do not regret it.We hired one first before we laid out any money. I am so glad we did because we changed our choiceof layout from the one we originally wanted.yes you do have to plan differently to where you will go. We would never go to Anglesey again with the MH. Not MH friendly.We find it so much easier to set up etc. and we love just pulling over and enjoying a break wherever we want to.

We gave a lot of thought to the size of MH and decided we didn't want a big one. It wasn't anything to do with the cost, it was more to do with manoeuvrability.We can park ours in most car parks in one space if we can choose.It is  21' 6'' app. long.It has a front lounge with long seats which are our single beds for the night or it can be a very large double.It does us fine. Of course the bigger ones give more space but we are quite happy with what we have.

In the future we may go back to caravanning who knows? For now we are happy with our MH.

Hi

We've done both - caravan to m/home- and back to caravan. I think its down to what you do when you go away. Motorhomes are undoubtedly the best way to travel and running costs for us were considerably less, and they are the best way of touring if you want to move on every couple of days. However if, like us you like to go to use one place as a base  for a week or more, be it for touring around locally or just staying put, then in my opinion a caravan wins hands down.

Whatever, dont swap without trying a motor home for a couple of weeks first to get a clearer idea of whether its likely to suit you.