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Quote: Originally posted by Mrs. Bonce on 09/10/2008

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Many people can't afford a motorhome, small ones would be no good, especially with children. Plus what do you do about parking each day, driving down narrow lanes etc etc?

Anne

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Not all large motorhomes are expensive to buy Anne & you can pick up some great bargains if you look around. surely a decent size family caravan with a decent car to tow it with must not come that cheap either so i suppose its not just money alone that makes a person decide which mode of vehicle to choose? as for parking weve never encountered any problems parking our 24 footer & narrow country roads are fairly straightforward too specially if you take a wrong turning & need to reverse into a gateway or something? so much easier to find a place to turn around in than with a car & caravan i would imagine, so not such the huge problem that you probably think?

Quote: Originally posted by brianconwy on 09/10/2008

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The kids never have complained even when we went to the south of france last year, covering some 2300miles.  The wife does worry about her horses though and if we were travelling around in a rolls royce, she would still worry. 

Even on the longest journeys we have never had any loo problems.  But I suppose if people have weak bladders then this may be a factor.  Having to leave the pitch every day would be too much of a chore for me.  Anything we want is in the back of the car.

I used to camp in the mountains with just me and my backpack.  There is no freedom like being at high altititude, miles and miles away from the nearest road or people.  Anything less than that is restrictive, but I have to balance my wants with the family.

I don't have any crying need for any of the supposed advantages put forward above.  But if I do have a crying need to pose and brag then I will have to get a motorhome, but as yet I am not that shallow.

Brian 

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Why on earth would owning a motorhome be classed as posing or bragging & why would anyone who owns a motorhome be classed as being shallow? sorry but you have totally lost me there brian & have no idea what you could possibly mean? no doubt you will enlighten us though but i cant see any reason why anyone who owns a motorhome is any different to anyone else? i think a lot of caravanners have a myth re motorhomes & assume its a big upheaval whenever we have to leave our pitch but trust me its not at all, in fact its so simple & easy & nothing like a lot of you think it is. once you own a motorhome you soon find that leaving your pitch everyday is no big deal or always necessary anyway & a lot depends on the type of holiday you want i suppose. if you like to have a base & a car to get around in then a caravan will suit you best but we like to sample different locations & not stay in one spot for long but if ever we do stay put, its usually when we stay on a site with lots of facilities for the kids to enjoy & then we dont venture too far anyway. if ever we do need to pop to a supermarket or go into the town centre for a look around we either use our motorhome as transport, our pushbikes, or at other times we simply choose to walk or use public transport ........ the choice is ours!  by the way none of us have weak bladders but we often find when touring around the countryside or remote areas that we all tend to need the loo at different times & its so much easier to pull to the side of the road or a layby whenever nature calls rather than having to search for public loos, not a big issue by any means but an added bonus all the same. Nursie

So how much would I have to pay out for the great bargain then?

Anne

'..perhaps if you had been touring around in a motorhome they might have had more fun & not be in such a rush to get back?'

Unlike in a lowly caravan you mean.

'.....this makes touring around so much more fun for them.....'

In other words travelling in a car is so boring for kids its almost cruel.

There seems to be no end to bragging about what you can do that nobody without a motorhome can do.  In reality there seems to be so much looking for uses to justify running it.  If people find a motorhome suits them then fine - there is no need for telling the world they can go to a remote place and have a wee in their motorhome instead of behind a bush like everybody else.

Brian

Over a period of 45 years we have, first seperately and later as a married couple, enjoyed the whole camping experience from mountain tents to a caravan. In that time we have had different types of tents, trailer tents, motorhomes and caravans and each was the best for the job that we wanted them to do at the time we had them.

Fair enough, some folks here would do us down in that none of our units were new, but when you visit a stand at the NEC and look at a motorhome that is no different from the one that is sitting on your driveway at home apart from the 40,000 miles that are on the clock, oh, and the £27,000 difference you paid for it, you tap your back pocket then the side of your nose then walk away!!!

The caravan we have today is new. It is also the last one we will ever own. 
With its 2 berths, cooker, toilet and fridge it is about as basic as you can get and yet in the two years since we bought it, we have so far found that there is 3 completely different ways that we can use it, depending on what we require for the trips we are on at the time.

These different ways we have only found by meeting others who have the same type of van as ourselves (owners club) and through prolonged touring/wildcamping 3+ weeks, where needs forced us to experiment and these in turn worked out well.

I imagine that 99.9% of the folks in UKCS would look at our van in our gallery and think, too small, too claustrophobic, too ridiculous for words, and that is fine by us. You see it aint your van so naturally it probably wouldn't be any use to you, but for us, well "its just perfect" in every way because it has taken the combined experience of the way we have enjoyed camping over a long number of years and through many different units to arrive at what we would call a practical camping conveyance. "For Us".

Quote: Originally posted by brianconwy on 09/10/2008

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Unlike in a lowly caravan you mean.

Excuse me .............. there your chosen words not mine!

In other words travelling in a car is so boring for kids its almost cruel.

Not cruel (a bit over the top that) but yes i'd say extremely boring for many kids!

There seems to be no end to bragging about what you can do that nobody without a motorhome can do.  In reality there seems to be so much looking for uses to justify running it.

Read this thread all the way through & you will find that a lot of the posters (caravanners oddly enough) go on about the benefits of a caravan versus a motorhome so i'm only putting a motorhomers opinion forward for a change.

If people find a motorhome suits them then fine - there is no need for telling the world they can go to a remote place and have a wee in their motorhome instead of behind a bush like everybody else.

Oh no, not for me im afraid, i & my family prefer to do such personal things in privacy actually & i would certainly not encourage my children to go to the toilet in public either! like you say people choose what suits them best & i just wanted to explain away some of the myths that many caravanners seem to have regarding motorhomes but it would seem that hasnt gone down too well with some of you?

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>>>  i just wanted to explain away some of the myths that many caravanners seem to have regarding motorhomes but it would seem that hasnt gone down too well with some of you?  <<<

Perhaps not because of what you have said but the way you have said it.

Quote: Originally posted by LobeyDosser on 10/10/2008

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Perhaps not because of what you have said but the way you have said it.

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Mmm dont really know what ive said thats so bad to be honest with you but i just want to point out one thing ...... people in glass houses should never throw stones!

We are, as Sue says, now of a mind to stay in one place and explore an area by car. However, our van is also small enough that when combined with the car, is only 24' 9" long and the same width as a car and so we can take it anywhere a motorhome will go. Perhaps more.
This was proved invaluable this year when we toured the Outer Hebrides and wildcamped in Harris, Lewis and Barra.

This Topic is "Back to Caravans" although it has turned into a which is better, motor-caravans or caravans.

We have had both and we have enjoyed both but at the end of the day it was not what each one gave us when we were using them that made the decision but what each of them cost us when we were not away in them.

I have a garage that will take any size of motor-caravan so secure storage is not an extra expence. 
At the end of the day, what with the expense of maintainence, MOTs and Road Tax, all having to be paid for whether the campervan is in use or not and then the added cost of fuel when it is in use, now that we are both pensioners a small caravan and equally small car became the obvious answer to our future camping needs.

I say needs rather than wants.
If we were fit and wealthy then we would have a caravan and a campervan, possibly a nice wee yacht for sailing up the Western Isles or out to the Med, but until god waves his magic wand health wise and we win the Lottery, what we have is all we will ever need and forgetting the push button aerials and the glasses of red wine, just wakening up in a wild place, miles away from people and amidst true nature something that no amount of money will ever buy you. As long as it is just occasionally.

To see a herd of Red Deer turn gold in the evening sun as they move passed you wildcamped at the side of a highland road is stunningly unforgetable.
To watch Otters dive for crabs and then turn on their backs to eat them and all this happening 20 feet away from your van window where you are wildcamping beside the Sound of Arisaig is just heavenly.

It makes no odds to me what kind of unit I choose to camp in, it is the memories that I bring back from those trips that are important and the older I get, the harder it is to remember just what kind of unit I actually was in.It may have been important at the time but it certainly ain't now.

Some mountain areas can be accesssed by trains, cable cars and roads.  In the alps there is an extensive hut network run by the various alpine associations.  Some of them can only be accessed by foot. 

There is something special about being in mountains where the masses can't get to because the only way of getting there is by walking.  As much as I love Snowdon it would never be my favourite mountain because of the numbers of people up it, many of whom have ascended by train. 

It is nice to be somewhere where there are no roads or paths that largely resemble roads.  It is possible to find these places in England and Wales, but much easier in the scottish highlands.

Brian

Of course by foot is the best way to appreciate such experiences there’s no doubt about that Brian but regrettably some of us are no longer fit enough or able enough to appreciate and take advantage of such physical opportunities. However, to be able to wild camp so close to Mount Etna was certainly another exciting alternative (well it was for us anyway) especially as we were the only people up there at the time! When the sun set and darkness set in, the area was plunged into total blackness and this added even more of an eeriness to the already hauntingly still atmosphere of our location and myself and my husband found the whole experience very moving indeed!

Lobey I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post; in fact I was there with you by the end of it. I found it inspiring to read, that despite your advancing years and apparent health problems; you and your wife still make the most of every opportunity to enjoy your life and your travels to the full and to my way of thinking this is what life and living is all about? We only come this way once (as far as we know) so it’s important to grab every opportunity to do all the things we dream of doing while we can and you prove that we don’t need vast amounts of wealth to take full advantage of life and all it offers?

Your lifestyle shows that as we all get older, even if we have to take things a tad slower, it doesn’t necessarily mean that when old father time knocks at our doors, that we have to resort to turning our backs on life or adventure and I always feed sad when I see or hear of people who once they retire; just sit back and do nothing worthwhile with their life!

I must say we have worked hard all of our lives and have taken great risks to build our business up to be the success it is today but it’s been jolly hard graft and lots of long hours too! Personally, my husband and myself really cannot wait to retire now and long for the day when we can enjoy other things rather than work, work, and more work! We have so many dreams and plans for the future that we hope to fulfil and once we have total freedom from our business, we hope (god willing) to spend several months away at a time touring around Europe and the UK.  After so many years grafting away, I just know we will make the most of that new chapter in our life and we certainly wont hang around waiting for life to come to us that’s for sure!

We’ve got the luxury motor home we’ve worked for and dreamed of ………… so now we just need the time and the freedom to take full advantage of it!

Anyway, all the best for the future and long may your exciting and happy travels continue!

What a really nice post sooh & im sure lobeydosser appreciated it? i loved your account of wildcamping up mount etna & that is the sort of thing we'd like to do ourselves in the future & i can imagine how exciting it must have been waking up in the morning to that outside? you sound a happy go lucky lady who likes to live life to the full & i admire your philosophy. by the way we also have an automatic satelite dish fitted & they are a great arent they? granted they're not cheap but if you can afford one then they are well worth the expense i think & saves all that messing around with aerials & tripods. for those that travel to europe these automatic dishes are the perfect solution for viewing english channels. Nursie

Quote: Originally posted by brianconwy on 10/10/2008

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Some mountain areas can be accesssed by trains, cable cars and roads.  In the alps there is an extensive hut network run by the various alpine associations.  Some of them can only be accessed by foot. 

There is something special about being in mountains where the masses can't get to because the only way of getting there is by walking.  As much as I love Snowdon it would never be my favourite mountain because of the numbers of people up it, many of whom have ascended by train. 

It is nice to be somewhere where there are no roads or paths that largely resemble roads.  It is possible to find these places in England and Wales, but much easier in the scottish highlands.

Brian

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Here's a perfect solution for you brian just picture the scene? You could wilcamp somewhere like sooh did and then the next morning you could wake up early, leaving your wife and little girl to do whatever they please all in the safety & comfort of a motorhome they could maybe read a good book, watch a film, do a jigsaw puzzle all whilst you go off with your backpack exploring by foot the mountain tracks. When you return exhilirated from your trek, your wife could have a refreshing cuppa waiting for you & a change of clothes maybe & then you could get off on your way to a campsite or some other location with something for the rest of the family to enjoy? best of both worlds you could have & then life would be just perfect don't you think?  Nursie