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Love the tent but it is too time consuming for a week-end away. Looking to swap to motorhome (going off that idea), or caravan. Any ex tenters have regrets swapping?

We're ex tenters, and have no regrets. The caravan is great for using out of season, but we have a teardrop trailer for summer, and fine weather  use.

I found we spent far to much time sitting in the caravan of an evening in the summer, and it wasn't much like camping. Theres no fear of that with a teardrop 

Dave

regrets ?? I've had a few

mainly that i didn't do it earlier !!!!

its just so much easdier to hitch and go  

No regrets at all.  Had one silly moment when between caravans when we thought it would be OK to go back camping. That didn't last long (10 days!) and we sold up and bought another van.

What tipped it for us was easier to set up - don't always need an awning - and sitting in the floods a couple of years back, on our warm comfy seats, watching water running through people's tents. We did try to help  but you can't change English weather.  A caravan is our main holiday, we went away in ours 9 times last year, we couldn't do that in a tent cos of the cold, and we can't afford hotels etc with 3 kids and 2 dogs.

We are very lucky we can store a caravan on our front garden, and I can't tell you how much we love it.  We just make sure we still sit outside of an evening with our glasses of wine - being sociable and having a chat is part of the holiday - you can watch TV at home the rest of the year.

We  went tenting twice and we just could'nt take to it.We knew we loved campsite life but also knew that it would never be with a tentso the next step for us was the van and we never looked back.

No regrets whatsoever, go for it.  You'll end up getting away more without the worry of a wet tent to dry if it rains when you are away. Have fun

Hi. We are ex tenters for the past 15 years we, like you liked to go for weekends and we did usually 10 times a year. then last year we changed to a caravan and this year we have been away 16 weekends and four weeks holiday. next year we are off to germany for 3 weeks and as many weekends as money will allow.

Like others our only regrets is we didnt do it earlier.

no regrets at all, the van is far more comfy than a tent as a reminded myself when i tented at a race meeting, not having a comfy bed, toilet, kitchen etc was a right pain lol

only advantage a tent has is that you can nail the throttle on the car and get home faster but the pros of the caravan far outweigh the cons. wont say i wont use a tent again but the van will get the most use

We have had all sorts of camping units including TTs, Tents, Mororhomes and Caravans and now have thee set up that suits us best.

That is for two adults (retired) and two dogs (of the small variety).

The van, on its own is ideal for one or two nights and we can wildcamp in it when we want to.

Or if on a site for more than a couple of days, we put up the small (3mx3m) awning.

Or, if on a site for a week or more, we put up the big (6mx4.5m) awning.

I am not suggesting that you go for a set up like this right away but it will perhaps give you some ideas as to what you could do in the future.

Each of these bits of kit gives us a choice in the way we camp and the way we can use our van.

Our main summer breaks now usually consist of a long journey broken up by a couple of overnight stays, then a week long camp to explore an area before moving on to another area for another week and so on for 4 or 5 weeks. IE we are using all of our equipment over a long tour but not the same equipment at every stop.

Sites, length of stay and weather dictate what is best for our comfort and we have found that it is best to be prepared for anything.

We do hope that you enjoy your new unit as much as we enjoy ours.

We are "still" tenters, maybe, probably. We just bought our van in November, it's sitting in storage at the moment some 40 minutes away.  We're absolutely convinced we have made the right move from tenting for exactly the reasons you highlighted. We have an Outwell Hartford XL and two smaller tents. We recently went for the smaller tents to see if we can get setup quicker for the weekend trips. We still felt that this was prohibitive in getting away sharp with a car load of gear. Putting it all away was a chore too.

SO, we bought a 5 berth van 3 years old. We've secured a pitch for the season next year only an hour and ten minutes away. We know we will use this to the full. We can't wait for our first few towing trips away before the seasonal pitch though. We brought the van home for a good week for a play around. We've winterised the van now and look forward to 2010!!

Cheers,

Davie