I have been toying with the idea of siting our caravan.
It stems from the fact I used to find towing stressful but the more I do it, I am becoming more and more confident so it's less of a stress nowadays.
However there is still part of me that thinks If could find a nice site within an hour or so from my home it would be easier to blast up to it after work on a Friday evening etc without having to get everything ready for towing etc and we may get away more ??
Do we have any 'siters' on here, anyone else thinking about doing it or anyone who has bad experiences or advice to offer regards not doing it ??
Not a “siter” but I’d say - try it next year. Plenty of folks enjoy it. But if it doesn’t live up to expectations, no harm done, revert to touring the year after.
We have had our caravan sited on three different sites over the last 26 or more years with periods of touring in-between. We just moved to our latest site last year after 8 years on the previous site. Moved for the change. It's a great way to have a 'holiday home'. Caravan is all ready and waiting and all we need to do is bring in the food and crack open the wine. However, we are now toying with the idea of buying a static caravan. The main reason is down to health. Hubby had an operation at the beginning of the year and has ongoing health issues and we're finding the lugging about of barrels and toilet cassettes and putting beds up and down when the grandkids stay is getting to be cumbersome. If it wasn't for that we would stick with the tourer. For me I can't really think of negatives for siting a tourer (other than health as stated). We've done the touring about bit with caravan and campervan and now just want to be settled in a nice place. We've found the perfect site.
Yes we are on a seasonal pitch - our 5th year. Its an hour and a bit from home. Its on a fully serviced pitch so I only have to empty the toilet cassette. We can also tow off for a bit of touring whenever we want.
It looks like a big upfront cost, but the more we use it the less it is per night.
We tried it for a year but decided it wasn’t for us - we loved the site and the location BUT we discovered we weren’t ready to stay in one place, and we almost felt obliged to go to the van because it was there on site and we’d paid for it. So I would agree that if you’re thinking of getting a seasonal pitch, give it a go for 12 months and then you’ll know whether it’s for you or not.
Yes we did it and loved it. Probably did it for 4 years until our son became too old to want to camp.
If it’s a site you like then you are correct, you can be there and relaxing in a much quicker time. Also as the pitch is yours you can come and go as you like - so no need to be off site by 11 on a Sunday for example. We’d stay the day and leave at tea time to make a weekend of it. We would also leave stuff at the van eg clean clothing if we knew we were coming back, or have a spare set of something already there.
At this stage it wouldnt suit us but given you are thinking about it I say it’s worth trying. Enjoy
Oh and sometimes we’d just go as well overnight or spontaneously, we definitely spent extra nights that we would not have done if we needed to sort out things.
If you got a pitch near to amenities and stuff to see/do, i would say give it a go. Some seasonal sites are a bit remote for me, but its horses for courses.