Do you have older kids and a touring caravan?

newgirly

Hi, I am thinking of possibly getting a cheap touring caravan next year, I was wondering if anyone here has a tourer and older kids, We have a 14 yr old and 2x 11 yr olds, we have been camping twice but only for a couple of days at a time, I'm not sure if we are at that inbetween stage, as lots of campers seem to be couples or families with young children.

Do your children enjoy caravanning or would they prefer a different type of holiday? One plus side I am thinking of is the cost , and the fact we could take a friend for our eldest.

Also what size caravan do you have , as the family sized ones seem to have tiny pull down bunk beds which I don't think they will squeeze into.

Thanks very much

v5076

I don't have any children but we have just bought our first caravan. We found the Caravan Talk forum a great site and they gave us loads of advice so might be worth posting your query on there.

greenface

We have had a tourer for about 15 years and got shut when our youngest was about 11 (2007) as the older 2 16&17 didnt want to tour and the youngest had started all the new school things and new school friends. We did buy a static with three beds now the olodest 22 goes with her BF when we are not there and youngest has friends there and can take 1 or 2 when she goes (she also can stay with her nan when we go without her) Its a age thing and how your kids are if it fits around THEIR social life . But try it you may just love it. There is also a campsite.uk website with a decent forum . Lots of tips . Have you though if you want to take your tourer abroard yet ??

greenface

Also regardless of the price of the van Caravanning isnt cheap. Because........ Its so easy just to get away . You go all the time we used to go away almost every weekend from march to october and for long weeks in the hols we easily spent a small fortune each year having lots of "cheap" holidays .. It can be addictive.

newgirly

Thanks for the replies, thats what I'm worried about, the kids being that bit too old now. I have always wanted a static caravan but at the moment we are trying to overpay the mortgage and the costs for a static caravan seem very high, I was hoping that touring would be a cheap alternative. Oh and yes I have thought about caravanning abroad, in particular camping near eurodisney as we have never been, I'm sure the younger ones would be very keen on that!

greenface

Think the 11yo will love the New experience of touring but my youngest was prob made and mastered in a tourer she was a little gypsy girl and never really had or wanted weekend friends except on caravan parks. (my eldest had only a few school friends who now say they would have loved caravanning every weekend instead of "hanging around" waiting for something to happen) You have to decide what you want to do and a static creates its own problems (price &yearly fees etc) Buy a cheap one thats compatable to your car now see how it goes for a year and upgrade or decide then good luck & happy camping .

newgirly

Thanks Greenface, will start saving up the pennies and perhaps next year will be the year we go for it.

Lifesaver

If you buy an awning the kids could sleep in that - buy inner tents, loads of teens I know do this, also they could have a pup tent to sleep in at the side of your van.

Most cost effective would be to join the Camping and Caravanning Club - £39 for a year and use their Certified Sites or Caravan Club and use their Certified Locations which are 5 Van sites and around £10 per night for the whole family. No facilities on site here, you may get showers, but great for budget weekends away if you just want somewhere to sleep.

The site mentioned above is www.ukcampsite.co.uk a vast amount of info available on there for you to look at and lots of experienced campers to give you advice.

Enjoy...........................!

bkca1230

we have got a trailer tent and dd's (13 and 10) love it. last year we invested in a pop up tent to go inside awning for 13yr old to sleep in as 10 yr old kept rolling about in the night in sleeping section. . we have seen people with caravans and two man tent outside for the kids(teenagers) as it a bit of independence for them. we go for 9 days normallyand love it. it depends what you want out of a holiday. we normally have 3 weeks holidays a year as its so cheap to go camping. if we hired a static caravan would only have 1 week.

newgirly

Thanks for the replies everyone, now I just need to look at all the expenses involved !

natmummy

I grew up caravanning with my parents and brother. We had an awning, which the kids all slept in and the parents /grandparents slept in the caravan. As we hit mid teens and wanted to take friends, my brother and his friends had a small tent to sleep in behind the caravan, and my friends slept in the awning. It was a lot of fun, we spent most of our summers on the coasts, and when we weren't on the beach we were challenging each other to team sports, as we finished high school, we also started partying at nights....I still have a hilarious memory of my friend trying to put socks on without bending her legs...she was rather drunk at the time.
At the time, I don't think sites charged for the small 2-3 man tent equiv of the pop-ups now, but I don't know if this would still be the case as times have changed and all businesses seem much more money minded now.

I hope my son can grow up to enjoy these simple pleasures and without always having to be surrounded by the electronic gadgetry of today. We've just enjoyed a week beachcombing, and my son trying to learn body boarding.