Top tips for Caravan Holiday

hoglet121

We had a lovely caravan holiday a few years ago, DH's children were a little older than yours.

We took quite a lot of bread, cereal, tins, tea bags, milk, stuff that we would normally eat and loaded the car up with those. We didn't know what local facilities we would have so I figured at least we can have toast and cereal to keep us going if the supermarket was a long drive away (fortunately it wasn't).

We had sausages for tea quite often, not the healthiest but we're on holiday so got to have some treats. Wrapping them in a slice of bread is something we have discovered now that we live in NZ (we didn't at the time of the caravan holiday) and it's far more economical than buying buns.

A couple of balls at the beach went down very well with the kids and then they discovered crabbing. Well, we'd had a couple of day trips out to rather pricey places and I really wished we hadn't because all they wanted to do was go crabbing once they'd started! The weather helped, and it was a lot of fun.

Board games in the evening, and a bottle of vodka liberated from the cupboard at home kept the adults happy whilst we played the kids' games with them. There was a TV too which helped and we had a couple of cosy DVD nights.

Things to make sure you take:

More tea towels than you think you'll need
Ditto towels - especially if there is a beach near by
tin opener, kitchen knife, plastic chopping board, tongs or fish slice, corkscrew
Washing up liquid and sponge
Plastic bags for wet stuff
Pegs, or one of those circular plastic things with pegs attached - good for drying tea towels and other small bits
plastic plates etc - a cheapy picnic set is worth it's weight in gold
a torch and spare batteries,

I hope you have a wonderful time :-)

Mummy+2

Thanks for all your tips!

Going to write a big list of things to remember

nannygladys

Hello
I have been using the S@n holidays for years and all the above is great advice but I always make a cottage pie in the slow cooker to heat up when I get there, it's the first thing we do before even getting the cases in, putting the oven on. Lol!!! And then on another day we do a stew in it with a pack of sausages and a veggie pack that we have bought with us,it's great to have a hot meal ready when you get in after a day out.

I hope you have a great time with your children, for years it was the only holiday I could afford when mine were small and we all have lovely and funny memories of them

Nannyg

Pollycat

When are you going?

I go with my lil sis and her 2 kids every year to a caravan.

I start buying stuff when it's BOGOF or half-price so I already have a stash of baked beans, tomatoes, tuna, corned beef, crisps/pringles/mini cheddars, capri sun/fruitshoots, Smash (that's not my cup-of-tea at all, but I can put up with it for a week ), pasta sauce, penguins/club biscuits etc.

It's easier on my sis's pocket and it means we don't have to spend a lot of time shopping - and because I've bought stuff cheap, we don't pay the camp shop extortionate prices.

I've even got some of this but Chilli Con Carne. Usually £1.99 but I got it on offer for £1.
Perfect first evening meal with some garlic bread that I'll make the evening before we go. 1 pack per person.

Not sure how old your kids are but we get them to write down what they want to do throughout the holiday and sort it out into 'good weather' and 'bad weather' days so we have a plan.

They're of an age where they spend a lot of time on their phones, DSi etc but we used to play TopTrumps & dominoes.


Have a great time.

Emsky*

Bumping this thread we're taking our little one & the dog in a few weeks and need a few ideas please

Pollycat

Already quite a lot of advice up-thread.

Are you looking for advice on something specific?

[Deleted User]

DD has booked a five day trip for all six of us from 3-8 April on the IoW for a treat for the boys .its a big caravan ,which is just as well as we have two small dogs as well and the hamster but we will treat it as what it is a short break on a caravan park .The park has a pool so that will keep the boys happy and a small entertainments club house which may help in the evening.We will take a small amount of tea,coffee,sugar,pepper salt ketchup cooking oil lots of tea towels (never enough) and a good sense of humour.We normally have cottage for a fortnight in August which we have already booked so this is a quick few days away.A pack of cards is essential and for me a good book to have a read of maybe my kindle.Warm clothes for the evening as they can get chilly at night,and enough shoes to have dry feet in case its muddy,but most of all treat it as a bit of fun ,you are not going to live there so don't take the kitchen sink they are always short of space no matter how big they look.Double up on clothes and wear stuff alternate days two days in the same PJs won't kill you as long as you have clean underwear the top stuff can be alternated :):)

nannywindow

Hi
When we go anywhere self catering I always take enough food for two days, including breakfast and dinner plus some snacks. Usually a cooked chicken, bacon and sausages and I also take enough tea, coffee and squash/pop to last the week. Clothes wise I always take layers of clothes e.g. t.shirts plus thin tops, rather than thick jumpers which take up a lot of room. As others have said, if you have enough room in the car, sauce, oil, toilet rolls, kitchen rolls and some tinned stuff. Just noticed you have a dog Emsky so don't forget the dog food too !

PasturesNew

Spare/stale bread in case you've got noisy neighbours that keep you awake through the night. Sneak out before first light and lob it onto the top of their caravan ... the seagulls will wake them up a treat

katkin

PasturesNew wrote: »

Spare/stale bread in case you've got noisy neighbours that keep you awake through the night. Sneak out before first light and lob it onto the top of their caravan ... the seagulls will wake them up a treat

Brilliant!

My parents were caravaners so I spent lots of my childhood having great touring holidays. We seldom do caravan holidays now but have spoken about moving over to one - we're glampers! I adore my camping set up, equipment is so sophisticated now and uber comfortable. Cooking is great outdoors, especially if we can set up a fire and I can use this for bbq, marshmallows on sticks and slow cooked tatties and meal in one parcels.

Always take a frozen meal for the first night and freezer things to defrost slowly over the first few days, milk too also acts as a temporary ice pack.

Tin and packet meals such as haggis, pasta, rice and sauces. Tinned potatoes are handy for all sorts.

Cold, picky buffet bits and pieces, salad, fruit, cheeses, cold meats, fresh bread and some chutney etc make a great slow grazing meal with wine!

Definetley take a slow cooker if you have one (we can use electric hook up for this and a toastie machine). Easy to throw things in and go out for the day to return to hot food instantly.

A wee bag of condiments, spices, stock cubes, drinks etc are handy. Again I decant from home into things like tick tac boxes, tiny tubs etc.

I keep my toiletry bag stocked with mini things, decanted or bought. I like not having to bother with hairdryer or make up on these type of hols but do pack nice scarves and earrings lol

Wet loo wipes, antibacterial hand wash, extra face clothes etc are handy as are ziplock bags, bin bags, tin foil and cling film taken off the roll in "portion" sizes. I have a kitchen tub with small bottles of washing up liquid, star drops, zoflora, pegs, tea towels, sponge scourer and travel washing line too.

Travel towels that pack down are fab, they take up hardly any space and dry very quickly. They are pricey so maybe not worth investing in for odd trips.

Take your own knife, chopping board and corkscrew, tin opener just in case.

Cards, dominos and travel scrabble are a must for us, especially if it rains in the evening. Books, kindle, sketch pad etc for me. Binoculars are fun if you have them!

Speaking of rain, wellies and waterproofs that can be rolled up wee are a must. I have a mad rain cape too for any dashes outside. Crocs are great for slipping on your feet too if it's muddy, wet. They can also be worn in showers you may not be happy about going barefooted in. Flip flops do the same.

Have a great time, it'll be fun and you are never that far away from civilisation in the uk really, so anything forgotten can be picked up.