Used car having different descriptions. Having a nightmare please help

Nebulous2

I've done thousands of miles in a £600 caravan, including touring in France and Spain. We had a good idea what we were looking at, got the wheel bearings, brakes and gas checked by a caravan repairer and did a lot of work ourselves, replacing roof lights, sealing joints, maintaining and replacing electrics. The main reason for going for such an old caravan at the time was that it was lightweight, and our car had a fairly low towing limit. 

You need to insure a caravan, find somewhere to store it, maintain it, keep the leisure battery charged, keep it clear of mice / vermin and generally look after it. Most people will simply pay other people to do most of that, but again that has a cost. 

The other thing you need to consider OP is the cost of campsites. I have an ongoing feud with the caravan and motorhome club, because they have put up their prices so much. It's quite common to pay over £40 a night for a pitch, with some of the more popular sites and times being over £50. 

I'm not saying don't do it - we love caravanning, but you need to go into it with your eyes open. 

Goudy

We used to camp a lot.
Started with tents, moved on with a short spell with a caravan and then a camper van.

I hated the caravan, it was such a pain to store, tow and use. I was talked into it by the other half as she wasn't a fan of tents anymore (truth was she was never a fan).

Every time we came to use it, it needed something.
Every time we came to put it away it needed something.

You have to plan a trip away weeks before as there it always needs sorting before use.
You can't stored them long on the normal road wheels/tyres or they turn into fifty pence pieces and the rubber starts to rot. So you invest in a set of wheels to store it.

It always needs a good clean and as pointed out already, vermin love them.

They are sponges for damp so you don't want to leave it outside all winter which means paying for storage, usually somewhere like a farm that's full of mice and other vermin looking for a winter home.

You say you know they need general maintenance, who is going to do that?
Someone round the corner or more likely some caravan specialist miles and miles away and you have to get it to them.
If it's in a bad state with brakes etc as it's been stored all winter, that means in needs a low loader as you'll not want to tow it too far.

We moved on to a camper van and even that became a pain after a while.
Slightly easier to look after but once you're there, you're there.
Set it all up and to get out for the day and about you have to take it all down again (and then up to back up later) as your homes also your transport.

In the end we sold it and just use Booking.com and Airbnb for accommodation, it works out much cheaper.
I still have a vehicle to move us and all our holiday/hobby kit about in comfort, I sold the camper van for good money and bought a posh mini bus.
We do kip in it from time to time, usually overnight at European service areas with all the hairy lorry drivers!

We've done more in it and been further in it than we every did with a tent, caravan of camper van and as a bonus the sister in law uses/rents it from time to time for her wedding business.