Crossing to ‘The Dark Side’

I guess our coachbuilt would be classed as medium size at 6.3 meters and we use it on the continent, rarely in the UK. Whilst finding space in a large supermarket is not usually a problem I would hesitate to go visiting towns without doing research on the parking situation. We prefer to be close to a town or public transport, perhaps alternating with rural locations.

I also echo CY's last point, we left a long term site at Lagos in the western Algarve on Thursday morning...

stopped for coffee and a stroll in Alvor, drove to Albufiera for lunch, a wander and shopping....

(possibly) heading for Tavira, we were on the coast road and decided to drop into Olhâo, liked it, parked up and stayed the night....

back on the prom for coffee and a visit to the amazing fish and fruit/veg market next morning, before continuing east to Tavira. parked up, explored the town on foot and after lunch strolled 40mins to Santa Luzia for an afternoon viño in the sunshine, back to the van where we stayed overnight.

Friday morning, continuing east, we headed to El Rocio (worth a Google) and spent half a day, and a bit of the evening, exploring this strange, different, marvellously mad town...

Overnighed there and set off Sunday morning for Cadiz, arriving at the campsite at El Puerto de Santa Maria just after lunch...

so, three and a half days, 400km driven, 7 places visited, overnighted in three different stopovers, all without any stress or huge amounts of driving each session...

putting our feet up now for a few days before heading for Gib and the Costas...

Hitch, download the Parkfornight app, it has much, much more than even the most comprehensive Aires directory I've seen, also incorporating car parking (day only and where overnighting is allowed) with and without services....uk and the continent.

an invaluable resource.

Portugal sounds nice BB. Certainly getting around. Appalling weather here at moment.....ho hum.....

for balance, I forgot to add that everything we did could also be done with a car/caravan.

however, IMV it wouldn't be anywhere near as easy and also we didn't see a single caravan on any of the stops we used....although there were municiple sites close to a couple of stops.

if a caravanner were to choose to tour in a linear fashion like this, they'd probably not get to unhitch it which then points more to a MH.

OTOH, if we'd stayed 3/4 days in each stop, perhaps having a car would have added an extra dimension to the exploring of that area.

horses for courses, just slightly differnt approach. 

Good to see a balanced post.  Choosing a leisure unit IMHO is mostly considering how and where you will/can use it as well as what one can afford. I'm sure the OP will enjoy time away in the new vehicle when change over happens.

Hi, rather than the 'dark side' consider yourself a member of the 'enlightened'!  We have changed our 'mode' back and forth several times over the years but each time this change has been driven by need. Work, holidays, family, hobbies, health, age, mobility are just a few considerations to take into account.

Currently we have a smallish motorhome because it suits our present needs/style of use and given this it is, in our opinion, easier to enjoy the pastime for several reasons. Maybe, in future times a caravan will once again be better suited. But that's where the enlightened bit comes in, it's about considering the pros and cons of both modes and choosing the right one for you.

I'm sure you've done the 'homework' now enjoy.

Been there and agree with your post, with us it was the problems with mobility brought on by age,and still wanting to get about easely from where ever we stayed ,that we came out of the "dark side"

Yes, sometimes there can be just one major reason why one mode is chosen over the other. It's about weighing up the pros and cons. Currently motorhoming suit us better and is generally easier but 'things' can change, sometimes suddenly! After all, we are all 'caravaners' at heart, motorised or otherwise!