Motorhome v caravan?

Same as us Aspenshaw! We have kept our old van, too good to sell for peanuts to be honest, and we have every intention of doing it up, perhaps leaving it somewhere we visit regular for long lazy holidays, as we did in the past.

Neither our vans or our MH were bought new, not our inclination, we bought what we needed, what suited us and our circumstances, what we could afford. Have had van for 20 years now, still in use, still damp free, still comfortable. We hummed and hawed about MH, it cost more than our house did, but we haven't regretted it a single minute. Been fun, fun, fun for last 18 months. 

A big thank you to all who have taken the time to reply to my post. I think the general consensus is that the cost is about the same. This being the case I will draw up a list of pros and cons for both caravan and motor home to see whitch comes out tops. If I may trouble you all once more what in your view do you think should top the lists of pros and cons for a couple in their late 50s with no kids in tow? I am leaning towards a motorhme the wife a caravan.

We changed to a m/h last year as with a change of job and shifts we found the caravan being used less and less. With the m/h we can make the most of any days off as we usually wildcamp meaning no time constraints on arriving or leaving sites. 

One major pro for yourselves in my opinion is your location as you have a vast amount of areas with fantastic scenery right on your door step. With a m/h you could even have a day out ,make dinner watch a lovely sunset and then decide whether to go home or stay in the m/h. 

Trips off site in motorhomes are fun because you have all your facilities with you so you can stay out as late as you want - even overnight in some areas - and of course drink tea and eat cake all day rather than pay cafe prices or carry a flask of hot water. You can easily cook meals. No 20p for a toilet with a motorhome and you should be able to guarantee the toilet is clean and graffiti free. And of course, a motorhome is a great base for an ordinary day out from home. Bus stop trips and bike trek are a personal thing. We did both of these when we caravanned.

My own take is that caravanning is cheaper but not necessarily more cost effective if you use a motorhome regularly. Caravanning and motorhoming both bring a similar amount of enjoyment. Horses for courses and you can pay as little or as much as you want.

Write your comments here...I think this comment has sold me on a motorhome now to convince the wife!

I doubt there's a black and white answer to this one, get some quotes and look up car tax costs on Parkers website.

Tax - Insurance - MOT - Servicing - Likely Repairs - Fuel - Storage

Etc etc.

Soreinsky, you asked about the biggest pros and cons. We swapped from Cvan to MH mainly due to advancing age and lessening ability. The two biggest advantages of the MH are ease of setting up on site with no messing around emptying/filling water containers and the other big plus is at 3500kg we can travel at 70mph (or whatever limit applies) as would a solo car. We eat up the miles far faster than when we towed.

The biggest advantage of a cvan is the ability to leave it on site and travel around in your tow car whereas a MH lends itself more to the moving on type of holiday. 

We travelled across the north of Scotland from Brora, to Dunnet Bay, Altnaharra, Durness, Scourie and Ardmair in our MH and it was no trouble at all. It is also doable with a large cvan but definitely easier in the MH. Your wife favours a cvan but will she tow it? In times of emergency it's very useful for both of you to be able to drive the rig.

I hope this might help. Good luck in your choice - there are no rights or wrongs, simply what suits you best.

I agree entirely with TW's assessment.  For us, a caravan is the best for the way we holiday, but to make life easier, I do tend to go more for full serviced pitches when they are available.

I don't know if it's just the sites we choose, but it certainly appears that many of the continental sites we use have water hook-up and drainage (although they seem to be a little more 'ad hoc' in 'the way they are presented')

David 

I also agree its what suits you best and how you holiday. We had a caravan for 34 years but almost 4 years ago we moved to a motorhome. They are both good ways to holiday, motorhomes are more quick and easy to set up and move, weight is usually less of an issue (we have loads of capacity in ours) they are great for 1 nighters when travelling long distance like to Spain etc. if its raining you don't have to get out of the car when needing a comfort break (very important on long journies)  in winter the van is always nice and warm when you stop so no waiting in a cold van for it to heat up. Easy to move and grab the best pitch that someone has just vacated (joke) plus I will drive the motorhome I wouldn't tow the caravan.

Caravans are great for having transport once on site, they have much more space especially if you have a full awning, they are great for spending weeks on a site, usually not a problem on grass.

the references to how 'getting older' might affect a decision can be read in more than one way...

for some, being less mobile (walking and, perhaps cycling becoming difficult) might mean being more dependent on their tow car to get about, with a caravan as the more obvious choice.

others might feel its getting harder to set up a caravan, getting more apprehensive about towing, finding it difficult to ship water about regularly....all these things might lean them towards a small MH where parking close to (or in) town is easy with none of the other above worries.

so, depemding on which of the 'challenges' age might bring (and what relevance they carry for the individual) its possible there might be a different choice of vanning mode.

Our tag axle arapaho was cheaper road tax than our discovery that we bought to tow our old hymer caravan , and when we had the arapaho our runaround car was a toyota iq which was zero tax :)