Moving from Caravan to Motorhome

A & J, 'aire' in French simply means 'area', a place to stay. Aires (and Sostas, Stellplatzen etc) all mean stopping places....

they arent campsites, they are convenient resting and sleeping places.

i was merely illustrating the difference in 'convenience' an aire in most towns makes to touring overseas....again, i say that if i was tied to the uk, i might not choose to have a MH due to the difference in feeling towards them by many local authorities.

i dont actually 'spend my holidays in car parks' merely make use of them during a long trip or to visit a town of interest, making life for the touring MHer a much simpler one.....call in where you please.

When we do get settled somewhere, we like top notch sites with great facilities like pool, close to beaches, bars, towns, often spending many weeks if we really like a place.

as said, no right or wrong way.....we love the MH and as we do most of our touring 'there' its a great way to bumble about, changing direction and having little in the way of planning.

as soon as we come back 'here' and decide we want to get out in the van, the process changes and its out with site books, maps, phone numbers, credit cards.....planning and booking and sometimes paying for trips before weve even left home.....so, different, and not as MH friendly.

so, perhaps the OP should consider 'where' they might tour as well as 'when' (they have a school age child) along with the 'how'.

if it were me in the UK, in school hols Id stick with a caravan.

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youre right, David, there are many who stay many days at a time on streets and in car parks just yards from sites.

we usually only stay the one night when stopping over, but we did do a couple of nights in an aire in a lovely village where the Mayor personally invited us to 'stay as long as we liked' despite the regs stating a max of 48 hrs.

they wanted our custom and appreciated the visit.

good luck with the upcoming trip. stay in touch.

90% of my touring is France, Spain and Germany, (never using motorways), where m/h are welcomed and well-provided with sites and Aires which are generally very close to or at least within a short walk to town/village centres.

I don't enjoy touring U.K., but obviously, living on the South coast my drive to le continent (15 miles) is easily the shortest drive I ever make in the m/h.

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I do see the appeal of MH if I wanted to tour a particular area (going round the coastline of Scotland for example is one I'd like to do but impractical with a caravan) but for now I like going to a 'base camp' and visit the area from there.

Back on topic. Has anyone who has swopped (whichever way) worked out or noticed difference in fuel costs? You would think that while towing your mpg is higher but then lower when on site, but then with a car would you do more visiting places off site? Or does it all just average out?

Not all Aires are free and increasingly they are being charged for.

CS, fuel consumption all depends on outfits. My first motorhome was cheaper on fuel than my volvo/caravan combination but my current one not so. I can imagine someone with a large 4x4 towing a 7 to 8 meter caravan would use more than most motorhomes. Some campervans average 30 plus m.p.g. Road tax is definitely cheaper than a 4x4 and a volvo by some considerable margin especially for a private HGV. Insurance possibly cheaper, servicing about the same.

peedee

received wisdom is that a 'rough' figure for MH mpg for the ubiquitous Ducato 2.3 130bhp is around 27-31, depending on size, driving pace etc.

our previous Carthago (150bhp) did just about 27.

this one is smaller, lighter, same engine currently around 25.5 but has only done one trip, 5000km, so plenty of time to loosen up and get better.

our 2nd Bolero really started to fly and give great mileage after about 20k miles....upto 32.

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Since changing a can't say I've noticed much difference,but then I don't think many people buy a M/H for fuel economy,but my M/H does more mph than I thought ,so that's a bonus