Question: Why a campervan & at what cost?

hi Alan, very intersting read, my OH and me took up camping in tent's a few years ago as a bit of a joke really, my OH had never been camping and said she never would

so i bought a cheap tent and a few bits n bobs of camping kit and persuaded her to at least try it, to her ( and my ) surprise she took to it like a duck to water but 3 tents aand a couple of years later ,she decided we were too old to be sleeping on the floor in a tent and wanted a 'proper' bed and cooking faciilities, so i thought ' campervan' we had a look at a few but to be honest the ones we could afford at the time were not really any good ,most were well past their sell by date, then, as we own a car already, the added costs of a campervan ,i.e. fuel, road fund licence, mot and insurance further put us off

anyway we opted for a caravan, our 1 st ( a little avondale 2 berth orestes) cost us £300.00 ,was well looked after and damp free, we had that for a couple of years and enjoyed every trip we had in her, now we're on our 2nd tin tent ,again not a new one by any means but , well looked after, damp free, all mod cons, inc seperate shower cubicle, blown air heating and full size cooker all for the princely sum of £600

however our current caravan isn't saving us as much money as the first due to the fact it is quite a bit bigger than our 1st one so we can't keep it at home as our drive isn't big enough and as such we have her in storage

even so now we've got a caravan i can't see us moving into campervans in the near future but as they say ' never say never'

Hi Alan,
a very interesting and informative read, we started with tents then campervans then tried a caravan and back to campers again although as you say they are very expensive to be sat on the drive not being used, I own an old 23' motorhome myself, we tow a trailer with a motorcycle on it.
Unfortunately we have not used it in the past year, but can agree with a lot of what you say, and you have made me think about what you say about using leccy when hooked up on a camp site, I have never given it a second thought about cooking with leccy, I've always used our on board gas, but will certainly be considering it from now on, and save some gas in the bargain.
I've never liked B&Bs and not too keen on campsites but with a big van you have to think twice about where you are going to park, given the choice I would wild camp every time.
Peter.

thanks for the heads up Alan regarding the Ashurst camp in the new forest, we hail from yorkshire so would be a bit of a trek but hey thats what touring is all about,