Why do you love caravanning/motorhoming
What is it that you absolutely love about your hobby? Is it the freedom to explore, the opportunity to relax in new places, the call of the open road, or something else entirely?
I love the opportunity to discover new places and spend time together as a family away from distractions. What is it that you love?
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In the van......always having our own bed to sleep in, and our own pillows......great shower so we do not need to worry about the facilities.
Otherwise.....freedom to go at our own pace, follow the good weather, cook and eat what we like when we like, change our minds about where we go......happens frequently on long trips!
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I have always liked staying in country locations away from things and of course camping, starting with putting a blanket over two chairs at home, and staying on sites in a caravan somehow brings back that fun?
There is, to me anyway, a certain special fun and excitement being on site and in your caravan? Knowing that the great outdoors is just outside? And of course with every trip more happy and precious memories are made which reinforces the next trip away. Every trip is still as special as the first one and I still look forward to each one with the same enthusiasm as the first. I do think there is nothing like waking up in a caravan!
Yes I also like having my own room and laid out how I like it, not some impersonal hotel. As said you can explore new places or revisit old ones, the choice is fantastic
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simple, the ability to 'live' wherever we choose and be totally self contained.
the freedom to to stay put or to move on, not to be tied to a schedule, to call in somewhere if we spot something interesting...
but OTOH, the freedom to linger if we find the 'right place' and to really chill out for a while....even for weeks.
the freedom to be in a field away from it all or on a top class site with all the trimmings....
the freedom to be in the most rural area or the busiest city...
the freedom to go or stay or to turn right or left
so, freedom must be the key word for us.....
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The original appeal was to take my family away regularly and to be able to do so with a second hand five berth and a three year old tow car. I have always been the main cook in my household both with my wife and my present partner. It did not take a lot of planning 38 years ago to decide on a thursday to go away for a weekend or 10 days or whatever. A map and a few phone calls.
My present partner and I became an item 20 years ago a few years after my wife's death. We used my caravan a fair bit as well as taking holidays abroad without. Then she got a job after being unemployed for a while and ill health retirement. Bummer. She could no longer match my 12 weeks leave a year taken when I wanted. So we were 3 years without a caravan and mainly holidayed abroad with some breaks in yorkshire, south wales, scotland and lakes we also had two gardens and homes to maintain. We usually had three trips abroad in this period and always chose self catering because I like my own facilities. When abroad we ate out most evenings but it was nice to be able to do toast and eggs for brekkie or bacon and tomato and also when we had had a hot and tiring day seeing the sites to decide to settle for some ham, cheese, apple slices etc with some crusty bread sat on the patio or balcony.
For me my/our own space and facilities were important. In late 2004 Fliss moved in with me and after 6 months of commuting the half hour drive to and from work (45 minutes on a summer evening at weekend) I convinced her to retire again at age 56 and suggested getting another caravan. That is 14 years ago and we love having our own space for holidays. I reduced my working week to spend more time with Fliss for a few years and retired 11 years ago at 55.
We could afford hotels for our 4/5/6/7 week tours but prefer to have our own space.
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We simply love the freedom to go where we want and be able to do things at our own pace when we want to, i.e. not regimented to a hotel timetable. The only downside is that at the moment the OH only gets 4 weeks holiday a year so we plan breaks carefully.
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the doghouse?
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As late life parents we returned to, initially MotorHoming and then caravan to give our daughter experiences that we ourselves had as children,
To travel to places we might never otherwise go to, and do things we'd not done before. Coasteering on my 57th birthday for example, how many have jumped off a cliff into the sea on a whim??
Another example we went to Auschwitz and Birkenau on a trip to Poland after the end of the Tour de France in Paris and leading a 'convoy' of people that had not driven in Europe before. Paddled in the Baltic Sea with daughter on the same trip.
To create memories that will last lifetimes.
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We love camping all-year-round, Autumn and Winter in Spain to help the old back and joints, the odd trip to France in late Spring to get more sun and a few days here and there in England visiting friends and family between June and August.
We agree with the common themes already mentioned above; flexibility, independence and freedom. 36 years of it! And a lot more to do, we hope!
BillC
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Being able to choose exactly where you want to go rather than picking from a limited selection of destinations on offer, a lot of which don't actually appeal anyway. As Peedee said, "flexibility".
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sorry but slightly off topic but this thread reminds me of that one (posted again by Rowena) about three words to describe our touring? I believe it was a competition with a prize?
Who won? Have I missed that?
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I thought this was reminiscent of another thread.
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I do wonder if these threads from Rowena are trying to get quotes and or ideas for the magazine?
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campers had all thier "toys" bbc, fridges boats etc and we had what could be carried in a suitcase
CY is the expert of course but is it not difficult to get a boat in a suitcase David, fridges too? Although we always had one in the hotel, didn't you?
Apart from that good post
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OH's parents had a shop selling camping equipment, so she has been camping since the early 50s, In the 60s we had a tent......our honeymoon was in a tent......then in the late 60s the in laws got a caravan, which we were able to borrow in the early 70s before we got our own van.
We caravanned till the mid 80s then sold up and did not return to Caravanning till 1998 as there were greater calls on our finances.
Since then we have been holidaying in our van as much as possible, up to 4 months per year since we retired, but now we have taken on grandparent duties so cannot get away quite as often.
We will be training up the wee fellow to be a caravanner!
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Evening
Keefysher says it all really, " Creating memories that will last lifetimes"
I've had motorhomes for the last 18 years and including the last 10 years working for the club those memories are to be cherished
JK
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We're both retired and do mixes of hotel and caravan trips and we do love both. However, I love the idea of being able to do my own thing in the van and go where we want and explore new places. When you look at the big package holiday destinations you are limited to the same old, same old places. You would never get to see some of the amazing 'off the beaten track' places that we've dropped into - often totally by accident while on our travels with the van and sat in a roadside cafe in the middle of nowhere watching the world go by.
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Same as KeefySher 's post "To create memories that will last lifetimes."
Plus we enjoy taking photos that we will be able to look back at to help bring back the times when we are no longer able use our LV.
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How are the toes this morning David?
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Caravans just suit our way of life, Both our parents had them so we had a grounding before we took the plunge.
Basically we can go where we want when we want, we have a comfortable and familiar place to stay and we do not have to conform to any other persons rules on when to get up, what time is meal time and what we want to eat.
Bearing in mind the caravan costs us over £1,000 a year before depreciation and the extra fuel, used it is not the cheap holiday route that many believe.
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No it is not cheap, but your money goes a lot further than another type of holiday? When we first started with a caravan with a young family we had a set amount of holiday money for the year. It became apparent that we could use it for one two week holiday in the sun in Europe or use that yearly amount that we would end up spending for the next couple of years to buy a caravan and have lots of multiple trips over here. Which is what happened.
I've not the calculations now there is only two of us and we can do both but certainly the price of one two week holiday (OK all inclusive) over there is way more than we spend on all the other trips throughout the year in the UK
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We loved the self sufficiency, roughing it adventure of our early small camper van, then tent, then basic caravan. We have stayed in some very out of the way places in our touring outfits, and still seek these out more than Club type sites. If it came to a choice of only being able to use Club Sites, I think we would possibly sell up and do more cottage holidays and perhaps some overseas tours by rail. Our outfits owe us nothing and have given us some wonderful times away with our dogs. We have explored most areas of UK other than SE, and enjoy being around different local customs. The UK is wonderfully blessed with some great history and scenery, and we make the most of it. It’s still posh camping to us.....😁
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