today we have bought a caravan - and im feeling more like 47 than 27, please tell me there are other late twenties peeps with caravans :(

It was my OH who bought it (I swear he is having a bit of a wrong way round midlife crisis cos he turning 30 soon ) He has decided the tent is ok for good weather and going away in groups but we need a caravan so we can go away all year round :rolleyes: I love the tent, it makes me feel youthful and very back to nature ;) but anyway we went and looked at the about the millionth caravan today and I actually quite like this one (the others were mostly too old, musty smelling, old fasioned, leaky - I came up with all the reasons not to get one) its a 1991 2 berth swift with hot water, electic, shower, full awning for my boys.  The curtains are a bit dated and the carpet will have to go (and to bring it into the year 2005 it would be nice to get the seats covered but I shant push my luck :D ) the couple selling it are elderly and are giving up caravanning so are giving us all the extras, they were lovely and are really pleased it is going to young couple just starting out in the world of caravans, so pleased in fact that they knocked off £500 :p  Went and got the tow bar on the way home now just to get that fitted, find somewhere to store the thing then go and pick it up - and in the meantime learn to tow :D  our first outing will be in a couple of weeks when we are going to Taunton and then on to Wales.

Any advice would be much appreciated, I have already got the OH caravan club membership for his 30th (hopefully it will come whilst he is away this week so it will be a lovely surprise :D :D)

Claire

You are not going to like this............:D.............I'm, well around about 47, and would not been seen dead in a caravan.  Give me a tent anyday and rough camping, ie off site, whenever we can get to somewhere where you can ie Scotland.
How high is OH wearing his waist these day? :p :D

(runs off to check OH isnt wearing stripy PJ's with waist up to armpits :p )

Oh he'll need them for checking round his "rig" last thing at night :D

ooh I'm so jealous, I used to love touring with our van, its much cheaper than statics and there was no upacking to do when you got to where you wanted to go, apart from putting the awning up and groundsheet down. I remember the first time we tried to erect the awning, should have practised beforehand,  we hadn't got a clue! But other caravanners came over to help us :D I hated the 'slopping out' bit though, made him do that :P And the first time we hooked up to electric, I remember unplugging it went we later went out, needless to say when we got back no electric and had to ask reception to connect us again. well I was only being 'safe'. Would love one now so we could do more shows, staying overnight or arriving the day before. I'm sure you will love it :)

Dee

One of the main reasons we got it was for shows, we have been using the tent but to be honest last weekend in Dorset it rained so much everything in the lobby part of the tent was soaked - including the dogs fabric crates :(  The OH's reasoning was that we can camp at a show which we cant with a tent because there arent usually facilities we can also go away when the weather is iffy because we wont have to wait for the rain to stop before we put up the tent.  We also want to go over to France etc and with a caravan there is less messing about trying to fit everything in the car. 

We are used to electric because we had it with the tent, I never even thought to unplug it.  Hopefully the awning should be easy enough as we have had enough practice with a tent, I just remember as a kid my parent arguing every year without fail trying to put up the awning and me and my brother sneaking off on two hour walks with the dogs to keep out of it -and getting into trouble when we arrive back with 2 Afghans covered in half of the new forest and a bichon turned brown for the bogs we had waded through :D :D

:D No one could believe I'd turned it off either :D
We had lots of caravan disasters, like gas leaks, battery fire, boiler blowing up! cupboard falling off wall and not water proofing the awning and so ruining items we had left in it including a portable tv! Mind you it was our first and it was very old. We updated a bit and had no problem with that one. Unfortunately we moved and there was no where to keep it permantly so we sold it :(
I couldn't do camping though, all those creepy crawlies ugh!  Just had to go upstairs now and get OH out of bed to kill BIG spider in daughters' bedroom :D :D

You don't have to justify it really :) I'm sure it will be very comfy and cosy and nice clean dogs :)........................however, since you started off a tad disrespectfull of old codgers and their caravanning habits I thought I would tell you the last time us two old codgers camped in France we didn't use a car, back packed on the train, although I must admit we did not take the dogs. 
When hopping off at a station, though, it always involved a trek of 2-3 kilometers at least out to the nearest site, once, we arrived rather weary to discover the site we spotted on a map was actually a.....well another sort of travellers site and although I'm sure we would have been made very welcome ;) round we treked the same sort of distance the other side of town to the next mapped one, then I would have envied you your caravan and even worn a pinny if I had to :D
PS I had no idea you could get electric in a tent :o, I'll have a look for sockets next time I get mine out :D

I'm in my late twenty's and have a caravan. I cant do tents as i lie awake at night scared something will crawl over me i've been caravaning for 9 years now and still love it. Just got back from a weekend away - we were in a disused quarry that has been turned into a campsite. Each pitch was enclosed with trees and shrubs so excellent for the dogs and loads of walking in the area and best bit no signal for the mobiles so we had a relaxing weekend with no interuptions.

I love my caravan got a caravan for the first time last year must admit i am in my 30s and the caravan is nothing flash , i wanted to see if i could tow it, and the other reason my husband became disabled quite suddenly after a freak accident at work, so i was thinking of comfort for him also, i am the doggy person do breed,agility,obedience, so when i was going away at the weekends i did not want to leave OH,so the caravan was the ideal solution for us, he could come with me and if it was raining etc he was still warm and dry and i knew where he was, he has made lots of friends and has a social life where as before he was left at home with no one to talk to, last weekend for example sitting outside the caravan talking with friends until about 2am,so i love my CARAVAN and we are now looking to upgrade to a better newer version, or maybe a motor home but have to look into the pros and cons of a motor home with 5 dogs.
carol

im 27 and we have just bought our first caravan too!
have to say tho, we have 6 dogs and a 5 year old little man too, and it is so much easier!
especially so when its chucking it down and you arrive on site!......drop the legs and its ready! not messing about with poles until the rain is finished!

......we have found it much better for shows!

claire you will get a suprise when you see just how many caravans are at the shows.  Loads I was very suprised.

Hey Clairey another sad get here ;-)

Oh and Mattie for here has one also LOL. :-D  I am only 34 , bought an old one about 2 years ago used it once, then bought a newer one last year, used that a couple times. Just upgraded again last week to a fairly new one.

Just back last night from a weekend away. My brother who is 5 years older than me came along with his wife and child.  We ( my OH and I ) were set up and sitting in the deck chairs in 10 mins whilst we watched my brother and his wife take 90 mins to put up their tent LOL. You would never get me in a tent :-))  . I like my home comforts.

I am still shocked at how i like the caravan as I am a hotel person ;-)  but I love it. Home from home.  Your own bedding etc plus you can take the dogs. Ours sleeping in the awning.

Im so glad im not the only one - maybe I will see some of you when we are off caravanning :D

I don't do many of the shows with mine as most are too far to pull it but I will be here there and everywhere with it for the weekends.

We are grounded untill after my daughters childrens christening on Sunday but Monday Morning there we roll, we would not have come home afrer Paington, we did 9 days in Newque Cornwall and then we would have come back to do Bournemoth and straight to Wales,( but you know how it is for a family Christrening they are getting all 3 girls done) we know you can stay away from home from april until September without touching base we did it 2 years ago

We stay carvan Club CL's (5 van sites) inbeween show that had intervals in there caravan dates, some are primative, the dog seem to like thoughs best but for between £4 and 8 per night you have you call it good value

Lynn

I'm 22 - got my first caravan when I was 20...

Be careful when towing though - if you are under a certain age you need a special extra licence to tow a caravan, You have to take another test - I think it costs £68.

A full (not provisional) driving licence is required to tow a caravan. From 1 January 1997, new category B (generally held as 'normal' car entitlement) vehicles may be coupled with a trailer up to 750kg Maximum Authorised Mass allowing a combined weight of up to 4.25 tonnes MAM OR a trailer (for example a tourer) over 750kg MAM provided the MAM of the trailer does not exceed the unladen weight of the towing vehicle, and the combination does not exceed 3.5 tonnes MAM. This would mean that many drivers who possess only a category B on their licence would be able to tow a caravan provided it was not heavier than their car, and that car and caravan combined, does not weigh more than 3.5 tonnes.
New drivers of outfits over these limits must take a category B + E test.
Further information from: Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency (DVLA)

So if your caravan is a normal sized caravan you won't be able to tow it :(

Oh thats interesting, I will have to look into that :(

hiya im 24 and just bought a caravan so we can take the kids and furkids away with us, ours is an older van 88 and my OH has had to bring it up to 2005 with a bang but we are now ready to go, a week away with 2 kids (3 and 4) and two staffies wont we have fun:) i can wait. we are going in 2 weeks when the pups had her jab