Welcome to my World
of
Giving Up Caravanning

It all ended in December 2009

Some people have wondered why we gave up caravanning after only two years. There are actually a few reasons for this and the main reason was cost.

Don't get me wrong, we did enjoy it while it lasted. It was a great experience. However, towards the end, we started to get less and less keen in taking the caravan out, especially in the winter months so we sat down and discussed at length the pros and cons of caravanning, the ever increasing costs and the costs in the future as well as things which were personal to us, particularly to my wife who is disabled.

As you can see from our Caravanning Chronicles, we went away in the caravan a total of 38 times from October 2007 to December 2009, a total of 127 nights away in the caravan over 27 months. The most we paid for a pitch was £12 per night, the cheapest was £2 per night. Granted we went away a lot, averaging 60 nights per year because our view was that we had a caravan, why not use it? It's a waste of investment to leave it sitting on the driveway unused, especially throughout the winter if we only used it in the spring/summer so we used it whenever possible. However, we worked out that we'd spent £1,076.82 in pitch fees in 27 months, an average of £478 per year!

Add to that the fuel costs. Those 38 trips away clocked up a total of 4658 miles there and back to each campsite, not including trips out to shops and sight seeing. In our car, which did around 32 miles to the gallon when towing, that's 145.5 gallons of diesel! Diesel was about an average of £4.60 per gallon during that time which means we've spent £670 on diesel just to tow the caravan to the campsites and back home again! An average of £298 per year!

Then there's the tow car. Our own personal situation is different from most in that my wife has a Motability car every three years. This meant that we would have to have a new towbar fitted to each new car, a cost of £217 every three years which equates to £72 per year. We also have to pay an Advance Payment on a Motability car since we would have to get one big enough and powerful enough to tow. The car we had cost us £450 at the time we got it but with rising prices, this was likely to be in excess of £500 next time and possibly as much as £1000. Of course, we could buy our own car just for towing so that we didn't have to change it every three years but then we'd have to pay Road Tax, Insurance, Repairs, MOT etc. It wasn't really worth it. Anyway, we took the £450 we paid for the current car into account which therefore equated to £150 per year.

And it didn't end there! There was the Caravan Insurance at £138 per year, something which would be foolish not to have. Caravan Club Memberships which was £38 per year. We didn't need to be a member of a club but without it, we wouldn't have been able to use Caravan Club Certificated Locations, small 5-Van sites which we enjoyed and were cheap. We would have paid more, a LOT more, to use private sites or Club Sites which allow you to use them without being a member. Then there's the recommended Caravan Servicing every year, around £100 and other ongoing costs such as Camping Gas (about £16 to £18 per bottle), toilet chemicals and other caravan repairs and tyres in the future. (Which we didn't have to worry about during the 27 months use.)

So when you add it all up....

We could have three good holidays abroad for that!
My wife was also suffering from the cold and damp (caused by condensation each time the caravan was first used from the heating being put on) which affected her joints, something which never happens with (say) a Travelodge which we use a lot.  And I was starting to get fed up trudging through the muddy wet fields in the wind and rain to empty the chemical toilet or to fetch water so all things considered, we decided to give up winter caravanning. With the costs of caravanning and not wishing to leave a caravan sitting on the drive doing nothing, we decided to sell up before the already-old caravan got any older. The good news was we almost got back what we paid for it in the first place. We're now able to choose whatever Motability car we want without having to worry about Advance Payments or towbars too.

Since giving up caravanning, we've been away a few times in a Travelodge, something we used to do a lot before we took up caravanning. If booked in advance, rooms are (at time of writing) only £19 per night.  OK, it's more expensive than the pitches we paid for but we don't go away as many nights.  We don't need to. Hot and Cold running water available so no fetching water in the pouring rain in muddy fields. Flushing full-sized toilet available so no faffing about with chemicals. Heating usually on in the room during winter. Ready made bed with clean sheets, duvet and pillows already set up. Towels available. The only thing missing are cooking facilities but we get around that in other ways quite cheaply. No sounds of the rain or birds like we had on the tin caravan roof. I could go on.  We've also been in a Cottage and a Chalet.  One thing is for sure - we haven't spent anywhere near £1378 yet!

Yeah, we're happy we gave up and believe we did the right thing.
We went away to a lovely Cottage Holiday September 2010 and we're even more convinced.
Click here to read why....

BACK