A campervan probably has a sink, hob, fridge oven and (possibly), beds, shower and toilet, evening seating etc + space for tents, bikes.. Most of this is absent from the average car!!

Rather more seriously I suspect camper vans (and caravans) are for those who enjoy outdoor life and countryside. They are expensive and if making a purely financial judgement have relatively little to offer compared to a couple of weeks on the Med in a hotel.

Where they win out is for families in both UK and Europe and "oldies" who can spend several weeks or months touring around. They are also good for several weekends away.

However I would personally go for a caravan as the car can be separated and driven locally without packing away all equipment. The alternative would be to tow a smart car or similar.

Do people use it to travel in the UK or it is Europe?

Both

What are the pros and cons of travelling with a campervan versus say a car?

Depends on the size of the camper, some are enormous, some (like the VW California) take up no more road space than a Merc E Class estate. A big camper will be tricky to drive on country lanes, or anywhere the roads are a bit narrow.

I flicked though a magazing and campervans are quite expensive. You can easily stay in a lot of hotels for that money.

Yes, they are very expensive, even older ones!

Are there lots of places to stay overnight in a campervan?

Yes, camp sites.

Does a campervan restrict what you can and can't do?

If you have a car and caravan, you can park your caravan in the camp site and use it as a base. You can then use the car to see local places of interest. With a camper, unless wherever you are visiting is on a bus route, or close enough to walk or cycle, you have to take the whole thing away every time. For one person, or maybe a couple, that might not be much of an issue, but for a family, i'd say a car and caravan would be more useable and useful.

Had one for few years. Toyota Hi Ace. thing is you can get it where you can get a car so you can tour with ease, You need to be organised but it can be good fun. you need to use it regularly to make it worthwhile but you they don't depreciate anything like as fast as the average car.

Not QUITE on topic, but I lived in a series of them, mostly illegally, for a few years while working in Treasury and Capital Markets IT support in London.

First an ex- BT workshop truck, huge thing with shower and a lot of space, terrifying to reverse, then a compact and bijou demountable Romahome on a Honda Acty pickup truck, then a High-top 1600 Transit.

I had a few legal interludes on municipal campsites (Caravan Club sites were a bit too Terry and June for the workshop which was probably a bit too New Age Traveller. (remember them?).

I bought the Transit off some Australians, who used to specialise in vanning around Europe. A looong time ago there was a colony of them camping out while selling the vans in the Älternative Car Park behind the South Bank / Festival Hal complex, but that kind of behaviour didn't survive the Rise of the Tidy Minds.

It was pretty knackered and probably well underpowered to start with. They shouldn't really have made a 1600 Hi-top Transit.

The best was undoubtedly the Acty. Amazingly space and fuel efficient, though I was always conscious while driving it that my thigh bones were the crumple zone. I was quite annoyed when it got knicked.

Parked on the street you had to be pretty discrete, and a camper probably wasn't the best choice because of the windows. If I was doing it again (probably not possible with current surveillance levels and parking controls) I'd get a Leyland DAF ex-Parcel Force van (which were being sold off toward the end of this period) and put French Windows behind the roller-door, for stealth with an fresco style option.

Maybe add some ""Ëds Veggies" logo's to discourage break ins, which happened a lot.

Edited by edlithgow on 23/06/2019 at 12:22

None of the possible option are universal and you really need to know what you are going to use it for before deciding. If going and staying on a campsite for a week a caravan makes sense but if you are touring and want to stay in a different place every night a camper van works best. If like us you want to get off the beaten track the smaller VW type vans work best on narrow often single track roads. Caravans and wild camping are not a good mix. Unless you are going to use a camper van a lot its cheaper to hire than own.

Our experience is from traveling in the north of england and mainly Scotland. In the north of Scotland wild camping is legal and easy, very few "no overnight parking" signs and most places are deserted for a big part of the year. We have spent the night in the middle of stunning scenery with not another human being for miles around. Staying at a B&B for an odd night gives you a chance to get a proper shower and shop for supples.

Edited by SLO76 on 24/06/2019 at 11:04

We had a VW camper van (Dormobile) for years when I was growing up. We used it for daily transport, and when going round France and Devon on holiday. You could just park in a lay by and stay the night, or find a camp site with loos and showers, though the loos in French camp sites back then were rather rustic. I loved it, but a few years ago I had a lift in a colleagues VW van, and I was taken back at how crude it was. You are the crumple zone, the sound proofing is poor, the construction is basic and so on.

I think these days you are better off using a B&B unless you spend a lot of time travelling. If you are on your own, it might still be cheaper to use a B&B given the poor mpg and the cost of insurance, maintenance and depreciation (which might not be an issue for an old one).