Camping in the UK versus the USA

As we left Edinburgh and headed to Wales one of the very first things my wife and I realized was that there is a very high number of cars pulling camping trailers (called Caravans) on the road. Granted it was holiday season, but as a % of vehicles on the roadway, cars with 'caravans' attached to the back approached 5% of the total traffic on the road. The % got even higher as we got closer to southwest Wales.

It appears that Wales, and later we noticed southern England, are popular destinations for people with 'Caravans.'

In the area we stayed in Wales we encountered many campers and several RV parks/camping parks (not sure what their term is).

First, "small" is big with these folks. While we Americans with our big trucks pull big campers and bring every convenience from home, often to include satellite TV service, the Brits seem to relish camping in tents and smaller trailers. Many of the trailers we saw (and we saw hundreds of them) were under 20' long, and larger, by the UK standards, were in the 26' range. We commonly saw compact cars towing very compact camping trailers . . . but we almost never noticed an American style "pop-up" trailer.

Tent campers were typically relegated to fields with dozens of other tents. Trailer campers seemed to vanish into areas we never could find. So I don't know what their RV park facilities are like, and while I really was curious, I never drove into one to find out. I saw very few "motorhomes" in the UK, while I saw a huge number of 'caravans' it caught us off guard that "motorhomes" were almost non-existent, but with the price of gas and the narrow roads it does make sense that the few "motorhomes" we saw were all small, mostly van chassis conversions.

I wish we had taken more photos of the cars pulling the 'caravans' because their style of camping, at least from our observation, was far lighter and less encumbered with modern clutter than our way of camping (yes, I have been camping in a trailer many times, even owned one for many years). I'd guess, and yes this is only a guess, that the typical caravan or tent camping family in the UK does a good deal more walking, hiking and fitness activities than the typical camping family in the US. Its common in the US to see motorized quad runners, motorbikes, etc on the back of (or carried inside) our campers. In the UK I saw things like mountain bikes and kayaks attached.

This little unit (below) is typical of the caravans we encountered. They seemed very nice, but more compact than our smaller campers with a narrower beam and lower overall height (again, that is probably so they fit on the roads). The typical 'caravan' in the UK also seemed far more aerodynamic than the typical camping trailer we have here in the US. With the exception of Airstream and a couple other brands, our trailers are more box shaped, taller and wider, and while newer units do have more aerodynamic profiles than older units, it appeared that a far higher % of the 'caravans' we encountered had steeply sloped leading edges and many had smoother seams/corners.

I typed a reply to this and again I got the message that I had no permission to do this and was unable to save the reply and I cannot face retyping it. Campsites are for caravans and campers, incidentally the showmen (people with travelling fairs, call caravans, trailers, but 'flatties' - not showmen call them caravans. Most caravans have all the 'mod cons' you speak of, mine is not a new one, but has full cooker, central heating, shower and hot water etc. My 'campervan' you have seen, it is large and blue with yellow stripes, it has all mod cons except hot water, that will have to be worked on! It also carries the snowtrac and sometimes tows the Jeep too.

Anita, maybe I missed it, but here in the USA we tend to see a far larger % of motorhomes and very large camper/trailers (many of which require large trucks to pull with special "5th wheel" hitches). Most of these are outfitted with TV sets, DVD & VCR players, Video Games, microwave ovens + stove/ovens. I know of people who have satellite internet in their motorhomes.

Your "campervan" was equipped with what the Americans would call the basics. You have everything you need . . . but we take along a bunch of crap we don't need too!

...But there's a wide range of camping styles here.

Shown below is last weekend at our gold mining claim. There was once a cabin, then in 1974 the Forest Service demanded that we remove it. We were allowed to keep the cabin subfloor and adjacent deck.

We continue to tent-camp there. We cook on the elevated plank on the left. We occasionally need to rebuild the dining table (out of old cabin planks) after someone left it upright for the snow to crush.

There's no RV access. In fact this trip it took me three tries to scramble my Subaru back up to the access road. Taking an RV in would mean abandoning it, there's no turnaround.

We love the solitude there. It's 30 miles to cell phone signal and gasoline. 130 miles to a major population center. This sort of isolation is common many places, but rare in California.

California said:

...But there's a wide range of camping styles here.

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True. But I was trying to illustrate the "typical" caravan size there versus the "typical" camper size here. I passed by 3 sales lots today that sell campers and motorhomes. All 3 of them had large "5th wheel" campers displayed in the front row along the roadway very prominently and other large bumper hitch campers up front as well. One lot had compact motorhomes up front with some of the big class A units. If we Americans like anything in our campers it is apparently BIG units?

For me, I'm a former backpacker/tent camper who, when I purchased a camping trailer opted for a small unit. Mine was only 16' long, had no bathroom inside, slept 4, and had a modest kitchen set up, but that little camper is pretty unusual by our current standards. HOWEVER, I suspect with gasoline hovering just under $4.00 per gallon and diesel at roughly $4.70 we may see some downsizing in the campers that are pulled by American motorists?

B_Skurka said:

... I passed by 3 sales lots today that sell campers and motorhomes. All 3 of them had large "5th wheel" campers displayed in the front row along the roadway very prominently and other large bumper hitch campers up front as well. One lot had compact motorhomes up front with some of the big class A units. If we Americans like anything in our campers it is apparently BIG units?

.... HOWEVER, I suspect with gasoline hovering just under $4.00 per gallon and diesel at roughly $4.70 we may see some downsizing in the campers that are pulled by American motorists?

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I think the downsizing has begun. It seemed like a quarter of the trailers on the road here (I-80) had 'rented from La Mesa RV' on the spare tire cover. They were huge in Northern California and I assume even bigger in the Los Angeles region, their home territory. I recently noticed they had closed the NorCal branch. News Article.

Also in that same stretch of I-80 where La Mesa was located, we passed several, I think three, large RV sales enterprises that recently closed. 'RV Row' on the frontage road east of Davis has become a ghost town.

Are you seeing this reduction in the midwest?

I wonder if Europeans are lessening the use of their rigs similarly.

California said:

I think the downsizing has begun.
. . .
Are you seeing this reduction in the midwest?

I wonder if Europeans are lessening the use of their rigs similarly.

Click to expand...

Indiana is home to a bunch of the manufacturing plants for all sorts of RVs and there have been some cut backs and closings, with the associated lay-offs. I suspect for the very reasons that I have pointed out in this thread our RVs are typically HUGE boxes, about as aerodynamic as my old Volvo 240DL was, and about as efficient as an old school bus.

The US is coming to grips with high fuel costs in many ways, scaling back on the big travel trailers and motorhomes is apparently one of them. But that is just starting, I know 2 people who very recently purchased their first travel trailers within the past couple years. The smaller of those two units is a 24' trailer, which is much larger than the typical unit I saw in England. So while we may see sizes decrease in the future, the rolling stock we have out there now, and in dealer lots is still skewed to the larger units.

As for the leasing question, honestly I don't know if the Brits lease from large dealers or not??? Maybe one of our UK resident members knows that answer.

Your right Bob here in the UK i guess we do things a little more on the comact side(not all but most in general).

When we go camping we have a large frame tent and will only take whats needed....Motor homes as you say are not the large 40FT + like you have in the US but more normal sized van type and our caravans like the pic you showed are more Aero smaller and very light compared to what you guys more commonly use.

Camp sites have all the facility's needed for long and short stays here including shops wash rooms toilets ect....larger camp sites have Bars restaurants and fair ground parks for the kids....heres a link to one we use for the odd weekend just an hours drive from me....http://www.billingaquadrome.com/gallery.htm

You mentioned towing caravans and yea in most we use our everyday cars for that....just like that Audi you had here in the UK.

All in all though i think the reason for camping is just pretty much the same on both sides of the pond....getting back to nature and having family time away from the hustle and bustle of life.

heres what i would call typical UK caravan and motor home...