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.
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.