Campervans and Gap Year Travel for Families

The advantages and disadvantages of a Campervan or Motorhome .

First the difference between camperan is roughly the campervan is like a largish delivery van converted into a tent. A motorhome is more like a purpose built caravan on wheels.

Budget constraints made me choose a campervan and a campervan was too small for our needs so we weren’t as comfortable as we might have been. We should really have gone for a motorhome.

In the entire six weeks that we had the van, we spent many, many hours searching for everything. The keys, the homework, the books, the goggles, the shampoo, the fork, the sunscreen, the mozzie repellent… Hindsight is excellent. I should have saved that bit longer and gone up a size.

The advantages of using a Campervan / Motorhome

• We were high up when driving which the children (and I) infinitely preferred. It made the long distance journeys far more pleasant.
  
  
• We never left anything behind as we carried it with us all the time and when we got to the beach, mountain etc we never found we had left, for example, the boogie boards behind.
  
  
• Savings on meals – your self-contained kitchen can make a big difference in meal costs. We could also keep cool drinks in the fridge and snacks in the cupboard and this saved lots of money.
  
  
• There was also much less stress when it came to worrying about finding a room for the night because, although we did always go to campgrounds, I knew that if everything went pear shaped we still had a roof over our heads even if we were just parked on the side of the road.
  
  
• Our campervan had the most wonderful aircon. On at least two occassions we went for a long drive simply to cool down! With temperatures in the late 30's early 40's the aircon was a blessing.

The disadvantages of our campervan

Aside from what I mentioned about the van being to small, I hated the way the wind buffeted us as we drove and going past one of these monster road train that they have in Australia sometimes used to send my heart pounding.
On windy days the vehicle would lurch and shudder in the wind even without massive juggernaughts roaring past, something I found very scary.

Fuel consumption was higher than in a car (obvious).

Our van had an awning which was very useful but I did find it a pain to dismantle the thing every time we moved on.

It’s not easy spending 24 hours a day in a campervan with your children … and that’s even assuming it's easy to live with your kids in a house in the first place. Campervans offer a ‘compact’ kitchen, a table, a bed … and that’s about it.

Great Article on choosing a campervan / motorhome. Really worthwhile reading if you are seriously considering using a campervan for an overland trip.