Hi. I am new to caravanning

[stephen_374410343]

Can anyone give me some reasurring advice. After several years of wanting to own a caravan, we now finally own an old 94 Sterling europa, which is in lovely condition and I love it. We tow it with our old S reg Peugeot 406 estate.

As it was me who wanted to own a caravan, more so than my husband,I decided that it was only fair that I take on the towing.

We live near Cambridge and so far have only made one trip to Houghton Mill, in which I towed. But, it was only about 10 minutes on the road. So, I would say, I have not really hit the open road as yet. In May, we are off to Sandringham in Norfolk in which I shall be towing again, and then in the summer we hope to go somewhere along the south coast. I feel fine with the the towing but one simple thing worries me that some of you might not give a second thought about and that is stopping off at service stations during long journeys. I'm worried that I might get myself in an awkward situation. Like no parking places for caravans or parking spaces are tricky. This is something that I don't feel very confident about. What do some of you caravanners do on long journeys.

Just for the record, my husband can do the towing as well. It's just something that I need to be able to do.

Would appreciate any advice.

Thanks.

Debbie

 

[Toro]

Hi Debbie and Stephen, Welcome to the wonderful world of caravanning. If we stop at a roadside cafe, for example, I try to park in a way that I can pull out even it means parking on the outer limits at the opposite end from the cafe entrance, since everybody seems to want to park as near the cafe entrance as they can. On the motorway services, you will usually find that they have parking bays for caravans which you can drive into and out without reversing. I only stop in motorway services for their loo, cause I don't like their food.

 

[stephen_374410343]

Hi Debbie and Stephen, Welcome to the wonderful world of caravanning. If we stop at a roadside cafe, for example, I try to park in a way that I can pull out even it means parking on the outer limits at the opposite end from the cafe entrance, since everybody seems to want to park as near the cafe entrance as they can. On the motorway services, you will usually find that they have parking bays for caravans which you can drive into and out without reversing. I only stop in motorway services for their loo, cause I don't like their food.

Thank you Tom. Much appreciate the advice. We are a little closer to going on those longer journeys.

Happy caravanning.

Steve and Debbie

 

[tycerdd]

I parked in the lorry park at Michaelwood Services on the M5 last March. There were no dedicated caravan bays and nobody commented. Remember to put your hitchlock on though. All the best and welcome to the fabulous world of caravanning.

 

[Heethers]

Debbie if we stop on a motorway service one of us stays with the van while the other pays a visit, like Martyn we take our own food for the journey as the services are expensive.

You will find that lorries will use the caravan bays so we use theirs.

NigelH

 

[dixie1]

Hi Debbie

Welcome to the caravan world.. I do all the towing and when i first started I went on a caravan towing course first,which helped with the reversing aspect plus some other good tips.

If we stop at a services dont go right up to the service stn but stay on the edges these are normally empty as people dont like walking far. We never leave the caravan alone. one of us stays with it while the other streches their legs or uses the loo. We also take our food with us as services can be

expensive with the kids.If you do leave the car and the caravan for a while consider removing the jockey wheel. We take ours off as soon as we hitch up .

Enjoy and dont worry.

Even the lorry drivers had to start somewhere.

carmen