Last week myself and Rachel were invited along to the Caravan and Camping Show at the NEC. This is not something that I would usually choose to go to as I don’t own a car or a caravan and can’t afford to spend £50,000+ on a motorhome, however we were invited along by The Caravan Club who were looking for a young fresh perspective on caravanning and camping. The Caravan Club actually had a big announcement to make at 10:30am which was live streamed on Facebook and they also had a couple of celebrity presenters to help them with breaking the news.
Although The Caravan Cub has been known by that name since 1907, they’ve now had a major rebrand to also include motorhomes and are now to be known as The Caravan and Motorhome Club. There was a mostly positive response when this was announced, although I did hear an elderly lady having a moan about it! It seems like there is a bit of rivalry between the caravanners and the motorhomers! Because of the rebrand, they were offering free Motorhome Manoeuvring lessons which proved to be very popular, as the slots all filled up by 11am! Luckily, they’d saved a slot for us and as I was the only one with a driving license, I got to drive the motorhome while Rachel feared for her life (I’m joking!) and sat in the back.
Considering I actually hadn’t driven anything since I passed my driving test two years ago, I was surprised that I did really well driving a huge motorhome! I was slightly nervous, but it was a lot easier than I was expecting and I managed to drive it around the makeshift roundabout that they’d set up, pull in and out of bays and even reverse in and out of bays. I definitely feel like I could drive a motorhome and go on holiday in one now, whereas the thought was a bit daunting before!
We spent the rest of the day having a wander around the exhibition – I didn’t realise there were so many different types of caravans and motorhomes! We chose which ones we would like to buy if we won the lottery and I really love the idea of doing a motorhome holiday now, there’s so many sites you can use across the world and I think it would give you a great sense of freedom being able to drive wherever you want.
The Caravan and Motorhome club even offer tours across the United States which Rachel was really interested in as she’s planning to spend a couple of months there later on this year. If you can’t drive or don’t really like the idea of having to drive on the opposite side of the road, then you can go on an escorted tour. They offer locations such as Yellowstone and the Rockies, Route 66 and the Hawaiian Islands.
I never would have thought about caravanning or using a motorhome when considering a holiday before, I have stayed in a static caravan many times when I’ve been on holidays to the UK but after learning a lot more about The Caravan and Motorhome Club, I’m really considering going on one of the escorted tours in Europe. If I could hire a motorhome for a week or two, I would love to drive through The Netherlands, Germany and Austria. I’ve realised that caravans and motorhomes aren’t just for the elderly, they can be a lot of fun and people of all ages can enjoy them.
