With there being so many people joining the caravan, motorhome and camping community this year we felt it would be a good idea to share our essential caravan equipment list. As we only started our caravan adventure last year we can clearly remember that the cost of purchasing a caravan doesn’t just end with the actual vehicle, there are lots of other pieces of equipment that are a defiant must have. There are also several items that are nice to haves!

Must haves

• Towing Mirrors – These are a very basic requirement when towing a caravan. It is important that you can see past the end of your towed vehicle from the driving seat. We have milenco towing Mirrors.
• Bedding -If you want a comfortable night’s sleep in your home away from home you will obviously need some bedding. We sleep on top of a duvet and then have another over us. This adds abit more padding to the bed as we do not have a fitted bed in our caravan.
• Aqua Roll and Waste Master -Getting fresh water into your caravan and then waste water out again is another important thing to think about. Most people opt for an Aqua roll and wastemaster for this.
• Power Cable -If using electric hook up either on a campsite or while at home you will need an appropriate electrical cable. In the UK the standard for this is an orange cable with blue female and male connectors on. -It is really handy to have something to wrap this around to make it easier to put out at the start of your stay (don’t forget to un wrap the whole real though and not to leave it wrapped up as this can cause fires).
• Towels – Obviously if your going to be washing yourself while you are away you will need towels. We suggest some beach type towels (ours are from Primark) these are thin and dry quickly.
• Crockery -Another essential item for all the delicious food you will enjoy while away in your home away from home. Crockery can be heavy if you go for standard home plates and bowls which often isn’t very good if dropped or knocked about. We have a set of melamine plates and bowls made by Kampa.

• Utensils and Cutlery- We use a cheap set from IKEA.
• Tea towels- For drying those dishes, no dish washers in a touring caravan (unless you are lucky enough to have a Bob mini dishwasher!)
• Mugs and Glasswear- Our Mugs are pottery but only cheap from IKEA. We have a ‘Muggy’ for their storage and transportation. We have plastic glasses.
• Cooking Pots and Pans- A range of old Pans that we had from home.
• Kettle- A standard kettle. We have never had any problems with tripping the electric, we do remember to turn our water heater off though when boiling it.

Nice to haves

• Awning- Having an awning will give you alot more usable space during your trips especially if you are staying in one place for a few days. These can also be handy to give older children their own space as bedroom annexes can be added on. If you do not have a fixed bed caravan having the awning can mean that you do not have to keep putting your bed away each day. Our awning is a Dometic Rally Air Pro 330.
• Cadac BBQ- We have a Cadac Safari Chef 2, this is only a small BBQ but there is only two of us and we didn’t feel that we needed a larger one that obviously weights more.
• Coffee Machine- This is by know means an essential item, but it’s lovely to have a nice awning g coffee in the mornings.
• TV- we have a Cello TV in our caravan, see our review here
• Colapz Flexi Fresh Pipe- this is one of our favourite caravan items, really it should be on the must have list. The Colapz Fresh pipe allows you to fill up your water containers with ease from any tap. (If you are looking at purchasing one of these or any Colapz products visit this page to get 5% off

• Motor Mover – we have a motor mover fitted to our caravan, this helps when hitching to the car as well as siting your van on a pitch.