After collecting our new caravan from Robinsons Caravans, we spent a week preparing for our first trip away. Having borrowed a van back in August, we have become proficient at packing and unpacking of Caravans.

When packing a caravan, it is very much like organising your home however obviously is a lot closer quarters. In a caravan, everything has to have its own place so that it is ready for towing. To ensure the nose weight of the caravan is correct for the towing vehicle, it’s important to think about the positioning of heavy items within the van, including bbqs, etc. We took this opportunity to sort through the boxes of items in our garage to decide if we had ever used and if we would ever use it. We used the phrase ‘if in doubt leave it out.”

We can’t believe the amount of storage space there is within the van. There are cupboards and drawers everywhere! Once we have had a couple of trips away, we will be able to work out the best places for things to live.

When deciding how to pack the caravan, we felt that we wanted it to be 95% trip ready, meaning that all we have to do to go away is to pack some food and clothes in the car. This means that we don’t have to collect the van days before travelling, bring it home, pack it up, and then leave, we can depart straight from the storage site.

When collecting the caravan, we had the surprise that it had the new Alde 3030 system. This means the boiler is more efficient and has a more user-friendly control panel.