I’m relatively new to caravanning – I bought my second-hand Eriba in 2023 – and I have made my fair share of mistakes along the way. Many of these are rites of passage for us caravanners: a little scrape here when you misjudge the blind-side corner of the van upon parking; a damaged jockey wheel there, after you don’t tighten it properly before driving.
We’ve all done it. But the biggest caravanning mistake that I’ve made is thinking that it would cost less than holidaying abroad.
I spent four months camping around Scotland in 2025 and during that time I handed over thousands of pounds to campsites for the privilege of parking up on their pitches. Some were very reasonable – £20-25 per night for electricity and a hardstanding pitch, access to hot showers and decent loos. Almost all came with wonderful views – you can’t get away from them in Scotland, really, as the best caravan sites on the west coast of Scotland show – and many had small shops or occasional food van visits.
Cost of living
But at the other end of the spectrum, I often found myself paying upwards of £50 per night for a much smaller pitch. Now, don’t get me wrong, I know the cost of living has rocketed. Electricity, water and gas have all risen in the past five years, and so staffing costs have to go up, too. And while many sites have absorbed some of these costs themselves, I think that others are taking the proverbial biscuit.
At one in particular, charging £45 per night on the shores of a loch, it was tricky to open the car door fully when I parked next to the van because my pitch felt so small.
Sure, the views were immense and being pitched right on the shores of the loch was special – especially as it was ideal swimming weather – but parting with £180 for four nights felt a bit painful.
At another UK campsite, I was charged a standard fee of £30 per night for my pitch, but had I wanted to put up a caravan awning, it would have cost me an extra £6 per night, and the dog was an extra £1 each night. That’s £148 for four nights on a simple grass pitch, which was the same size regardless of whether I put my awning up or not. A nonsensical pricing system, in my opinion.
All this leaves a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth because the previous year, I spent two months touring on the Continent, enjoying generous pitches set back from the sea by just a hundred metres or beneath pretty pines that provided dappled shade in blazing sun for as little as £20 per night – including electric hook-up and space for an awning.
France and Portugal in particular seem to have some of the most reasonable pitch prices, and almost every single campsite I visited was better equipped than many I’ve stayed at in the UK.
Sun, sea and sand?
But what’s worse, in my opinion, is for that £180 I spent on four nights by the water in Scotland, I could have booked myself a little package holiday in Europe. A quick search online and I discover that for £20 less I can fly to Madrid to enjoy four nights in a basic hotel in mid-July. Or for £179 I can cover my flights and hotel for a four-night jaunt in Granada, Andalucia.
If I totted up everything that I spend on my caravan in a year, including the insurance, the storage fees, and the caravan servicing, which can come in at upwards of £500 if there’s work to be done, I could probably take myself off for an African safari instead.
But none of this is the point, is it? We caravan because we really want to caravan. Because we want the familiarity of our own little home on wheels and we want the freedom to move onto the next place with all our belongings in tow. We don’t drag our little boxes halfway across the country because we want to save money.
We do it for the love of an itinerant, outdoorsy lifestyle that offers true joy in the simple things, and no plane to Spain is going to make me feel that way.
Although I’ll still feel disgruntled about the awning fees, the dog charges and the exorbitant pitch fees at any second-rate campsite.
For those of you who are touring with a canine companion too, don’t miss my pick of the seven must-have accessories when caravanning with a dog.
What do you think – do you agree with Lottie? Let us know via [email protected]! You can also follow Lottie on Instagram at @lottiegross
Lead image: Lottie Gross
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