We Asked 100 Caravanners What They Love About Caravan Holidays

We arrived at Sandy Balls Holiday Village armed with 20 questions and one camera. The videos below are a collection of the best caravanning answers from the day. Keep scrolling too because we've added the questions in an online poll at the bottom, so you can answer them too!

What’s your campsite pet peeve?

As you can imagine, the majority of answers were that caravanners don’t have one! Most people love caravanning and take the good with the bad. For those who did have a clear pet peeve they were mostly in relation to people driving inside the campsite too fast, or noisy neighbours. We can understand both of these of course, with children playing and riding bikes in all areas of the site, safety concerns from people moving vehicles around irresponsibly can be a spoiler. And whilst caravan sites can get a bit cramped during peak times, and most people appreciate there is some noise that comes with that, unacceptable noise levels did seem to get some nerves up! So if you’re going camping soon, join in with the community spirit, drive safely, have fun, make friends and don’t be the noisiest party in the field!

What’s the best thing to do in a caravan when it rains?

We loved the array of answers to this one! Although there were quite a few that surprised us too. Most notably was that many caravanners believe you shouldn’t be stopped by the rain! Many people simply believe that putting on rain clothes and going outside anyway is the best answer to this question - and one we struggle to disagree with! For inside activities though, games you can play in your caravan came out tops, and most frequently suggested were cards, Monopoly and hide and seek (although were not sure if this one was a joke?).

Why are caravans white?

We wanted to keep the interviewees on their toes, and at the same time find out how much caravanners really know about their caravans. So that’s why we asked everyone why caravans are nearly always coloured white. But after hearing all the answers we still couldn't make up our mind, that's when we gave Swift Caravans a call, and they told us:

"Caravans have historically always been white and it’s a universally tried and tested colour. Other colours have been tried in the past but not successfully, in terms of things like repairing the caravan if it’s been damaged, white is the easiest colour to match too."

With all that in mind we can’t help but ask the question: "Is there not a market for outlandish caravan designs?" The caravanners we asked certainly had some crazy ideas for the colours they would choose…

Our survey revealed...

Do you prefer tea or coffee?

Tea 59% Coffee 34% Either/neither 7%

Do you prefer ketchup or brown sauce?

Ketchup 74% Brown Sauce 26%

Do you prefer the beach or mountains?

Beach 80% Mountains 20%

Do you prefer a BBQ or picnic?

BBQ 92% Picnic 8%

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How many helium balloon does it take to lift a caravan?

We loved your answers but we actually worked it out:

The average MIRO (mass in running order) for a caravan is around 1250kg. This is the weight of the caravan, as it leaves the factory, without any personal items or towing vehicles. And one litre of helium can lift one gram of matter. This means that if 1250kg equals 1,250,000 grams, you would need 1,250,000 litres of helium. So we take the grams in a caravan and simply divide by the amount of litres in a standard balloon (14), this means that you’ll need just under 90,000 (89,286 to be exact), although we can call it 100,000 to get a good lift, and even more if you want to fly in it!

So there you go...

When going caravanning, what’s the one thing you would never leave without?

We have to applaud the amount of people who told us the most important things were their children or grandchildren. We understand the comedy effect of the answer but it also shows how many people see caravan holidays as a chance to be with family, across the generations. Other favourite suggestions were face wipes, firelighters, a favourite book, and one lady even told us she brings her coffee machine!

Where is the best place in the UK to take your caravan?

We know that the British love a caravan holidays in the UK (that’s why we created this caravan staycation infographic) but we didn’t expect to be so overwhelmed by answers stating that Cornwall is the best place to take your caravan! In fact Cornwall and the wider ‘West Country’ accounted for around 2 thirds of all the votes! We agree Cornwall has it all - scenery, beaches, great holidays parks and sunshine but we didn’t realise you all loved it that much!

We would like to say a huge thanks to all the staff at Sandy Balls Campsite for having us down to create these films and an even bigger thanks to all the campers who agreed to be on film!