The credit crunch is starting to show some effect on all our lives, even the most financially astute must have noticed the increase in the cost of living. Last Easter you could have filled the tank of your car for about £10 less than this Easter and everywhere costs are rising. So why is this “good” for us? Well, one of the first luxuries that goes when we start to feel the monetary squeeze is the foreign holiday. Despite “lo-cost” air travel, the actual cost of getting the average family abroad is creeping up and the evidence from the past couple of years is that more families are looking to stay in the UK for their holidays.
So, what’s the best way to get away with the average sized family and keep the costs down to a minimum? It’s obvious that camping and caravanning are going to see a revival for the upwardly mobile family. The range and quality of tents and caravans has changed an improved immeasurably in the last few years and this means that an outdoors holiday in the great British countryside is more viable than ever before. Caravanning celebrities have put their “cool” stamp on the pastime and the publication of books like Cool Camping have brought nights under canvas well and truly into the 21st century.
The spin off effect of this resurgence in camping and caravanning is that we are going back to childhoods when family holidays were all about being together and enjoying the simpler pleasures of life. I’ve long been an advocate of the joy that a caravanning or camping break brings to the kids and the effect this has on their parents. It’s great to see the kids at a camp site getting together, playing and enjoying the freedom that we once took for granted. It also teaches them some social responsibility with the use of shared facilities and living within the close confines of each other - this has to be a good thing. A friend who has holidayed all over the world still says that her best childhood memories were those days and nights spent in a two berth caravan with gas lamps and foot pump sinks on the south coast of England - a holiday and an adventure.
So, as we count the pennies and balance the books, there could be some good to come from it all; all we need now is the weather!
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