How to... CHOOSE A LAYOUT

Baffled by all the different caravan layouts out there? Here's our guide to choosing the perfect tourer floorplan for your needs

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IF YOU'VE EVER been to a caravan show – and we'd recommend one as a good place to start – you've probably been quite overwhelmed at the number of tourer layouts to choose from. With all the glittering new vehicles and LED lighting it's a real assault on the senses. It's all too easy to be seduced by a shiny-looking caravan and forget the practicalities.

Shows are a great way to cram in a lot of caravans and amass a shortlist, but they're not always ideal for a longer, more detailed and thorough look. There are a few key layout things to really focus on before you sign on the dotted line for that shiny new tourer. So what should you focus on and what aspects are less important?

What you can tow

First, you need to work out what you can tow. In line with the views of the major caravanning clubs, Practical Caravan recommends using the '85% guideline' when calculating a suitable car-and-caravan match. This states that a caravan should weigh no more than 85% of the car's kerbweight (provided this figure is also within the car's legal maximum towing limit).

To find out more about caravanning weights and limits, see practicalcaravan.com/advice/caravan-genius-weights-and-measures.

Layout selection

This is the next most important aspect of caravan selection, and also one of the trickiest. We all have different sizes of families, our hobbies are all different and how we prefer to spend our leisure time is also unique. So the idea that there is a 'best' layout is the wrong way to look at it.

What works for you and your family is pretty much a unique choice.

One particular item to guard against is having a rigid list of fixed priorities. When advising people on layouts, we come up against many very well-informed people who have carefully researched every layout, read every magazine feature and watched all the caravan reviews on YouTube.