Pros & Cons: Caravans With Ensuites

Pros & Cons: Caravans With Ensuites

Every caravan owner chooses to travel differently. Some prefer to embark on a barebones off-road adventure and push their vans and themselves to the limit, while others (that’s us) opt for a more luxurious holiday. However you choose to travel, few would deny that one of the best amenities your caravan can have is an ensuite bathroom.

Here at Regent Caravans, we consider ensuite bathrooms a non-negotiable in all of our models – and we’ve yet to hear from anyone that disagrees. But if you’ve yet to experience the joys of an onboard bathroom, or are considering a caravan with an ensuite for your next upgrade, let us walk you through some of the pros and cons of different ensuite layouts, including caravans with a separate shower and toilet, and caravans with a shower over toilet.

The Pros: Privacy, Comfort, Convenience & Self-Containment

Privacy

The first significant benefit of a caravan with an ensuite is privacy. Whether you’re staying in a campground or out in the bush, you just can’t beat the privacy that an ensuite provides. With an ensuite, there are no more dingy shared facilities or unexpected animal encounters to deal with when nature calls. Unwind at the end of a long day of travel by stepping into your shower and singing your heart out instead of standing around the ablutions block waiting for one to come free.

Comfort

As well as the privacy it offers, an ensuite bathroom is typically much more comfortable than anything you will find outside the four walls of your caravan. At Regent, all of our ensuite bathrooms have a separate sink, shower and toilet in addition to inbuilt vanities and storage cupboards, all of which are constructed and finished to a premium standard.

Convenience

The importance of convenience cannot be overstated, especially if you’re travelling with young children who need to use the bathroom frequently – or if you’re at a point in your life when you no longer feel like stumbling outside in your slippers just to use the loo. Trust us: once you’ve experienced a Regent ensuite for the first time, you won’t be in any rush to get back to the long drop.

Self-Contained

Australian campgrounds are genuinely world-class, especially when it comes to their facilities, and while a caravan with an ensuite is not essential if you only plan to stay in campgrounds, it’s non-negotiable if you want to spend any time off-grid.

Although there are other low-impact solutions like portable toilets, an ensuite bathroom allows you to be truly self-contained and minimise your impact on the land while also making waste disposal easy. If you’re going to get off-grid this year, make sure your caravan has an ensuite bathroom.

The Cons: Cost, Space, Weight & Water

Cost

It is a simple fact that any time you add a feature to a caravan, you increase the cost, and this is one of the major drawbacks of buying a caravan with an ensuite. How much extra it costs will depend on the size and quality of the ensuite – a shower-over-toilet configuration will always be cheaper than an ensuite with a separate shower and toilet, for instance – with quality playing a significant role in the final price.

At Regent, every caravan in our range features an ensuite bathroom finished to the highest possible standard. While this makes us more expensive than some of our competitors, few can match the level of finish and attention to detail you will find in a Regent caravan.

Space

As wonderful as it would be to have an ensuite that folds away into a caravan’s walls, the reality is that they take up space. Although different configurations can reduce the space an ensuite occupies, be prepared for the fact that any caravan with an ensuite will likely be several feet longer than a similar model without a bathroom.

If you’re someone that values having a small and nimble caravan, it is possible to find compact models with ensuites; however, you should expect to compromise on the size and quality of the ensuite itself.

Weight

Although most bathrooms are made of lightweight, moulded plastics, these still contribute to the gross weight of the caravan. While it is unlikely to be a significant difference, those using a smaller tow vehicle might find that a bathroom pushes the caravan over their towing limits.

Remember that every bathroom needs water, and a full tank can add several hundred kilos to your caravan’s towing weight. If you’re considering a caravan with an ensuite, check the van’s GVM against your vehicle’s towing limits to ensure you can tow it.

Water

If you’re going to have an ensuite, then you’re going to need water. While it is easy enough to fill your tanks before you head away, your ability to use your bathroom will be limited by how much water you can store. At Regent, all our caravans come fitted with 2x 95L water tanks – enough to let you get off-grid for several days at least and even longer if you are conservative with your water usage.

The final thing to consider is that bathrooms get wet, especially those with a shower-over-toilet configuration, where the full ensuite (and anything inside it) will be soaked. This is not a concern with Regent caravans, as all of our models feature separate, self-contained showers – so you never have to worry about wet toilet paper.

If you're considering a caravan with an ensuite, browse our range of luxury caravans today!

Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of some of the pros and cons of caravans with ensuites. Although there are considerations to be made in terms of the space and weight that an ensuite adds to your caravan, the convenience, comfort and privacy that they offer cannot be overstated.

If you want to upgrade your caravan and get away from campground bathrooms, you can browse our range of caravans with ensuites here.