Days out in my campervan in January 2026

I'm aiming to camp every month of 2026 and I just about managed to fit one night in, in January with a night on my friends drive in Monmouth to save an early morning drive for the 9am start for parkrun on the Saturday.

Despite the cold weather and the rain, the van is very warm and I only put the diesel heating on for half an hour before bed and half an hour in the morning when I was getting ready. My friend gave me a lift to parkrun so the windows had cleared by the time I had to drive off, otherwise it takes an age to clear and is a bit of pain if you have to pack up and go.

I opted to pop the roof to sleep. A decision I'm slightly regretting now as it hasn't stopped raining since and I'm a bit concerned that the canvas wasn't fully dry when I folded it away. I just need an hour or two without rain when I'm at home or in work.

I didn't sleep downstairs as it's difficult to move around with the roof down and navigate the table and the bags as they're usually stored behind the bench seat which folds flat to make the bed.

If I'm only sleeping for one night, I don't bother with the window curtains on the front, I just hang a blanket for privacy. I also used my friend's house to shower and change and spend the evening so I didn't need to rotate the front seats for extra space.

The kitchen is in the back of the Ford Transit Westfalia which makes life a lot easier than a Volkswagen. It means we can access the back area without having to leave the van and if we do want to go round the back the up and over door provides additional cover from the rain and if the bed in the back is folded down it doesn't obstruct the kitchen area and we have access to to the vehicle through 2 sliding doors.

I made myself a cup of tea and a hot water bottle before bed and we have a water heater which doesn't use a lot of the battery which runs off solar panels when we're not on the mains. It also powers the diesel heater. 

I didn't fill the water tank for this trip. I just refilled a water bottle and made sure the leisure battery was fully charged before I set off.

My next trip is February half term on the ferry to Northern Ireland to sleep on my son's drive. Now they have 2 children there is no room in the house for us. Peter doesn't fancy spending the week in the van at this time of the year so he's staying at home to look after the cat and keep warm and dry.

I'll be plugging into the mains, using the house for the bathroom and showers and spending the days and evenings in the house and other than a cup of tea in the van and sleeping in it, all the cooking will be done in the house.

Our eldest grandson loves it when Granny brings the caravan and loves to help make the bed and run the little hoover round after a day out and we'll set the table up and have a picnic when we go out for the day.