In the Field: Do shower blocks make caravan showers redundant?

by Chris Jefferies
Every year the major caravan makers talk about the efforts they have made to save weight in their latest range, after carefully trimming off a few kilos here and there.
But earlier this month, Swift took the massive step of removing the shower from their new Sprite range, resulting in an overall weight saving of more than 130kg for the new Sprite Lite tourers.
With many modern caravan sites offering clean, well-equipped shower blocks, it’s surprising no-one has done it sooner, as showers in caravans are often left unused.
Large families in particular will often rely on using a decent shower block, as the wait to use a tiny shower cubicle in their six-berth caravan can stretch on for hours.
Furthermore, having a shower in your caravan pushes up the gas consumption due to the use of a water heater, means you need to empty your grey waste water tank more regularly and increases the risk of damp.
Creature comforts
This week we stayed on a Caravan Club site that had a spacious, clean and well-designed shower block, with a locking door for privacy, a separate bench for all your items and a shower curtain to stop your clothes from getting wet.
Even in large caravans, the space in the shower is cramped at best, but many caravanners still value the importance of having a washroom, as it means you can travel much more freely across the country without worrying about the state of the facilities at your next stop-off.
This approach is widely popular among more experienced caravanners, who describe the experience as ‘real caravanning’.
However, on a more practical level, many will simply dread having to traipse through the rain to get to the shower block when the notorious British weather turns on them in the morning.
What do you think? Are showers an unnecessary luxury in a caravan? Or are they an integral part of a properly-equipped caravan? Share your thoughts in our community forum.