Rest assured there is a leisure vehicle that will suit your car and your capabilities, see below for our handy guidance.
You need to consider whether your driving licence will allow you to tow or drive the leisure vehicle you want. After December 2021 the UK Government changed the Category B driving licence in the UK to grant you an entitlement to drive any practical combination of car and caravan, by granting the B+E category licence without any further testing of training, subject only to a generous combined maximum allowable mass (MAM) of the combination of 7,500kg. Covering most large cars/4x4s towing caravans.
When the initial licence expires at age 70, you must make sure that you tick all of the Categories which you are currently entitled to , and wish to continue with – if you don’t – then the entitlement will be lost, and can only be re-instated by the holder taking a new test under current qualification rules.
On a Category B licence, you can drive a motor vehicle with a MAM of up to 3,500 kg and tow a trailer with that vehicle up to a maximum combined mass of 7,500kg.
There is training readily available from specialist driving schools to assist you in undertaking towing of larger trailers and Towcheck would recommend that you undertake some training for yours and other road users safety.
A touring caravan with: a maximum laden weight not exceeding 3,500 kg, overall width not exceeding 2.55 metres and overall body length not exceeding 7 metres (excluding drawbar and coupling) is the maximum size that can be legally towed by a motor vehicle whose maximum gross vehicle weight is less than 3,500 kg (so most 4x4s and even small/medium sized commercial van are not allowed to tow caravans that exceed the above dimensions). There are very few such large caravans in the UK, but it is as well to be aware of this.