We've been camping for decades now and have progressed from small tents to larger tents to trailer tent and caravan. Now the caravan is getting old (as are we!) and so is our car, so we think we may need to replace both and if so, a camper van may be the answer.
In practice all camping methods have their disadvantages. With tents, you have to carry all the gear and it takes time to set it all up and it is nasty lugging back wet tentage. Also you end up sleeping on the floor and in wet conditions it is less than perfect.
With two sons under 7, we upgraded to a trailer tent, which reduced many of those problems in that the tent was big enough to live in, with its raised sleeping area for us and the boys happy in their 'cabin tents' down below, and it did not need packing so much. The trailer was easy to tow, but it was still quite an effort to erect and still unpleasant to pack when wet. It worked well but then we camped one night on the cliffs near Lyme Regis and suffered 'a bit of wind' (= severe gale, Ed) which left just one tent standing on the campsite by morning. Our trailer was written off for various damage to the frame but we took salvage from the insurance to repair it ourselves to tour Ireland. It rained quite a lot, so we decided it was time for a caravan.
Within an amazingly short (for us) five weeks we had sold the trailer tent and bought a 10 year old 4/5 berth caravan. This gave us plenty of room and it was MUCH more comfortable, but it is all a bit of a drag to pull it around. We have a small slope in our drive which makes it hard to drag the van up, while positioning the caravan on the site takes effort, especially now the boys have left home for Uni and beyond so aren't around to help. Yes, we could get a motor that does the manoeuvring (expensive), but it is a bit of a drag towing as well and we have had the odd case where the caravan has snaked under braking, even with the stabiliser.
Our car is a Ford Mondeo and has now done 212,000 miles. It still goes pretty well, but it clearly won't last forever (this too is now a salvaged technical write off following an argument with a digger which the digger won). The caravan meanwhile has served us well for ten years but has also leaked, getting extensively stained, and some rot has had to be fixed in the floor, so again we can see the end approaching.
We've looked at camper vans for years wondering if they were our solution. We see the advantages being that they are easy to drive and to reverse (relative to a caravan), but still provide most of the advantages we have had with the caravan. The disadvantages are that we need a small enough van to use as second car whilst having all the home comforts we want. Also there is the problem that if you pitch camp and then want to go into town, your camp needs to be broken and site possibly lost. But since most of our camping is now at festivals or weekends with friends, there is little need to go to town - and a cycle rack could resolve the transport dilemma anyway! So off we go...