A travel trailer or caravan is a trailer towed behind a road vehicle (or a horse or similar pack animal) to provide a place to sleep which is more comfortable and protected than a tent (although there are fold-down tent trailers [1]) . It provides the means for people to have their own home on a journey or a vacation (holiday), without relying on a hotel, and enables them to stay in places where none is available.
Travel trailers and caravans vary from basic models which may be little more than a tent on wheels to those containing several rooms with all the furniture and furnishings and equipment of a home. They are used principally in North America and Europe and are rare elsewhere, so this article deals mainly with those continents.
In North America and Europe it is generally illegal for people to ride in a travel trailer or caravan while it is being towed on a public road.
Caravans (Europe)
In Europe, the origins of caravans and caravanning can be traced back to travelling Gypsies and showmen who spent most of their lives in horse drawn caravans. The world's first leisure caravan was built by the Bristol Carriage Company in 1880 for Dr. W. Gordon-Stables. It was an 18 ft design, based upon their Bible Wagons, which the Doctor named "Wanderer".
Modern European caravans come in a range of sizes, from tiny two-berth caravans with no toilet and only basic kitchen facilities, to large, twin-axle, six-berth caravans.
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