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A travel trailer or caravan is towed behind a road vehicle to provide a place to sleep which is more comfortable and protected than a tent (although there are fold-down trailer tents).^{[1] [2]} It provides the means for people to have their own home on a journey or a vacation (holiday), without relying on a motel or hotel, and enables them to stay in places where none is available. However, in some countries campers are restricted to designated sites for which fees are payable.

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, Europe, Australia and New Zealand and are rare elsewhere, so this article deals mainly with those continents/countries.

In all of these locations it is generally illegal for people to ride in a travel trailer or caravan while it is being towed on a public road.

History

In Europe, the origins of travel trailers and caravanning can be traced back to traveling Romani people ('Gypsies'), and showmen who spent most of their lives in horse drawn trailers. The world's first leisure trailer 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".