Single or double beds?

Do you and your partner sleep in single beds, or share a double or queen-sized bed in your caravan or motorhome?

It’s a rather intrusive question for many travellers, particularly those of a certain age – rather like proclaiming in big letters on the rear of your RV ‘We’re over that!”

But is there really RV stigma in solo sleeping?

Much-married actress and socialite Zsa-Zsa Gabor once famously said “Never confuse sex with sleep darling” and she is not alone in preferring her own company in bed.

After all, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes reportedly slept in separate bedrooms during their marriage, yet managed to conceive their daughter Suri. And the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have always done similar, yet managed to spawn four children.

Admittedly, I don’t think Zsa-Zsa, Tom, Katie, Liz or Phil have ever shared a caravan, but you get the point.

Besides – perhaps call me uninventive – but I believe that most conjugal arrangements take place within a relatively compact space and unless you and your partner enjoy extra company, a single bed in a caravan or RV should be adequate. It’s just the tap on the shoulder requires a bit more of a stretch!

The increasing number of caravans and motor homes offered with single beds is not so much proof of a new social order, but a reflection of existing domestic sleeping arrangements.

Single people already outnumber married couples in Australia and if you factor in the GLBTIQ community, you now have seven sexes to cater for, whereas once two were sufficient.

And it would be wrong to think that only couples travel in caravans. Many guys like to get away with their mates on fishing or outback trips, while their partners are often happy to see them go and there sometimes fathers like to get away with their sons.

But it’s the practical issues that make single beds a more attractive and practical option for many travellers.

For a start, they liberate more interior space with a conventional north-south orientation, as only one common space is needed between them for occupants to get out, rather than twice that space in a typical ‘island queen’ layout.

This means you can have a shorter van or longer beds.

Single beds also allow manufacturers to build-in external storage compartments to access are space under single beds, whereas this is not possible in island queen bed models.

Overhead cupboards or a central hanging robe are also larger and easier to access in vans with twin single bed vans.

Last, but certainly not least, is the often-underrated benefit of a good night’s sleep.

Without being accused on sexism, let me state that many men and women operate in totally different climatic zones, often totally unrelated to the ambient temperature.

As a gross generalisation, men like windows open, women like them closed; some men can be happy with a sheet on a balmy night, whereas their partner may require a winter-grade quilt, socks and thermals.

Different people have different bladder needs, perhaps related to liquid intake, that require regular servicing and there is less disturbance with multiple loo stops with a single bed.

Single beds are also easier to make than a large queen or double. And if your partner snores, there’s an extra metre between you!

Of course there are downsides to single beds too.

There can be an increase in weight with the extra cabinets that can be fitted, while smaller (or no) windows in the front wall of the van where most beds are located means less ventilation. However a rear bed layout with separate small rear windows solves this problem.

So, given all the benefits, are we moving towards more single beds in caravans?

Different manufacturers we contacted had different views.

Robert Bury, the General Manager of Bayswater Jayco in Melbourne, said that single beds were becoming less of an option on new Jayco vans, as today’s travellers were discovering the caravan lifestyle younger.

Elite’s Scott Petersen concurred. ”We go through patches of single beds requests, but we couldn’t call this a general trend,” he said.

“In fact, I would say the younger buyers are moving away from single beds and the requests we get are usually for father and son travel.”

Coronet’s Peter Wright said that single beds accounted for only around one in 20 new vans ordered, “usually when required by are required by a senior demographic, or when a partner has a special need.

“In fact, I would say the younger buyers are moving away from single beds”.

However Keir Smith, the CEO of Concept Caravans, said they had seen the number of Concept, Franklin and Newlands caravans built with single beds increase from 6.9 per cent in 2013 to 8.3 per cent in 2014.

“The majority of our dealers stock single bed as well as queen models,” he said. ”There are pros and cons for every buyer and it gives them choice.”

What do you think: Single or double?