My top consideration is how easy it is to put up an awning and the Inaca Elba is extremely simple.  It has lightweight fibre glass poles, so even though I’m not built I have no trouble putting it up.  Everything fits together perfectly and it’s only a 20 minute job to get it up.  It looks nice and it doesn’t get stuffy because it’s made of a nice breathable material.  It also has a lot of options for staying open or closed, depending on the weather.  I can seal it up against the rain or leave it open and let the sunshine in.  It’s a seasonal awning, so I only have to mount it on the actual caravan once a year, and take it down in the autumn.

Even though I don’t have kids, I think this awning would work perfectly for a caravanning family.  There are several doors in the awning, more if you have a bigger caravan than me, so the kids can run back and forth with easy access out.  The zippers slide easily so the awning definitely won’t tear or pull.  The windows also come with mosquito netting, so there won’t be many unpleasant bug bites at the end of a trip.  This is much appreciated for someone who attracts them like me.

I’m very glad I discovered this awning; it’s made caravanning much easier. It has really freed up space and made even the British weather irrelevant.

Mr. William Dawson

It’s especially bad when we go caravanning in our 6 birth, we’ve got more than enough room for the 4 of us but after a year of holidaying we started collecting the “essentials” and before we knew it, the clutter was creeping up on us. It wouldn’t be an issue if the British climate can guarantee cloud free skies and scorching heat, but unfortunately the weather isn’t that generous! It means that we need to pack for every eventuality, wet and dry, hot and cold, not forgetting the kid’s bikes, footballs, boots and the barbeque.

I noticed on a holiday in the Lake District that a family next to us had an awning. We got speaking over the week and it seemed to be the perfect solution for our clutter problem. They said that it saved them so much room, as it served as a garage on the night and most importantly it was secure and water tight, keeping everything safe and dry. Needless to say, we went home and scoured the internet for the best deal.

We read a lot of the forums and caravan specialist sites to try and find out the practicalities of owning an awning. After a week of deliberating (I’m quite usually quite compulsive) we decided on getting an Inaca Sands awning, many of the reviews rated Inaca as a top brand not to mention that they were at a great price. We ordered it online and picked the colour and size etc. when our newly acquired annexe arrived I couldn’t wait to try it out, luckily we were planning on getting off at the weekend as it was a bank holiday.

Luckily Inaca were renowned for their instruction manual, because after seeing some people putting their awning up – I was hoping to still have a spouse after the ordeal.

Fortunately it wasn’t as bad as I’d anticipated, maybe beginners luck, but it didn’t seem to be an issue, I don’t know how I’d perform in gale force 5, but luckily it was a rather nice day……………..anyway. Once we got the poles assembled, it was just a case of extending each section, locking the poles in place and setting the frame, we then added the walls and guyed the whole thing down. It took just under 25 minutes which for a first attempt, I thought was quite good.

Over the course of the weekend our awning really came in handy, it wasn’t until the final day that I realised how much we used it and how much free space we had in the caravan. Little things like keeping the boots outside meant that we weren’t dragging mud into the caravan and the cricket set was finally out of the way! I really can’t imagine going away without it now, the benefits out way the hassle of putting it up ten fold.