We never have done a caravan because of everything mentioned above. But having watched these caravans in motion over the years it just added to our reasons not too. Love seeing them leave a park at in the AM at a certain time, getting into a park at a certain time. When we did Alaska in 2014, they pull into rest areas at the same time. If meals that day are provided by the tour, we all eat at the same time. And a lot of the parks they use are certainly OK, but they sure can vary by site size and the price of the tour doesn't reflect that. We saw a good one at Indianapolis 500 one year. There was a tour/caravan in the same park as we were. Well as luck would have it, the race rained out on Sunday and was postponed to the NEXT clear day. Well it turned out that if the race didn't get run that Sunday you were on your own the next day! Another thing we ran into in Denali National Park in Alaska. We went into the park visitors center to check on an all day bus tour back as far as they can go in the park. A private vehicle can only go so far as the road is very narrow after that and that is why we needed the bus. We looked at the overhead reader board in the visitors center, it listed tours available, times of departure, etc. but NO prices. We asked a very nice gentleman about the price of the ride we wanted and he told us what it was and we bought the tickets. Then as "inquiring minds want to know" I just had to ask why the prices weren't posted and you had to ask what they were. His answer, "because bus tour and caravan people come in here, if the prices are posted, they immediately notice the tour/caravan company prices on their brochure they were given, showed a higher price than if you bought it yourself. If you need your hand held I guess this is the way to go, but I personally believe that the folks really enjoy wearing name tags and the BIG caravan decal on their rig!