A travel trailer or caravan is towed behind a road vehicle

Vehicle

A vehicle is a device that is designed or used to transport people or cargo. Most often vehicles are manufactured, such as bicycles, cars, motorcycles, trains, ships, boats, and aircraft....

 to provide a place to sleep which is more comfortable and protected than a tent

Tent

A tent is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over or attached to a frame of poles or attached to a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using guy ropes tied to stakes or tent pegs...

 (although there are fold-down trailer tents

Popup camper

A pop-up camper, which was at first in the 1930s and 1940s called a folding or most commonly, tent trailer, is a type of towed recreational vehicle that can be collapsed for easy storage and transport. When set up, this type of trailer provides a large amount of interior space when compared to its...

). It provides the means for people to have their own home

Home

A home is a place of residence or refuge. When it refers to a building, it is usually a place in which an individual or a family can rest and store personal property. Most modern-day households contain sanitary facilities and a means of preparing food. Animals have their own homes as well, either...

 on a journey or a vacation

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

, without relying on a motel

Motel

A motor hotel, or motel for short, is a hotel designed for motorists, and usually has a parking area for motor vehicles...

 or hotel

Hotel

A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...

, 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

Furniture

Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...

 and furnishings and equipment of a home.