Table of contents for June 2025 in Practical Caravan

Great shots of your brilliant touring destinations! Star photo Our winning entry receives one of these beautifully illustrated maps from Awesome Maps – check out the amazing range at www.awesome-maps.com WIN ME! STAR PHOTO TAG US #PRACTICAL CARAVAN OR EMAIL LETTERS@PRACTICALCARAVAN.COM NEXT MONTH'S THEME… WATER PICTURE! Send us your best lake, river or seaside shots for a chance to win an Awesome Map…

2 May to 1 June 2025 Brighton Fringe This world-famous celebration of culture champions the weird, wild and wonderful, including everything from circus dance and comedy to music, nightlife and cabaret. Confirmed events include a performance of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, and Rachel O'Connor's Astroballs comedy show. Events are free or individually priced. brightonfringe.org Stay at Brighton Caravan and Motorhome Club Campsite caravanclub.co.uk 16-18 May 2025 Keswick Mountain Festival Don your climbing gear and head for the Lake District to enjoy this great festival of all things outdoors. There will be speakers, live music and sports events. The huge selection of activities will include climbing, orienteering, paddleboarding, kayaking and axe throwing. Tickets from £20. keswickmountainfestival.co.uk Stay at Derwentwater C&CC Site www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk 24 May 2025 Nessie's Family Quest Make your way…

Bude WHEN TO GO We visited for five nights in mid-September, when the area was a little quieter than in the busy summer months. North Cornwall is, of course, a popular all-year destination, with plenty to see and do, from family- and dog-friendly beaches to pretty villages, hiking routes, and historic homes and castles to visit. WAY TO GO From Buckinghamshire, we took the M4 and M5 to Exeter and the A30 Bodmin/ Okehampton exit. We then followed the A30, A3079 and A3072, which took us through Bude and on to the Upper Lynstone campsite. WE STAYED AT Upper Lynstone Camping & Caravan Park Bude, Cornwall EX23 0LP upperlynstone.co.uk what3words shippers.funnels.upon Open April to October Pitches 36 Prices From £27.50 with hook-up; additional £2 per person and £1.50 per dog…

WALK ONE YEARSLEY MOOR AND HIGHER FISH PONDS CIRCULAR ■ Level Easy ■ Elevation gain 134m ■ Length 3.7km (1hr 7min) Description A walk through tranquil woodland and around scenic ponds, providing a peaceful escape into glorious nature in the Howardian Hills. This 3.7km loop trail near Coxwold, North Yorkshire, takes an average one hour and seven minutes to complete. It is a great route for hiking, running and walking, and it's unlikely that you'll encounter many other people while exploring. The best times to visit here are January to April. Dogs are welcome, off-lead in some areas. Enjoy beautiful woodland and waterside paths as you make your way around Yearsley Moor and out to the Higher Fish Ponds. Keep an eye out for wildlife, but take care on the…

KNAUS TABBERT IS taking on some key industry figures to help it see through the stabilisation programme the firm introduced last year, which it says is already producing results. The German manufacturer, which produces Knaus, Weinsberg and T@B caravans, has already appointed Matjaž Grm, former chief sales offices at Adria Mobil, as a consultant. From the start of May, Jochen Hein, who spent eight years with Hymer as technical director, will join the company as its new chief operating officer. The stabilisation programme was introduced last autumn by new CEO Wim de Pundert, who joined Knaus after an investigation that had led to two former board members being dismissed. Knaus Tabbert says it has already enjoyed a successful CMT show in January, and as a result reduced its overall vehicle…

EV charging company InstaVolt has opened a rapid-charging superhub, which for the first time includes drive-through bays large enough for towing outfits. The superhub, just off the A34 near Winchester and close to J9 of the M3, is also the company's first superhub to include a solar farm, with 870 solar panels and 4MWh of battery storage that will help to power the charging stations. Altogether, there are 44 charging units on the site, each capable of delivering up to 160kW of power.…

Price £53,995 Berths 4 MIRO 1919kg MTPLM 2250kg BESSACARR IS A great name in the leisure vehicle industry, with 70 years of heritage behind it. The brand began by building park homes, until the early 1970s. Then, under the ownership of timber supplier Arnold Laver, the company went on to become a market leader in the manufacture of twin-axle tourers by the mid-1980s, producing the Cameo range, a name that was acquired from the now defunct Astral Caravans. Arnold Laver had decided to leave the caravan market by the 1990s, and the brand's new owner, Swift, used the name only on its motorhomes. But customer demand saw Midlands dealership Couplands Caravans (and for a short time, Swindon Caravan Centre) offering special-edition tourers under the Bessacarr name, in Couplands’ case based…

BAGGING A BARGAIN can be a great feeling, especially if it's your first tourer and you are on a limited budget – or just want to dip your toe in the water. These days, though, cheaper used caravans can be quite thin on the ground – one reason being that many such models are exported abroad. Here, we were keen to track down a comfortable tourer for couples that would provide a reasonable spec level, without breaking the bank. We found a very promising example in this Amber, an end-washroom two-berth produced under the Sterling Eccles brand. But would this 2003 model represent value for money for first-time buyers? Model history The Sterling name was added to both the Eccles and the Europa brands after Swift took over the main…

OUTWELL ARCTIC FROST 35-LITRE 12V/230V COOLBOX Price £432.56 Web amazon.co.uk This tough, high-quality appliance has a capacity of 35 litres and comes with handy wheels and an extending handle to pull it with. It functions on 12V and 230V power sources, and can be controlled from an app on your digital device. It features an LED read-out and an integral bottle opener… analogue and digital at their best! DOMETIC COOLFREEZE CDF 36 PORTABLE COOLBOX/FREEZER Price £286.05 Web amazon.co.uk A 31-litre portable fridge/freezer made of robust PU plastic and weighing in at 12.5kg, this Dometic appliance features a carry-handle and can chill to temperatures from 10°C down to minus 15°C, which is pretty impressive. It operates almost silently on 12/24V and 230V mains power. CAR FRIDGE Price £189.99 Web amazon.co.uk This…

ESSENTIAL KIT TO ENHANCE YOUR TOURS! OUT AND ABOUT 1 Salomon X Ultra boots New for 2025, the X Ultra 5 Mid Wide Gore-Tex looks another winner, combining a Contagrip outsole for grip and an ultra-durable Matryx upper. Price £165 Web salomon.com 2 Byron hat Swedish brand Fjällräven seems to have cornered the market for warm hats. It's easy to see why with this double-knitted woollen Byron hat, made without PFAS. Price €49.95 Web fjallraven.com 3 Quechua Allroad trolley Let this trolley do the heavy lifting on site, at festivals and on days out. It holds 122 litres and bears 60kg. Comes with a cover and front brakes, and folds down. Price £119.99 Web decathlon.co.uk 4 Cabin Zero backpacks Designed to fit under seats on aeroplanes, Cabin Zero backpacks are…

‘Norwich Cathedral was founded by the city's first bishop, Herbert de Losinga, in 1096’ FOR MUCH OF the past millennium, the biggest city in England – outside London – wasn't Manchester or Birmingham, but Norwich. Look at any map up to Tudor times, and you'll see a sprinkling of major towns in East Anglia, with Norwich at the centre. So it's perhaps not surprising, with such history, that Norwich, ‘The City of Stories’, is waiting for you to explore it. DAY 1 10am Make an entrance If you are coming to the city centre by bus, you'll arrive on St Stephen's Street. It has to be said, this is not the most attractive part of the city – a stark reminder of how badly it was bombed in World War…

R obert Burns once wrote about “the best-laid plans of mice and men…”, but perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself. For a variety of reasons, over more than a year we had seen several false dawns in our plans to enjoy a caravan holiday in Europe. So when we at last arrived at Portsmouth Ferry Terminal, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. We celebrated getting this far with a lovely three-course meal in the restaurant on board the Brittany Ferries vessel MV Bretagne. It was just as good as the one I remember enjoying many years ago on the same ship. Island life The next morning, we shared the towing from St Malo, arriving at our destination, Île d'Oléron, in the late afternoon. We were catching up with site…

1 West Stow, Suffolk 2 Castle Acre, Norfolk 3 Gainsthorpe, Lincolnshire 4 Lavenham, Suffolk 5 Robin Hood's Bay, North Yorkshire 6 Clovelly, Devon 7 Milton Abbas, Dorset 8 Cromford, Derbyshire 9 Sutton-in-the-Isle, Cambridgeshire 10 Collyweston, Northamptonshire One of the many marvellous things about English villages is their huge variety. Even neighbouring villages can develop very differently, their characters reflecting their own histories and the people, influences, mishaps and opportunities that have shaped them over centuries. It is a joy to explore an unfamiliar village and stumble across some unexpected, extraordinary feature that I haven't seen before and it's almost possible to find a favourite for every day of the year. This selection includes those I love that illustrate key village-heritage themes and share characteristics with many other places. It's no coincidence that they are also great to visit for…

We love… … the comfortable, homely interior style of this cleverly designed little caravan Price £16,995 Berths 2 MTPLM 750kg WE WERE SO intrigued by the Capsule Mini caravan when we first had a look at it back in issue 480, we felt we really ought to take it out for a more thorough test. The van, made in Turkey and currently being sold in this country by the Leeds Caravan Centre, certainly makes a pretty captivating prospect. It's quite a while since you have been able to buy a more or less conventionally sized caravan for less than £17,000 brand-new. This one has the added advantage of being monocoque, too, which usually pushes the price sky-high, but doesn't do so here. Better still, go for the ‘R’ spec level…

WHEN YOU BUY a new caravan, it should come with warranties on both the construction/habitation area, and the individual appliances fitted inside it. It's best to think of your tourer as being like a house, with separate warranties on kitchen, washroom and bedroom fittings. This makes caravan warranties more complicated than those of a car, where you will only have one provider to deal with. A problem with the habitation equipment should usually be handled by the supplying dealership, if it is a new caravan still under the manufacturer's warranty. Common exclusions to these warranties tend to be wear and tear items, such as trim and – the most common issue of all – hinge, latch or catch failures. Caravan habitation warranties typically run for around three years and can…

Choosing the right caravan for you is never just about choosing the right layout. It's also about making sure your chosen new caravan is ideally within 85% of the weight of your car. And there's your budget to consider – that's why it's never easy. But we are once again here to help. Here are three more scenarios where we help a reader look for a suitable solution. If you'd like us to sort out your conundrum and show you the used caravan of your dreams, contact us via our email address (see right). WANT OUR EXPERTS TO HELP YOU FIND THE PERFECT USED CARAVAN? Let us know by emailing letters@practicalcaravan.com and we'll do the legwork for you! Paul and Fliss - keen first-time buyers KEY FACTS Tow car kerbweight 1314kg…

TOW CAR ADVICE TOWING WITH a fully electric vehicle comes with challenges. Switching from petrol or diesel to full hybrid is a much easier transition to make. By ‘full hybrid’, we mean a car that uses an electric motor and an internal combustion engine to drive the wheels, but does not plug in to recharge. Not so long ago, many hybrids were hampered by low towing capacities. That is still the case with some – indeed, recent hybrid models from Hyundai and Kia have worse towing capacities than their predecessors. But there are plenty of petrol-electric cars capable of towing well. These are the five full hybrid models we would recommend. NISSAN X-TRAIL E-POWER 213 E-40RCE TEKNA 5ST Price £45,855 Kerbweight 1988kg 85% match 1690kg Towing limit 1800kg The X-Trail…

PENNY IS STARTING to work just like a proper little caravan. We have fixed a few problems, installed a replacement fridge and generally made her a far nicer place to be. But there are a few things that would make her even more comfortable and usable. All of these new features will need a power supply, and wiring each one straight to the battery quickly becomes messy. We've tidied up the cabling with busbars, but adding our router last month highlighted another upgrade worth making. Power struggle The router is a good example of a 12V accessory and the problem we have when adding features to the caravan. The router doesn't actually draw much power – less than 1A – so it could have shared an existing circuit. But that…

Cleaning kit worth £150! We've teamed up with ScreenWashKing to bring our readers an exciting giveaway! One lucky winner will receive a Swissvax On the Road Kit – an intensive vehicle cleaning kit worth £150 – along with a year's supply of screenwash, while three runners-up will each win a year's supply of screen wash. Plus, over the next three issues, two readers per issue will have the chance to win a year's supply of screen wash by answering a new question. UK drivers discard 100 million plastic screen wash bottles annually, so these innovative screen wash tablets offer an eco-friendly alternative to traditional ready-mixed solutions. A single tablet creates five litres of high-performance screen wash, cutting through grime, salt, sap, bugs and traffic film. Designed for all seasons, it…

Whether you're on tour or at home, relax with a cup of tea and some brain-teasers to ponder! SUDOKU To solve the puzzle, each row, column and 3x3 box must contain the numbers 1 to 9. No single digit can appear twice in any one row, column or 3x3 box WORDWISE You have 15 minutes to find as many words as possible using the letters in the grid. Each word must contain four or more letters, one of which must be the central square. No proper nouns, plurals or foreign words are allowed. There is one nine-letter word in the grid, for which the clue is: Ruling female 8 = average 16 = well done HALF & HALF Which Asian dish derives its name from the Tamil for ‘flesh’? Cross…

“I like Cornwall very much. It is not England. It is bare and dark and elemental.” So wrote DH Lawrence while living there in the early 1900s. And I have to agree – I like Cornwall “Ivery much and find it elemental and wild. But we also discovered a gentler, calmer side to the region, staying at Bude, on the northern coast, last September. Yes, there are surfers’ waves and tales of smuggling in times past, but there are also buckets and spades and crabbing lines, golden sandy beaches for relaxing on and seas made for paddling in – North Cornwall really does have it all. Our base during this tour, Upper Lynstone Camping & Caravan Park, caters for all, too. A large field for dog walks, another taking you…

Extra bank funding has enabled Downtide Caravans to take on an additional new caravan franchise and improve its premises. The Norwich-based firm has been an Adria dealer for many years, and took on Swift motorhomes six years ago. Last November it also took on Buccaneer, Xplore and Elddis caravans, and earlier this year it added a Bailey caravan and motorhome franchise. Joint owner David West said, “We were excited to get this opportunity, however it's a big commitment to take on another big franchise. Thankfully… we've been able to make this happen quickly, so we're up and running for 2025.” The extra funding has also allowed Downtide to expand with a new six-bay workshop, turning its existing workshop into a handover and valeting area.…

TECH SPEC What will it tow? Kerbweight 1695kg Towing limit 2100kg Noseweight limit 90kg 85% match 1441kg Running costs Insurance group 24 Annual VED £190 Average economy 51.4mpg Full service £167 Servicing price supplied by Servicing Stop, 0844 324 5262, servicingstop.co.uk Trouble spots The Q3's rate of recall is nothing out of the ordinary. Some cars were recalled because the two front seats might not have been bolted to the seat rail correctly. Then 1762 vehicles were recalled because the plastic trim panel located over the top of the engine could become detached. A loose bolt on a brake servo rod resulted in 11 cars returning to dealers. A full list of recalls can be found at check-vehicle-recalls.service.gov.uk. THE SECOND-GENERATION Audi Q3 is the archetypal car for the modern era.…

DO CARAVAN FRIDGES HAVE TO BE LEVEL? Yes, caravan fridges must be level to work properly. The gas moves to a heat exchanger, transferring heat outside and condensing back into liquid. This process depends on gravity, so if the fridge isn't level, it won't function efficiently. THIS IN-DEPTH GUIDE reveals the best ways to keep food and drink cool while you're on the road, using caravan fridges and electric coolboxes. Some built-in, under-counter fridges can be a bit too small for a family of four or more, so keeping an electric-powered coolbox in the awning is a great way to expand your cold-storage capacity when needed. Here, we're looking at all the options to keep your provisions as cool as a cucumber – which means, at 2-5°C! Caravan fridges Unlike…

NEW 2025 MODELS! FIND THE PERFECT FLOORPLAN FOR YOUR NEEDS Please check model details with the manufacturer or dealer before travelling to view or buy There are a wide range of caravan layouts to choose from (pictured below), all with their own pros and cons. When you're trying to settle on the arrangement that will suit you, there are some points to think about that can help you decide. Here, we take a look at a few of the most popular floorplans out there, and what they can offer you. B TRANSVERSE ISLAND BED, REAR WASHROOM Island beds are a surprisingly recent addition to caravans, and were really introduced from the world of motorhomes. Caravans are usually a bit wider than motorhomes, though, so it is far more common to…