Design Award Winner- Coachbuilts £45,000 to £55,000

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By William Coleman

Back in February, at the Caravan, Camping and Motorhome Show at the NEC, the Caravan and Motorhome Club held their annual ‘Motorhome Design Awards’. The awards celebrate the variety of makes and models of the motorhome industry all while choosing the best the market has to offer to ensure the public make the best decision they can when purchasing.

The independent panel of judges picked 97 vehicles for this years awards. Each judge assessed a wide range of essential criteria which included comfort, electrics and safety, air-con, heating to name just a few.

The winner of the Coachbuilts £45,000 to £55,000 are Weinsberg with their CareCompact 600 Pepper.

This award winning 3 berth took home the award at the NEC in february at the Caravan And Motorhome Club’s Motorhome Design Awards. The models comes in 2 variations and is built upon a Peugeot chassis with a 130 BHP.

What stood out to me about this award winner in the interior. Sleek, modern and very smart looking. You can see why this took home the gold.

Design Award Winner- Coachbuild Over £65,000

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By William Coleman

Back in February, at the Caravan, Camping and Motorhome Show at the NEC, the Caravan and Motorhome Club held their annual ‘Motorhome Design Awards’. The awards celebrate the variety of makes and models of the motorhome industry all while choosing the best the market has to offer to ensure the public make the best decision they can when purchasing.

The independent panel of judges picked 97 vehicles for this years awards. Each judge assessed a wide range of essential criteria which included comfort, electrics and safety, air-con, heating to name just a few.

The touring world is for everyone, we welcome people of all shapes and sizes. Coachbuild GB are specialist manufacturers of wheelchair accessible motorhomes, caravans and day vehicles.

The company started in 2009 and bring their unique skill base and experience to help mobility issues of their customers. They do both new and pre-owned vehicles that are built to order to meet all your specific needs and requirements.

Their new iCruiser Swift Escape has taken CAMC’s Coachbuild Over £65,000 award at the 2018 Motorhome Design awards.

Top Clacton Site Now Flies Park Holidays Banner

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By William Coleman

Essex’s “sunshine coast” is set to have an even brighter outlook following May’s announcement that Park Holidays UK has expanded its presence in the region.

Long-established Martello Holiday Park in Clacton has now been acquired by the group, and joins the three other parks which it operates in and around the seaside town.

It means that holiday guests and holiday home buyers now have four major park options in the Clacton area, all under the banner of one of Britain’s fastest-growing leisure firms.

Martello Holiday Park adjoins the group’s St Osyth Beach and Seawick holiday parks, both of which have benefitted from substantial investment in guest facilities over recent years.

Park Holidays UK says that Martello, St Osyth’s Beach and Seawick will comprise Clacton’s largest holiday park development under single corporate ownership.

The other holiday park in the area owned by Park Holidays UK, which was founded just over 25 years ago, is Oaklands Holiday Park just north of the other three near the village of St Osyth.

With its direct access to Clacton’s sandy beaches, Martello provides a raft of facilities which include indoor and outdoor pools, day and evening entertainment, and children’s activities.

Group director Tony Clish said that Martello Holiday Park is a natural fit to the group’s existing portfolio of parks in southern England which now comprises 29 coastal sites:

“Like our other parks, Martello has won for itself over the years a loyal following of repeat visitors and holiday home owners,” he said.

“Martello has a very exciting future with Park Holidays UK. We are committed to growing our business on the Essex coast and investing in our parks in the Clacton area.

“This is good news not just for customers, but also for the local economy and the many businesses in the Clacton area which rely on spending by our holiday visitors.

“We’re delighted to welcome Martello and its staff into the Park Holidays UK family, and are greatly looking forward to our first season,” added Tony.

There is more information about Park Holidays UK on its website at www.ParkHolidays.com

Design Award Winner- Coachbuild £55K – £65K

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By William Coleman

Back in February, at the Caravan, Camping and Motorhome Show at the NEC, the Caravan and Motorhome Club held their annual ‘Motorhome Design Awards’. The awards celebrate the variety of makes and models of the motorhome industry all while choosing the best the market has to offer to ensure the public make the best decision they can when purchasing.

The independent panel of judges picked 97 vehicles for this years awards. Each judge assessed a wide range of essential criteria which included comfort, electrics and safety, air-con, heating to name just a few.

Another win for Auto-Sleeper at the Caravan and Motorhome Club Motorhome Design Awards. Auto-Sleeper took the Coachbuild £55K – £65K award win with their Peugeot Broadway EB. I have used several Auto-Sleeper vehicles over the past few months and I am not surprised they are sweeping up so many awards.

Dave Williams, Auto-Sleeper’s Sales Director, could not have been happier with the award win. The motorhome manufacturer make it their mandate to do as much R&D to ensure they have a broad appeal and bring new customers to the industry.

The award highlights the hard work that goes into creating their products and proves their research pays off.

Design Award Winner- Camper vans Up To £45k and Campers Over £45k

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By William Coleman

Back in February, at the Caravan, Camping and Motorhome Show at the NEC, the Caravan and Motorhome Club held their annual ‘Motorhome Design Awards’. The awards celebrate the variety of makes and models of the motorhome industry all while choosing the best the market has to offer to ensure the public make the best decision they can when purchasing.

The independent panel of judges picked 97 vehicles for this years awards. Each judge assessed a wide range of essential criteria which included comfort, electrics and safety, air-con, heating to name just a few.

This is a double win for family run Rolling Homes who produce hand crafted bespoke camper vans. Rolling Homes can cater to any and all needs.

If you need a space to store your motorbike or a special seat belt for your dogs these are your guys. No ask is too big Rolling Homes.

The award wins came as a surprise for the company as this was there first nomination at the awards and to walk away with a two awards is a result they could have never predicted.

Two And A Half Days In Prague And The Skoda Factory

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By William Coleman

My last few days on Bailey’s Bristanbul tour were rather manic, and that is putting it lightly. With a mid afternoon arrival as Camp Sokol and a final day to roam Old Town I made sure that my time spent it Prague was full of sites and experiences. It was my last day on the tour after all.

As we arrived at Camp Sokol I was informed that it was up to me to arrange the evening’s festivities, my Budapest party planning must have left a positive impression. For some insane reason I had mentioned that I knew my way around Prague Old Town, as I was there in October of last year. So all eyes were on me and I was feeling the pressure, as large groups and Prague sometimes do not make for fun times. The town has been known as a bit of a party town and large groups are not as welcome as they once were.

Myself, along with a small handful of others, went into town a couple of hours before the rest of the team arrived so we could do some recon of where to eat. Mostly to avoid lots of wandering around and not knowing what to do or where to go.

Having been there before and eaten far too much food than anyone should do across a long weekend, I knew a few great places that serve amazing food at very low prices. My first pick was the Wolfgang Inn, if you visit Prague you must eat here. The local food is plentiful and so tasty. A litre of local beer costs around £2.70!

As I entered I could already see that there was not table, chair nor bar stool free. I walked up to a member of staff to enquire about a table for 13 and the polite gentleman simply replied, “I cannot believe how busy we are”. I took that as a no and then moved on to another spot down the road that I knew. Thankfully we were able to get a seat for 13 so the food and drink flowed all evening.

On day 2 in Prague we were invited to visit Skoda factory in Mlada Boleslav, a small town which was about 40 minutes drive from central Prague. Seeing as they had sponsored the trip and given us two great vehicles in the Kodiaq and Octavia we excited to see their birth place.

Having seen car manufacturing this close it really did give me a new appreciation for the industry and just how many people are involved in the creation of cars. The factory employs around 35,000 people across its many different departments. In the town of Mlada 1 in 5 people work for Skoda.

Skoda have grown so much that there is now a 6-12 month waiting list for certain models. The factory makes 2,000 cars per working day and it takes roughly 24 hours to complete a car from start to finish. When you have 35,000 people on the payroll you can get a hell of a lot of work done during the working day.

After a fantastic tour of the factory, museum and and brilliant meal at Skoda the team separated into two. Team 1 went back to the site for some much needed R&R and Team 2 went into old town to spend a few hours taking in the sites. Team 2 consisted of myself, Bailey Australia, a cameraman and Dean Ozen from Bailey.

After a very quick drive into town we parked up and started our sightseeing. When in Prague there are a few must see sites. First of all Charles Bridge is outstanding and provides a different experience to Old Town. It also connects the party area of Prague to the older section where it’s more old Prague than Old Town Prague.

Once you have managed to get across the bridge, it can be extremely busy and take a little bit of time to get from one end to the other, you start to make your way up the hill to Prague Castle. Make sure you take your camera, and a bottle of water as the walk up to the castle is quite a long way and steep. The view from the top is one of a kind, you can see the entire city from the castle.

The day was almost done so we all headed back to the site, it took a lot longer than expected as we hit Prague’s rush hour traffic. We had to leave town a little bit earlier because we had the Cadac in our roof box so the team back at camp could not cook our evening baquet.

The evening feast that chef Dean Edwards cooked for us all was spectacular. During the day Dean went to Prague’s food and wine market to get local produce for a homemade goulash. The good thing about having a professional chef on tour is that you can have restaurant quality food direct from your caravan.

The setup we used for the evening meals and prep work could not have worked better. The Bailey Advance motorhome was where all the food was stored. The Bailey Pursuit was where the food was cut and prepped, the hob and oven did an outstanding job feeding 21 of us over 21 days. Once all that prep work was done the Cadac BBQ Grill was where all the finishing touches.

The Cadac really was a key piece of kit on this trip. The large paella dish is large enough to prepare enough food for everyone. While the onboard hobs cooked pasta, potato and other side foods the BBQ grill made the bulk of the foods such as meat, stews and even an experimental porridge one morning. So if you are in the market for a great portable BBQ you should be looking into Cadac. For more info on the model we used search Carri Chef 2.

The last day in Prague is where the CaravanTimes team parted ways with the Bristanbul team. After 18 days on the road it was a tough goodbye but the fun has to end at some point.

Everyone chipped in to pack up camp so the team could complete their 360 mile drive to Germany, which translates into a 9+ hour drive. With everything ready the guys kindly dropped us off in Prague Old Town, but not after being caught in bad morning rush hour traffic. No good deed goes unpunished.

After a long day in Old Town, arrived at 9:30am and got a cab to the airport at 7:30pm, the team were very much ready to get home. 10 hours in Prague can go a very long way when you know you have to been on a flight that evening. Once it was all said and done, with a few local beers finished, we finally headed back to London to get back to the reality of life.

Triple Award Win For Dumfries Park

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By William Coleman

Staff and the family owners of Mouswald Lodge Park near Dumfries are celebrating as they start the new holiday season with a hat-trick of top tourism awards. The tranquil ten-acre park’s first honour was received as a result of votes cast by customers of major UK holiday bookings agency Hoseasons.

Guests’ consistently high scoring of Mouswald Lodge Park led to it receiving the overall diamond accolade in the “best small rural retreat” category. The announcement by judges of the park’s success was made at Hoseasons’ glittering annual awards ceremony, regarded as the Oscars of the holiday parks industry.

But this was only Mouswald’s first appearance under the spotlight that day, for it also took first place as Scotland’s best performer in the category of “boutique parks”. Based just a few miles from Dumfries near the village of Mouswald, the park provides countryside escapes which include luxury timber lodges with private hot tubs.

Delighted comments from Hoseasons’ guests were also reflected in Mouswald’s third award: a Certificate of Excellence from the review website TripAdvisor.

TripAdvisor’s “excellence” accolades are handed out only to firms which attract an exceptional number of glowing reviews and maximum satisfaction scores.

Brian Wetherley, whose long-established family business owns Mouswald Lodge Park, said the three accolades provided a fantastic boost at the lift-off of the 2018 holiday season:

“These awards are especially important to us because they are based on the verdicts of people who have experienced the park first-hand,” said Brian.

“Obviously our quality standards play a big part in creating the impressions which people take away, but in our experience it’s often a lot more than that.

“Many of the reviews left by guests mention the hospitality and friendly atmosphere at Mouswald, and credit for this must go to our hardworking and dedicated staff team.

“We’re all delighted with these awards, and I hope they will also benefit other tourism businesses in the area by highlighting what a great place Dumfriesshire is to take a holiday,” added Brian.

Over the past 12 months, he said, the company had invested over £1.5 million at Mouswald in new accommodation facilities, landscaping and environmental projects. In addition to holiday stays, the park also provides holiday home ownership opportunities and attracts buyers from both sides of the Scottish border.

There is more information about the park on its website at www.mouswaldpark.co.uk

Back To Normality Post Bristanbul

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By William Coleman

On the 9th of April 2018 I set off on a tour of a lifetime with the Bailey of Bristol team. As I am sure you are aware the tour was an epic adventure. At the time I did not realise just how amazing the experience would be. You could go as far to say I was borderline apprehensive prior to leaving, for multiple silly reasons. Once I got behind the wheel and got some miles under my belt, along with some valuable lessons from the team, all the fears I had went away which lead me to having an experience of a lifetime.

Today is my first back to normality after 3 weeks touring around Europe and Asia on the Bristanbul tour and I can safely say I have been bitten by the travel bug once more. The freedom that a touring home gives you really does open up the world and shows just how easy touring abroad can be.

So let me start off by saying thank you to the guys at Bailey for selecting me for this tour. Not only was it one of the best experiences I have ever had but it also gave me the chance to make new friends and be part of a team that instantly came together and got stronger as the tour went on.

One of the highlights for me was the team and how it worked. From a normal leisure journalist, yes that is me, all the way to the Bailey Marketing Director Simon Howard there was no task too big or small. We all chipped in to cook, clean, drive, tow and most of all teach.

I was very unsure about towing abroad, especially in a right hand drive car on the other side of the road. Throughout the tour if anyone was unsure of anything there was always someone on hand to help out and make sure that all aspects of the trip were not too tasking and more importantly, enjoyable.

Throughout the next three Fridays I will be writing up a feature for the 3 legs of the tour that I completed, hence the brief overview of the trip in this article. So check in every Friday for my in depth break down of each leg of the might Bristanbul tour.

Scottish Park Introduces Shooting and Safari

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By William Coleman

Action holidays and caravanning? Not alway hand in hand, but one park is doing it’s best to get the adrenaline pumping with some great competitive outdoor pursuits.

Our news this week has mostly come from overseas, with team Bailey taking on a trip to Istanbul and back and Chairman of the Caravan Writer’s Guild, Andrew Ditton, testing out the new Carado with a tour to Croatia, so now for something from our fair isles.

Westlands Country Park in Dumfries, Scotland are pitting tourers and holidaymakers against each other with a series of sporting challenges. A recent £2.5 million makeover combined with its existing sporting pedigree (They’re already an olympic shooting ground), should make quite the exciting weekend away.

Manager Peter Taylor, a member of the park-owning family, hopes that Westlands will soon hold the reputation as the north’s go-to destination for challenge-seekers.

The park boasts 3 acres of lakes for the fisherman amongst us and a rather impressive clay pigeon shooting range spanning 22 acres. But it’s not all high adrenaline action sports, Peter also caters for those looking for a more peaceful vacation with a series of wildlife tours. He calls them safaris, gentle walk through the park grounds with an opportunity to take in the beautiful scenery and get a glimpse of some of its inhabitants.

Mr Taylor had this to say of the redevelopment “Our family has owned parks in Scottish borders for over forty years, and we know that visitors and holiday home buyers today are keen to enjoy new experiences,” said Peter.

“We have made a big commitment in money, time and energy to creating a park where people can make the most of their leisure time in a number of different ways.

“But whilst we are immensely proud of the high standards of our sporting facilities, I hope that guests will remember most the glorious scenery and friendly atmosphere here,”

There is more information about Westlands on its website

This is a park that has certainly been added to our must-visit list, but what are your thought? Is your time away for relaxation or do you like to get the heart pumping? Let us know in the comments.

Go With the Vlow – Ditton & Dougal Update

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By William Coleman

Last week we brought you news that CaravanTimes fan favourites, Andrew Ditton and Dougal were off on a european adventure.

Their route has taken them from Germany, through Austria all the way to Croatia all in the comfort of the New Carado Vlow. The Vlow is a nifty bit of kit that we’re looking to get our hands on in the coming weeks, but if you can’t wait for a full review, check out Andrews youtube channel where you an see his first impressions and how he’s getting on with it on his mammoth journey.

It looks like Dougal and Andrew are having a great time as you can see below from their latest video update. If there is anything you want to know about the trip or the Vlow, leave your questions in the comments and we’ll put them to Andrew when he returns.

Convoy Driving And An Evening In Budapest

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William Coleman

Having driven on a lot of undesirable road surfaces and some very questionable routes you do naturally pick up a lot of good habits. Prior to coming on the Bristanbul trip I was nervous about the European way of driving but what I did not take into consideration was the art of convoy driving, something I had never done before.

When driving with several different vehicles in the past it was usually down to Brighton with a few cars full of friends. Now I would have to navigate the lands of Europe while trying to deal with the local driving habits and keep in the formation so we can film our journey.

The good thing about driving in convoy is that you have several other vehicles who can watch your back and help you cut in and out of lanes if you get jammed up. It would have been an almost impossible task to carry out if we did not have a set of walkie talkies. So if you are planning on doing a journey like this with several vehicles, you need to make sure you all have a way of communicating clearly.

There are times that the team did get split up and were out of range on the walkies but as long as you stick to the route on the sat nav you soon close the gap and get back into formation.

When we arrived at our site in Budapest it was soon agreed that we would have 2-3 hours to get settled and ready for dinner in the city. Doing my research on Budapest I saw that one of the things it is known for are “ruin bars”. These are basically old ruined buildings that have been turned into bars. The one I chose was called Szimplakert – it was absolutely amazing. It used to be an old school but is now a blend of all different vibes and cultures. The food and drink is very reasonably priced too. It was £2.70 for a restaurant quality burger and fries with beer costing £1.50 a pint.

Budapest is an amazing city and somewhere everyone should visit at least once. From the site it takes around 25 minutes to get into the heart of the city. So another successful day for the tour.

Castle Dracula And Questionable Road Surfaces

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By William Coleman

While in Romania I was totally surprised about how good the road conditions were until I ventured off the beaten track into farmland. On top of that we took a tour of Castle Bran AKA Castle Dracula.

Bran is a very rural part of Romania surrounded by the Carpathian Mountains, miles of thick woodland which have a good amount of bears and plenty of farmland. There are clear divides between poverty and prosperity in this part of Romania. It is not third world but there road signs have cars, Lorries, busses and a horse and cart on them.

Another thing that Romania has, something that is a constant trend since Greece, is lots of wild dogs. Everywhere you go there are wave after wave of stray dogs walking around, all of which seem pretty relaxed and friendly. At Vampire Camping there was one dog chained up in a field that we were warned to stay away from. I glanced over to see this large handsome pooch, so I went over to say hello. I am not sure why this dog was so angry but my god he had an attitude. His chain did not allowed him to come all the way to the fence but I went over and had a chat with him and he calmed down a bit, not enough for me to get any closer though.

Before the convoy left Bran we made sure to visit The Castle Bran. The castle is stunning both inside and out and is a must visit location. We were given a personal tour of the castle which cleared up a lot of the misconceptions we have about Dracula, the castles ownership and the origin stories of vampires and ghouls. Did you know Bram Stoker has never stepped foot on Romanian soil?

As the convoy left Bran to head toward our site for that evening the road conditions soon became dreadful. The size of the potholes are so big and frequent that if you dodge one you will run into about 2 or 3 more, borderline unavoidable. Some of the lumps and bumps felt like they were going to gauge chunks out of tires and wheels. After a few miles on the back roads, that were more like a bombed landing strip, I hit a pothole that took off the grey waste pipe. All I saw in my wing mirror was an object projectiling from underneath the Bailey Advanced. I grinded to a halt and then went searching for the missing part.

Before long we made it to the motorway, which was where the bulk of out 145 mile journey would take place. The motorways in Romania leave the UK ones standing in the dust and were a pleasure to drive, following the country back roads we travelled through.

The site we stayed at was a little bit of an odd one, goes by the name Camping Aurel Vlaicu. Located out in the sticks of Romania right in the middle of farmland. The first thing that struck me was the smell of farming going on around us, stings the nostrils. It is a very basic site and would recommend this for a 1 night visit.
The highlights of the day by a long way was the visit to Castle Dracula. It was a destination I had always wanted to visit but could not justify going all that way for one building and an hours tour. Now that we have used vehicles to tour round it has made it that much more possible, the beauty of touring is doing things like this while passing through.