Caravan Camping and Motorhome Show Birmingham NEC 2019

The Expo Five of the NEC’s halls were filled to the brim with caravans, van conversions, motorhomes, tents and camping equipment. They had also prepared shows, demonstrations and activities for the visitors. Some new releases in the world of motorhomes made an appearance at the expo as well, such as the VW Grand California for example which was, by far, the motorhome with the longest queue around it.

What we saw We boarded vans and coach builds alike as we went into our research with both as an option. The only thing we really ruled out for our particular use were caravans. Between the rest, we are pretty torn. Vans and coach builds can serve different purposes for the users and we find ourselves to be somewhere in a grey area between the two. We are attracted to the flexibility and mobility of motorhomes and can see ourselves using it for holidays and weekend trips but in the future would also quite like the experiment of permanently living in it for a longer period of time. We’d want to work from the mobile home and spend extended periods of time in it which is why we didn’t want to go full on diy van conversion but rather have some creature comforts that purist nomads and many #vanlife people have ditched a long time ago. The smaller the vehicle, the more flexible it gets as to what sorts of roads and places the driver can take it. However, a smaller vehicle also reduces the time one can stay completely off the grid (given the fact that we personally have decided that we will want to have electricity and water to be able to keep our jobs running even when we’re out and about). So what we are after is the smallest vehicle that still feels more like a living space than a car. That narrowed it down to large vans and compact coach builds. Of which there are plenty. Here are some that left a particularly strong impression on us.