It's the fixed bed and bathroom in the rear with two side facing front seats. The kitchen area has plenty of surface space and the shower is a separate cubicle within the bathroom giving more space too. It is fairly long at 7.45m.
Look at the second-hand market if the price is a concern. I would most of the vans we looked at had less than 10,000 miles on the clock. Ours only had 7000 off miles on it and it's 3yrs old. There is also the caravan and motorhome show at the NEC next month to have a good look around at and get ideas at. For two grand more we could have had a brand new Eldiss 845 which we loved but it just didn't have the storage we wanted.
We are also looking for massive storage space.
We are looking at ones with twin single beds in the rear, bathroom amidships, and a half dinette behind the cab
They tend to then have a big storage door on either side and a 'garage' big enough for about 4 bikes and an inflatable canoe, plus the usual chairs and table etc.
It amazes me the low mileage that many of these vehicles have, 3,000 miles a year seems to be on the high side!
We came across a 1993 model with 16,000 on the clock!
I think what is more telling is the number of nights they have been used, as we have found low mileage ones that have spent all winter, every winter in Spain and so although only 5 years old and under 20k on the clock, they have been used as accommodation for over a year in that time, so everything looks a bit worn, all the seats need recovering, the oven and fridge need replacing, the heating is knackered, new mattresses required, and one I think had a deep fat fryer on board, so even after industrial cleaning it was 'sticky'!
We have come to the conclusion that:
No Transit van base (ideally Mercedes or Fiat)
Max 7.5m long, (ideally under7m) any longer and you start to limit where you can go
Twin rear bed layout
Ideally of German manufacture (and probably not British)
Enjoy the NEC show, but you need to be very focussed on what you want to see as it would take 2 days to see it all
