The campervan is a spontaneous leisure vehicle, ready for adventure at anytime. Small enough to park outside your home and to be used as a daily drive and discreet enough to camp-out nearly anywhere.
So whether you want a quick weekend away, or a day by the beach, small-scale van conversions are the answer. Here’s Touring Magazine’s pick of the best campervans available today.
Best budget campervan
Volksleisure Zermatt
From £39,995
Base vehicle: VW T6 or T6.1 SWB
Price: from £39,995
Berths: 2 (+2)
Belted seats: 4
For less than £40,000 this is one of the best campervans available on the market if value-for-money is important to you. For that you still get proper VW, with the option of a T6 or T6.1 (which will cost more) base vehicle.
The Bradford based converter is well known for producing high quality VW campervans. And this entry level camper, provides everything you need for adventure.
The two-seater RIB rock-n-roll seat, using a VW standard cloth material, converts into a double bed – you can add an extra roof bed for an additional £880.
Inside, too, is a sink with twin-burner hob and a compressor fridge. There are plenty of extras to select from but what’s included in the base price offers remarkable value.
Best campervan for luxury and cooking
Camper King Portofino
From £52,500
Base vehicle: VW T6.1 LWB
Price: from £52,500
Berths: 4
Belted seats: 5/6
This is CamperKing’s top-of-the-range model, and our pick as the best campervan for luxury. It’s built on a long wheelbase VW T6.1, which provides a greater living area than SWB campers – and includes six belted travelling seats. The roof-bed is rated sturdy enough to sleep adults in addition to the huge double bed made up from the luxurious, quilted hide seating.
Ambient lighting and a wine rack are standard features, as is the external barbecue point. All that one should expect from a luxury camper.
But it gets our vote for having a full size oven/grill plus a four-burner hob, and a 20-litre drawer fridge. Most campervans have a couple of small ring burners and, maybe, a small grill that will see you through a weekend. This setup will see you through the winter and beyond and will not let you down, if you decide to hold an impromptu alfresco dinner party!
Check out Touring Magazine’s visit to CamperKing HQ as part of our Meet The Maker series where we found out more about their manufacturing process.
Best campervan for retro-styling
Danbury Heritage
Base vehicle: VW T6.1 Highline
Price: from £68,459
Berths: 2 (+2)
Belted seats: 4
The flagship model of van conversion specialists Danbury Motorcaravans, the Heritage has everything that you need in a VW conversion. This multipurpose vehicle has an elevating roof and a flexible range of interior layout options.
It includes a choice of double or king-size bed (larger than most in a campervan). Based on the short wheelbase VW T6, the Heritage nods to the iconic two-tone original T2 but with all the modern comforts, high quality leather interiors and the technology of a modern van.
This retro choice should be popular among modern beach bums and surfers. Beach bums with 70 grand to spend on a van that is!
Best campervan for sporty touring
Wellhouse Leisure Ford Custom Misano 4
Base vehicle: Ford Custom Limited SWB/LWB
Price: from £62,250
Berths: 4
Belted seats: 5
The Misano 4 is Wellhouse’s highest spec campervan conversion – and it’s the only Ford conversion available from the company in 2022 (with build slots available from November). Consequently the ‘standard’ spec is considerably higher than most standard specs from other van converters.
You’ll receive the latest Ford Custom Limited base vehicle with alloy wheels and colour reversing camera. Internally, the conversion includes Webasto heater with mobile phone app and tracker, Webasto hot water system, tailgate shower, gas BBQ point, 150W solar panel, Vitrifrigo fridge and lithium battery.
Designed to turn heads, the styling will appeal to the boy (or girl) racer in you! But this Ford is not just for show. There’s plenty of bite to go with the bark, especially if you opt for one of the upgraded engine options.
Best eco campervan
Sussex Campervans Nissan CamperCar VX-E
Base vehicle: Nissan NV200
Price: from £TBC
Berths: 2 (+2)
Belted seats: 2 (+2)
When you’re looking to go electric, there’s not yet a great deal of choice in campervans. Sussex Campervans already do an all-electric campervan – the Nissan e-NV200. You can read our exclusive road test here.
But, if you’re still on the list of ‘range anxiety’ customers, you might prefer the new Nissan NV200 CamperCar VX-E. New for 2022, this is Sussex’s best-of-both option, a hybrid using the Nissan NV200 petrol engine but with a fully electric system. No gas bottles, no LPG underslung tank. Instead, you’ve a LiFeTo4 battery with inverter for 240V power off-grid.
There’s a choice of two or four travel seats and sleeping berths, including an ottoman bed if you’re not a rock’n’roll seating enthusiast.
Best French-conversion campervan
Dreamer CapLand
Base vehicle: Custom Ford Transit
Price: from £61,430
Berths: 2 + 2
Belted seats: 4
Dreamer, a brand under the French-owned Rapido group, is better known for its compact leisure vehicles based upon the larger Fiat Ducato. The brand also, however, produces a smaller campervan in its line-up – the CapLand. That’s rare for a French manufacturer.
The base vehicle is the 5.34m-long Custom Ford Transit; it’s a really good-size – nicely compact for easy parking and manoeuvring but sufficiently spacious inside to enjoy your travels with more of a traditional coachbuilt layout than a British campervan.
This includes a traditional dinette, a galley kitchen, bench-seat cassette toilet plus, incredibly, a small shower cubicle. It’s not an everyday shower but it would certainly help you clean up if you’re touring away from campsite facilities.
Best German-conversion campervan
Westfalia Club City Joker
Base vehicle: VW T6.1 SWB
Price: from £62,976
Berths: 2 (+2)
Belted seats: 4
It could be argued that German manufacturer Westfalia is at the pinnacle of campervan and compact leisure vehicle production. Its range pushes the boundaries of innovation and it is known for making some of the best campervans around.
That includes the Club Joker City, which escapes the standard internal layout of most campervans and opts, instead, for a more motorhome-orientated style. Hence, you’ll have swivelling cab seats to meet a dinette table and two rear travelling seats. At the rear of the vehicle is the galley kitchen plus a bench-seat cassette toilet and shower area. Sleeping includes a roof-top bed plus a small double bed (better used as a single). All this in a VW that’s just 4.89m long.
Best campervan for accessibility
Rolling Homes Ability
Base vehicle: VW T6.1
Price: from £TBC
Berths: 2
Belted seats: 2
Shropshire-based VW conversion specialist Rolling Homes is known for its extraordinarily high attention to detail and produces some of the best campervans available in the UK. The team uses real oak and superb handcrafted joinery for the cabinetry within each fine, luxurious campervan.
Within its range, Rolling Homes includes its Ability model, providing the essential opportunity to make campervanning accessible to all. Bespoke options can be tailored to requirements, but can include a side or rear chair lift, air suspension, a pure sine wave inverter for charging wheelchairs, and an electric handbrake.
Best four-wheel-drive campervan
Hillside Leisure Birchover All-Motion
Base vehicle: VW T6.1 4Motion SWB/LWB
Price: from £62,995
Berths: 2 (+2)
Belted seats: 4
Campervans may be conveniently compact and nippy for weekend getaways, but they’re not all cut out to be off-roaders. Step forward the new Birchover All-Motion. Internally it has the conventional side conversion, using Hillside’s tried-and-tested layout from its classic Birchover campervan.
But the All-Motion uses the 4 Motion VW T6.1 as its base vehicle, with four-wheel-drive, off-road alloy wheels and off-road wheel arch styling plus high-lift kit. Both SWB and LWB versions are available, with or without an elevating roof-top/bed.
This machine is capable of taking your adventure to the next level and is the best campervan for those who seek the true off grid experience.
Best new introduction campervan in 2022
Auto-Sleepers Air or Swift Monza
Base vehicle: Ford Transit Custom
Price: from £66,995 (Auto-Sleepers Air) / from £60,195 (Swift Monza)
Berths: 2 + 2
Belted seats: 5
OK, so that’s two new campervans, but it’s your call depending on whether you’re after a more traditional, classic look inside, in which case opt for the Auto-Sleepers Air, or something more up-tempo, the Swift Monza.
Auto-Sleepers is a renowned manufacturer of coachbuilt motorhomes and compact leisure vehicles. Now they have put their extensive design and build skills to good use with the introduction of a new campervan, the Air.
The base vehicle is the high specification Ford Transit Custom that, at 4.97m long, makes easy manoeuvring in standard-sized car parking spaces. Internally, it can be enjoyed by a family of four or more, with five belted travelling seats and four sleeping berths – two ‘up top’ in the elevating roof and two when the rock’n’roll seating is laid flat. The kitchen includes a hob, compressor fridge and mini grill.
Swift Group has also entered the campervan market, with the introduction this year of the Monza. Like the Auto-Sleepers Air, the Monza is based upon the Ford Transit Custom, with a choice of four metallic paintwork colours, including a zingy ‘Orange Glow’ to stand out from the crowd.
There’s a very modish, curvy feel inside, with satin-sheen surfaces in charcoal greys and stainless/chrome finishes to the cabinet furniture and kitchen area. There’s an external shower point, too, and a 100W solar panel to help keep you off-grid when looking for that perfect away-from-it-all pitch.
Best campervan for a proper toilet
Bilbo’s Nexa+ HL
Base vehicle: VW T6.1 Highline
Price: from £55,600
Berths: 2 (+2)
Belted seats: 4
It’s not the most glamorous category in our line up, but space is at a premium in any campervan and not everyone wants to crouch down on a Porta-Potti (the best that most campervans offer) or, the alternative, nip to the campsite facilities in the middle of the night.
Bilbo’s Nexa+ offers a full-size, plumbed-in, bench-seat electric cassette toilet in its own cubicle at the rear. The Nexa+, based on the short wheelbase VW T6.1 Highline, has twin single beds and a low-lie side elevating roof. Opt for the long wheelbase (LWB) Nexa+ for extra storage, ideal for extended journeys.
