Isabella Camp-Let Passion - collected!

It looks really neat.

After reading on another thread that you were collecting it at the weekend, I was wondering how you'd got on.

Have you had a go at erecting it yet? My parents had a Dandy for a wee while, and that seemed too complicated to me!

I'm half-thinking about buying an old caravan, but I'm still trying to weigh up the pros and cons of the alternatives.

It really is very simple, and a world away from a normal tent.

We’ve had a go in the showroom, and it really is as simple as it looks.

Level it up, drop the legs, open the kitchen tail gate, flip open the lid, and pull the tent up.

I think for the main tent itself after a few runs we’ll be set up and done inside 30-40 minutes. That’s pegged, trailer skirt and groundsheet down. That’s what we’ll do for short stops.

If we’re pitching somewhere for a more like a week or so, then we’ll add the annex and sun canopy. Probably more like an hour or so.

When we’re travelling and literally just stopping overnight before carrying on next morning it’ll be minimal pegs and no groundsheet. Say 20 minutes?

I’ll let you know how we get on when we get it round to the back garden!

Thanks! We think it will be an excellent ‘halfway house’ between caravan and tent.

We looked at the Opus, thought they were great but a lot bigger trailer, 4 times the weight and twice the price!
Admittedly a lot more built in creature comforts. Enjoy!

OK, so we had a large twin axle 'van for around 8 years and had 5 or 6 very successful holidays to France in it. When the kids were younger (they're now nearly 10 and 13) I think it was perfect. However, now they're older we actually think it's more a case of less is more. We used to put so much stuff in the caravan, half of which we never used!

The last couple of trips down we kind of realised that actually the only thing we used the caravan for when we're there is to sleep. We don't sit in it, we don't cook in it. I pulled a 1900kg caravan all that way, doing around 20mpg, just to use the beds!

It was also a pain in the arse to store, clean and service. Plus it was getting old and needed money spending on bits and bobs.

So we spent some time looking around, and discovered the Camp-Let's. It's easy to tow by anyone (no license needed), negligible effect on MPG and can be stored easily on it's side in the garage. Also zero servicing costs other than tyres and light bulbs (they're not braked).

We can get all of our tables and chairs in it before folding, 4 bikes on top of it, the front locker is almost as big as the one on the caravan, and everything else will go in the roof box or boot.

Also, being so small and lightweight it brings destinations that were either not reachable with a caravan or much further away into play.

We can choose to literally just use the basic tent which can be up in 20 minutes, or add the side annex and kitchen/sun canopies if required.

Basically I think it's just a much more flexible option, which will suit our holiday needs whilst reducing time, effort and costs in keeping a caravan.

Hi!

How long have you had yours? Pleased with it? Any tips?!

I’ll probably only use the side bracket at the end of the summer and store it sideways until the following spring. Haven’t tried to do it yet though……!

Excellent! How brilliant that it came up for sale so close!

We haven't got to worry about the 'Bent Bar Club' as the newer Passion model doesn't have that to worry about, slightly different framework I think.

Good tip for the wet bedding......

We went all out with everything we needed and although it wasn't exactly cheap it just so happened that the head man from Isabella was at the showroom that day (we didn't know) and I managed to sweet talk him into throwing some bits and bobs in. List price for our setup is just over £13k, and we managed to get it for £10,900. I'm glad we ordered back in October as the base tent has already gone up by £1k since then!

Can't wait to get started with it!

Sorry for resurrecting a year old thread, but we will be picking up our Camp-let next Friday and reading your posts we are in a very similar position. Previously we have had a Renault Traffic based camper, a large caravan and a 4 birth dome tent. Like you we realised that we didn’t need to tow a large van anymore but didn’t want to go back to a packable tent or a van which we pack up and pitch every day. We are also “between” main vehicles so our second car has become the temporary tow car and has a lower towing limit so we thought the Camp-let offered the best compromise of all the folders. We went to see the Camp-let’s at this years Caravan & Motor home show and really thought they’d tick the box. We have loads of camping gear still so we have plenty of stuff to get us started again.
We went across to Camperlands a few weeks ago and had a full day trying out lots of different options but like you went for a Passion in the end. We have already got a few trips booked and hopefully heading to France next year. How have you got on with yours? Any things you have found work really well or better?