Caravan February 2026

“Explore, dream, discover”Mark Twain VAL CHAPMAN GUEST EDITOR With New Year festivities fresh in our minds and the last of the pine needles still trying to evade vacuum capture, thoughts switch to the caravanning year ahead. And, as you plan your holidays, you’ll need the 2026 Premier Parks brochure! It features the best campsites in the UK, each one visited and rated by our editorial team to offer the ultimate holiday experience. The brochure is available digitally and you can get yours – completely FREE – by heading to bit.ly/carapremierparks26 Plus, don’t forget to visit the Premier Parks website, premierparks.co.uk, which features all the 2026 campsites and links, so you can start booking your getaways! MEET THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS Start planning your next caravan adventures with the 2026 Premier Parks brochure!…

Theme parks and thrill-seeking activities are a UK favourite, so to help you plan your next trips we have selected a list of some of the nation’s top theme parks, paired with nearby campsites. FLAMINGO LAND RESORT A full-day (or even two-day) destination, Flamingo Land combines exciting rides with a zoo. Headline rides include Sik, Velocity (the UK’s first booster-bike launch coaster) and Kumali, a suspended looping coaster. Families can break the day up with the Dino-Stone and Lost Kingdom areas, or wander through animal zones where food courts are tucked away. Opened in the 1950s, the park has grown into one of the UK’s most unique all-round resorts: part theme park, part zoo and part holiday village. STAY AT BLACK BULL CARAVAN PARK Malton Road, Pickering YO18 8EA T…

As we announce the winners of the 2026 Caravan Awards, a huge message of congratulation goes out from the Caravan team to the manufacturers of the models that have been awarded titles. And our thanks go to our sponsor, Creation Finance. Our awards are a celebration of excellence in the caravan industry – and also, this year, of achievement in response to challenging economic conditions. We applaud the arrival of ranges and models specifically created in the interest of affordability – and these are recognised in our awards. At the other end of the price spectrum, we applaud, too, advances in specification among Britain’s top-spec, super-luxury caravan ranges. For 2026 some impressive and inventive new caravans have been launched. There are also some distinguished consistent best-sellers and some of these…

Winner: Elddis Whirlwind 868 Highly Commended: Swift Challenger Grande 630 The final shortlist for this title was a tough call for our judges. Two twinaxle, spacious, maximum-width family caravans, both with outstanding layouts. Would the one with the lowest price claim the title? It wasn’t that simple, although price is undoubtedly an important factor when assessing family caravans. By a whisker, the Elddis Whirlwind 868 took the top spot, with the brilliant Swift Challenger Grande 630 Highly Commended. The Elddis Whirlwind 868, at £29,999, is the largest model in a new range launched for 2026 that was devised specifically to appeal to buyers looking for great-value prices. The 868 is a sixberth caravan with a family bedroom at the rear, providing a double bed plus two bunks. So it has…

Winner: Coachman Laser 480 Xtra Highly Commended: Elddis Whirlwind Evolve 520 Xtra special? Definitely, yes. In lots of ways. Xtra width, though, is what makes the new Laser 480 a superb and very significant caravan. This is Britain’s first eight-foot-wide two-berth. When the judges assessed it they were, of course, impressed by the spacious feel created by the extra width. And they were impressed by the generally luxurious ambience. They felt that this new caravan for Coachman’s 2026 line-up truly beats all other classic two-berth models on the market by reason of the extra width, backed up by its pedigree: Lasers are caravans built to appeal to discerning buyers, with a high level of specification. The L-shape of the kitchen impressed the judges for the amount of surface space it…

Winner: Buccaneer Starliner Barracuda Highly Commended: Coachman Lusso II Our winner in this category is a star in its class in both name and nature – for a number of reasons. But nonetheless the judges has an arduous task in separating the Barracuda from the superb new Coachman Lusso II that eventually made it to the runner-up spot. Both won the judges’ praise – predictably – for their high level of equipment, for their superlative luxury ambience – and also for the way in which these two models have been elevated for 2026 in providing enhanced payload. That’s super-important in terms of the level of equipment that arrives as standard on caravans in this class and the amount of payload left for owners to add in additional kit. Buccaneer has…