NEC - Motorhome & Caravan Show 2018

Last weekend we decided to visit the Motorhome & Caravan Show at the NEC. We went because we’ve been looking at getting a folding camper to enable us to go and visit places that are further than a day trip from home. We had quite a specific wish list of three items:

1. It had to be light as our car will only tow up to 1200kgs;

2. It had to be small enough for us to store at home, so that we’re not paying for storage;

3. It had to be easy to put up.

We did actually find something that met all the requirements of our wish list... but more on that later.

We arrived at the NEC about 20 minutes before the show opened. It was busy at this time but not unbearably so. We got to have a look around a wheelchair accessible motorhome, which we thought was brilliant. It definitely opens up the world of touring and camping to more people. George tried out some of the accessible features of the motorhome, in his chair, and he was quite impressed.

Then we went and looked around some trailer tents and folding campers. I like the idea of trailer tents because the trailer is light and easy to store, but the tent part is not especially easy to put up. We looked at Pennine folding campers - in particular the Pathfinder. The trailer is light enough to be towed by the car but is quite big. I’m not sure that it would be able to be stored at home due to its size. It also made me think of a caravan that’s been chopped in half. We also looked at the Air Opus folding camper. The trailer is light and it’s smaller than the Pathfinder trailer. The really cool feature is that it’s inflatable and comes with an electric pump to inflate the air beams, so you don’t have to!

Unfortunately, by this time the NEC was getting really busy and very crowded. We had our lunch and tried to look at a few more exhibits in the different halls. George was worried about getting lost in the crowds, so held on to my hand. He was getting quite overwhelmed by the number of people there and ran over Sue’s feet a few times (ouch!) trying to get away from people. Sue found it tricky because she was trying to hold on to George’s hand, avoid having her feet run over and guide John, and John had a lot of people falling over his cane. It was quite stressful for all of us, so we decided to leave at this point.

What did we find that met all the requirements of our wish list? It was the Air Opus of course!

Video is below.