20 day first trip in Mini Freestyle 290

Well, we are home after 20 days touring the UK in our Mini Freestyle. We thought people might be interested in how it went since this was our first trip, it is obviously a very small van and we used the shower and toilet exclusively for the whole time while also doing our own cooking.

We went to Norfolk, The Peak District, The Lake District, Yorkshire and Sherwood Forest. We stayed on a mixture of Certified Locations, Caravan Club sites and Caravan and Camping Club sites.

We brought food with us, including vegetables from our garden, which lasted the whole trip and we ate really well, only once buying an ice cream on a hot day. We made a packed lunch every day which we brought out with us on our daily walks in nature, which was our main holiday activity and what we have always liked doing when we travel. We did a bit of hand washing of clothes and towels which we dried outside.

It was great to spend that long away with only the need for water, drainage and electricity and no other services or facilities.

Although we had planned well, there were things we forgot and other thing we brought that we didn't need. So we are now refining our packing list!

Sleeping:
The bed was really comfy and the regular sized double was fine for us, even though we have to sleep across the van. But we are only 5'3 and 5'6. Anyone much taller might struggle. We had both a Putnam's memory foam 2.5cm mattress topper and a Devon Duvets wool mattress topper over that, which was covered in an IKEA single duvet cover that formed our bottom sheet. We got a silk summer duvet from Soak and Sleep which was really light and warm and also brought a couple of wool blankets which we used on top if it got colder at night. We used a tiny Kampa fan heater sometimes on colder evenings to warm up the van before sleeping but didn't need any heat at night and we didn't use the fitted gas heater at all. The blankets also served to cover the bed in the daytime for sitting on, since we pretty much abandoned the idea of changing the bed to table and back again. We brought a spare set of bedding with us to change midway through the trip. We found we had a 'daytime' side to sit with cushions from which we could see the little TV in the evening and then we turned around to the 'nighttime side' with our pillows for sleeping.

Eating:

The 85l fridge was fantastic and we were able to fit loads in. We were really pleased to find Cravendale 1l bottles of milk which have a 3 to 4 week shelf life and last a week after opening. We brought 4 with us which fitted into the fridge door and actually only used 3 for our morning fresh coffee we made with our Electric Moka pot. We also loved our Gouda slices, and Baker Street sourdough rye bread which has a long shelf life, for making a quick packed lunch. We had various little cereal/nut bars and oat cakes and bags of almonds to add to our packed lunch. We made flasks of coffee and filled our water bottles before we left. We brought 250ml cans of red wine with us and shared one each night along with cake or biscuits we had brought with us. Our little Kampa Griddle was amazing for making all sorts outside, including mini pizzas with flatbreads, passata, chorizo and grated cheese, homemade veggie burgers with mashed canned beans, breadcrumbs and spices, cooking sausages and griddling all sorts of vegetables. When it wasn't warm enough in the evening we made all kinds of meals on either our 2 ring fitted gas hob or our portable induction hob. We ate things like pasta with tomato sauce with veggies, adding lentils, ham or smoked salmon for variety and grated parmesan for flavour. We found apples and oranges lasted the whole trip in a cold bag which we opened at night when it was cool and closed again the daytime.

Washroom:

We used our Thetford toilet all the time and were really impressed. OK, the daily emptying wasn't that fun, but we made it a joint effort and got used to it. The Elsan organic toilet fluid seemed to work well enough for the job. I also found I could use the shower head in the toilet as a bidet! We had a 'tube with velcro' shower curtain we had made to my design by a company called 'Byretech' which worked brilliantly and contained all the water when showering. With only a 5l hot water tank we had to warm the water between showers, but it was enough to wash hair and suncream off and have a reasonable hot shower. The little sink worked well for toothbrushing and a morning wash and even the occasional shave with a portable mirror.

Outside space:
We were glad we didn't have a full awning. We really liked our Cinch Hub, which was quick to put up and take down, often only needing 4 pegs in the corners if it wasn't windy. It was useful for keeping the table and chairs in after we had assembled them and could be used ad a sun canopy too. We also used it for drying towels, washing and the shower curtain, all of which could be hung up from a little travel washing line we hung up from the hooks in the top. We only put it up for stays of 3 nights or more and found we could put the shower curtain out of a window for drying for shorter stays. We also used the travel washing line hung inside between the 2 pop top handles for drying towels. We had also brought an Isabella Shadow but didn't really feel it was that useful and could find some shade one one side of the can to sit outside if we didn't have the tent up. As we tended to go out walking in the day and sit out later, we weren't that bothered about having a sun shade most of the time and if it was raining we could sit inside on the bed.

We did find that for us, using all of our own facilities with a 45l fixed water tank that is easiest to fill directly with a hose, it was really worth paying the extra £5 for a Serviced Pitch as it made the whole experience much easier and we really liked having our own water tap and drainage for other things too. For a 1 night stay, we were able to fill that at the Motorhome service point, but for longer we will seek out locations with Serviced Pitches. Towing was fine, it all felt really stable and we can't wait for our next outing in it.

We found people very friendly and helpful at all of the sites. We only saw one other Trigano on our whole trip, an older solid pop top model owned by a Swiss couple who had been touring around the UK for a month, have been very happy with their little caravan and were excited to meet some other Trigano owners for the first time on their trip.

All in all, it was a really successful first trip and we love the simplicity and compactness of our micro pop top caravan, which seems to provide all we need in a tiny package.