CARAVAN Vs CAMPER
Which tribe are you?
g Happy families: a scenic place to park, in this case an Adria Adora caravan
The late Beatle set the gaudy, hand-painted wheels of the celebrity bandwagon in motion by buying his
son, Julian, a traditional gipsy caravan for his fourth birthday in 1967. Lost for 50 years, it was found under a tarpaulin in Surrey and has been painstakingly restored with the intention of getting it back on the
road this spring.
Dame Helen Mirren
The national treasure, who co-starred with Donald Sutherland in the 2017 comedy The Leisure Seeker,
about an elderly couple touring America in a vintage Winnebago, is a caravanner in real life. A member of
the Caravan Club, she owns a motorhome and uses it to “get away from the hustle and bustle of
city life”.
Matthew McConaughey
The Oscar-winning actor, from Austin, Texas, owns a custom-built 2004 Airstream International CCD 28 caravan, which he keeps in Malibu, California, overlooking the water.
Billie Piper
Along with Dame Helen Mirren, TV presenter Lorraine Kelly and Olympian Dame Kelly Holmes, actress Billie Piper is a member of the Caravan Club and a big fan of the van.
Helen Baxendale
When asked by Telegraph Travel what she needed for the perfect holiday, the Cold Feet actress replied: “A camper van and the open road. I just love the feeling of ‘We’re off!’” Though she used to own one, she now prefers to rent them for holidays.
Jenson Button
The former F1 driver has owned two
classic campers – a gold 1970 Volkswagen Kombi, and a red and white model from 1956. Actor Martin
Clunes also owns two.
Jamie Oliver Frequently photographed with camper vans he has owned, the chef
and restaurateur drove around Europe in a 1959 VW Samba for the Channel 4 series Jamie’s Great Escape and described it as “a complete pain”.
He sold it at auction for £48,000.
The Radio 2 presenter describes her
VW California van as “home from home” and spends long weekends in it with her family at Studland Bay, Dorset. Singer Ellie Goulding has a deeper attachment still; she arrived at
her 2019 wedding in one.