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We’ve had road rage, air rage and trolley rage – but now there’s a new phenomenon.
It’s viewing rage provoked by the eye-catching contours of an American-style caravan made in
The luxurious Celtic Rambler is the only British-built fifth wheel caravan on the market and stole the show when she made her
Jenny Parry-Jones, from the Fifth Wheel Company, in Rhuallt, Denbighshire, said that for most of the show there was a huge queue of people wanting to take a closer look at the caravan.
“On most days we were getting about a 1,000 people and we even witnessed something we’d never seen before – viewing rage.”
“A couple of ladies started hitting each other with shopping bags over who was going to get into the Celtic Rambler first.”
The Celtic Rambler was also a smash hit with the trade press at the National Boat, Caravan and Outdoor Show.
Peter Sharpe, editor of the magazine, Caravan, Motorhome and Camping, said: “Every show has its talking point and this year it had to be the Fifth Wheel Company’s Celtic Rambler.”
Sonja, who runs the caravan and camping website, http://www.touringandtenting.com, was also mightily impressed.
She said: “We thought the Celtic Rambler was brilliant, a real show-stealer which made a huge impact at the show and lots of our members are talking about it. We also very much liked the fact that it is British and independently built.”
The Fifth Wheel Company is very much a family business involving Jenny and her husband Mervyn, together with their children, Ceri and Adrian.
The sumptuous caravan is towed by a pick-up truck - the fifth wheel is the term for the coupling that attaches the two together.
The family were thrilled at the impact they made at the show.
Jenny said: “It was tremendous, just unbelievable. We hoped that things would go well but we never expected such a fantastic response and the sheer amount of people.”
“We were well and truly launched at the NEC and we are on Cloud Nine – it was an overwhelming experience.”
Ceri added: “Even the salesmen from rival companies were drooling -
they couldn’t believe it was British because the quality was so good.”
IF YOU NEED ANY MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT CEIDIOG HUGHES AT QUADRANT PUBLIC RELATIONS THROUGH THE WEBSITE BELOW OR THROUGH US
You may recall we featured this 5th wheel a couple of weeks ago.
The Alan Rogers Travel Service and the Vendée
The Alan Rogers Travel Service is highlighting the Vendée as a great region to visit.
Whether you’re taking your own camping / caravanning gear or prefer to have the hard work done for you and stay in a luxury mobile home the Vendée offers something for everyone - endless sandy beaches, pleasant scenery, lots of activities and of course wonderful seafood.
Alan Rogers in association with the Vendée tourism board is showcasing 11 of the region’s top sites, mostly prime beach sites set along the 250km of coastline. Needless to say, all are inspected and selected by the Alan Rogers guides.
A free brochure is available by calling 0870 405 4055 or visiting www.alanrogersdirect.com, please specify which brochure (Mobile Homes or Independent Camping) is required.
Price Examples
Pitch with electricity at La Yole, St Jean de Monts
For 14 nights from 12 July including a Dover – Calais return crossing for a car, caravan up to 6m and 4 passengers £816
Luxury Mobile Home at Le Plein Sud, St Jean de Monts
For 14 nights from 10 July including a Dover – Calais return crossing for a car and 4 passengers £1,225
| Quote |
| By The Journal Feb 21 2004 Have the British gone too soft for camping holidays in Europe - or have operators boobed by flooding the market with too much choice? These are key questions in the trade as camping bookings for summer 2004 fall badly short of targets. According to City broker Arbuthnot, holiday giant Holidaybreak is using booming profits from British short breaks (Superbreaks) to subsidise "continued weakness in camping bookings for the summer season". Trade journal Travel Trade Gazette warns that mobile home holidays - especially in France - are so good that tents are on the way out. Although campers seem reluctant to get out primus stoves and folding chairs for another season, one other factor is upsetting the camping market this year: when cash-strapped MyTravel offloaded EuroSites to rival Holidaybreak in 2002 to raise a quick £30m, it may have been the first step to flooding the market. Holidaybreak now has two labels on sale - Keycamp, and its upmarket direct-sell operation Eurocamp, traditionally popular with Guardian-reading Volvo drivers. French Life has stepped in with a new Camping Life programme, while Thomson's new Al Fresco brand this summer bangs a big drum for mobile homes. Meanwhile lively tiddlers like the Tunbridge Wells-based Alan Rogers Travel Service are making things worse by jumping into the fray. Headed by industry veteran Mark Hammerton, Alan Rogers is linking with French company Sunelia to add 18 new destinations - all awarded four stars by the French Camping Federation and all containing three-bedroomed mobile homes in top regions including the Loire Valley, Dordogne, Provence and Brittany. Alan Rogers - claiming to be unique among UK operators by listing pros and cons of all sites in its brochure - is linking with Vendee Tourism, the region's official tourist body, to present another 11 sites. Just south of Brittany, The Vendee - famed for sandy beaches, locally-caught seafood and lush, picturesque countryside - was a big hit last summer with that part of Middle England which currently avoids flying if possible. Two weeks there for a family of up to six people costs £1,288 in July, including Channel crossings. Eurocamp became the latest mainstream operator to slash prices this week: 12 nights on the Cote D'Azur for two adults and three children in early June cost a mere £679, including midweek Channel crossings, if you can ease the kids out of school without getting a criminal conviction. Supersites, the cut-price wing of Canvas, offers seven nights over Easter at Fontainebleau, south of Paris, for a total £363 from Good Friday (April 9). Seven-night mobile home holidays in Normandy in early June start at £371 for two adults and four children. For lowest prices, book by March 31. At Keycamp, which has upped capacity by 30pc this summer to offer 122 sites across Europe including Catalonia in Spain, the Adriatic coast of Italy, and the Loire, Vendee and Cote d'Azur in France, the emphasis is on lots of entertainment for babies and toddlers under five. Keycamp's Tumble Tots programmes are for children up to three, while a Mini Fun Station, open on site six days a week, caters for children up to five at no extra cost. Keycamp prices start at £647 per family for 12-nights' mobile home accommodation in the Vendee. INFORMATION: Alan Rogers Travel Service (0870 405-4055); Supersites (01383 629055); Eurocamp (0870 366-7552); Keycamp (0870 700-0750); details of Rhone-Alps region and its Camping Qualite programme on www.camping-rhonealpes.co.uk. |
Luna Chateau 430 - 4 Berth 978kg £8925 good weight, good price
A Family dream-The Fifth Wheel Company
We met the family at the NEC Show and they are a smashing bunch very dedicated and enthusiastic about the product and I think with very good reason.
The American dream is alive and well in a small corner of rural
A family firm in the
The luxurious Celtic Rambler is the brainchild of the Parry-Jones family and the first British-built fifth wheeler to hit the market.
The Fifth Wheel Company is very much driven by the enthusiasm of the family with father and mother, Mervyn and Jenny, along with daughter and son, Ceri and Adrian, all actively involved in running the business.
They bought and converted Llwyn Derw farm into a modern factory which uses the latest technology to design and build a sumptuous unit for a European pick-up truck - the fifth wheel is the term for the coupling that attaches the two together.
Before that they had been operating the
For 20 years, the family had also been keen on caravanning – starting out with European caravans, moving on to larger American ones and ending up with a massive American motorhome – a 32 foot monster.
Mervyn said: “We enjoy our creature comforts and the size of American caravans meant it was like having a home from home.”
And it was love at first sight when in 1997 they imported an American fifth wheel caravan and pick-up.
Apart from the sheer enjoyment of owning one, they spotted a commercial opening when people at caravan rallies and shows kept saying they wanted to buy a fifth wheeler.
Importing and selling them wasn’t without its complications as the American caravans had to be substantially adapted to comply with European standards – the brakes, the electrics, gas system and the like.
According to
But the defining moment came at the Northern Motor Caravan Show in
“It was an inspiring thought and many people, including university professors from
Starting from scratch and relying on their vast experience in retailing and converting American fifth wheel caravans, they built a prototype in just six months and completed it at dawn on the day it made its debut at the 2002 Shepton Mallet Motorhome Show.
“It’s an American dream come true in
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