Elddis Autoquest 115 Motorhome - Introduction

Walking holidays are lots of fun for both novices and the more seasoned walker but - if you're organising your own trip - what's the best accommodation option?

Camping is cheap but doesn't appeal to everyone and can be pretty miserable when it rains. Bed and Breakfast Accommodation (B&B's) can be surprisingly expensive and/or of variable quality. Self-catering can also be expensive and variable in terms of quality (of accommodation and of the equipment provided) and not be economic for shorter trips. A caravan might solve many of these problems but not everyone wants the bother of towing a bulky caravan along narrow, windy roads or has a powerful enough car to do so.

So what about a Motorhome or Camper Van? Does this offer the best of all worlds? With the help of The Explorer Group, we spent a week checking out a vehicle from the Elddis range - an Autoquest 115.

The Elddis Autoquest 115 supplied by Explorer Group

As Motorhome debutantes we wanted to research:

Ease of driving - how easy was it to get the vehicle to a camp site?
Choice of sites - is it easy to find sites for camper vans?
If not walking directly from the site - how easy is it to get the vehicle to the start of a day-walk and park there?
Storage - particularly for (wet?!) walking gear
Packing up and moving on - how easy was it to move on to a second site during the week?
Cooking, bathroom, drying facilities - how self-contained is it for a week's holiday?
Only the super fit walk on every day - so how comfortable is the camper-van for leisure time, reading, cooking, little bit of work for two adults - particularly during inclement weather?

Obviously, it is impossible to cover every aspect in a single week but we did endeavour to test as much as possible . . .