Our Caravan: Bailey Unicorn Barcelona Moving In

Val Chapman, Caravan Magazine's review editor, tests out the 2018 Bailey Unicorn Barcelona. Here's part 1!

Outfit
Caravan: Bailey Unicorn Barcelona
Towcar: SsangYong Rexton

Words by Val Chapman Photos by Richard Chapman

Long Term Test

A big bed, a dressing table, the 'make-up room' – and 5m of coax and some Blu-Tac – the Bailey Unicorn Barcelona starts its stint as our long-term-test tourer with a touch of bodge.

We've reviewed it, we've judged it – and it won Caravan magazine's award for Best Luxury Fixed-bed Caravan for Couples. Now, the new-for-2018 Bailey Unicorn Barcelona gets another test with us.

An endurance test, you might say. The Barcelona is now ours for some months of evaluation, our base for work – and we'll take it on some family holidays, too.

It takes over from our Bailey Unicorn Barcelona, the range's mid-shower room, rear island bed model, which came in for some stick during its time with us, for its bed is too short (unless you are short, that is, and we are not).

So it is with some excitement that Team Chapman "moves in" to the big-bed Barcelona (it's all of 1.98m long). That's not all that excites us. The new Barcelona has a different bedroom and kitchen layout from its predecessor.

TV Points

This fourth generation Barcelona is the first to have a dressing table. With three cabinets, a surface that stretches the length of the bedroom. And TV points within cable reach of that surface.

TV, though, presented a challenge as we moved in our stuff, which includes an Avtex television. Fine, we could watch TV in the bedroom. The TV could sit on the dressing table near to the connection points. We'd rather watch it in the lounge, though.

But there are no TV points in the front sector of the lounge. They're on the aft side of the door, high up on the wall of the cabinet that houses the 190-litre fridge-freezer. And there's no TV bracket. Does Bailey assume that Barcelona buyers will ask their retailer to fit one.

But we can't do that as the caravan belongs to Bailey and, understandably, they are not going to want us to screw things into it. So we had to solve it in another way – by buying five metres of coaxial cable which we attached above the door and the offside top cabinet and onward, down to the windowsill – with Blu-Tac.

Photoman Richard rigged up the coax-and-sticky fix while I got stuck into dinner making. Who would finish first? Things turned competitive, as they often do when Chapman and Chapman see a chance to score point off one another.

Coax strung around a luxury caravan falls a long way short of blending into the refined, quality appearance of the Barcelona. But it works. It did, though, set us thinking why Bailey didn't fit a TV bracket as standard –after all, brackets cost only £25-30 and could cost a manufacturer much less.

That's enough brickbat wielding. Yes, we believe Bailey should equip its flagship caravans with all facilities necessary for buyers to watch their TVs in the lounge.

But it's a minor omission in the grand scheme of the big, new Barcelona. Some serious praise began to unfold quickly on our first evening of Barcelona lifestyle.

Illuminating

It's well dark now, as Chapman the cameraman is sticking the final bits of Blu-Tac above the door, the nearside top locker and along towards the curved front side locker. All the way, he's following the lines of some bright, white lighting; one element of the lighting design that makes this caravan surely the best illuminated that we have yet to experience.

Many caravans need table lamps to help with task lighting. Not this one. The lounge is lovely and bright, and so is the kitchen, as I'm discovering while making duck breast in plum sauce, carrots, mangetout peas…

Richard tells me the coax arrangement is nearly finished and adds the TV programme he wants to watch over dinner starts in two minutes… He wins. But the duck isn't far behind.

It's late evening before we properly explore the bedroom and then the shower room behind it. Light, again, impresses us. In the area around the gorgeous dressing table with its multiplicity of shelving and three good-sized cabinets.

And even more so in the shower room. This is make-up paradise. Like being in a proper make-up studio. Brilliant lighting above and below the mirror that spans the whole wall from the offside cabinet to the shower creates the most amazing effect.

The Barcelona, I decide, would win our award for Best Caravan for Applying Makeup if we had one.

Best for Couples

But Caravan mag's awards won't be going down that frivolous route anytime soon. We'll stick with Best Luxury Fixed Bed Caravan for Couples. That title suits the Barcelona just fine.

And, as the son-and-mum, words-and-pictures team beds down for our first Barcelona night, we discover it's not just couples for whom the big Barc is best.

The long settees – 1.9m to be precise – make excellent single beds for tall guys, Richard finds out. The Barcelona begins its period as our long-term-test tourer well.

Kitchen Space

By its second week of long-term-test, cocooned in the luxurious, silent warmth of Alde heating as temperatures in Lincolnshire plummet, while the heating system and the 190-litre capacity fridge-freezer earn predictable praise as we 'live' and work in the Barcelona, it's the new-style kitchen that becomes the focus of our analysis.

With ample storage space we find there is a place for everything we need and more besides.

To what extent would we appreciate the ability to increase the amount of kitchen surface by the size of the hob when we hinge down the cover over the top of the glass lid? Quickly we became aware that this is a valuable asset to culinary activities, and we also like the tidy look of its hob out of sight, when you are not cooking.

We decide our initial enthusiasm for this innovation didn't go far enough; in practice, we discover this invention is sheer brilliance. It creates so much more space that we can bring our coffee machine from home.

Discovery of the Week?

Not many caravans have enough surface space for such luxuries. And the treat discovery of the week? A latte macchiato coffee with Baileys liqueur flavouring. There is no alcohol content, I hasten to add, so it makes the perfect mug-toast to the Best Luxury Fixed-bed Caravan for Couples' time with us.

We look forward to a lot more Bailey luxury!

Read Part Two of Val's long term test review here!