Full review

Words: Val Chapman  Photography: Richard Chapman

The Adria Alpina Mississippi

Adria’s Alpina models, the Colorado and Mississippi, are now well established as the flagships of the Slovenian manufacturer’s portfolio. Loaded with luxuries and with a definite boutique feel, they’ve carved a niche into the caravan market.

Now, for the 2022 model year, these two eight-foot-wide, eight-metre-long giants of the caravan world have stepped up a gear, with more luxury touches – and awesome lighting features.

Even before you step inside, the Alpinas will wow you with a bright light that runs along the awning rail. There’s no traditional above-the- door awning light; instead, this strip of light softly illuminates the entire length of the caravan.

The layout

The choice of layout is the Colorado, with twin beds and twin axles, and the Mississippi, with an island bed and rear shower room. This model rides on one axle. Both models are the same length and width. Both have the Al-Ko ATC stability control system. The single-axle Mississippi that we review here has an MTPLM of 1,900kg; the twin-axle Colorado is slightly heavier, at 2,000kg.

So, to the style points that make both models awesome and distinguish them from all other caravans. By the door is a small table lamp with a base that’s set into the surface of the cabinet. This is much more than a lamp. A tiny red light in the base gives you a first clue to its ingenuity. The lamp is constantly charging when it’s in its recess in the cabinet top. You can pick it up and take it anywhere in the caravan or outside. It is a mark of sheer genius.

Tiny black spotlights are set under the stunning, concave, matt white lockers and also along the edge of the atrium-style rooflight that curves over the lounge. A strip of light runs behind the long voile curtains and panels in the bedroom, creating a slightly shimmering effect. Light is concealed at floor level along the front of the L-shaped seating. And, in the shower room, an oval, mirrored cabinet is rimmed with bright light. So, too, is the panel radiator and shower rose holder, in grey steel and beautifully styled.

Lounge comfort is impressive. The seating is quite firm and very supportive. The U-shape configuration provides ample space for six to sit. Previous Alpinas had corner headrests, but the new models have larger ones, more deeply curved – and adjustable in height.

The kitchen

The kitchen gets new styling for 2022, with a pale grey stone-effect surface and steel splashback. Also new is a wooden chopping board sink cover. The kitchen is staggeringly long, at almost two metres (4cm short of 2m, to be exact); that’s when you hinge up the 35cm-by-35cm extension.

A unique and ingenious feature is a system of four tiny shelves that sit on five steel bars running along the splashback. You can position the shelves wherever it suits you – and then change them around. So neat and so clever. This shelf system was introduced for 2021. Now, though, the shelves are more substantial, and one has a slatted base, so that items can be placed in it to drain over the sink.

Cooking equipment is Adria’s hallmark three-burner, inline hob plus a combined grill and oven and a microwave hidden away in one of the top cabinets. The fridge/freezer is Thetford’s tall, slimline, 140-litre capacity model. A cabinet sits beneath it.

The main kitchen area supplies excellent storage quantity, in two drawers, 66cm wide and 31cm deep, with handsomely curved, chrome-trimmed top edging into which the catches are set. The cabinet on the fore end of the kitchen contains three drawers, each 37cm wide. A 77cm-wide top cabinet beside the microwave gives more space.

Opposite, alongside the fridge/freezer, there’s an additional cabinet, with three shelves, plus space for the table to be stored.

And there’s more to impress you. The huge rooflight has a new feature for 2022; two gas-filled struts to hold it in its open position. The front windowsill is of a new design, matt dark grey and with a 9cm-deep edge, so that nothing can fall off it. Two USB ports and a mains socket hide at one side. Two more USB ports are by the television bracket and connections, above the cabinet by the door.

The washroom

The beautiful styling that defines the 2022 Alpinas continues in the shower room. The surface on which the large oval washbasin sits stretches 1.4m. It’s the same stone effect as the kitchen surface.

Three cabinets, containing six shelves, sit under the surface. Two more cabinets are on the wall, each 32cm wide. Behind the light-rimmed mirror is a two-shelf cabinet. And the system of little shelves on bars that is a feature of the kitchen is here, too.

A cup holder for a toothbrush mug, plus two hooks, fit onto the two bars. There’s a towel rail mounted on the ceiling of the shower cubicle and another just outside the shower. The tiny black spotlights that run in a track above the basin area can be moved along the track into different positions.

This is a delightful shower room packed with style and practicality – and with an awesome amount of storage space.

Night-time

The bed is 90cm long and 1.37cm wide. The pillow sectors are on heavy-duty ratchets that enable you raise them to turn either, or both, sides of the bed into daytime loungers. The mattress top section is split into two halves to allow for this.

Under the bed is a large light so that, when you delve into the storage space here from the outside hatch at night, you can see what you are doing. There are lighting controls on each side of the bed, set into the wardrobes. These enable you to dim the lights for night mode, as well as control all of the lights.

On one side there is a mains socket and, on the other are two USB ports. The upholstered bed frame has recessed lighting directed down to the floor, perfect for finding your way around during the night without switching on all of the lights.

Summary

The big storage story continues in the enormous gas bottle locker. It’s two metres wide and the lid is supported on a huge hinge that incorporates both cantilever and gas-filled strut mechanisms.

Because the door opens so wide, getting gas cylinders in and out would be easy. The spare wheel lives in here, together with the wheeled waste water tank – plus six removable robust plastic boxes, secured in place by bungee straps; so practical!

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