Model Year | 2017 |
Class | Twin Axle |
Price From (£) | 26,299 |
Internal Length (m) | 6.34 |
Shipping Length (m) | 7.96 |
MRO (kg) | 1641 |
MTPLM (kg) | 1,800 |
Max Width (m) | 2.3 |
External Height (m) | 2.635 |
The four models in the Compass Camino range, all with island beds, are arguably the most head-turning caravan you can buy. That’s because these are the only caravans with blue side panels The pastel sky-blue shade has a metallic quality which glistens in bright light. Just stunning!
There are two single-axle Caminos and two on twin axles. Both twins have their beds aligned across the caravan. The 664 has its shower room across the rear; the 660 has the central shower en suite arrangement that’s high fashion right now. There are 28 from which to choose, 11 of them on twin axles. But only one has those head-turning blue sides!
Caminos are very much designed for year-round use, with Alde heating, 40-litre onboard water tanks and extractor fans to make sure cooking-generated steam makes a swift exit in cold weather when you don’t want to open windows.
Compass equips these models with the Alde load monitor which switches off the heating automatically when you are using an appliance such as a kettle, to prevent you from tripping out your pitch’s electricity supply.
Both twin-axle Caminos have large (155-litre) fridge freezers. And equipment extends to two AL-KO Diamond Standard Secure wheel locks. The Camino 660, thus, is a very well equipped caravan, and with a layout that provides a luxuriously spacious grooming area.
Think of the familiar shower room across the full width of a caravan; the general design – shower on the nearside, toilet and washbasin somewhere on the offside; space in the middle for dressing. Now imagine that rectangular arrangement in the centre of the caravan, with a hinged door on the fore end and a sliding door at the rear.
That’s the Camino 660’s washroom configuration; every bit as spacious as many a rear washroom but with two clear advantages. First, you have a luxurious en suite to the very secluded “master bedroom” at the rear. Second, on occasions when you turn the lounge into a second bedroom, the occupants can get to the toilet-wash-shower room without walking through the bedroom.
The shower cubicle is 79x65cm; plenty large enough for most buyers. The Compass designers created a beautiful style in the cubicle with a black panel surmounted by white lights above the halo-style Ecocamel shower head (with an air inlet to boost flow rate).
Lights are a feature of the washbasin compartment’s styling, too; there are three bright spotlights set into the roof, and a row of LEDs runs behind each side of the mirror, creating a sparkly effect as the LEDs reflect on chrome-effect strips alongside.
Two cabinets give you the hideaway space you need and two small wall shelves, plus surfaces above the loo and alongside the washbasin (created by the wheel arch), provide ample places to put stuff you use every day.
A heated towel rail winds its way up the offside wall; that's brilliant, but we'd need at least one more place to hang/dry towels – there's plenty of wall area to fix towel loops or hooks.
Slide open the door at the rear of the shower room and you are in one of caravanning’s most luxurious bedrooms. It’s almost square; 2.1m long and fractionally wider. It looks and feels spacious and rather opulent.
The bed is aligned across the caravan, with the headboard against the nearside wall, and has a mechanism that enables you to reduce its length to make more corridor space. But, with this layout, compared to a rear shower room arrangement, we don't think it's necessary to retract the bed; it's easy enough to walk around to the triangular dressing table in the offside corner and the rear wardrobe.
Curtains hang on stylish chrome café rod-style poles. Lighting runs behind the headboard, emphasising the suede-effect fabric (matching the upholstery in the lounge).
By day it’s a light and bright room because it has windows both at the rear and on the offside. When the light fades, and the lighting style takes over, the curtain pole on the offside reflects the bright LEDs concealed under a pelmet that runs the whole length of that wall.
There’s concealed lighting above the over-bed lockers, too, plus three spotlights; two over the bed and one focusing down on the dressing table. The “master bedroom” is sheer bliss!
The water tank is under the bed, but the space under here is still vast. And you can reach into it from three sides of the bed. Importantly, there's an outer hatch to this area. Clothes storage is ample, with three drawers under each of the wardrobes and two large top lockers.
There are four drawers in the centre front chest; that's one more than most caravans. Factor in the four lounge top cabinets, plus (should you need it) space under the settees with front access and you can safely think of the 660 as a caravan with exceptional storage capability.
The dining table is easy to slide in and out of its section in the forward kitchen cabinet, although the pull-out chest-of-drawers top is plenty big enough for most meals for two – and most 660s will find their way into couple-ownership.
With four big, firmly constructed armrests and four big cushions, the 660's lounge looks very domestic. The mixture of cream suede-effect (on the top sectors of the backrests and the forward seat units) and plainish weave-pattern cream inserts works well, with neat piping in the accent colour of turquoise dividing the sections. And we love the memorably exotic pattern on the cushions!
So, we're comfortable and warm (thanks to the silent efficiency of Alde heating). And admiring the bright lighting as evening advances; four spotlights set into the frame of the roof light, four more, under the top lockers, to angle as you please, and white light shining across the ceiling from above the top lockers.
And, when daylight returns the following morning, the lounge is flooded with light through the opening sky-view roof light that extends the whole length of the lounge. Fabulous!
Lighting is a feature here, too, with a strip of LEDs set under the edge of the surface, sending light cascading down the woodwork of the cabinets and drawers.
Two exceptionally bright lights beam down onto the hob and surface, and two more are in the roof above the top lockers. The Compass Camino 660 probably has one of the brightest caravan kitchens you can find.
Storage is brilliant, too, with a full-height, two-shelf cabinet that’s 40cm wide; three drawers, 43cm wide, plus three spacious top lockers.
And there’s more kitchen accommodation on the nearside. The mini-dresser beside the door gives you a 26cm-wide cabinet and a drawer, plus an illuminated drinks cabinet. You’d seldom be short of fresh food storage space in a 660, either; the fridge-freezer has a capacity of 155 litres.
And the cooking equipment? The microwave is above the fridge freezer (but not too high), and there’s a nice touch of domestic refinement in the oven – a light that comes on automatically when it’s in use.
Add in the (beautiful polished granite effect) sink with built-in small drainer, chopping board cover and a total worktop length of just over a metre and the 660’s kitchen easily merits the description of excellent.
The Explorer Group makes Compass caravans; the huge factory is at the highest point of County Durham, surrounded on three sides by lovely, narrow lanes winding between farms. That's our route for the Camino 660's test tow; perhaps a little unfair on a big caravan but it did serve to illustrate those twin-axle combinations are quite agile.
If you're as impressed by the 660 as we are, you can be sure its road manners equal its interior prowess as a top-class tourer. And, as you'd expect at this level of spec, the 660 is equipped with the AL-KO ATC stability control system.
Bed set; includes a shaped duvet, two pillowcases and pillows, two scatter cushions and runner to match the lounge fabrics (£250).
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