Coachman Acadia 660 Xtra caravan review

Beds for five, two dining/lounging areas, maximum width, excellent storage capability and impressive versatility

The 660 Xtra is the only maximum-width model in the Acadia range. And It’s Coachman’s only family layout. An important caravan to take a close look at, then.

First, an overview. The Acadia 660 is a spacious, twin-axle, tourer with an unusual and very practical layout. It has a double bed in the nearside corner, with the shower room aligned longitudinally alongside it. The kitchen is on the nearside; an unusual location, most kitchens being on the offside. Opposite, the 660’s USP: a C-shaped dining area that can be converted to a single bed. And at the front, the L-shaped sofa transforms into a double bed. So, a five-berth caravan, heated by the Alde system and with a price that makes it affordable for a great many potential buyers looking in the mid-range of caravans.

The Acadia 660 has only one competitor in layout terms. The Swift Challenger Grande 630 also has a C-shaped offside dining area that converts to a double bed, and a double bed at the rear – but this bed is arranged sideways, rather than longitudinally. At £34,995 it’s in the same price bracket. It’s a six-berth with an MTPLM of 1,781kg. The Acadia, though, scores among buyers wanting Alde heating; the Challenger Grande 630 has the Truma CombiNeo system.

Lounge and dining flexibility

Now for the details. The Acadia’s lounge and dining arrangements are fabulously spacious and also fabulously versatile. There’s the ‘dining room’, with seating arranged around a central monopod table. And there’s the lounge, quite separate, with L-shaped seating. You can keep it as a lounge permanently – or bring the free standing table into play (it’s stored on the aft end of the kitchen) and turn it into a second ‘dining room’. This arrangement is perfect for families who like the children to dine separately. And if there are five of you, you may want to do that anyway, although the central dining area is capable of seating five if some of those five are little caravanners. Many five-berth caravans are bought for four people, though – and in that frame, the 660 provides the ultimate in caravan dining flexibility, with two dining areas each generously sized for four. And it’s worth saying that, if one of the kids is at high chair stage, there is space for a high chair in the centre of the caravan, facing the central table. This is 
one of many virtues of eight-foot width, which provides good floor space in the centre of the caravan. That factor apart, the flexibility allows you to use the central area for eating at all mealtimes, leaving the front as a permanent lounge. Or the central table as a play zone, and the lounge, with its media area and cabinet beneath, alternating between lounge and dining functions.

Sleeping arrangements

There’s also massive flexibility in the sleeping arrangements. The double bed is the natural parent ‘bedroom’. But is it? We know of one family owning this model who use the double bed for their very young son, because the entrance to the area is narrow enough to enable a barrier to be constructed (home-made), turning the bed into a giant cot. Mum and dad pull out the base of the front settee to create their bed – at the opposite end of the caravan, which means the rear bed is a relatively quiet environment, shielded by distance from conversation, music and television. That leaves the central area as a permanent lounging and dining area.

And what of the single bed that you can make from this seating? It’s 1.87m long and 1.03m wide – much wider than the 90cm standard domestic single bed width. It’s converted from the dining area by means of the table’s telescopic monopod leg that enables it to descend to seat-height, becoming the central portion of the bed base. The lounge bed is a generous 1.98m by 1.37m and the fixed bed is 1.9m by 1.32m at the widest point. So, the 660 acquits itself well as a family ‘bedroom’ for up to five.

Storage and washroom

A good amount of storage space is, of course, key in a family caravan and the 660 conforms to that ideal excellently. The three-locker unit above the dining area measures 1.85m. There are also three lockers, plus two small corner lockers, above the lounge, although the doors of these are hinged from the bottom which means it’s easy to collide with them when they are open. The wardrobe, between the dining area and the shower room, is 63cm wide, with two drawers beneath it. There are five lockers above the fixed bed. And, of course, there’s space under the lounge, the dining area and the double bed, although it has to be said that reaching right to the back of the space under the bed is not easy, owing to the aperture being only 90cm wide. There is, though, an exterior hatch which gets around this issue.

While the longitunally aligned shower room is not as spacious as many that span the entire rear of a caravan, there is certainly enough space here for family showering and washing. The washbasin is at the fore end and the toilet is just forward of the shower, with easily enough space to walk around it. A heated towel rail is on the side wall; a component of the Alde system.

The décor is worthy of comment: a pattern composed of interlocking triangles on the side wall (really smart and matching that in the kitchen) and an irregular mosaic rock pattern very much like porphyry rock for the splashback above the washbasin.

Kitchen and food preparation

Now to the all-important cooking zone. The amount of surface and storage space is crucial in a family caravan. The 660 has 90cm of kitchen surface width including the sink, which has a flush-fitting cover. There’s a 4cm-wide space to the left of the hob, sufficient for a couple of utensils. And alongside it, the table cabinet provides an 11cm-wide shelf, perfect for items you use regularly, like salt and pepper grinders.

The important key to this kitchen’s efficiency as a feeding station for five is the proximity of the dining table opposite. That’s a 65cm by 60cm surface on which to put food on plates (whether you are dining on the lounge or here). And storage space? A double-doored cabinet, 65cm wide, containing a cutlery drawer of the same width, plus a 28cm-wide cabinet and, to the right of the microwave, a cabinet that’s 70cm and another that is 34cm wide. That’s first class storage provision – and the fridge/freezer is Thetford’s generously sized 137-litre model.

Coachman’s only family layout is a star performer in many ways. Chief among them are its adaptability, its size, being Acadia’s only Xtra (2.44m) wide model, and its three-zone layout that is designed to make family caravanning an easy joy. Kitchen storage is generous. Storage elsewhere is top class, too. And comfort, thanks to well-rounded corner sections and firm sprung seating, is also top class. All in all, Coachman’s family caravan is outstanding – and good value, too.