Swift Sprite Alpine 4 caravan review

Made for buyers on a budget and with light weight as a priority, the Sprite Alpine 4 has a lot going for it – including a huge wardrobe and a mini ‘breakfast bar’!

It’s one of the lowest priced caravans on the market. It’s also one of the lightest. And Sprite, for generations an icon of light weight and affordability, has heritage on its side. So, for many, the brand is the first one that springs to mind.

The Alpine 4 does have competitors, though. There’s Bailey’s Discovery D4-4 which, like the Alpine 4, has a fixed bed, This model has a rear shower room, whereas the Alpine 4 has a shared shower/toilet compartment. It’s £21,499 and just one kilo heavier than the Alpine 4, at 1,248kg MTPLM. In layout terms, though, there is only one true competitor for the Alpine 4 – and that’s from within Swift’s line-up. The Challenger 500 – heavier, at 1,350kg MTPLM, and a whopping £6,000 more – it shares the Alpine’s layout, with an offside fixed bed and a combined shower/toilet compartment in the nearside corner alongside the bed. In both models the washbasin is in the bedroom, forward of the shower/toilet compartment. So, the obvious conclusion is that the Alpine 4 is one of the lightest and lowest-priced caravans in its layout sector. One to take a close look at, then…

We went to Preston Caravans and Motorhomes to spend time in an Alpine 4. And we quickly discovered that Sprite’s smallest caravan has a lot of merits, in addition to its light weight and low cost.

We’ll start with what, in today’s caravan world dominated by separate showers, might find itself in the Marmite category, especially among buyers who are not aware that, once upon a time, shared shower/toilet compartments were the norm. You had to dry the shower tray after every use, otherwise you’d be stepping into a wet shower tray to use the loo. It was never regarded as a big deal. And if you wanted to avoid that, you could stick to campsites that have showers. So it is with the Alpine 4. Your toilet is en suite, so to speak, and so is the washbasin. Using campsite showers is a small inconvenience when you consider the merits of the low price, low weight and compact dimensions of this caravan. And many caravan owners habitually prefer to use campsite showers anyway.

Talking of compact, the double bed is far from compact, at 1.87m long. And, if you want to use the Alpine 4 as a four-berth, the bed that makes up from the lounge is 2.02m long.

There’s something charming about this layout. Think breakfast in bed and you are getting somewhere near… at the aft end of the kitchen is a shelf. Perfect for toast and coffee as you relax on a lazy holiday morning! Only the Swift Challenger 500 offers a comparable “breakfast bar” facility.

And the kitchen? There’s enough surface space – it’s 87cm long – and, if you keep the hob top down until you begin cooking, there‘s a 1.5m stretch of surface.

Alongside the 98-litre fridge, there’s a 32cm-wide cabinet containing a cutlery tray and a shelf. And, below the combined oven/grill, there’s a cabinet that’s 46cm wide and 46cm deep. Sprites don’t have microwaves as standard (it’s an option), so there are two lockers above the kitchen.

While on the subject of options, in addition to a microwave, you can have a set of carpets, a hitch-head stabiliser and a television aerial. These options comprise what Swift calls the Lux Pack; it’s a dealer-fit pack, so pricing will be available from your dealer.

Compromises have to be made in order to achieve a body length of 4.74m and, in the case of the Alpine 4, it’s the absence of a centre-front chest of drawers. But coffee mug and drinks glass provision is here – in the form of a small table (55cm by 30cm) that folds flat against the wall when you transform the lounge into a bed.

The wardrobe is much larger than you’d expect in a compact caravan. Its rail is 72cm wide and there are two huge shelf spaces beneath.

Sprite décor is simple, in keeping with the brand’s image. Pale grey upholstery with a fleck pattern using dark grey and ivory, cream curtains with a neat vertical stripe pattern, and a nut-brown (and surprisingly plush) bedhead. And there’s a surprise. You’d naturally expect a pleated partition to segment the bedroom from the kitchen. Instead, there’s a curtain. It’s in a high-quality fabric with a glossy sheen (nice) and injects a touch of cosiness to the bedroom area.

While the lighting design is simple, there is plenty of it – outlining the top lounge lockers and the top of the wardrobe, the kitchen units and all three bedroom lockers. Four spotlights are in the lounge and two more are above the kitchen. Two bright spotlights beam down in the washbasin area and there are spotlights above the bed.

The amount of storage deserves praise, too, especially keeping in mind the compact dimensions of the caravan. There’s the gigantic space under the bed of course, plus space under the lounge seating. There are four head-height lockers above the lounge and three above the bed.

There’s a lot of merit in simple caravanning. Forget luxuries that push up the price and the weight. Forget a separate shower. Forget a microwave. Back-to-basics touring has many advantages, as the fine details of this caravan that you can buy for not much over £21,000 show. If you were thinking your budget might lead you down the used track, but would rather buy new, the Alpine 4, with the luxury of a double bed, is here to tempt you.