La Strada Avanti XL campervan

Berths: 2 Travel seats: 4 Base vehicle: Fiat Ducato Gross weight: 3,500kg Payload: 560kg

The XL is one of six La Strada Avanti campervans – all based on Fiat Ducato – that are being imported to the UK exclusively by dealer, Webbs Motorcaravans.

There are four seats for travel, but for sleeping it’s just two and the sliding door stays on the UK offside. There’s up to 70 different upholsteries, 20 leather trims, nine furniture finishes on offer. To see what alternatives look like for yourselves, there’s a neat visual configurator at lastrada-mobile.de/en/interior

Whatever the décor, the Avanti XL’s kitchen is something of a letdown in terms of cooking appliances. There’s just the hob, with three gas burners, combined with a sink. On the plus side, there’s lots of storage in and around the kitchen, with two large soft-close drawers under the hob, with three more drawers adjacent. Overhead, a tambour door opens to reveal a divided, shelved locker. There’s more storage in the unit surrounding the fridge, where the shelving has three height adjustments.

The bedroom has lockers with open shelving to three of its sides and there’s internal access to the under-bed area. Open the back doors and you can pull out a huge drawer (La Strada even quotes an impressive 50kg load capacity for it). And it really will swallow up a lot of clobber.

The Avanti XL also scores with its washroom, accessed via double doors with a clever little locking mechanism. Inside, there’s a Dometic swivel-bowl toilet, with sufficient space to use it. The fixed basin’s tap is also the shower head and you have to pull a curtain all the way round for showering. There’s no window, but there is a rooflight. At night, as well as good-quality cold foam mattress pieces (two), there’s Froli plastic springing underneath. You’ll sleep well.

As ever, it’s the final details that can be the make-or-break of any motorhome. There’s just one mains socket on board – plus three double USBs. Other notable mini features include the double pockets on the back of each cab sat, the touch-operated lights, etc. The only slight surprise is the merely standard (flat, not concertina) Seitz cassette blinds/flyscreens.

Storage is one area where this La Strada does rate highly. There’s a huge locker over the cab, adjustable shelving in some places, and a good array of lockers – not forgetting hatches throughout the floor. It all represents a very bold move by Webbs to exclusively represent a premium continental brand – although the company is not without form in this area, having already nabbed Florium and Fleurette. Interesting times, indeed.

If you enjoyed this review, you can read the full version and more in the March 2017 issue of What Motorhome magazine.

You can get a digital version of this latest issue of What Motorhome magazine here.

Build quality is very much to the fore with this new campervan from La Strada, and there are lots of practical touches, too.